Do modern games require too many buttons?

[Erik_Twice]

This is a topic that has been thrown around a fair bit lately and I thought that it would be interesting to discuss it.

Many people think that modern games require too many different buttons and I can see why that is. If you take a Playstation 4 controller you not only have the face buttons and directional inputs but also two different shoulder buttons on each side of the controller and even a button inside the directional inputs. It's insane! Do games really need four different shoulder buttons? Do they need a button inside an analog joystick? And there are games that require pressing two different shoulder buttons at once!

I mean, I'm a fairly hardcore gamer and I still find it a bit troublesome. I'm not sure this is the best way to do things. What is your opinion on this?

[Ack]

I used to play MechWarrior, so the number of buttons doesn't really bother me...

[MrPopo]

No.

[Tanooki]

I'm not so sure they have too many, it's not like you have to use them all. It's those who make up convoluted control setups for various games going overkill with the buttons or far worse button combos to memorize to get along in the game. That's when it really crosses the line. But considering modern games also have to factor in games with no buttons on tablets where you touch and swipe, no.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Short answer: yes.

Longer answer: yes because modern control schemes, and the games in general, have a tendency to be needlessly complicated.

Button count seemed to shoot up in the 3D era. Look at the N64 controller which sometimes used 4 C buttons just for the camera angles, a Z button to "target", etc.

I'm cool with a d-pad + two buttons (attack/jump or confirm/cancel if it's an RPG). For fighting games and whatnot I think the SNES has the perfect amount of buttons + layout. I also greatly prefer retro to modern games but this is fairly obvious.

[isiolia]

I think the controller just offers possibilities.

Shoulder buttons/triggers, and sticks you can click in work nicely for games that rely heavily on twin stick control, such as FPS. Using two for separate aim and fire controls works fine for me.

What I tend to dislike are games that expect the player to bounce between the right stick and the face buttons. God of War style hack and slash controls, for example, which put dodge on the right stick and attacks on the face buttons.

Generally though, better to have enough buttons to start with than need to map things to odd combos or waggle.

[Cronozilla]

I don't agree.

I could see an argument about the touch surface on a DualShock 4, or the fact that you can push it in and it's not really used with anything. I could see an argument about the addition of motion being superfluous. But if you're talking about (using Sony as a baseline) L1, R1, L3, and R3 and saying those are just going too far. I disagree.

I think that design was developed to try to mitigate a lot of the problems with 3D games. You got a stick to control the camera directly, and a button underneath to center it quickly, for example.

I think most games are well suited to this setup because they're designed to use it. It's been around for 17 years, and some variant of it has been the standard for close to 13 years. The only games that don't play nice with it are games designed for strictly different controllers (fighting games)

Shoulder buttons can be used for a lot of things well. We've seen, for example, it lends itself very well to the pedals of a car. Or even aiming and shooting mechanics. They can also be used to modify your face buttons which means you can make more complex or nuanced interactions.

I played MK3 on a 3-button genesis controller and PC games that use the entire keyboard (not for key input), so I think where we're at now with the standardized controller interface is a pretty good compromise between many styles.

[BogusMeatFactory]

I was gonna say, I play a lot of PC, so I have an egregious amount of buttons! In all honesty, I do not think that modern console controls have too many buttons, but I do feel that the button configuration is a problem. It is flawed and the modern controller needs to be tossed into the garbage for a new experience.

Give me two Wii nunchucks attached to each other by a cable (cause seriously...that is comfy) and having 4 buttons on each nunchuk, one for each finger. and two thumbsticks. Perfect game controller.

[dsheinem]

"yes."

--my dad

[KayJay]

No.


back than, a lot of games were more limited by the lack of buttons (Think of how much better it would be for the first Zelda to have a item changing button, like the shoulder buttons. In fact, even Castlevania)

Nowadays, it's just right. Now, touchscreen in combination with buttons seems like too much of a hassle, (Especially a back Touchscreen. Hello, Vita. ) It never seems like too much of an issue.