I've had little experiences with third party controllers, as I've very rarely used third party controllers with games. However, there was one we used a load. It was an ASCII Turbo Pad for the SNES, and it had all these switches all over it for Turbos. One of them still works perfectly, and we got it used, whenever we got it.

As for the N64, well, obviously we had 3rd Parties for that. I had a Myiico Brand N64 controller, and it sucked majorly. The Z Button was grand, sure, but the Analog Stick gave way too darned quick. It made beating Ocarina of Time a pain in the butt after the first 5 minutes. But, there was one controller for the N64 that was pretty nice, and most people would agree with me that it's the Power Pad, whose Analog Stick is indestructible, but the Z Button is annoying. If you hear my controller rattle, it's because the Z Button is inside it.

I don't know how to help you with your PS2 Controller Problem. All the third parties I've seen at my friend's house are falling to bits, and I've never used a 3rd Party controller on my PS2, except for a Gamestop Brand, which works pretty darned well still. But we've only had it for a little bit, so we don't know if it's bad or not.