Phil Spencer is the rare kind of high level executive who is willing to go on camera and offer up opinions on the industry he is a part of. Spencer makes time for interviews and shows up at major industry events fielding questions from journalists and fans alike. He recently praised The Legend of Zelda franchise for its enduring legacy, but there is one Nintendo product that Spencer can't wrap his head around: the N64 controller.
After producing two fairly standard, but very functional, controllers for the NES and SNES, Nintendo started down the path of unusual controller design with the Nintendo 64's controller. The three-pronged design caught many off guard as it was unclear at first how to hold the controller. Was the D-pad going to be the priority, or were most games going to use the joystick? The unorthodox design puts the N64 controller on a number of lists for not-so-great controllers.
Count Spencer among those who think the design didn't quite work, as the Xbox VP says in a new documentary series about Nintendo, "I still don't understand the [N64] controller, just being honest. I guess it's multiple controllers in one, but you needed three hands to play that!" There are a number of quirky controller designs out there that have raised eyebrows over the years. Even developers at Harmonix, the makers of Guitar Hero, weren't sure if the guitar controller was a good idea. But with the Nintendo 64 controller, most games just used the joystick and face buttons, so the third (leftmost) prong became irrelevant most of the time.
Another notable flaw in the N64 controller's design was the joystick, which could easily become worn out and lose its sensitivity. Exacerbated by games like Mario Party that asked the player to rotate the joystick as quickly as possible in some cases, and pretty soon fans had controller graveyards in their homes. Controller integrity seems to be a hot button issue these days, with PS5 DualSense users experiencing drift, and similar issues affecting Xbox and Switch users as well.
Phil Spencer's take on the N64 controller is tempered by his praise of what Nintendo would do in the years that followed. Saying that the for Nintendo to go all in with the Wii "was just amazing to see." So while the N64 controller might only be good for smacking opponents in the wrestling ring now, perhaps Nintendo's commitment to be different that started then was key to its later successes.
Source: VGC