page_title: Analog stick
section_title: Dual analog sticks
hierarchical_section_title: Analog stick / Usage in video games / Dual analog sticks
caption_attribution_description: English: An original Sony PlayStation DualShock controller for the PlayStation video game console. This became the standard pack-in controller after its introduction, and replaced the non-analog controller.Українська: Оригінальний контролер DualShock для гральної консолі Sony PlayStation. Він став вкладатися у стандартний комплект з консоллю після виходу, замінивши собою неаналоговий контролер.
context_page_description: An analog stick, sometimes called a control stick or thumbstick, is an input device for a controller that is used for two-dimensional input. An analog stick is a variation of a joystick, consisting of a protrusion from the controller; input is based on the position of this protrusion in relation to the default "center" position. While digital sticks rely on single electrical connections for movement, analog sticks use continuous electrical activity running through potentiometers to measure the exact position of the stick within its full range of motion. The analog stick has greatly overtaken the D-pad in both prominence and usage in console video games.
context_section_description: Two analog sticks offer greater functionality than a single stick. On some modern game controllers, the analog sticks are "staggered", such that the left stick is positioned to the upper left of the D-pad while the right stick is positioned to the lower left of the face buttons. The controllers of all of Microsoft's Xbox consoles (Xbox controller, Xbox 360 controller and Xbox One controller), as well as controllers for Nintendo's GameCube and Switch (GameCube controller, the dual Joy-Con Comfort Grip and the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller), utilize a staggered analog stick layout. 
  Other controllers instead have the two analog sticks in a symmetrical configuration with a D-pad on the left thumb position and face buttons at the right thumb position, with analog sticks below and closer to the center on both sides. Sony's PlayStation-series analog controllers—the Dual Analog Controller, DualShock, DualShock 2, Sixaxis, DualShock 3, DualShock 4 and DualSense  & mdash;all use this configuration, with the remainder of the controller layout closely resembling the original digital PlayStation controller.  The Classic Controller for the Wii also uses this configuration. The original configuration of the Wii U GamePad controller had twin analog "Circle Pads" positioned symmetrically above the D-pad and face buttons, but was reconfigured to have twin clickable analog sticks in May 2012.
  With genres such as action, adventure games, platforming, and shooting, the left stick normally controls the character's movement while the second stick controls the camera. The use of a second analog stick alleviated problems in many earlier platform games, in which the camera was notorious for bad positioning.  The right stick not only allows for camera control in third-person games, but is almost essential for most modern first-person shooters such as Halo, where it controls the player's gaze and aim, as opposed to the left stick, which controls where the player moves. In Namco's Katamari Damacy and its sequels, both analog sticks are used at once to control the player's character.
  In spite of widespread adoption of dual analog sticks, a few modern video game systems are designed without a second analog stick, namely the Wii's standard controller (whose lone analog stick is implemented in the Wii Remote's Nunchuk attachment), Sony's PSP and Nintendo's 3DS.  While the Wii's abovementioned supplemental Classic Controller accessory and its initial backwards compatibility support of the GameCube controller allow for dual-stick control schemes in certain games, the PSP's complete lack of a second analog stick and later the 3DS' initial lack of such feature have been criticized.  Nintendo has since released an add-on for the 3DS that adds, among other things, a second analog "circle pad". The follow-up to the PSP, the PlayStation Vita, features dual analog sticks. It is the first handheld game console to do so. The New Nintendo 3DS line of systems added a second analog controller, known as the "C-Stick" to the right side of the device.
caption: The Sony PlayStation DualShock (1997) features two analog sticks
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