20 little things that annoy us about controllers

Controlled aggression

Consider the controller: that little hunk of molded plastic that is solely responsible for translating your digital (as in fingers) manipulation of physical buttons/sticks/touchpads into digital (as in numbers) input in your favorite games. Forget about the sweet graphics, the smooth battle mechanics, and the gripping narrative - it all rests on the relationship between you and your button-studded doohickey.

So it's only natural that even the tiniest little problems can amount to a whole lot of frustration. Stubbed fingers, oily sticks, disgustingly dirty seams - we've dealt with it all in the pursuit of gaming bliss. Even as old problems like the entire concept of the N64 controller are addressed across generations of design, new headaches like shoulder buttons that only click at painfully precise angles surface. It's time to air some grievances.

Old joysticks getting all wobbly in the middle so you have to slam them to register

The buttons getting so squishy after years of use that you can barely tell whether you're actually pushing them

...or getting all sticky because you forgot to wash your hands after eating caramel corn THE ONE TIME

Whatever keeps fucking rattling around in there

Trying to play a hardcore platformer with any D-Pad that isn't absolutely perfect

Setting up a sweet surround sound system and still missing anything that's piped through your controller's speaker

Running out of batteries because you forgot to plug it in last night

Tripping over cords and ripping your console out from under the TV

Noticing that all the seams are filled with a stomach-turning buildup of dead skin, oil, and miscellaneous hand crud

Image via WikiHow

Realizing that the game supports analog button presses several hours in

Trying to click the Xbox One's damn bumpers

Slamming your thumbs together when you need to move right and look left on a DualShock

Image via WikiHow

Straining your index fingers in racing games or shooters

Bumping the trigger as you set down your controller so the movie starts fast-forwarding

Joystick input starting to drift even though you're not pushing it

Old controllers getting weak-ass rumble motors

Semi-broken controllers that work just well enough to keep them for guests instead of throwing them out

Image via Reddit user leDesespoir

No-name controllers your grandparents got you that are still sitting in your closet

Buying new controllers every new generation

Figuring out what to do with the old controllers every new generation

Touch and go

Seems like a lot of issues to have with a relatively inert object, but you start to see the bad side of just about anything if you spend enough time with it. How about you? Any pressing (get it, like a button) issues that have put you off from your favorite controllers? Let me know in the comments!

Speaking of which, I can think of a few annoying things about the PS4 and some similarly frustrating factoids about the Xbox One