D-Pad or Thumbstick

Do you prefer D-pads or thumbsticks on your controllers? I prefer d-pads. It just feels more natural to me. Probably because I grew up on NES, the moved on to SNES & Genesis, all of which use D-Pads. Then even on PSX I had the original model, before they added the analog sticks to the controller. So I played a whole freaking lot of d-pads. Because of that, the thumbsticks don't feel as natural to me. I've more than gotten used to them, but whenever I play an old NES or SNES game everything just feels smoother and more natural to me. I wish I could actually use the piece of crap D-Pad on XBox 360.

depends for which type of game.

for a 2D platformer , a fighting game (2D or 3D) , puzzle games, etc, I prefer d-pads

for 3D platformers and 3D games in general , I prefer the analog thumbstick

FPS is best with a keyboard and mouse but if thats not an option , then analog as well

I prefer thumbstick, for me it's so much easier to use.

Overall, I've played most of my games using the D-pad, which works the best for 2D side scrollers. And thumbsticks are good for any type of 3D game including FPS, but mouse and keyboard are the best option in that regard. For me, a D-pad can either make or break the controller. It also depends on the console I guess. Today, good thumbsticks are a must since most games rely heavily on them. I voted for D-pad, I'm just used to playing most of my games with them, and like you I also had the original PS1 with no analogs, so I didn't get into analogs until the N64 really.

depends for which type of game.

for a 2D platformer , a fighting game (2D or 3D) , puzzle games, etc, I prefer d-pads

for 3D platformers and 3D games in general , I prefer the analog thumbstick

FPS is best with a keyboard and mouse but if thats not an option , then analog as well

Darkman2007

I initially voted thumbstick, but this sounds more accurate.