8bitdo SN30 Pro controller for games that dont requires use of joysticks, Xbox Elite V2 for games that use one or two joysticks.

Dualshock 4

Use the 8bitdo SN30 pro, the one with out the handle grips. Works for so much. Even use it to play more modern games, tho it can get a little in comfortable.

I use the now infamous billionaire submarine controller, but I’ve had it for years. Logitech F710. A shockingly solid controller, though its wireless is a bit spotty.

I also have the retrobit saturn pad that I bust out for fighting games, and a couple stadia controllers I use for multiplayer.

Also a big fan of using a PS2 controller with an adapter.

I use a horipad mini switch controller. I have small hands and bigger controllers feel unwieldy.

A keyboard. Any standard computer keyboard.

This post was originally written as a reply to a comment by @redsol2@lemmy.world. But it got kinda long and it’s basically my answer to the thread topic. So yeah, lemme tell y’all a story.

I started out playing 2D platformers for DOS, where the default – or more like, only – control scheme was arrow keys to move and Ctrl and Alt to do things (commonly Ctrl to jump and Alt to shoot). I also grew up on NES, GB, and SNES games, and a handful of PC games. Notably, though, I never picked up FPS games as a child, and also never really got anything from the 32-bit era and beyond until much later in life.

With emulators being more integrated into Windows (meaning Ctrl and Alt do important things), I shifted the action buttons to the lower left corner of the keyboard. Emulating an SNES gamepad, for example, I generally map the action buttons in a mirror-image fashion to ZXCS (respectively, ABYX). (A friend of mine maps them in a similar fashion, using ZXAS instead.) This then lets me map the L and R buttons to A and D respectively. And I move this whole ensemble of six buttons up a row if I have ghosting issues. (The Sega Genesis gamepad can be mapped similarly easily.)

This works brilliantly well (at least for me) for 2D platformers, top-down action games, JRPGs, and more. Notably, though, this excludes pretty much anything that requires analog controls of some sort, e.g. FPS games, N64 games, etc… But between a lack of hardware capable of playing 3D stuff (whether natively or by emulation), a lack of a familiar control scheme, and a lack of personal interest (due to just not having ever gotten into them), I pretty much just stuck with emulating up through the 16-bit era, with a little PS1 emulation thrown in. It’s not like I ever had a shortage of excellent games.

And curiously, it turns out my control scheme (arrow keys + ZXC(V)ASD(F)) is the favored scheme for a number of Japanese indie developers who made things like action games and RPGs using 2D sidescrolling and top-down views. So I ended up having even more to play! In contrast, it seems western devs often prefer WASD, even for stuff like 2D platformer Flash games (to my chagrin). And I see (English-speaking) PC gamers these days regarding my sort of control scheme as a “left-handed” setup (which is amusing since I’m not left-handed).

I only learned to WASD as an adult. At first I even tried to use the mouse with my left hand, and tried putting my left hand on the arrow keys, but eventually I gave in and learned to WASD. I still only use this when I need to use mouse aim though, e.g. Terraria (which I played a lot).

For games that actually require console-style analog controls, though, I nowadays have a wired XB360 gamepad that connects via USB. I’ve tried mapping things like the N64 gamepad to a keyboard before but with no success. But now that I have this, funny thing is this means I’m only recently getting into a number of classics from that era.

I’ve considered getting an 8BitDo SN30 or SN30 Pro(?)…whichever basically looks like an SNES pad with added analog sticks. I specifically want a gamepad without “legs” – the two stubs that seem to be meant as palm grips on each side of the gamepad. That’s because I held my SNES pad from the side so that I could press A, B, and Y at the same time with my right thumb. (This was highly useful when playing Mega Man X.) Controllers with “legs” basically make it way harder for me to do this, as I found out when I tried to play MMX4 on my PS1. It felt so awkward, I just went straight back to emulating it, despite having the disc and hardware.

But, for now, I only pull out my XB360 gamepad for stuff that needs analog stick functionality. Everything else is keyboard. (And mouse, if needed.)

Retro-Bit Saturn pad, just feels right for most 2D games. Soon I will be using an 8bitdo Neo Geo CD pad though.

i used to use a Logitech F310, this baby

But honestly, it kind of sucks dick. It’s really uncomfortable and constantly ran into issues that I had to repair until it gave up entirely. Now i’m looking for a new controller, but i’ll most likely go for an 8bitdo one

People may hate it but I don’t. DS4 is just incredibly comfortable to me. That’s been taken over by the steamdeck recently though

I’m personally a big fan of the PS3 dualshock controller, be it a mix of childhood PSX nostalgia and it actually being pretty dang great. I’ve tried a bunch of others and always come back to it.
Getting it to act nicely on windows PCs takes a bit of effort though.

I’m a little crazy but I get original controllers and get USB adapters for them.

The 8Bitdo Pro 2!

Great feeling controller, quite like a switch pro controller. The sticks, handles, buttons, and triggers all feel great! Bluetooth connectivity for PC has been… not great. But it works well with my switch, or when i have it wired to my PC. My biggest gripe about it is that I can’t seem to map things to the pad buttons on the bottom? they seem kind of wasted, but that may be a limitation of x-input.

I bought an Xbox 360 USB controller when they were the hot new thing, and I’m still using it.

XBox 360 wired controller.

If a don’t need an analog stick, my go-to has been the Hori Fighting Commander Octa. It has a stick, but I don’t use it often. The buttons are microswitched and it feels great.

If I do need the sticks, Series X controllers are fine, generally.