Controlling the Game
The importance of controllers
Welcome to the non-fiction ‘Warthog Blog’ section of the Warthog Report, where I write about different subjects as they interest me. If you’re a subscriber and just want other parts of the newsletter, you can adjust which segments you receive here. Today’s subject is a matter of control.
Video games may be a fundamentally digital medium, but their physical elements are also vital. One of the most important yet generally unspoken factors in how game is designed is the controller it uses. A controller defines the way players interact with the game. That’s why the Wii and its Wiimote was such a revolution, it set up the console as a fundamentally unique design space compared to the alternatives.
While games for the same system usually need to be built around the same controller, arcade games had more freedom in what controller to use. Many think of an arcade controller as a stick and some buttons, but consider all the racing games where the controls feature a wheel and two pedals. Then there is the dance pad controls of Dance Dance Revolution, and the circular touchscreen of the maimai rhythm games. Arcade cabinets have plenty of space to go off the beaten path controller wise.
You still see the occasional console game shipping with its own special controller that the game is designed for. Steel Battalion is known largely because of its massive controller that makes it feel like you’re in the cockpit of one of the game’s mechs, and Ring Fit Adventure has the Ring Con for its exercise oriented gameplay.
But, what happens to these games when you take away the controller they were designed for? Odds are greater than not that if you’ve played any sort of retro game, it was on a controller different from what it was intended for. Super Mario Bros was not designed with a control stick in mind, how many do you think have played it with one at least once? For most games being played on unintended controllers doesn’t lead to any noticeable problems, Super Mario Bros is perfectly playable on non-NES controllers.
Not all games make the transition from one controller to another as smoothly. The classic Street Fighter controls since the second game hit arcades has been a joystick and six buttons. All modern video game controllers have four face buttons, meaning that in console releases the shoulder and/or trigger buttons have to fill the role of two arcade buttons that were originally right next to the rest in a row.
It feels unnatural for the right bumper to have as much importance as the square button on a Playstation 4 controller, bumpers and triggers are generally where the less frequent actions go, not one of the central actions of the game, except for shooters where this is inverted. Yet it all still works with little issue.
Street Fighter 6 introduced a new ‘modern’ control scheme to the series clearly made with both standard controllers and those new to the series in mind. These controls are so simplified using it denies you access to all of a character’s moves, because going from six to four attack buttons makes it difficult to keep everything. But that loss of options is why I have no interest in using the modern controls, especially since the character I prefer to play as, JP, loses entire special moves if played with modern controls. It feels like I’m playing a gutted version of the game.
The general problem of going from arcade cabinet controls to console controllers is also why many dedicated fighting game players use controllers called fightsticks that are designed to imitate the arcade set up of a flat button layout and joystick. A whole culture has developed around making and customizing these controllers, to the point that the arcade version of Street Fighter 6, Street Fighter 6 Type Arcade, has a USB port to plug in your own controller.
Yet some of these specialist controllers have gone in the other direction, straying from arcade roots by removing the stick and replacing them with buttons, so instead of moving a stick forward, you press a button set to that direction. These controllers have sparked a bit of controversy, especially for old games that were not programmed to handle the sorts of inputs that become possible by replacing the control stick with buttons, such as holding back and forward at the same time, leading to unintended results.
There’s also the standard of fighting games requiring multiple simultaneous button inputs for actions, like grabs. Except in any modern fighting game console release, players are given the option to map these to a single button, and are often already assigned to buttons in the default control schemes.
Virtua Fighter uses three buttons, guard, punch, and kick, but each combination of these is used as well, including pressing all three. I found pressing three face buttons simultaneously on my PS4 controller rather awkward, so I went to the control settings where I had the option to map the ‘guard+punch+kick’ input to a single button, and then did the same for the combination of punch and kick because my fiddling with the controls placed my punch and kick buttons on opposite ends of the controller’s face. All of this was allowed by the game.
I’m sure on a proper arcade cabinet or a fightstick controller the simultaneous button presses would be more natural, but the former is not how people play at most events and the latter is a big commitment in price, getting used to it, and even carrying around for some. Ironically, most fightstick controllers have eight buttons to maintain compatibility with console games, making them just as capable of going into the menu and setting a macro button.
Yet if we’re talking about how the game was designed, the actions set to simultaneous button inputs were set that way for a reason, whether that be the restrictions of arcade design or a matter of game balance, and those reasons are not mutually exclusive. But the question of purity with mapping these inputs to a single button feels a little pointless if you’re already using a controller the controls weren’t designed around. At the same time, can you truly call Virtua Fighter 5 a three button game when the game settings let you play it with up to seven buttons?
It’s difficult to think of any other genre so tethered to a specific controller that is at the same time only optional even at the highest levels of competitive play. While a fighting game, Smash Bros players have a different culture from the broader fighting game community. But in its attachment to a specific kind of controller considered outdated everywhere else, the Gamecube controller, it’s similar.
The fact that a Switch game was designed to support the controllers for a console several generations removed from it is quite strange. You can use the Gamecube controllers for other Switch games, but only Super Smash Bros Ultimate is explicitly designed to support it. The Gamecube controller has secured itself as the definitive Smash Bros controller, which is impressive considering the first Smash Bros was designed for a different controller, the N64 controller.
Nintendo hasn’t designed a game around the N64 controller since they stopped making N64 games. It’s also one of their more strange controllers with its three handles, which was intended to allow for different ways of holding it, but most defaulted to holding the right and center handles. Except for Sin and Punishment, which was made in response to observing that nobody was using the left and center handle set up of the controller.
This willingness to embrace the potential of the N64 controller makes Sin and Punishment notably a touch difficult when emulated, as the controller settings that work for other N64 games will not fit for it. When I played the game’s Virtual Console release for the Wii U, I first had to adjust the controller settings away from the layout intended for the likes of Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, while on a proper N64 controller I would have simply changed how I held the controller.
Speaking of the Wii U, the Wii U Gamepad deserves mention in any discussion of unique Nintendo controllers. The second screen it offered was one of the distinguishing features of the system, and many of its games have now been ported to the Switch. For some they play just as well, but in others I feel the loss of a core feature.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe for the Switch may have new features and content, but the core gameplay loop feels stilted without being able to just press the Gamepad screen and direct one of the other captains where I needed them. Playing Splatoon 2 made me miss the smooth ease of using the minimap on the Gamepad screen in the first one.
Then there’s Nintendo Land, the highlight of quite a few family gatherings. Not only did it make use of the Gamepad screen to give players different information, such as making the ghost in Luigi’s Ghost Mansion only visible on the gamepad used by the ghost player, it also continued to use the Wiimote’s features for the other players. It’s no surprise that game hasn’t been ported, no other system can do what it requires.
For most of this post I’ve been making an implicit assumption that faithfulness is something people value in terms of controller choice. In fact there are those who find fun in playing games with controllers that they obviously were not meant for, taking controllers meant for just one or two games and seeing what else they can be used for, or even making their own controller set ups.
The list of games that have been beaten with the DK Bongos is larger than the list of games designed for the DK Bongos, since I doubt Dark Souls or Elden Ring were created with them in mind. I myself played through all of Super Mario 3D World on a Gamecube controller, since I got it around the same time as an unofficial Gamecube controller adaptor in preparation for Super Smash Bros for Wii U, this was well before the official adaptor was announced.
Why go out of your way to play with a weird obviously unintended controller? Because you can. There’s an official Dance Dance Revolution dance pad for the PS2, you may as well use it for other PS2 games if you have it. It also adds an element of challenge depending on the controller, forcing you to play the game in a whole new way. If you’re looking for a way to spice up another playthrough of a game, the thing to change may be what’s in your hands.
Video games are more than just the software. With no controller you can’t play the game, and what good is a game that can’t be played? Any discussion of video game preservation needs to go beyond just the games and include the controllers, Wii Sports is not the same if you remove the Wiimotes. The story of video games is the story of their controllers.
Now I’d like to turn this over to you in the comments. What is your favorite video game controller? Do you have any particular stories around video game controllers, like using an unusual one or going out of your way to use the intended one?