With the rise of game consoles such as Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii and XBOX 360, the gaming experience has been taken to the next level. Now, you’ll be able to experience high definition visuals and powerful actions. But your game experience won’t be complete without the right game controllers.

Game controllers are the input devices. With these game controllers, you can precisely control where your character or machine goes. Every gamer should have a suitable set of game system controllers.

Aside from the game pads, paddles and joysticks, there are also special game controllers with platforms for specific games.

Examples include light guns used for games which involve a lot of shooting and steering wheels for games with driving.

The most common type of game controller is the game pad which can consist of a few buttons to even a dozen. It also has several omni directional sticks. With so many buttons and control sticks, the player can control the game hero more precisely and easily. Game pads also allow movement in three dimensions.

Game pads are held in both hands, using the thumbs to provide input. The right side of the game pad contains the action buttons while the left side has the direction controller. This setup, however, is somewhat unfriendly to those who are left handed.

Modern game pads also boast of internal motors which provide force feedbacks whenever you are playing action packed games. There are also buttons, which are called shoulder buttons, strategically placed on the edges of the game pads. The good thing about these game pads is that most game consoles and video games support game pads.

An older type of controller is the paddle controllers. They feature a few fire buttons and a single round wheel. This wheel is primarily used to control the game hero’s movement on one axis in the video screen. When the paddle and ball kinds of games lost their popularity, these analog controllers also died out.

The steering wheel can be considered as a larger version of the paddle controller. The steering wheel is typically used for driving or racing simulations. Most of the steering wheel controllers also have an internal motor which provides force feedback. This allows a gamer to experience the realism of driving a car.

The light gun controller is limited to shooting games. They are used to shoot the targets on the screen. Most game systems have specific light guns for use in their games.

These game controllers are vital in giving you the kind of experience you want when you’re playing your favorite video games.