Button Config pt. R2

OK. Just played the Vanquish demo. Good game over all, like Gears of War, blah, blah , blah... I don't want to talk about that. I want to discuss, yet again, an example of currently released games plagued with god-awful button layouts.

To simplify things I will give aliases to the buttons on an XBox/PS3 controller:

XBox / PS3: Alias
A / Cross: bottom
X / Square: left
B / Circle: right
Y / Triangle: top
LB / L1: L1
LT / L2: L2
RB / R1: R1
RT / R2: R2

OK, check this out. You played Gears of War, Uncharted, or games similar to them; the ones with this new cover system that every game has now a days. You got Gears that uses the bottom button to evade in any direction and also take cover if you are near a wall. So two similar functions for ONE button, makes sense. Similarly, Uncharted, since you can jump in that game, the bottom button jumps, and the right button evades and takes cover. OK, that works.

So lets look at Vanquish. The bottom button evades. OK thats fair enough. But, wait... take cover with the LEFT button?! Why do we need to break up these two functions into 2 separate buttons? When would you ever evade by diving into a wall? Why can you just hold the bottom button to take cover and tap it to evade? To make matters worse, in order to jump over a hiding place, like a sandbag, you press up on the analog and the LEFT button! So if you're used to evading normally with bottom button, similar to jumping, you will automatically assume that you jump over a sandbag with the same button. But NO. You press the button you TAKE COVER with!

The insanity doesn't end there. Take an old school side-scroller like Ninja Gaiden or Double Dragon, and you have an NES controller in your hand. In most cases, the left face button (B) attacks and the right face button (A) jumps. Now lets fast-forward to a game like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta with a current-gen controller. The left button attacks and the bottom button jumps. We are all used to that. Even Uncharted uses left button to melee and bottom to jump.

Now to Vanquish. How do you melee? The left button? No, the left button already takes cover. You gotta press the RIGHT button! Goes against what we are all used to. If evade and take cover were consolidated into one button, we could have had the left button as melee...

It continues. In Vanquish, you will come across these boxes that have ammo, guns, health, etc. You gotta kick the box open an then grab the item. So from the current knowledge that you melee with the right button, guess which button you use to KICK the box open. Right? Nope. Top? Nope, that throws a grenade. Left? Yup. the button you take cover with! Why cant it be the melee button or the top button?

OK... now you have a gun laying on the ground ready for you to pick up. What do you press? The take cover button? Wrong! It's R2???!!! So when I approach an item box, I gotta press two different buttons in sequence, the left button, then R2. Why can't it just be one button, preferably a face button, like the top button. Grenades should be on L2.

Also the game has this Max Paine effect where you go into slow motion. It is triggered by aiming with L1 and evading. How does this make any since? Why cant it just be one button? Like the Left analog button?

Here is my revised button layout of what it should go like:

Bottom: Evade/Take-cover
Left: Melee
Top: Interact/Pick-up Items/Open Doors/Open Boxes/Revive Allies
Right: Boost Slide

L1: Aim
L2: Grenade
R1: Shoot
R2: Reload (only)

Left analog button: Slow-motion mode

There is a button config option, but all it does is swap the front and back shoulder buttons. Big deal... Why not enable the user to edit the entire layout?

Sigh, I was really interested in this game, but unfortunately I can't justify purchasing another game with such poor button configuration.

Button Config

I just recently bought this game on Wii called Mursmasa: The Demon Blade. I heard good things about it and I saw it at a game store for $15, good deal.

The game has a very beautiful art style, using 2D sprites with a cartoon look. The gameplay is classic 2D side-scroller, hard to mess up.

Unfortunately, after inserting the disk in my Wii, starting the game, and began the tutorial, I was immediately disappointed to find out that you jump by pressing UP!!

Why, in the year 2010, after so many 2D side-scrollers have been created since Super Mario Bros. on NES, can't the game designers figure out how to create a decent button configuration? How can such a simple 2D side-scroller have such awkward controls?

So here is the setup for this game using the Classic Wii controller:


Left/Right: Move
Up: JUMP !!
Down: Duck

A: Examine
B: Attack/Block
Y: Special Attack
X: Use Item

L: Switch Swords
R: Browse Item

Start: Menu
Select: Map

UP for JUMP??!! Why? Its so awkward. It only works in 2D fighting games. And to make matters worse, you can't even change the configuration! Imagine trying to play Super Mario Bros. by pressing UP to JUMP.....

If I were to design the button scheme, it would go like this:

Left/Right: Move
Up: Examine
Down: Duck

A: Use Item
B: Jump
Y: Attack/Block
X: Special Attack

L: Switch Swords
R: Browse Item

Start: Menu
Select: Map

See. What's wrong with that? B is Jump just like any other 2D side-scroller.

In general, I hate games that have bad control configurations, it just ruins it for me. And it seems that so many "Next-Gen" games have this problem. I'm talking about PS3 and XBox 360. Not only do they need to use every single button on the controller, but also pointless button combinations, like holding LB and the D-pad to change your weapons, instead of just pressing the D-pad. (Freaking Army of Two). And we are talking 16 buttons in total! 4 face buttons, 4 shoulder buttons, the 2 analog buttons that you press?!, Start and Select, and the D-pad. AND you must use them ALL! Games like these instantly turn me off.

I Just Can't Kinect...

Now that Microsoft has finally unveiled its final version of its motion controller, I am still not convinced that it can do anything but casual or "get fit" type gaming, and I still think that Microsoft is not really using this technology in the right way.

The major problem I see with Kinect is that there is no way to make a character independently walk or run. If you go back and look at all of the demos they showed, the on-screen characters are either standing in one place with very little movement, or moving "on rails" like Virtua Cop. If you actually tried to make movement 1-1 using only the Kinect, you would start to walk out the house. Without some kind of controller, this basic function is just not possible. But since Microsoft has been nailing in this concept of no controllers and no buttons to learn, I dont think that they will ever add some sort of a controller.

Force feedback, or rumble, is also a big issue. You are just flailing your arms around in empty space and not feeling any kind of reaction?

Microsoft needs to consider using the XBox 360 controller along side with Kinect as an additional control mechanism, rather than just completely tossing away the controller. They could do some interesting things with that. Like an FPS game where you can use the controller for basic movement and shooting and use Kinect to raise your hand and throw grenades or direct other troops. Or how about an RPG where you can actually talk to NPCs.

The subsequent issue is that they are not able to use the technology with any of their most popular titles, like Halo, Gears, Fable, Mass Effect, etc. I think the only way you will convice the "hardcore" (I hate using that term) audience that Kinect is worth getting is to incorporate it with these franchises. If all it can work with is Forza, then why not just get a wheel controller?

Nintendo was able to use thier Wii controller with their franchise titles like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Mario Kart, etc. Even Sony, regardless of whether its a blatant Wii rip-off or not, they were able to use the Move with SOCOM 4, Dead Space 2, Resident Evil 5, etc. and even showed a new game called Sorcery, where you are walking around in 3D. Microsoft did NOT show Halo, Gears, Fable, etc with Kintect because it simply does NOT WORK without a controller.

Without a controller, the Kinect is limited to "get fit" games, on-rails shooters, boxing games, and casual family titles. Speaking of boxing, why didn't they show their take on Punch-Out!! That would have been a perfect match.

Right now it just looks like Microsoft simply bought this technology just to have it on their platform and market it as the controller with no buttons. It still looks like an unfinished, experimental project. The technology is THERE, but the innovation and creativity isn't. It just landed in the wrong hands. If Nintendo had their hands on this technology, they could really do something magical with it.

If all Microsoft wants to do with Kinect is to appeal to casual gamers, then that would be a huge shame.