Editorials

D-Pad or Joystick?

Which should the GBA have?

By Corey

Having played both the GBC and NGPC, I've had experiences with both a D-Pad and a Joystick with handhelds. The question people have asked and that I will attempt to help answer is, "Which one should the GBA have?"

The obvious answer to some people may be, "Both, dumbass!" I mean, controllers now days have both don't they? Yes, the GBA could have both. Will it? A couple factors may contribute to it not having both. First, if you want the handheld to be small, the screen to be big, and have 4 buttons, where are you going to fit both a D-Pad and joystick and still make the handheld comfortable to hold? There are probably ways to arrange all this perfectly, but I don't see it happening this time around. It might though. Second, what about cost? It would probably cost Nintendo more to implement both. This means it'll cost you more to buy it. You don't want that, do you? Some might be willing to pay, some might not be.

One very obvious advatage to the joystick is that it is very responsive. You can control how fast your character moves by how far you tilt the joystick. It is also a ton easier to move or push in a diagonal than it is with the D-Pad. This makes fighting games a lot easier to play. The joystick is also more comfortable to use. You aren't constantly pushing down on it wrecking your thumb. However, the joystick has a couple of disadvantages. After using a D-Pad on handhelds for a long time, the joystick can take a while to get used to. I'll say that I constantly missed easy jumps in Sonic Pocket because I wasn't used to it. One other disadvatage is that is you need percise direction and movement, puzzle games for instance, the joystick can be a nightmare. Accidently pushing down-left when you just wanted to push left could be costly when in a high level of certain puzzle games. This isn't a big problem when you have the Directional Pad.

After playing games with the NGPC joystick, I kind of came at an absence of big advantages for the D-Pad. The only advatage that stands out is that you have more control. You aren't going to mess up big time because you pushed the wrong direction. I also find the easier to select stuff in menus than I do with any joystick. Not that really has to do with gameplay, but I do.

So, what would I want on the Game Boy Advance? If the GBA ends up being able to do a good amount of 3D games or even just first-person perspective, the joystick would be an obvious choice. It is more responsive to your actions and it gives faster reaction. Without 1st person or 3D, a D-Pad may be better. Though it would suck for fighting games, a lot of other genres would benifit from having a D-Pad because the lack of mistakes you make with it, though having the GBC or N64 pad would be a bad move. Neither of them is responsive enough and both hurt your thumb after long amounts of play. The Dreamcast control pad isn't bad, but something like the PSX one would be great.

And of course, if Nintendo is willing to put a D-Pad and joystick this time around, that would be the best choice out of the choices listed here.