What is your preferred controller for playing classic Sonic?

To people saying analogue stick, I’m curious - what was your first experience playing Sonic?

With the exception of the Switch stick where the shorter height makes the action much quicker, I don’t think I could get used to playing that way.

 

My first classic game was on a DS lite on the classic collection. If we're talking sonic games in general, then it was 06 on the 360.

 

I prefer an original Japanese SJ-6000 pad, but for wireless or playing on not original hardware, Retro-bit's 2.4 GHz Genesis pad is good.

 

Anything with large face buttons, so I can use multiple fingers of my right hand to piano-key them for optimal button mashing. I have both a DualShock 4 and an 8BitDo Pro 2, the latter of which has become my default controller nowadays.

 

My first experience was on the Genesis with Sonic 2. But the days I really started playing video games was during the late fifth - early sixth gen, on N64, Dreamcast and GameCube. So analog sticks just come more naturally to me than any D-Pad.

That said, I know some games don't feel as good with a stick, and need a D-Pad for accuracy. Sonic however is not one of those games, and never has been. Movement is smooth, and only really relies on using three general directions (left, right, and down). For a game as smooth and simplistic as Sonic, tilting and turning an analog stick feels right at home. It's one of the only 2D platformers (besides maybe Rayman Origins/Legends) that I feel you can confidently use one.

 

Sonic Classic Collection on DS along with the Rush trilogy. I also played the classics on Wii virtual console a lot. Using an analog stick has been a more recent thing I've done. Rolling with a stick feels super satisfying to me.

 

Yeah, you get this really satisfying "scooping" motion from tilting the stick down mid-run. It imitates the feeling of curling downward into a roll really well.

 

I play with my keyboard not because it's comfortable (spoilers: it isn't) but because it reacts in time to inputs, while trying to play these games with an XBox-type controller feels like everything happens too late, as in, I played a Sonic game much better that far first time in the 90's that I did on my first seasoned try with a modern controller. I've played Mania on Switch too and it was better than with the Xbox one, but still not good enough to handle special stages properly, and PS-type controllers were the closest to keyboard response times I've tried but the one I had was too old and I haven't gotten a newer one to try, so I just kept using the keyboard.

Interestingly enough, I find the MD D-pads to be a lot more fluid than analog sticks, and I can't see how you do a "piano roll" on a gamepad of any kind. I'll have to record my hands along with my screen when I start making videos of my Origins gameplays so people can evaluate if I play weird in that sense too.

 

You don't have to be very careful at all, given that none of the classic Sonic titles (up to and including Mania) let you roll if they're still registering a left or right input. You'd have to slide the stick past diagonally-down to trigger a roll, making it hard to do it accidentally.

 

You have the entire lower-diagonal to upper-diagonal to work with if you're truly that paranoid about rolling while moving, but keeping the stick right on the edge of the rolling threshold is way comfier.
Honestly, classic Sonic is so simple to control that you can hand me any control scheme and it wouldn't be much of a hinderance. Be it a keyboard, analogue stick, d-pad, or touch-screen (it's seriously not that complex!)

 

I'd love to try a Genesis/Saturn controller for Sonic (and most 2D platformers) some day, but I'm too attached to my DS4. I love love LOVE the dpad on that thing, it feels so goddamn good to use.

I used to be an analog defender, and while I've moved on from that, I don't think it's all too bad for most 2D platformers. I much prefer my digital inputs but a majority of games aren't gonna be picky if you're using analog, it just feels a lot weirder after years of only using dpad for my platformers.

 

I've never had an issue personally. The closest i've gotten is accidentally rolling and jumping when I mean to spindash, but that's probably not just a stick thing.

 

I have more issues with crummy d-pads with bad diagonals (like the ones on some Chinese Linux handhelds) triggering accidental rolling than I ever have with analog sticks, personally.

 

There's pretty much no way to accidentally roll in the classic Sonic games, as said. You have to be pressing 100% down, no diagonals. Classic Sonic only registers four directions.

The extreme adverseness to it is just funny to me, lol. Especially when the Genesis/Saturn D-Pad is already smooth like an analog stick. It's really not that different!

 

GameCube controllers ftw

 

This would be a sensible control stick to play Sonic with thanks to the octogate. Best of both worlds. I wish modern controllers had them as an option somehow.

 

I have used a DualShock 3 for my PC for nearly a decade now.
Almost every game that I played with a controller, I used a DualShock 3 to play. Even Sonic Mania.