I have a strange question. I recently hooked up all my retro consoles to a new CRT TV I got and was playing some Super Nintendo games. I noticed that the D-Pad on the controller feels...mushy. I does not 'click' like my NES controller or even the N64 controller. Is this the way its supposed to be. Normally I would think that its not and it needs to be clean but both of my SNES controllers feel the exact way.

It's old as hell, I'd expect most of them to feel that way by now.

I might be mistaken, but I believe it is kinda supposed to be like that. Maybe it is not as firm as it used to be, but I never really remember it being clicky. Though I was like 5 when my SNES was new, so I could be completely wrong.

Age certainly isn't helping, unless you've kept them under the cleanest of conditions over the years.

But as for how they were meant to feel way back when... I want to say that they were never clicky. But it's been so long since I've used a non-old/crappy SNES controller (crappy as in condition) that I can't be certain.

IIRC, the SNES pad did feel mushy. The NES pad definitely had a much more defined feel to the directions but I may be misremembering the SNES one.

the mushiness helps with those quarter-circles on street fighter. i actually got a third party one recently and it's not mushy enough, so i can't do shit on street fighter

I played a loooooooooooot of SNES, and I remember the D-pad being 'squishy'. It definitely wasn't as stiff as the NES.