Huh? The DSL was notorious for having shitty diagonals. It was very common that you had to press really hard to get it to register diagonals.
The clicky dpads on the original DS was great; the 3DS one, not so much. The dpad on 3DS sits in an awkward spot, and it's too small.
Sorry, that just wasn't my experience at all. You aren't thinking of the DSi are you? My DS Lite is pretty damn good for diagonals, I don't notice the controls at all while I play which is how it's supposed to be (
DS Lite L/R buttons are kind of hit/miss though). I'm constantly fighting with the 3DS D-pad and it results in lots of split-second mistakes. I never played on the original DS, so perhaps a clicky D-pad can be done right, though I'm convinced there would still be problems even with the same D-pad from the 3DS being moved to the slide pad position. I just verified with some
Contra 4 on both systems, still controls far better on the DS Lite. I figure as long as the Wii U avoids the terribad 3DS D-pad, it really doesn't matter that I may be ignorant to how much better gameplay on the DS Lite could be.
Oddly though, I found it really easy to pull off quarter-circles, Z's, half-moons, and even 360's in
Dead or Alive on the 3DS. I was shocked at how consistent I was at the 360's, I've always had trouble with those on the D-pads of the past. I wish the DS had more fighters so I could compare.
Edit: I just remembered, I did really like the clicky D-pad on the GBA SP (
AGS-101), it controlled very well. Still though, I do prefer non-clicky D-pads overall. Also, I found a few vague references around the net regarding early batches of the DS Lite having D-pad diagonal problems, but I guess that was temporary. The current DS Lite you would find in a store has a very nice D-pad, and I guess Nintendo will repair/replace your faulty D-pad if you contact them.
Gamespot has said, "The D pad felt rubbery and seemed similar to what is found on the Classic Controller."
A bit in between, I believe.
Thank you, that is really good to hear.