Knockoff video game peripherals have been aꦿround for nearly as long as video games themselves, and, while ꦺthere shouldn’t be anything wrong with some healthy competition in the marketplace, everyone knows the pain of putting up with some crumby off-brand controller because there’s nothing else around to use.
Often branded as ‘little sibling’ controllers because kids would often force them on anyone but themselves, just about everyone can relate to losing a match of Crash Team Racing because the shoddy Mad Catz controller sputtered out at the last second, and who can say how many cheap victories have decided heated head-to-head home Smash tournaments brought on by less-than-reliable thไird-party equipment?
It might sound like a thing of the past, of course, butꦍ less-than-legitimate manufacturers are still pumping these things out en masse. In fact, in some ways, it's only getting worse, and it can be crushing to find out that an amazing eBay find was actually a Chinese knockoff, or that a coveted Switch Pro controller shorted out after two weeks because it was actually a convincing fake.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, some controllers have gotten to be so rare at th🍌is point that they are worth fortunes. While everyone loves to talk about rare video games that can cost th🌳ousands, few pay much mind to gaming peripherals, and there are a few rare oddities out there which really can break the bank. With that in mind, here are twenty of the worst knockoff video game controllers (and ten that are worth a fortune).
30 ꦍ 🥃 Worst: Mad Catz GameCube Controllers
Gamers were struck with some bittersweet news in 2017 when it was announced that third-party peripheral developer Mad Catz was going under. They manufactured some of the most disliked gaming equipment of all time, and their were absolutely no exception. Though they rarely failed right out of the package, it wasn’t long before the analog sticks would start to drift, the buttons refused to function, or the console just wouldn't recognize the controller at a🌺ll. Seriously, these things were just plain terrible. Mad Catz actually made a comeback in 2018, though they have since shifted their focus to gaming keyboards, mice, and headphones.
29 🌠 Worstꦚ: Triax Turbo Touch 360
They may have been a little stiff and sharp, but the original NES controllers offered an input benchmark which wouldn’t b🔯e rivaled until Nintendo outdid themselves with the 💞SNES layout. At the time, the d-pad felt like a major innovation, though very similar input methods were seen on the company’s old Game N’ Watch games. However, Triax, the makers of the , felt that the d-pad wasn’t quite precise enough and replaced it with this horrible touch interface. Though it allowed for eight directions of input, that hardly mattered when the thing outright wouldn’t register any input most of the time.
28 ♕ Rare: Nuby Tech’s Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller
The pride and joy of every Resident Evil fan out there, this awful looking this was made to commemorate the release of the fourth mainline Resident Evil title, a game which would revitalize the series and become a fan favorite. This was by far the ever made f𝓰or commercial release, and it single-handedly helped to damage Nintendo’s otherwise very child-friendly appeal. These days, this is a relatively rare collector's item and can go for quite a sum on sites like eBay. While there are still a few floating around on the market, it won’t be long until these things become really rare.
27 Worst༒: ಌPX-3600
There are a ton of knock-off consoles out there. So many, in fact, that they could easily outnumber the amount of legitimate systems ten to one. Whi𝓡le they are all terrible in their own ways, the . Meant to cash in on the success of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in the late 2000s, it’s hard to imagine someone confusin♍g this for the real thing. The controller is especially awful, and it looks like what we might get if someone stuck the original Xbox 360 controller in a hydraulic press. Also, get a load of that d-pad—and we thought the 360’s was bad.
26 W๊orst: Intel’s Wireless Series Gamepad ꩲ
Coming from a time in which semi-translucent colored plastic was the in thing, gamepad is perhaps the ugliest controller mankind could possibly develop. This thing comes across as beyond unwieldy, and it’s tough to imagine getting invested in any game with a d-pad that misshapen. This w🅠as likely meant to be used as a flight stick or steering wheel, but, in trying to cram the functionality of a controller in with these other peripherals, Intel turned the entire thing into an unusable mess. Nowadays, Intel is perhaps most notable in the gaming world for their line of mid to high-end CPUs, and that’s a major improvement over this kind of thing.
25 Raಞre: NES Arkanoid Controller
Despite its primitive nature, the NES had its fair share of weird add-ons and peripherals. Those who were around at the time will remember such failures as the Power Glove and the Rock n’ Roller. However, the worked relatively well and had a definite—albeit finite—use. Meant to be played with the console’s port of the popular arcade title Arkanoid—better known as Breakout these days—this would have been a worthwhile purchase back in the mid to late 1980s. N🅰owadays, like many rare retro items, it’s fairly valuable and can be tough to come across. Though it pales in comparison to certain rare games on the console, it has gone for upwards of $100 in the past.
24 ♎♔ Worst: CTA Digital Wii Bowling Ball
When the Wii was popular, everyone wanted to jump aboard that bandwagon. As consumers lined up outside of Circuit Cities and Targets the world over in the hopes of getting their hands on one, off-brand retailers were rushing to see how they could market their lame plastic garbage to that same audience. Enter the . While leagues more competent than some of its competitors—this thing actually had a Wii controller built into it—it was still a huge, round Wii controller that could more or less only be used to play one fifth of Wii Sports. Why wo🌺uld that have been worth spending m💃oney on?
23 🍸 Worst: Mad 𒆙Catz Original Xbox Lynx Wireless Controller
Ah, Mad Catz, the disappointments never end. While wireless controllers have been around since the Atari days, they didn’t really hit the mainstream until the introduction of the GameCube’s Wavebird in the early 2000s. While that was an awesome, groundbreaking controller, the Mad Catz Lynx Wireless was not. Not only was it vastly less functional than any of its counterparts, Mad Catz actually opted to retain the bad design of the original Xbox’s first controller. They quite literally took one of th🅺e least liked video game controllers of all time and somehow made it bulkier and less functional. Congratulations are in order—that’s quite an achievement.
22 Rare:🍸 Steel Battalion Original Xbox Controller
Before FromSoft struck it big with the niche yet somehow broadly appealing Dark Souls series and its line of spiritual successors, they made a name for themselves with a line of intricate combat sims known as Steel Battalion. The kicker with these games was that, rather than simply play them on a regular controller, they came with meant to emulate what one might find on a real military vehicle. Obnoxious as this was, the Steel Battalion games held a definite appeal among some gamers, and these things are fairly rare and sought after in 2019 (despite t🐼he fact that the ori🅘ginal Xbox really isn’t).
21 ꦰ Worst: Mini Polystation 3 Controller
The Mini Poly꧋station (or Mini Polyztation, as it reads on the actual console) has to be seen to be believed. What was essentially hardware that would have been out of date in the late ’80s, this thing ran off-brand rom hacks of 8-bit games and tried to sell itself as a PlayStation 3. By far the worst part about this thing was its controller. Though whoever put this togetherܫ clearly design, they failed hilariously. Rather than the console’s iconic right-hand side face buttons, we have a single, round ‘A’ button. Similarly, the right analog stick has been replaced with a simple ‘b’ button—and this thing was supposed to pass itself off as a seventh gen console?