Alright that's fair. I come from a Nintendo background and really enjoy the style/feel of the SNES controller. That said though, I don't care if a PCE controller is squared off like an NES controller (though it is less pointy) or rounded off like the dogbone/snes style.
A bad D-pad that is wonky in response or gets painful in time is a deal breaker, same with buttons that can be a bit off in feel as it can ruin a game, not corners.
I guess I'll just try and source the Ave6 since it seems to cost like $10-20 less than the Hori. I'm looking to snap up a copy of SF2 and I'd like to get an Everdrive too, so it would be needed. I was thinking of that SSS3 but it's looking a bit messy now and that UperGrafx is tempting if it gets evaluated positively by some buyers as reviews don't seem to exist.