The ASCII Pad is the best controller ever.

[allyourblood]

Swap out the short cable with a standard SNES control pad cable and THEN you have the best SNES controller ever.

This is correct. The swap takes mere seconds.

What do people think about the Ascii pad for the Genesis? I have one somewhere but haven't used it in years so I forgot what it's like, I think it's arranged like a SNES pad but it's for the Genesis. Is it as good as the SNES Ascii pad?

While I love the SNES asciiPad as an upgrade to the standard SNES controller, I don't like what was done for the Genesis version. They basically tried to turn it into an SNES pad, but it doesn't feel that way at all. It feels cumbersome to me. The Sega Genesis 3 and 6 button controllers are perfection and simplicity distilled; no need for improvement. Once manufacturers figured out that 6 face buttons were possible, and largely preferred, the four-face/2-shoulder design began to seem backward. The original Super Nintendo's controller is wonderful, but when fighting games took off, 6 face buttons was where it was at.

TL;DR: SNES asciiPad, "yay". Genesis asciiPad, "nay".