Reason Four: Control Yourself!

The Dreamcast controller is a great combination of analog and digital control pads with plenty of buttons. We all unanimously agreed that the little memory cards you could stick into the controller, complete with LCD screens, were great, but so far under utilized. We also tried out the steering wheel and the arcade stick. Here's the lowdown:

Sluggo: The standard controller feels okay. I don't really like the digital controls, I thought the analog directional control pad had a better feel.

No complaints about the controls. (Except for Fargo's long fingers.)

Tungsten: I thought the controller was great. It was a little confusing which directional pad to use, some games required one or the other. Though I suppose if you read the instructions...

Shaithis: I adapted to it pretty quickly. To be honest, I don't recall if I was using the analog stick or the joypad as I played, it was that comfortable. The feel of it was good, I like bigger controllers -- it's smaller than the N64 controller but its much bigger than the Playstation's. I like that it's got support for your hands running all the way down. [Compared to the Playstation, which seems to stop in the middle of one's palm.]

Mix: I was a big fan of the original Saturn controller, the Japanese controller, but of course it didn't have the analog stick. I thought Nintendo had a good idea with the three-pronged controller, where you could choose if you wanted to use the analog or the digital, but the thing I like about the Dreamcast is you don't have to move your hand around to choose. It's one or the other and its right there. It's very comfortable. A LOT better than the Playstation controller, which really hurts your hand after a while.

Mix on the Arcade Stick: The arcade stick is a little loose. We tested the Dreamcast one -- I hear a couple other companies, like MadCatz, are manufacturing controllers that have a better feel. There's no analog control on the arcade stick, so it's great for fighting games but it would be nice to have the analog included. We were trying to play NFL 2000 and it was impossible with the arcade stick.

Mix on the Steering Wheel: I played a couple different games on the steering wheel, it had a lot of play (meaning it was loose), but once you got used to it it was okay. It wasn't heavy enough, I don't think.

The only real complaint about the controller came from me, good ol' Fargo. I've got really long fingers (no comments from the peanut gallery, please) and found that the buttons didn't line up correctly for me, it felt a little awkward. I like the Nintendo 64 controller a bit better, it was bigger and fit more comfortably into my hands. That being said, I went through at least one extended 10 hour session with the Dreamcast and wasn't really bothered by it, unlike Playstation's terrible midget-controller.

Next: Nice price or raw deal?