The n64 ushered in the joystick era. The PS came out with dual-shocks a year or so later and every console since then has been primarily joystick oriented (for obvious reasons posted before this). I kinda (read: fuckin') hated the n64 controller. I mean, not really while I had and played it, but in retrospect. It musta been a hell of a lot easier to design something comfortable and logical than it was to design that thing. I hate how Nintendo seriously tries too hard. They sacrifice quality of game playing just to be unnecassarily unique....IMO of course.