Games where the controls have aged poorly?

[Waffles]

I'm usually pretty chill about what I play (advantages of having free rein after a childhood of having to save up for everything!), but some games really make it impossible to enjoy them due to their bizarre or inconvenient control schemes.

MegaMan Legends is a game I had to learn to love due to the way the camera operated and how you'd rotate your character with the shoulder buttons. That was a pretty tough hill to conquer and it doesn't feel natural, despite me beating the game twice already.

Can you think of other examples?

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Alone in the Dark, and any game with Tank Controls in general. Kings Field is awesome, but goddamn is it clunky.
Personally, I get irritated when X/B Is confirm, and O/A is cancel, but that's a first world problem I'm sure.

 

[Dyne]

"Tank controls" -- I feel like you had to be there to not be bothered by these. I'm used to it when I play Resident Evil or whatever but I know a lot of people hate it.

I do tend to remap a lot of camera buttons on gen 5 games to the right analog stick.
You cant fix tank controls this way, but changing L/R buttons to the R stick for example is sometimes my preferred method. But if its a game I played a lot and have muscle memory for, I just leave it.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Jynx

 

[Waffles]

Alone in the Dark, and any game with Tank Controls in general

The scariest thing about that game (and I do love it) was getting my character off the stairs. Makes you wonder how they made it to the attic in the first place XD

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

I originally tried to play that game on the PSX when it came out, and I literally couldn't get through the door.

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View attachment 617181-alone-in-the-dark-dos-screenshot-evil-rules-in-the-house.webp

 

[PhrawzT]

I don't mind tank controls, but what has not aged well is the late PS1/early PS2 awkward button based camera controls.

 

[Waffles]

I originally tried to play that game on the PSX when it came out, and I literally couldn't get through the door.

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View attachment 4828

No joke... that image was first time I was actually scared by something on the PC. I think it's the ghost over the mansion that does it.

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

System Shock. I love the original control scheme due to Stockholm syndrome, but the Enhanced patch with mouse look made it so much more playable.

System Shock is also the best game that has Shock in the title.

 

[Onionstarz]

FROMSOFT PS1/PS2 games

 

[flushy]

not sure if this count, but duck hunt on nes
it was work perfectly on my friends tv, but it didnt work on mine, i hate the game
i didnt know if its only work on crt until i grew up

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Wow, I feel old now.

 

[flushy]

Wow, I feel old now.

i bought my nes around 2012 iirc, its not new, but it works great

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

I got one for Christmas in 1989. I was 5

 

[dropsmegamega]

Mario 64. It was revolutionary at the time, but nowadays it feels so slippery and imprecise. It's even worse because I got used to the similar but improved movement of the later 3d marios. I swear its easier to play the platforming sections of Alone in the Dark than Mario 64 to me.

 

[Cu-Neo]

Almost all the fifth and six generation fromsoftware games. They use L2 and R2 to move the camera and the first game that used the right analogue to move the camera was Echo Night Beyond. Also the mayority of Consoles FPS before they invented the dualshock controller for example the original Medal of Honor on PSX suffer from this and a lot of N64 games too (I love playing mario party and destroying my hand palm in the process )

 

[NanoSoft]

Hard for me to say, because when I play a game with different controls than I'm used to, in most cases I reframe my mind around the controls of said game, letting me play a large variety of games.

So for this thread, I'd say using the right analog stick on controllers to aim. It works, but if I can on PC, I'd remap that to mouse-aim-based gyro aiming for motion-based aiming, think Splatoon. Night and day difference for aiming

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Mario 64. It was revolutionary at the time, but nowadays it feels so slippery and imprecise. It's even worse because I got used to the similar but improved movement of the later 3d marios. I swear its easier to play the platforming sections of Alone in the Dark than Mario 64 to me.

How are you playing it? I always found the N64 controls to be silky smooth for that game, but then again.... I'm old

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N64 controllers themselves are a bit dodgy, unless you've replaced the bands.

 

[dropsmegamega]

How are you playing it? I always found the N64 controls to be silky smooth for that game, but then again.... I'm old

Post automatically merged: Dec 16, 2024

N64 controllers themselves are a bit dodgy, unless you've replaced the bands.

Nah, just a regular modern xbox controller. I never got to play it using the original 64 controller, but that wasn't a problem back when I first completed it. It's also a problem I have exclusively with mario 64 as I still replay other retro 3d plats of the 64 and ps1 regularly without problems.

 

[Logi]

FROMSOFT PS1/PS2 games

this.
Only because it is so slow tbh. I liked playing lunacid that is inspired by it

 

[DanCalibur]

The default controls from Goldeneye and Perfect Dark (N64). What sort of masochist can use move forward/backward + look left/right on one stick and strife + look up/down on another stick?

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

even the two controller method is wack.

 

[ObscureJigglypuff]

Zone of the enders 1 and 2 (ps2)
Thinking of things that age poorly i just recall the voice acting in this game xD

 

[SkunkyBeaumont]

Zone of the enders 1 and 2 (ps2)
Thinking of things that age poorly i just recall the voice acting in this game xD

It's a Kojima Joint, so It could control like a First Person Resident Evil game made by From Software, and it wouldn't matter.

 

[DanCalibur]

System Shock. I love the original control scheme due to Stockholm syndrome, but the Enhanced patch with mouse look made it so much more playable.

System Shock is also the best game that has Shock in the title.

even the two controller method is wack.

In the end I gave up and downloaded the PC modded versions with mouse and keyboard support and it plays deliciously