Capcom released a special controller for Resident Evil 4 that was literally shaped like a blood-splattered chainsaw, complete with a pull-cord that you had to yank to turn the device on.

A closer look

Capcom released a special controller for Resident Evil 4 that was literally shaped like a blood-splattered chainsaw, complete with a pull-cord that you had to yank to turn the device on. It was incredibly uncomfortable, objectively terrible for actually playing the game, and yet entirely necessary for the pure, unadulterated aesthetic of surviving a rural European parasite outbreak. Nothing perfectly captures the absolute excess of the mid-2000s gaming industry quite like convincing teenagers to drop eighty dollars on a jagged plastic novelty peripheral that actively gave them hand cramps. It stands as a glorious testament to an era before sleek, ergonomic minimalism took over, when companies were not afraid to make hardware that belonged in an evidence locker