Buh, what a bunch of fags, it sure looks like you have never played any challenging platform game or any good console game whatsoever, oh but right - you were born when everybody was playing Halo and console gaming actually meant third person shooters and sport games. A list of actually good console controllers (not talking about consoles that weren before my time or home computers like the C64 - and Konix Speedking will win that battle) :
NES controller, just classic, however get something to protect your fingers, like a beard shave bottle cap, for those button mashing games (Gold Medal Challenge!).
SNES controller, enough buttons for any good console game, a solid controller without bullshit. Also has been cloned to death for PC and functions well in all PC platformers I can think of.
Sega Saturn controllers, I don't have the newer one which is supposedly better, but I do have the 3D controller, which is probably my favourite pad with it's button setup, D-pad and shape. The L/R buttons are a bit sucky and the 3D controller is just not good, however, it's this weird ball thing. The Arcade controllers are also perfect for those spaceship shooting games, however not really accurate enough for fighting games.
The PS controller line, however I will say they have one of the most horrible D-pads ever conceived, just what the fuck is up with that missing center, it wears on your thumb like nothing else. Fuck that shit. Also the new one has pretty bizarre L2/R2 buttons, they just don't feel right.
XBAWX controller, original, perfectly sized for western people. I'm not sure about the D-pad, did any xbax game even use it? Did xbox actually have any games? I sure don't remember buying more than KOTOR, Hunter : The Reckoning and Bloodrayne. Anyway, then there's the awesome Steel Battalion controller, but I suppose I shouldn't go for special controllers like expensive quality arcade sticks and such since then the debate would include everything ever made. But I will say that game-specific controllers like flightsticks and such are awesome and spit on your peasant pads.
The Gamecube controller is actually pretty good, but it has that one button which is impossible to press since the shoulder buttons are shaped so concavely, and also it's pretty damn small. It has nice, big buttons however and it's entirely mandatory for the Wii. However it has ridiculously short wire, it feels like Japanese living rooms are smaller than my toilet (I checked, the cord doesn't extend from my washing machine to the toilet seat). You have to place the console like middle of your floor and it still doesn't quite reach. What a bunch of bullshit. I actually take it all back, this controller sucks balls. Also the Wii classic controller is some of the dumbest shit I have ever seen, it's wireless in the sense it requires batteries but it still has some parasitic shit attached to it with a wire with which you can pull down beer bottles and all that shit. I don't get it.
So, in short, for 2D games I'd get any of the Saturn controllers, however the reality is that it has so few games we have to go back to SNES controller. For crap games, I'd get the old Xbox controller. For anything else, a game-specific controller and/or a PC.