Recommended: Logitech 3DO Controller

Third party controllers are generally the bane of any serious gamer.  Everyone knows that first party controllers are the best and anything else is merely second class.  Third party controllers are the controllers you give to guests you don’t like, or to that guy that’s just too good and needs a handicap.

Well, that’s all fine, but what if there is no true first party controller?  This conundrum is unique to the 3DO and its unusual hardware licensing structure.  For those who are unfamiliar with the system, the 3DO was merely a specification.  Hardware manufacturers could license that specification and create the hardware in any form-factor they desired — it just had to meet certain requirements.  So while Panasonic’s REAL Player may be the most famous of the 3DO systems, there were additional units from Goldstar, Sanyo, and Creative.  Each system was different and each one came with its own unique controller.

Without a de-facto standard, where do you turn for the best controller?  Most 3DO gamers seem to prefer the standard Panasonic pad to the rest, most likely because it’s the one they’re most familiar with.  But after playing through Total Eclipse, I was reminded of how there really is one 3DO controller that stands above the pack — the Logitech pad that originally came packed in with the party game Zhadnost.

While the Panasonic pad is bulky and hefty, the Logitech pad is sleek and sexy.  Its shape is reminiscent of the fantastic model 2 Saturn pad and molds nicely to your hand.  The shoulder buttons tilt inward (as all proper shoulder buttons should) so that you can easily press them with your fingertips, and the d-pad is circular and slightly raised.  The tactile feedback on all the buttons is pretty much perfect, and the d-pad feels much less stiff than the Panasonic pad.  On top of that, Logitech even put the expansion port for additional controllers at the end of the cord, rather than on the back of the controller.  That way, when you play multiplayer, you don’t have to have an extra cord hanging off of your controller.  The only possible downside is that this pad omits the headphone jack that the original Panasonic pad has.  But really, who uses that?

Now that the 3DO is seeing a few new releases, I suspect we may see a small surge of interest in the system.  Maybe a few new people will jump on board, maybe a few old fans will rediscover the system.  If you’re one of those, then I suggest you try to track down one of these controllers.  I found mine solo on eBay, but you may be able to find one by tracking down retailers that are selling the Zhadnost bundle.