Sega Genesis controller review

With Sega Genesis games on the Nintendo Switch Online service, and a Genesis controller available for use with them, it's time to take a look at both versions of this gamepad.

The standard Sega Genesis controller isn’t a bad gamepad. It just kind of is. It’s exceptionally large for the minimal number of buttons on the thing — you’ve got A, B, and C face buttons, a directional pad that is designed to make going in eight directions a little easier to do, and a Start button. It’s just kind of inexplicable in that regard and some others, for a number of reasons we’ll get into.

For the fourth generation of consoles, it seems like Sega was hoping to make a controller with a bit more comfort in mind than the more rectangular pads of the previous generation (a group that included Sega’s own rectangular Master System pad). The Genesis controller has some curves, around the top edges and in little grips on the bottom. Calling them “grips” isn’t quite accurate, though: that’s what those protruding bits would turn into eventually on other controllers, sure, but for the Genesis, they were just kind of there. Your palm might rest against them a little bit, but you weren’t going to fully rest your hand nor grip the protrusions with it.

Check out this comparison shot between the Sega Genesis controller and that of the Super Nintendo, the Genesis’ primary competition, for a general idea of just how much larger the former’s pad is:

While the SNES controller lacked grips or even the visual illusion of them, it was rounded at the edges all the way around, and your fingers had something to do up top thanks to the L and R buttons up there. So, Nintendo was also trying to make gamepads more comfortable like Sega, but the two companies went about it much differently. The SNES pad is, admittedly, a little small, and can therefore feel cramped in larger hands — just because I’m griping about the Genesis pad doesn’t mean I automatically love going back to the SNES one, you know — but the Genesis controller is overcompensating a little too much in the other direction, especially with fewer buttons and design elements that don’t actually… do anything.

Did Sega think (North) America, the core of their marketing plan around the Genesis to the point that the first Sonic the Hedgehog game released there before it did in Japan, would believe that bigger inherently meant better? Or was it just part of their emphasis on the Genesis being cool, doing what Nintendon’t, and the company’s focus on an older customer base over children? Having bigger kids and adults, the focus of Sega’s marketing, playing your system meant bigger hands, and all that. The Genesis pad isn’t quite as egregious in that regard as, say, the original Xbox one, but still. Why is it so big?

This redesigned “arcade” controller, introduced when Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition released on the Genesis in 1993, asked a similar question, and apparently could not come up with a justifiable response. In addition to a reduction in size, it looks an awful lot like what the Sega Saturn controller would end up being — it’s not even that much of a change in design to get there. It has six face buttons instead of three, adding an X, Y, and Z into the mix above A, B, and C, just like the Saturn ended up with:

It doesn’t have the L and R buttons on top just yet, and the top of the Saturn controller fell into a valley whereas the Genesis’ arcade pad rose into a rounded peak, but other than that and further tweaks to the way the protrusions fit into your palm when you grip the controller, they’re essentially the same thing, much closer in relation, even, than the Saturn’s eventual analog stick pad that looks like concept art for the Dreamcast controller. And most noticeable of all, besides maybe the extra buttons, is that this 6-button pad is significantly smaller than the original, despite the extra buttons. Scroll back up to the size difference between the Genesis and SNES pads, then look at this, a comparison shot between retro hardware designer 8BitDo’s replicas of the 6-button Genesis pad, the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx controller, and the SNES one, and you can see that Sega might have believed they made a mistake with their go big or go home mentality:

The Genesis pad is still the largest of them, but it no longer looks like it’s primed to simply eat its smaller competition in order to come out on top. Admittedly, the 8BitDo 6-button Genesis pad is basically just a Saturn controller, considering it has L and R buttons as well as the shape of that controller rather than the Genesis one, so this isn’t a perfect illustration, but as was already discussed, those two are a lot closer in design than the original Genesis controller and its 6-button successor. So it works:

I just find it fascinating that Sega scaled back the size of their pad even upon adding buttons — Microsoft eventually released a smaller original Xbox controller that would go on to influence the design of the much more heralded Xbox 360 pad, which in turn influenced those of the One and Series X/S, but they weren’t adding new buttons on like Sega did, so Microsoft’s decision to do so was clearly just for comfort’s sake. Maybe Sega realized, similarly, that the Genesis pad wasn’t quite as comfortable as hoped, even for the larger hands it was marketed towards — I actually found it more comfortable when I was younger, possibly out of then-ignorance for what controllers in my hand could feel like, but maybe also because the curves and protrusions fit better then.

As modern controllers become ever more comfortable and your hands get used to holding things a certain way, I’ve soured on the original Genesis pad design in favor of its smaller cousin. It’s not that it lacks any positive features or innovations — the raised dot on the B button to help you learn where your finger is in relation to the three face buttons was actually a great idea, especially since everything was transitioning from two parallel buttons to more angled sets of additional buttons, and is comparable to Nintendo making its A/B buttons convex and its X/Y buttons concave. Little cues your fingers get used to so you can instinctively tell the difference without having to think about it at all. Modern controllers could still use features like that, even. The rest, though, pales in comparison to the enhanced, mid-life-cycle controller.

While that seems like a lesson that’s over and done with, given the Genesis’ run ended decades ago and so too did Sega’s time as a console manufacturer, it’s apparently one that still needs heeding. Sega Genesis games, as of October 2021, are now available on the Nintendo Switch through its Switch Online service, along with NES, SNES, and Nintendo 64 titles. And so, like with the rest of those systems, replica Genesis controllers that can be used with the Switch now exist for you to purchase. For some reason, North America and Europe are only getting the inferior, original, three-button pad, while Japan gets the more comfortable, more useful 6-button controller. Considering it costs $49.99 to get this Switch-focused replica pad, releasing the version that is so obviously inferior that Sega based its next consoles controller on its updates, the decision is infuriating.

Here’s the thing, though: the 8BitDo pad I showed off in images earlier? That works with the Switch, since it just hooks up via a Bluetooth dongle. It’s also $29.99: you can pick up two of the things for just $10 more than a single officially licensed replica, or consider your savings to be basically the cost of your upgrade to the subscription model that carries Genesis and N64 titles. This isn’t an ad or anything, I’m a person who bought an N64 controller adapter for the Wii U so Sin & Punishment and Star Fox 64 would feel better to play on there, which is to say, I care about this sort of thing. I just like 8BitDo’s controllers, dislike overpriced “official” controllers that aren’t up to snuff, and want to save you $20. And if you have a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Mini and want to use a wireless controller instead of the pack-in wired ones that are exact replicas of the original pads, well, that’s why I originally picked up the 8BitDo one.

Again, the original Sega Genesis controller isn’t a bad one. It’s just been a bit left behind by history, design-wise, and was improved upon during its own life, even. It was a step up from the Master System pad in the same way the SNES was an improvement, both in comfort and in button layout, from the NES’ controller, but both were still lacking a little something that maybe wasn’t as noticeable in the early 90s as it is today, when Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are actively fighting over who can make the most comfortable controller that ever existed. Nostalgia is powerful, but it’ll cost you $50, so make the right and cheaper call here instead.

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