Voted but never posted a comment... until now lol. ^^
Best controller IS the SNES pad.
With the exception of... Saturn pad for fighting games.
I see a a lot of people voting for the GC controller. The analogue stick and shape of the pad are the best out there for any analogue controller. Not to mention the wavebird had wireless. But the Z button placement and small D-Pad let it down. Also two of my pads broke which is a first for any controller of mine.
I also see a couple of people talked about lightguns... the House of the Dead 3 shotgun is the coolest thing ever! The HOTD4 machine guns come pretty close but all that shaking kills my arms.
I've also got a soft spot for the NES zapper that thing is so accurate!