Rating: 
Summary: Solid Gamepad
Review: The major selling points:1. There are lots of buttons, but they are all well-placed, so I rarely hit the wrong one. 2. Even if you have small hands, you can still comfortably use it, meaning it's fine for young adults, women and men. It's also easy to hold and not heavy, yet sturdy. 3. It truly is plug and play: no drivers needed when I loaded it onto a Win98SE, so I assume anything after that will be the same. 4. The price is definitely reasonable. Don't be scared away just because it's Microsoft. It works and it works well. However, I don't suggest you try to use it with a USB hub. I've heard of it having some problems with those. If you stick with a traditional USB slot that plugs right into the board, you'll be fine. This is a safe buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Has a major problem
Review: The sidewinder controller just so happenes to be my favorite controller. Although I liek it because of how it can be used, there is a major defect with them. I warn you I went through 3 of these controllers and all of them broke within 6 months. The controller out of no where will start glitching and USB will not recognize its even plugged in. It will connect and disconnect about every other second.
Although the controller is nice to use, because of its durability I rate it 1 star. Unless you don't mind replacing your controller every 6 months, than I will reccomend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Top-notch control with plenty of flexibility
Review: The Sidewinder USB is comfortable, programmable, and, most importantly, it has the feel and control you need to make gaming fun. I returned the Gravis Gamepad Pro USB because of its shoddy control and calibration and exchanged it for the Microsoft Sidewinder, which has been nothing but smooth.
Its plug-and-play USB connection makes installation a no-brainer. Plug in and you're ready, which most controllers can't do nearly as well. The buttons are solid, construction is thorough, and the D-pad is accurate. Skip the bull, and go with what works....the Sidewinder.
Rating:
Summary: Top-notch control with plenty of flexibility
Review: The Sidewinder USB is comfortable, programmable, and, most importantly, it has the feel and control you need to make gaming fun. I returned the Gravis Gamepad Pro USB because of its shoddy control and calibration and exchanged it for the Microsoft Sidewinder, which has been nothing but smooth.
Its plug-and-play USB connection makes installation a no-brainer. Plug in and you're ready, which most controllers can't do nearly as well. The buttons are solid, construction is thorough, and the D-pad is accurate. Skip the bull, and go with what works....the Sidewinder.
Rating:
Summary: A controller without problems, period.
Review: This controller works perfectly to my experience. The drivers for it are already on most computers going back to windows 98, so you literally can just plug-in and play! This conroller is shaped-well with very well-placed triggers. The button layout is a bit large but one can get used to it; for 2-D games I cannot imagine a better controller.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible D-pad ruins a otherwise decent controller
Review: This is a decent controller,it feels comfortable and nice button arrangement.But the D-pad is all wrong.It's fine for raceing,3d games and side-scrolling fighters. But when it comes to games like street fighter II or other 1-on-1 fighters in general where precise motions are needed to perform the special moves,the D-pad is horrible.No matter what i just can't seem to pull off such special moves with this D-pad.So i'm reduced to mere punches&kicks when playing such fighters like street fighter II. Overall although a bit overpriced,this would be a nice controller but the bad d-pad ruins it.
Rating:
Summary: Good value and good controller, worthwhile purchase.
Review: This is a pretty solid controller that's a necessity for me to play games on my computer. I'm a lifelong console gamer who just can't get used to mouse and keyboard arrangements, that much said, this controller is really good. It's not too big or too small, pretty ergonomical, and everything is simple enough. I would put it in my top 5 controllers that i've played even [nothing will ever beat the Sega Saturn controller, nothing ;)] There are some minor problems, that i can't fault microsoft on since it's not the controller's problem. Some games don't support the controller at all. Two of the games i bought it hoping to use it for, Hitman 2 and Tribes 2 don't even offer a controller configuration. This really angers me since those gamse were ported to consoles, but generally anything that supports controllers supports the sidewinders, the issue is just with thoughtless developers. All in all i dig this controller, it's been excellent playing for playing my Super Nintendo emulator and Tony Hawk Pro Skater games. It's comfortable and it's not too expensive at all. If you're a console gamer looking to get in some gaming time with your PC, give this a shot.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! Where'd it go?
Review: This is a really great gamepad, for all the reasons mentioned in the other reviews. What I like best about it is how comfortable it is to hold. No other PC gamepad that I've tried has compared. It's a joy to play with. What I'd like to comment on is its strange history. It was originally released with a gameport plug (which is what I have)and with the ability to daisy chain them together. Then they were taken off the market, much to the chagrin of many. Then the USB version was released (exactly the same only USB and no daisy-chain possibility), but now once again it seems to have been taken off the market, as it is extremely difficult to find it anywhere (for some help with this, go directly to Microsoft). It was available the end of November '03, but it disappeared sometime in December. It confuses me as to why Microsoft would take a great (and seemingly well-liked) controller off the market... again.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! Where'd it go?
Review: This is a really great gamepad, for all the reasons mentioned in the other reviews. What I like best about it is how comfortable it is to hold. No other PC gamepad that I've tried has compared. It's a joy to play with. What I'd like to comment on is its strange history. It was originally released with a gameport plug (which is what I have)and with the ability to daisy chain them together. Then they were taken off the market, much to the chagrin of many. Then the USB version was released (exactly the same only USB and no daisy-chain possibility), but now once again it seems to have been taken off the market, as it is extremely difficult to find it anywhere (for some help with this, go directly to Microsoft). It was available the end of November '03, but it disappeared sometime in December. It confuses me as to why Microsoft would take a great (and seemingly well-liked) controller off the market... again.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Tight
Review: This is about the most perfect pad out there in my book. Reason being is that it is the most simplistic in it's layout. Most SNES, N64, and Genesis emulators, or any advanced game for that matter uses more than four buttons and on this pad, they are so easy to remember and configure for game play. Just watch out when Using Windows XP with any USB supported game pads(usually depends on the motherboard)because the OS sometimes looses the drivers for them and good luck getting them back.
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