Here are our picks for the wackiest, weirdest and goofiest of the video game limited controllers.
What I love about the gaming industry is how wacky it can sometimes be. From the goofy games to memorable moments from various events, featuring crazy stage presentations. Recently I’ve been going crazy for Devolver Digital presentations.
But aside from games and people, there is tech surrounding games, that often blows my mind. And while we have many incredible and funny limited video game consoles, today let’s focus on the part that connects the player with the game the most, the controllers.
Limited edition controllers have been around for decades. There’s a big chance you got one or two in your collection. The thing is, they’re usually pretty boring. Slap a paint job from a specific game on it and call it a day…
When the designers have the option to let their imagination go bananas, that’s when you get the real deal. And more often than not, the results are simply mindblowing.
Here are our top picks for the wackiest limited edition controllers ever made:
9. Furry Sonic The Hedgehog Controllers
These hairy gamepads were available to win as a part of the promotional campaign for the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie. In collaboration with Sega and Paramount Pictures, Xbox made a custom Xbox Series S console alongside the mentioned Furry Controllers.
Unfortunately, these were not available for purchase. A few lucky participants won their blue or red controllers, representing Sonic and Knuckles respectively.
While not as weird as the other controllers on this list, I feel they deserved a spot, at least at the end of it.
8. Deadpool & Wolverine Cheeky Controllers
Another collaboration between movie producers and Xbox. These butt-shaped controllers are, at the time of writing this article, available to win in a sweepstakes giveaway on Xbox’s X profile.
In the spirit of the Deadpool character, the designers decided to give both controllers an appearance of both main movie characters round tushies. Similarly to the Sonic promotions, there’s a limited console to win here as well.
Buckle up. It’s only gonna get weirder.
7. Pizza-scented Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Controllers
Yet another Xbox controller, that was created to promote a movie. Unfortunately, these were only available to win through sweepstakes giveaways too. There were four variants of the controller, each representing one of the turtles.
While they don’t necessarily look werider than Sonic or Deadpool gamepads, they most definetly smell weirder. Each controller came with a built-in NYC pizza scent diffuser in a shape of a pizza slice attached to the device.
These might be the only gamepads producing a smell ever made.
6. Dragon Quest Slime Nintendo Switch Controller
Now that the “regular shaped” controllers are out of the way, let’s get unhinged. This controller, produced by Hori, one of the Nintendo favorite official licensed products maker, takes a shape of one of the most known enemy from the Dragon Quest series.
This one was actually available to purchase. Now it’s only available at a higher price point through eBay. It is incredibly cute, and even looks like it might not be a nightmare to use.
5. Konami DDR Handpad
This official gamepad from Konami was made for the PS1 and PS2 users, specifically for the Dance Dance Revolution rhythm game players. And while it is quite obscure and probably didn’t sold in hunderts of thousands, I actually see why they created such a controller.
As an DDR games amateur I used to play some of them on my PC and use arrows on my keyboard to play the game. In that time I would probably spend hours usign such a controller.
Definetly weird, but one of the more useful controllers on this list.
4. Freak Series Controllers
Let’s cheat a little bit. I decided to put a whole series of controllers on the fourth spot on the list, simply because I could not decide on just one. They all are so crazy, they all should be mentioned.
There were two sets of the Freak Series Controllers. They included controllers like Berserk, Fleshy, Dragon and more. Each looking like a workshop hand-crafted thing from a fan of some gory titles.
Personally I think I would pass on these, even as a collector, but I’m confident they found some love in many collector’s homes.
3. Katana: The Soul Controller
Ok. We’re getting in the unusable controllers territory. This marvel from Hori was designed with Onimusha 3: Demon Siege. Equipped with an accelerometer, the Katana offered players an option to swing the controller, in an experience similar to that of the Nintendo Wii.
It came with a nice stand, making it look like an actual katana, when displayed. Aside from swinging and keeping it on a display it is pretty worthless. It does function as a regular controller, but try playing any game with this thing.
The Katana was also expensive as heck, coming at 150-200$ retail price. Yikes.
2. Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller
We all new this was going to make this list. One of the most infamous limited controllers of all time, the Chainsaw Controller gets featured in all of the weird controller blog posts and YouTube videos.
Designed to look like the actual chainsaws used by Chainsaw Ganados in the Resident Evil 4 game, this controller let’s you suck at the game in two colors, red and yellow, made for PS2 and Gamecube respectively.
According to NubyTech, the producer of the controller, it was supposed to make the game easier to play, which is of course not true. That’s why it is now a collector’s item, and nothing more. But it still looks super cool.
1. Tiny Bee controllers
These pistol shaped controllers are my number one pick, because of two reasons. First, they look absolutely ridiculous, but awesome. Second, they are probably the most unplayable ones from the whole list.
Tiny Bee pistols are an homage to the character of Yuna, a representant of the gunner faction in the Final Fantasy X-2 game. When playing the game, the player uses the left gun to control the left side of the PS2 controller and the right one to control the right side. The triggers cause Yuna to shoot her guns in the game Itself.
You could technically use these in any game on the PS2, but the buttons are placed all over these guns, and the pistols are only “useful” in the FFX2. Plus the buttons are blank, so you need to guess which one is which through trial and error .
Usability aside, these look phenomenal. They even came with a cool stand for displaying them among your other collectibles.
Summary
That concludes our list. It’s crazy to see how many werid things are there in this industry. This was definetly a fun list to put together. Your’s would probably look different, maybe a lot different, but these are our top picks. Hope you had fun learning about some goofy controllers.
