Video game accessories, peripherals, and controllers have had a long and bumpy road.

There have been great strides in technology thanks to some of the peripherals Video Games have influenced. But there have also been products that might as well be three steps back.

Companies are constantly trying to brainstorm what "gamers" need, and most don't have a clue. Usually, you can tell when a product was made by someone who's spent less than a couple hours playing video games in their lifetime. Because every console that has come out has differences in the way it's built, how it's controllers look, and how their games play, there'll always be a market for peripherals. You've got your thousands of steering wheels for racing games, a slew of fake plastic fishing rods for fishing games, and even plastic spatula's for the rare cooking game here and there. Among these, I'd say roughly half of them work like they're supposed to. It's an oversaturated market, always has been. I'd say it's better now than ever before but that doesn't mean there aren't still "Elite Pro Gaming Controller"s somehow priced at 5 dollars out there. People want to make money, and they'll do it however they can, even if it means making a literal inflatable raft and selling it as a "gaming accessory".

So I've done my digging, swam through the ocean of peripherals and resurfaced to tell you all about it. This is my list of 20 Ridiculous Video Game Accessories That Shouldn’t Exist (And 10 That Are Actually Useful).

30 Shouldn’t Exist: Madcatz GameCube Controllers

Back in the day, during the age of atomic purple and slime, the name Madcatz meant something different.

Madcatz used to be makers of the off-brand yet low-quality versions of your favorite controllers.

And none of these are worse than their GameCube iteration. This...thing was poor in almost every aspect. Buttons stuck under the faceplate, analog sticks made of paper, and genuinely uncomfortable grips. Thankfully, Madcatz grew up a bit and are now makers of some of the most high-quality arcade sticks. Lucky for us, it was just their rebellious teen phase and they've become fully adult controller-making felines.

29 Shouldn’t Exist: Nintendo Switch Comfortable Hands-Free Stand

This nightmare is something I'd see in a satire of current day culture, like Idiocracy or Wall-E.

This "Hands-Free" Switch Stand is absolutely absurd, but in comparison to other inane inventions and beauty products, it's pretty tame.

Still, I'd like the meet the person brave enough to wear this in public. I haven't tested this myself but I can assume it works alright, but nothing and I mean NOTHING will make up for how silly it looks. Just buy a stand for your Switch!

28 Actually Useful: Microsoft's Xbox Adaptive Controller

This might be my favorite on the list.

Microsoft's Adaptive Controller is a peripheral targeted towards helping the physically impaired gaming audience game as easily as possible.

This has been a product long in the making and it's honestly so heartwarming to see. The adaptive controller has a plug for every input (such as plug-in here for the Y button etc..) and supports a wide range of devices. So you could have 3 giant buttons plugged in with long cords, a Wii nunchuck, and a fingerpad, and it'd still work great. This lets people in wheelchairs, with heavy physical impairments, and even the common man at home game at their easiest convenience.

27 Shouldn’t Exist: The "Duke" OG Xbox Controller

The infamous Duke, "King of the Giants".

The Duke is a moniker for the original Xbox Controller that due to some odd issues during production ended up being a controller for elephants.

Now there were some people that loved the size of the controller and wanted it back for the Xbox One. Microsoft heard their cries and released a new upgraded version in 2018 that's actually sized for humans. But the original Duke is different, THAT Duke was unplayable. I've held the OG Duke and I felt like I was 6 again and holding an adult sized football.

26 Shouldn’t Exist: Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller

"Hey, you think it would be a cool idea to make a fake plastic chainsaw into a controller? Ya know, the thing that people use to control every little micro-action in the game?" No, no it would not be cool. Well, alright it would be "cool", but it wouldn't be smart. Too bad, Capcom did it anyway.

For Resident Evil 4 on the PS2 Capcom deduced that people loved the chainsaw from the trailers so much, it deserved its own controller.

No surprise, it controls awfully and handles even worse. It's 100% better used as a Halloween prop.

25 Actually Useful: The Enavo Heatbuff

I've got to say, one of my biggest problems in the modern age is my little sausage fingers getting cold while working late at night.

It's a real problem, and I'll even say it might be one of the biggest problems we face currently.

I'll just stop that there and say I'm being sarcastic but really this is a good quality of life product. The Enavo Heatbuff is a perfect little heater for your hands while you type, game, or maybe even get your palms read. It's slick, convenient, and nonintrusive.

24 Shouldn’t Exist: Dragon Quest Slime Controller

I just don't understand. Hori, a massive company of controller construction, has had a few oddballs in its lineup over the years. But this one takes the cake.

This controller was released in Japan only, coinciding with the release of Dragon Quest VIII.

Dragon Quest is one of the most influential franchises in Japan and the Slime monster from it is akin to how Pikachu is for the West. So making a controller that looks like a Slime? Totally neat idea. Making it a controller? Now it's a mess. Imagine holding a giant Hershey's Kiss bottom up in your hands, now play a video game with it. Yeah, not all too intuitive huh?

23 Shouldn’t Exist: Steam Controller

This might get me a bit of salt from the online community.

The Steam Controller is one of the least comfortable, most poorly run campaigns for a controller I've ever seen.

First of all, it is very finicky in general. Secondly, it's cheaply made and you can tell from the awful clicking and general feel of the controller. And lastly, it doesn't do what it advertises. The Steam Controller was supposed to supplement for a keyboard and mouse, and I guess it does, but a mouse and keyboard from the 1980s complete with trackball.

22 Actually Useful: Nintendo Switch compatible USB Keyboard

With details of the Switch's, online Ecosystem just announced in the most recent Nintendo Direct, people are getting ready for online.

And because again, Nintendo's way of handling voice chat is intensely complicated, it might be easier just to type.

And this controller is honestly perfect for it. First of all, It's slick, having the joy cons connect to either side just looks good. I've seen some other keyboards that are Bluetooth and this is way more efficient. And lastly, it helps Nintendo gamers connect without subjecting themselves to the multi-cord nightmare that is Nintendo's first-party headset.

21 Shouldn’t Exist: Game Gear TV Tuner

I mean this one is kind of self-explanatory. It's a TV tuner, on a Game Gear.

The TV Tuner for the Game Gear essentially turned your portable game console into its own little television.

You could hook up your VCR to it and play movies directly on it. But that's about it for the list of good qualities. The Tuner drained your battery faster than water through a pasta strainer, It was analog format right before the world switched to digital, and it wasn't even compatible with the later developed Game gears. Overall a completely useless accessory.

20 Shouldn’t Exist: Power Glove

The Power Glove, the ultimate in useless peripherals. When people talk about the worst accessories in video game history you can bet the Power Glove is at the tip of their tongue.

This handy dandy little glove was better to protect your hands gardening than it was for video games.

It's motion controls just straight up didn't work. And when they did it was likely when you were swinging your arms around instead of doing the action the game specified. That along with the fact that the buttons were placed in an incredibly awkward spot, made the Power Glove the perfect untouched shelf decoration.

19 Actually Useful: SteelSeries Touch Screen Gaming Controls

I'm not the biggest mobile gamer. I've done my fair share of Flappy Bird, Angry Birds, Fire Emblem Heroes, and even Puzzles & Dragons. But outside of that, I played Snake on my flip phone way back when?

But even someone as green as I can see how helpful SteelSeries Touch Screen Controls could be.

I mean nothing feels as good as the feedback of a button press am I right? These controls might finally make mobile fighting games, not an absolute nightmare to play. And that in itself is a huge achievement.

18 Shouldn’t Exist: Kinect

I had to double check to make sure that yes, the Kinect did release four years after the Wii. Granted the Wii's motion controls weren't perfect, but they were insanely good especially in comparison to the PlayStation Move or the Xbox Kinect.

The Kinect 90% of the time did the exact opposite of what you told it to, you kick your foot, it swings the characters arms, and vice versa.

And when it again released with the Xbox One, you can bet your bottom dollar it didn't get any better. It didn't help that games developed for the Kinect were mostly poor.

17 Shouldn’t Exist: Kid Icarus 3DS Stand

So you're gonna see this twice, and there's a reason for that, but for now, let's focus on the bad.

The Kid Icarus 3DS stand is awful for happy healthy bones.

Kid Icarus: Uprising is already known for being destroying people's wrists due to its playstyle, and this stand actually makes it worse. The angle you'd have to have your hands at in order to play this thing while it's on the stand hurts just to think about. I suffer from constant wrist pain already and just looking at this thing I can feel my wrist bones steadily turning to dust.

16 Actually Useful: Cyborg amBX

The Cybordgam BX lights are honestly only for those looking to splurge on something "extra". They're essentially surround sound speakers, but for lighting. Imagine playing something like Skyrim, and diving into one of the underground tombs. Now as soon as you go underground, your room dims, and every time you pass a torch, you feel the glow of the fire for just an instant.

This is how Cyborg amBX's Lights can help with the atmosphere of a game.

And even if you don't like them, they make for pretty amazing party lights!

15 Shouldn’t Exist: Steel Batallion Controller

I hesitated to include this on the negative side of this article but it's just too much.

In Steel Battalion your main enemy is task overload, you're hulking steel WMD has a laundry list of tasks in order for it to move.

So actually, every single button of the 30+ ones on this controller does serve a purpose. Because Mech's are still in the realm of sci-fi, the idea of them being incredibly complex to control is novel and raises the skill ceiling quite a bit. But still, it's way too expensive, too complex, and only useful for one game.

14 Shouldn’t Exist: Wii Car Adapter

There's always been a stigma for the whole "Video game consoles in the car" concept. Personally, I adored the opportunity to play my PS2 in the backseat during long road-trips. I can only tell my parent's school is "good" so many times! But unfortunately, adults would also set them up in the front seat for dangerous reasons.

The Wii Car Adapter doesn't care about this huge danger and along with being generally poorly made, also encourages people to set up their Wii within eyeshot of their car lighter.

Maybe it was to gather data for an in-development Wii title "Oh Look Wii Are Crashing".

13 Actually Useful: The Peregrine Glove

For anyone that's played a game that needed Macro's, you'll understand the appeal for the Peregrine glove. I personally used to use a plugin Xbox controller as a mouse/keyboard when I wanted to laze in bed all day with my computer hooked up to my TV.

I can only imagine how lazy I would get with something like the Peregrine Glove.

It's essentially the Power Glove but it works and doesn't look like an 80's Sci-fi invention. The Peregrine glove supports over 15 different keybindings that activate depending on how you move your hand. It just means we're one step closer to imitating Iron Man interacting with his holograms in the Marvel Films.

12 Shouldn’t Exist: Raildriver Controller For Microsoft's Train Simulator

This has most of the same problems as the Steel Battalion controller. It's over-complicated, clunky, and made for a single game.

The idea that people would pay anywhere from 100-400 buckaroos for a controller only applicable for one game is absurd.

The only thing that makes this way, WAY worse than the Steel Battalion version is that it's designed to work with Microsoft's Train Simulator. I'm not gonna harp on simulator games, they're not my cup of tea, but do you really need to shell 400 bucks to play your Train Simulator game more efficiently? At least Steel Battalions about big ol dumb mechs.

11 Shouldn’t Exist: HORI KATANA CONTROLLER

I can't decide if this is worse than the Slime controller, either way it's close.

Hori's Katana controller for the special edition of Onimusha 3 for the PS2 is the ultimate in Otaku accessories.

Only for those "enlightened" enough to appreciate Japanese culture should own this product, and yes I'm being sarcastic. This "katana" has all the controls on it's hilt so you can hold your blade forward while attempting to play Onimusha. The controller also comes with a display stand because even Hori knew that their design was mostly going to be used for decoration.