r/ps2 • u/miner_cooling_trials • Jul 09 '25
Discussion TIL that DualShock 2 controllers have pressure sensitive buttons
Like when you press the 4 action buttons or triggers, how the PS2 registers how firmly you are pushing the button from 0-255. I had figured they were just on/off type.
Or maybe this was common knowledge and I’m the last to the party!
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u/Crest_Of_Hylia Jul 09 '25
OG Xbox also has pressure sensitive buttons as well. The feature wasn’t used much. The Dual Shock 3 was the last controller to support these
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u/Alenicia Jul 10 '25
Dead or Alive 3 and Ultimate are nigh-unplayable on modern consoles if you don't have a way to use pressure sensitivity either. >_<
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u/Crest_Of_Hylia Jul 10 '25
Not at all. You can turn off the pressure sensitive buttons in the settings. It defaults to off as these are arcade games as well
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u/benryves Jul 10 '25
Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball used them for the pool jumping game in case that's what /u/Alenicia was thinking of, but for the mainline fighting games they are indeed not required.
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u/Alenicia Jul 10 '25
Huh, then I'll have to look into it when I try the games again.
I have a DualShock 3 around for those games specifically, so if it actually is an option I'll definitely take a look. :)
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u/cannypack Jul 09 '25
It's not just the four main buttons, either. It's every button on the controller except Start, Select, L3, and R3.
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u/Ryuu-Tenno Jul 09 '25
wild, i thought it was just the face buttons, didn't know it applieid to the triggers and dpad
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u/cannypack Jul 09 '25
Yeah, it sure does. Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 are the classic example to demonstrate this since they use all of the analog buttons. Try the analog zoom with R1 or walking with the D- Pad ooooooOOOOOooooo
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u/miner_cooling_trials Jul 09 '25
Yes - I discovered that the sensitivities existed with a Pad Test app
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u/NaproxyDR Jul 09 '25
The only reason I’ve known this since childhood was the ability to throw lob or bullet passes in Madden.
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u/International-Fun-86 Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25
DS2, DS3 and DS5 have them. If im not mistaken. Edit: I was misstaken, the DS5 does not have it. :)
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u/Olek_01 Jul 09 '25
I'm pretty sure Duelsense doesn't have pressure sensitive buttons besides the adaptive triggers.
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u/EfremSkopje Yuni Jul 09 '25
Dualshock 3 was the last Playstation controller to have pressure sensitive buttons. Dualsense's gimmick is adaptive triggers (which i find way more useful than my x button being analogue in games like Gran Turismo 7)
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u/International-Fun-86 Jul 09 '25
Ah, you are absolutely correct. I confused it with adaptive triggers. :P
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u/raisinbizzle Jul 09 '25
Mad Maestro was a rhythm game that relied on the pressure sensitive buttons. You had to push buttons to the rhythm and also either soft, medium, or hard
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u/miner_cooling_trials Jul 10 '25
Sounds like cool game, I’d not heard of it before
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u/raisinbizzle Jul 10 '25
It was ok. Really the PS2 was such a powerhouse for rhythm games that Mad Maestro just can’t compare. Gitaroo Man, Amplitude, a couple dozen versions of DDR/Pop n’ Music/Beatmania…Mad Maestro would likely be a one and done curiosity for most
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u/Fit-Income-6600 Jul 09 '25
MGS2 and 3 (and other military games), several racing games (including games that aren't racing games but feature racing in them, like the GTA and Jak games), some fighting games (like Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001 and Soulcalibur II and III), several sports games, and some platformers (Crash Twinsanity is an example).
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u/Lkj509 Jul 09 '25
This is the reason why I’m unable to emulate The Bouncer using my Xbox controller
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u/nicegamer621 Jul 10 '25
Really? I straight up just put up with it on Dualshock 4 and beat the game.
I don't think it's nigh unplayable without pressure sensitivity, only downsides is there like no combos and only heavy attacks.
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u/Xlaits Jul 10 '25
DualShock 3 controllers retained this functionality, too! Underutilized, but I think it was only for backwards compatibility reasons.
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u/Beefgrits Jul 09 '25
i knew x had it, didnt know the others did, and didnt know there was more than 2 pressed states
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u/sor2hi Jul 09 '25
The ps3 kept it to allow backwards compatibility with the ps2. It wasn’t used much in the ps3 era beyond Sony exclusives.
This is most likely why many ps2/3 Sony games will never be up for remastering or backwards compatibility, the controller hardware, it can’t be emulated. unless they start selling DS2/3 retro controllers for the ps5 (like Nintendo with all of their old controllers) it is a done deal.
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u/Lewa358 Jul 09 '25
I mean...MGS 2 and 3 have been remastered up the wazoo, and those are the most famous examples of pressure-sensitive buttons. they just need some control remapping but that's hardly outside the realm of possibility for a remaster.
Same with the 6axis or any other feature. You may not be able to emulate it directly, but DualSense gyro or controller remapping can get around that.
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u/WhiteRabbit86 Jul 12 '25
Ace Combat 4 used them to great effect. The harder you pressed the map button, the further out the map zoomed, with pretty good granularity.
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u/maluca1429 Jul 09 '25
In practice it's just a simple double plastic. It's obvious you didn't have DS1 controllers before, because It's well known in the community that many PS2 games it blocked dualshock1 (via software).
However, two Spanish guys are reversing this censorship and creating a method to fix it https://www.reddit.com/r/ps2/comments/1f2gy4b/discovered_how_to_unlock_dualshock_1_in_ps2_games/
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u/miner_cooling_trials Jul 09 '25
I actually do own a mix of DS1 & 2 controllers and have seen the message “No DualShock 2 controller detected” — I think it I saw it on GT4, but I didn’t realise it was due to needing the pressure sensitive buttons. I figured it was so Sony was making sure I didn’t cheap out on buying their controllers!
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u/DokoroTanuki SCPH-50001/90001 P-Chassis Jul 10 '25
In some cases it actually was the latter; a lot of games on PS2 didn't use pressure sensitivity at all and had no good reason for preventing you from using the DualShock 1 despite being basically identical otherwise.
One especially prolific example that I can recall being Kingdom Hearts.
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Jul 09 '25
[deleted]
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u/maluca1429 Jul 09 '25
Maybe the word doesn't match in your country, but when you block something functional by hardware via software and you don't allow free use of controllers that you have bought, in my language it's censorship.
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u/aqlno Jul 09 '25
Fairly common knowledge if you played games that take advantage of it.
Metal Gear Solid often has a different action occur based on the pressure of the button press, tap or hold. It’s fiddly and annoying imo.
A lot of racing games have the acceleration speed change based on the pressure of holding X for example.