if your game isn't compatible with this, I probably don't want to play it

Best and worst is kind of context specific for me. I love the NES and SNES controllers for the simplicity, but it really depends on the game being a good fit.

If you get an N64/GC/Wii, or hopefully not a SNES game that doesn't utilize all of the buttons and instead A/B and X/Y do the same thing, the I'm a little annoyed the devs couldn't find something else to do with the controls.

But overall I think every controller "works" for the system it was designed for. N64 is the only really weird one but it still feels right.