re: Best way you’ve found to play NES games?

I have no idea whether or not your controllers are any good, but have you considered your TV?

Due to how today’s TVs work, there’s always going to be some degree of display latency that will affect your precision. You can minimize it by enabling your TV’s “Game Mode”, and that is usually good enough to get by, but the only way to avoid display latency is to play on a CRT TV like the old days.