due to a late march weekend subfreezing temps,, for the first time in 2011,, i fired up a game console and finally tore the plastic off the Rabbids go Home game that i bought nearly 5 months earlier. (actually preceding this i played about an hour of metroid other M before repeatedly getting my butt kicked by the roly-poly boss battle in the man-eating plant area). after 3 solid hours my thumb was killing me from the nunchuk controller.

if my memory serves me right, these symptoms exhibited themselves much quicker than they ever did on a SNES or NES controller. I do recall having to stay up a good part of the night before those controllers began to wear my digits down to the bone. Is it just because i haven't played in so long that all callouses had completely disappeared leaving my tender thumb to be rubbed raw by the harsh abrasiveness of the grooved thumb-stick top? even half a day of ps2 katamari rolling never had this much of an impact upon my upper piggies.

So wait, are you saying your thumb muscles are sore, or is it the skin itself?

I've had the former happen to me during prolonged play sessions of Resident Evil 4 and Super Mario Galaxy.  Maybe it's the way the hand grips the nunchuck, in combination with the analog stick requiring a lot of bending back and forth, especially in the up and down movements.

Or maybe we're just getting old.

Haven't had any issues with the nunchuck, but the PS3 d-pad tears my thumb apart when I play SSF4.  The last time I played for three hours straight was about 1.5 months ago and the blister still hasn't completely healed.

No, we're just Hard. CORE!

the skin,, maybe its just with rabbids go home that you're constantly doing circles with the thumbstick. it took like 3 days before i was good.

maybe they should make a topper for the thumbstick with a soft thimble-like opening that you insert your thumb into (like a slipper). then you could make constant directional changes without also having to exert downward pressure on top of the controller.

If I really need to rotate or move the nunchuk joystick like crazy, I use the center of the palm of my hand, not my thumb; it's actually much quicker, and more responsive that way, granted, I have the nunchuk either rested on top of my leg, or on my other hand, but...

...you'd be surprised how well it works! Try it at home, kids!

I use these on my PS3 controller.  They aren't the product that you envision, but I find that with a tackier, softer thumbstick surface, I don't need to apply as much pressure to keep my thumbs on the sticks.

This. Very much this.

The Last Story has some moments where you're forced to rotate the joystick like that (one of the many many reasons why I stopped playing it) and I found the above method the only feasible way of not destroying my hands or my nunchuk.