The shoulder button: one often assumes this is but a trivial part of the gaming experience. After all, the majority of your operations are controlled via the face buttons! This has changed in recent years though. With the rising popularity of the first person shooter, the shoulder buttons have received more and more use. What was once an important button for throwing up your shield in smash brothers or reversing a strike in a wrestling game has taken on a whole new undertaking: shooting stuff. This would be fine and dandy except for one thing: due to the gamers’ love of shooters, the controllers themselves have undergone a radical shift.

Let’s take a look at the Dual-shock 3, shall we? While the dual-shock two had four shoulder buttons that were very operational and easy to command, the dual shock three has two that are operational and two that are complete wastes of space. If you happen to own a Playstation 3, you know exactly which two buttons I am speaking of. The R2 and L2 buttons on the Dualshock 3 are perhaps the worst buttons in the world. No, I’m not using hyperbole, I’m not making stuff up. I literally think you could scavenge the world three times over and not come up with buttons as miserable as the Playstation 3’s R2 and L2 buttons.

What exactly makes these buttons so bad? Well, first, they are triggers. The trigger button trend on consoles started primarily with the N64. The trigger on that system was fine and dandy. It was placed on the very back of your controller and if you needed to shoot something, you knew where it was. It didn’t get in the way, it was just there and ready to help! The Gamecube controller did away with said trigger button, but another system decided to dance with it. The X-Box. As we all know, the X-Box cast aside traditional console controls and decided that they would not have shoulders, but triggers. The popularity of console shooters such as Golden Eye and Perfect Dark helped usher this idea in.

I knew Halo would find a new and innovative way to make me suffer.

These were functional triggers at least. I kind of struggle to find a reason as to why one genre needs to have several controllers fashioned after it, but they worked fine. Obviously, the X-Box 360 would continue the trigger trend, but on that system they also decided to throw in regular shoulder buttons. These buttons, nubs as they refer to them, are pretty ho-hum. They aren’t horrible buttons but they don’t get the job done, especially when compared to the Playstation’s L1 and R1 buttons.

Now, back to the Dualshock 3. Console first person shooters, as mentioned, were already popular at the time the Playstation 2 released. In my opinion, and this is not based on fact or something I’ve heard, the Playstation 3’s controller was altered due to the heightened popularity of shooters in America, specifically Halo. Some proof to this claim would point at the otherwise mediocre Resistance being one of the Playstation 3’s launch titles. So, because of the success of the X-Box, trigger buttons needed to be placed there. Shooter fans needed to be pleased.

Here’s the problem though: they’re absolutely garbage. When you try to press them down, they only seem to work about 75% of the time. I know Sony offers a service to “fix” this issue, but it doesn’t fix responsiveness, it just fixes grip issues. Some people apparently suffer the horrible tragedy of their fingers sliding off the buttons and that needs to be rectified right away. Those of us who jam away on the buttons and can’t get a move to activate? We’re screwed.

You might be wondering why this would affect me. After all, I’m not the biggest shooter guy and, technically speaking, if all you do is hold down the button and hold a machine gun (or something), the controller will work fine. Here’s the deal though: while I dislike shooters I have an absolute fetish for fighters. Some people dig the Spanish Fly, some dig the human horn, me…nothing gets me going like a good fighter.

Now, for those of you who played Street Fighter on the original Playstation, you will note where the default strong-kick button was. The RIGHT shoulder, the R2 button. If you wanted someone to feel the wrath of your heavy kick, by God they would feel it. So, I buy Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix on my Playstation 3 expecting a decent controlling experience. After all, the whole reason I got it on the PS3 and NOT the 360 is because I vastly prefer the PS3’s joy-pad. What I got was nothing short of a horrifying experience. You could say it was akin to waking up in a world where the Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehogs played like Sonic 2006.

Well hey, the R1 button still works well!

I would choose Ken and have the audacity to try to heavy kick someone. First, for those who didn’t know, I had to alter the controls to get R2 to be heavy kick. I wanted the same experience I had on the PS1. Now, when I would try the move, it would work most of the time, but this one time I was on the ground trying to trip someone. I notice that Ken is just sitting there with a smug look on his face. He knows darn well that he is screwing me over. He may also know that he is about to get walloped. Naturally, I go on to lose the fight due to this momentary lapse in concentration.

Here’s the thing, this R2 button not registering can be a thing that severely hampers you in an on-line battle. Imagine your opponent was very darn near defeat and for whatever reason instead of pulling out the way faster light punch or kick, you decide to rock the heavy kick. YOU FINISH IN STYLE! Well, when it doesn’t register, you’ll look confused and by the time you realize what happens, your opponent is mopping up the floor with your fallen blood.

I thought maybe it was just Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. After all, it was a “newer” game, so maybe I was just going crazy and this problem didn’t really exist. I then try to play Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the controller and find to my horror that things haven’t changed at all! The PS3’s trigger buttons just freaking suck! It was sad that I had to turn off my super expensive monolith of a system in order to play my long deceased Playstation 1.

Oh man, this is going to hurt SF IV too, isn’t it?

Sony really needs to release a new sort of PS3 controller for those of us who don’t shoot all the time. Releasing a controller specialized to one genre is stupid (well, I mean, except fighters. People buy fighting pads and only play fighters with them, so why not?) and they really need to consider their non-shooting fans. There could be a really great game in the future that demands the use of the R2 or L2 button and someone could go out to use it and they’d be right out of luck. Oh, too bad, how dare you try and play the game.

I also wouldn’t hate an official USB adaptor so I can use my still very damn good Playstation 2 controller on my PS3. That’s another thing I don’t get, wireless stuff. Are wired controllers really that big of a dilemma? When I got done playing my SNES I would simply wrap up my cables and put them away. It never really got in the way of my experience. I guess there are a lot of people with OCD out there who just can’t handle the wires…that’s gotta be it. I’m probably the only person I know who vastly prefers to use the wired 360 controller (AT LEAST THEY OFFER ONE!). Maybe I’m just being dragged kicking and screaming into this generation.

Whatever the case, I’m off subject now, so allow me to cut it short. Sony: Release a new Playstation 3 controller with non-ridiculous shoulder buttons. Those of us who don’t play shooters all the time are desperately begging you!