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Strange control scheme decisions in games

Manu said:
Dark Souls 2. Jump with L3.

I know you can change it on the options, but ugh.
Click to expand...
It's better than O/B. Yes, it's weird at first but once you get used to it it's preferable to tapping the same button repeatedly and blocking some of its functions (rolling right after sprinting).

Every fps/tps that deviates too far from the regular shooter control scheme feels weird. It's better for everyone when you can just pick up a controller and every button does what you expect it to do.
 
Tizoc said:
Umm you can remap the buttons you know?
...and pretty sure it mimicked the SNES layout where the Shoulder buttons were for cycling weapons. IMO the default layout is OK as is, in fact I assign the X-Buster to R1 and dash to L1.
Click to expand...

Yes, shoulder buttons were for weapon cycling in Mega Man X on SNES too. It's one of those things that makes perfect sense until you actually try playing with R1 dash and then you're like "Ohhhh this game is 10x better now"

Speaking of Mega Man, the MM Zero games have 3 ways of handling the two weapon system:

1: Press B to shoot, or R + B to shoot secondary
2: B to shoot, R to swap weapons
3: Press B to shoot, press R to shoot secondary

Why 3 isn't the only option I have no fucking clue. It allows you to use both most swiftly, allows you to separately charge both attacks. I think it took 'em until ZX Advent to make a Mega Man X style game with proper controls without changing defaults.
 
Dr Dogg said:
Really? Never knew that. Can imagine that would be a bit different seeing as the Panzer Dragoon series is like a rail shooter.
Click to expand...
you maneuver the dragon with the left stick and the crosshairs with the right stick. frustratingly, the left trigger fires even though you move the crosshair with your right hand. interestingly, the sega master system trackball also works!
 
Ouren said:
Mario Kart 8.


What is that even

Mk8m11.png
Click to expand...

Don't worry bud, I'm with you.

To the guy saying it's been like that for virtually all games, well, you're wrong..

the SNES Mario Kart. The original game. It uses the easiest button to attend to w/ a human thumb. The one right in the center. The B button.

Look at that.

WiiU Gamepad has the same layout!

SNES.png



Mario Kart 64 also uses the button directly in the center.. the A button. The B button in this case is comparable to the SNES's Y button.

Mario Kart Double Dash uses the A button, but it's also the single most center button on the entire controller, and it's enormous. The button to it's direct left is the brake button.

I don't know about the Wii game. It sucked... However, I actually ran it in dolphin later, with custom controls (seriously... by default, they want the trick buttons mapped to the dpad? What on earth?) and I had a lot more fun with it.




Back to Mario Kart 8, it's also unnerving that there's no accessible brake button while using the nunchuk wiimote combo. What the heck? I like to tap the brake while drifting around tight corners, if I find I'm not making the turn all that well. It works great.. But I've had defense hordes tell me you don't need to ever use the brake button, and I guess that's a good enough reason why I shouldn't be complaining? How about you let me customize the god damn controls, or, at least give all functions to all controllers you support. Geez.


Anyway, the button thing w/ Nintendo is a huge pet peeve of mine...

Kirby Super Star on the SNES uses Y + B for attack/jump.
So does Mario in Mario World... so does Yoshi's Island....

So it baffles me to no end why the new games in these series do NOT use this method for controls! . Instead, the Y+B functions are now mapped to B+A..

My girlfriend recently got Yoshi's New Island and complained about the controls. I agreed with the problem, found a change of controls option in the game controls menu, and fixed that shit right up..

I popped my game in... Kirby's Triple Deluxe.. I thought, well, it's this shit again.. I'll just go into the controls and set it right. But no... You CAN'T. It's maddening.

I also got Donkey Kong Returns on 3DS as a platinum Club Nintendo member.. Mind blowingly, when you change the buttons how they'd be mapped in any other Donkey Kong Country game (SNES), it also forces you to use the circle slider.. Which is awful. I said it. Why can't I just change the buttons? Why are you forcing circle slider on me because I prefer Y+B, as Nintendo standardized w/ the SNES??

ihpn0016sxgpijrlarlc.png
Click to expand...
 
Whoever decided to make all primary actions use the A button for DS/3DS/Wii U is officially my least favorite Nintendo employee of the last 3 decades. Worst button ever on the SNES style layout.
 
Hinomura said:
All those games where you're forced to use analog sticks and the gameplay movements are "digital" :S
Click to expand...

I will never understand why this would be a problem. Personally the analog sticks can be just as accurate as Dpads. SFIV proved that to me.
 
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze has some weird control decisions.

The game gives you a choice between two controls schemes. Option 1 maps movement to the left stick, pounding to X/Y and grabbing to ZR/ZL and the d-pad does nothing. Option 2 maps movement to the d-pad, pounding to ZR/ZL and grabbing to X/Y and the left stick does nothing.

Firstly, why do the rest of the buttons change depending if you choose movement to be on the d-pad or left stick? And secondly why not have both the d-pad and left stick for movement at the same time and let the player choose and switch on the fly like every 2D platformer since the sixth-gen?
 
One of the many reasons Skyward Sword was meh not just as a Zelda game, but as a game in general.
The motion controls.
Fly the Loftwing and then you'll know why.

One of the few reasons Phantom Hourglass was an OK game.
Me: "Yeah, time to use the D-pad"
Nintendo: NO! You use the screen to run, roll, pickup and stuff.
Me: "Cool I just...won't play it then".

Edit:
Oh and put my in the camp of the Nintendo A button mess. Funny since I think Nintendo are the most mentioned in this thread. I think that Nintendo are too afraid to treat their playerbase like adults who want more from gaming. Basic online, no customiseable controls, no region locking. It's another topic but it really does add to overall negatives Nintendo receive.
 
Aiming on the Left Stick in the PS2 GTA games (When using the sniper rifle) and Valkyria Chronicles - and in the latter's case, relegating the Right Stick to quick target selection. Made trying to line up headshots a real bitch IMO.

Also, every single PS3 game that insisted on using the R2/L2 for aiming and shooting. Those triggers. WHY. (Bioshock and GTA4 off the top of my head)
 
Dark Souls 1:

Attack: R1
Raise shield/left hand attack: L1
Strong attack: R2
Parry: L2

Why not the reverse? If I want to keep my shield raised all the time (and in DS, you probably want to), instead of holding the big, curved, comfy trigger, I have to use the small bumper button.

Also: Sprint, dodge and jump on the same button. Because two-handing your weapon TOTALLY needed a face button, while L3 does jack shit (in Dark Souls 2 it's used to jump)

CertifiedFP said:
Also, every single PS3 game that insisted on using the R2/L2 for aiming and shooting. Those triggers. WHY. (Bioshock and GTA4 off the top of my head)
Click to expand...

Probably because the 360 controller had good triggers, and it's easier to just copy/paste control schemes than to adapt.
 
Hypron said:
I didn't find it strange at all and it works really well IMO.
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah, I'm not saying it doesn't work though, just that it's strange (different) from the norm nowadays. Both schemes would work, tbh.

Tom Nook Sawyer said:
You know games have been using A to accelerate longer than triggers, right?

And I don't even know why Mario Kart's being compared to games like Gran Turismo anyway; it's a Mario Kart game, they're going to go with the control scheme that they always have/
Click to expand...

Playstation games have been using L1 and R1 for shooting games for almost 20 years. Still doesn't mean the control scheme shouldn't evolve (they did with PS4 though).
 
Metal Gear Solid 3 has the weirdest fps shooting of all time. You have to hold two buttons, then lightly press another to ads and then press it hard to fire or something like that. Worst shooting mechanics ever.
 
MarocFAYS said:
Sprinting in TLoU on PS4 mapped to R1, I'd prefer the X button.
Click to expand...

Isn't it the L1 button? And how would you turn the camera if it's X, since camera movement is vital for both moving properly and being aware of your surroundings. Unless you want to use the "claw".

For me, circle to shoot in PS2 GTA games.

Edit: Now that I think about it, GTA games have always had strange controls, even the modern ones where running still requires the X/A buttons, and sprinting requires tapping them. Camera movement is near impossible when doing this.
 
Phediuk said:
This thread was inspired by Mega Man X4. I played that game today for the first time in 15 years and I forgot that dashing wasn't assigned to R1, like in the first three games, but to the O button only.

I mean, wtf? Is there a single person who didn't immediately go to the options menu and reassign it? Dashing is pretty much useless if you can't easily jump and shoot at the same time.
Click to expand...
Wow. I guess that would be me. I always played X4 with the dash on O because I never checked if you could change it. I still like it on O since I just slide my thumb on to X to get him to jump. Shooting wasn't a problem either.
 
I'll be in the minority on this one - but swiping the touchpad (up, down, left, right) to activate powers on Warframe was a pretty bad idea. It makes certain powers that require aiming way harder than it has to be to fire.

For example, Energy Vampire a power you have to target something under your reticle, to activate the power you have to take your thumb off one stick or the other to swipe to fire off the power. You can either stand still swipe with your left hand while aiming with the right stick, or swipe with your right hand while moving with your left stick.

Once I changed the controls so I can fire off a power by a button press while keeping both thumbs on the sticks the game was way easier to play.
 
Too Human controls are pretty weird. I didn't mind them so much after a while but they were definitely non standard.
 
Firefall is basically (nearly) unplayable with just a gamepad on PC. Why on Earth they decided to include the option to use a gamepad when it's barely functional is beyond me.
 
I always thought it was weird how Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast) had "tag" and "center camera" on a shared button when it barely used the rest of the controller.
 
KiraXD said:
Rise to Honor on PS2...

The fighting moves are done entirely with the right stick...

i loved it though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjdcwxDL6YQ
Click to expand...

Oh man, this game. Controls are similar to Ape Escape's since the weapons were mapped to the right stick too, except rotating it doesn't have Spike doing flairs.

And yeah, Ape Escape's a weird one. Aforementioned right analog stick controls, face buttons have different weapons and equipment on them, and jumping was with the shoulder buttons.
 
The whole dual analog setup in Ape Escape felt shoehorned into the game. Dual Shock functionality added almost nothing. Attacking with the right analog felt wildly imprecise and made catching apes a pain in the ass. And then there's dumb things like rotating both sticks to row boats. Ugh.

It was still a good game but could have done without the dumb gimmicks.
 
Polioliolio said:
Anyway, the button thing w/ Nintendo is a huge pet peeve of mine...

Kirby Super Star on the SNES uses Y + B for attack/jump.
So does Mario in Mario World... so does Yoshi's Island....

So it baffles me to no end why the new games in these series do NOT use this method for controls! . Instead, the Y+B functions are now mapped to B+A..

My girlfriend recently got Yoshi's New Island and complained about the controls. I agreed with the problem, found a change of controls option in the game controls menu, and fixed that shit right up..

I popped my game in... Kirby's Triple Deluxe.. I thought, well, it's this shit again.. I'll just go into the controls and set it right. But no... You CAN'T. It's maddening.

I also got Donkey Kong Returns on 3DS as a platinum Club Nintendo member.. Mind blowingly, when you change the buttons how they'd be mapped in any other Donkey Kong Country game (SNES), it also forces you to use the circle slider.. Which is awful. I said it. Why can't I just change the buttons? Why are you forcing circle slider on me because I prefer Y+B, as Nintendo standardized w/ the SNES??
Click to expand...

Oh god, this. I hate when Nintendo's games use B/A instead of Y/B. Luckily most of their 3DS games give you the option to use both. It's like they only use B/A because those were the only buttons that the NES had. But at least the NES controller laid the buttons side-by-side. Well, at first. Then they released this thing:

nes-dogbone-101-controller.jpg


And every Game Boy had this control scheme too. What were they thinking?
 
One thing that has always really irked me is the controls in just about every 2D Mario game. You have to almost always be holding either the X or Y button to dash whilst at the same time you have to very frequently be pressing either the A or B button to jump. It would make much more sense to have one of these functions mapped to a shoulder button, like how I think Super Meat Boy did.

It's just a small thing but why the hell doesn't Need For Speed Rivals use the PS4's touchpad whatsoever? Considering the frequency you have to open up the map the touchpad would be perfect for this, instead you have to press the tiny little Options button. It just shows a lack of effort on behalf of Ghost Games, sticking religiously to platform parity.

I Wanna Be The Guy said:
Oddworld Munch's Oddysee putting camera control on the d-pad instead of the right stick. I mean seriously what the hell?
Click to expand...
If I'm remembering correctly Kingdom Hearts put camera control on the R1 and L1 buttons which is also awful, particularly because the right stick had no other function. It was thankfully mapped to the right stick in the HD remaster.
 
Phediuk said:
In the original Warcraft, didn't you have to hold down a key to drag a box around your units?
Click to expand...
Warcraft is a very old game. It's even worse than that. The contextual right mouse click wasn't offered until Warcraft II. In old games such as Warcraft and Command & Conquer, the player must either click a button on screen, or press a keyboard shortcut to do even the most simple actions such as move or attack.
 
Elija2 said:
Oh god, this. I hate when Nintendo's games use B/A instead of Y/B. Luckily most of their 3DS games give you the option to use both. It's like they only use B/A because those were the only buttons that the NES had. But at least the NES controller laid the buttons side-by-side. Well, at first. Then they released this thing:

nes-dogbone-101-controller.jpg


And every Game Boy had this control scheme too. What were they thinking?
Click to expand...

Do you guys really have a problem with the B/A thing? I don't use any weird thumb positions to press the buttons, just tap them with the underside of my thumb like on any other controller. I mean, the buttons are spaced and placed in the same positions as the face buttons on other controllers, I don't think anybody has a problem there either.

My only issue is it's very Japanese, meaning it reads left and the button on the right, A, tends to be the confirmation button.
 
Elija2 said:
Oh god, this. I hate when Nintendo's games use B/A instead of Y/B. Luckily most of their 3DS games give you the option to use both. It's like they only use B/A because those were the only buttons that the NES had. But at least the NES controller laid the buttons side-by-side. Well, at first. Then they released this thing:

nes-dogbone-101-controller.jpg


And every Game Boy had this control scheme too. What were they thinking?
Click to expand...

The reason why it's forgivable for me on the dog bone and Gameboy is because those are the only buttons on the controller. They're also in a central position.

When we're talking about a 4 face button layout, if the main functions are mapped to buttons like SNES's B and A, you feel like you're on the outskirts of the controller instead of sitting comfortably on the inside.

For games that actually use 3 or 4 of those buttons, it's also easier to roll into X or A from a Y+B position, than it is just jump your thumb forward to hit Y or X from a B+A position.

The biggest crime of all is that some of these new games, like Kirby Triple Deluxe, don't even offer a choice or if they do, they force you into something else uncomfortable.
 
Why does Super Meat Boy insist on its insanely stupid controls on PC rather than just letting you put jump and run on adjacent keys?

Yes I know you can edit the ini file but there's no excuse for not having an in-game remapping menu.
 
Polioliolio said:
Don't worry bud, I'm with you.

To the guy saying it's been like that for virtually all games, well, you're wrong..

the SNES Mario Kart. The original game. It uses the easiest button to attend to w/ a human thumb. The one right in the center. The B button.

Look at that.

WiiU Gamepad has the same layout!

SNES.png



Mario Kart 64 also uses the button directly in the center.. the A button. The B button in this case is comparable to the SNES's Y button.

Mario Kart Double Dash uses the A button, but it's also the single most center button on the entire controller, and it's enormous. The button to it's direct left is the brake button.

I don't know about the Wii game. It sucked... However, I actually ran it in dolphin later, with custom controls (seriously... by default, they want the trick buttons mapped to the dpad? What on earth?) and I had a lot more fun with it.




Back to Mario Kart 8, it's also unnerving that there's no accessible brake button while using the nunchuk wiimote combo. What the heck? I like to tap the brake while drifting around tight corners, if I find I'm not making the turn all that well. It works great.. But I've had defense hordes tell me you don't need to ever use the brake button, and I guess that's a good enough reason why I shouldn't be complaining? How about you let me customize the god damn controls, or, at least give all functions to all controllers you support. Geez.


Anyway, the button thing w/ Nintendo is a huge pet peeve of mine...

Kirby Super Star on the SNES uses Y + B for attack/jump.
So does Mario in Mario World... so does Yoshi's Island....

So it baffles me to no end why the new games in these series do NOT use this method for controls! . Instead, the Y+B functions are now mapped to B+A..

My girlfriend recently got Yoshi's New Island and complained about the controls. I agreed with the problem, found a change of controls option in the game controls menu, and fixed that shit right up..

I popped my game in... Kirby's Triple Deluxe.. I thought, well, it's this shit again.. I'll just go into the controls and set it right. But no... You CAN'T. It's maddening.

I also got Donkey Kong Returns on 3DS as a platinum Club Nintendo member.. Mind blowingly, when you change the buttons how they'd be mapped in any other Donkey Kong Country game (SNES), it also forces you to use the circle slider.. Which is awful. I said it. Why can't I just change the buttons? Why are you forcing circle slider on me because I prefer Y+B, as Nintendo standardized w/ the SNES??
Click to expand...

Can't you use Y to accelerate in MK8? I've been doing it this whole time, at least with the pro controller. Should be the same on the gamepad.
 
RAD for PS2
rad_0620_24-624x468.jpg


L1 is left foot r1 for right, sticks were hooks and straight punches, select was to transform...... might cumbersome at first but it really made the mechs feel really weighty and match the scale
 
The choppers in Air Conflicts: Vietnam have incomprehensible controls. It's one of those situations where you wish the halfassed developer just copied the big names like everyone else.
 
Changing the run button in Resident Evil Outbreak/Outbreak File 2, Code Veronica: X, and Silent Hill 4 from previous entries. (Square to Circle on Playstation for all)
 
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