Talk of the town at E3 2011 was Nintendo’s Wii U controller, for reasons both good and bad. In the case of the latter, there was some concern that Nintendo’s choice for analogue pads, instead of analogue sticks, was a poor one, especially given their tried and true function on controllers throughout the years.

Well, if a recent leak is anything to go by, Nintendo has backtracked on that decision and replaced the pads with analogue sticks. The report comes from a now deleted twitter post, showing an image of the latest controller iteration, which in turn reveals a few changes between it and the original E3 2011 showing.

Most obvious is the replacement of pads with sticks, sticks that look quite similar to the GameCube control pad. We’ve heard reports that these sticks will be clickable too, allowing for functions seen on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 control pads. Other changes include shifting the sticks themselves further out, now positioning them at a slight angle to to the d-pad and face buttons. We suspect this is due to the natural hinge of a human thumb, the new position easier to reach. Lastly, the plus (start) and minus (select) buttons have been moved from below the screen to the right side, again for easier access.

The leaked image can be seen below. We’ve also provided a comparison image of E3 2011 controller at the bottom, so you too can play spot-the-difference.