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You Call These Classic Controls!?

I could smack the crap out of somebody right about now.

So, as you all know by now, I love me some Perfect Dark. As you might expect, with its re-release occurring today on XBLA, I was quick to purchase one of my all-time favorite games.

Shortly after booting it up, I realized that the game's default controls were totally changed to the Halo-inspired controls found in most shooters these days. I went to the menu expecting to be able to change them to a Classic Controls, an option found in most modern first person shooters.

I was surprised to see that the "Classic Controls" were the default ones. Worse, every control scheme available didn't offer the original style Perfect Dark controls which were pioneered by itself and its predecessor.

To say that I'm appalled is an understatement. I'm downright infuriated, especially after dropping $10 on the game. The game is literally a waste of space on my 360 hard drive in its current form. I refuse to play the game with the now-standard control scheme of first person shooters.

What's most absurd is that most other games feature the true classic style controls found in Rare's classic N64 shooters. How could one of the games that pioneered the control scheme not feature it in its update!?

I'd honestly like to know how Rare would even consider releasing the game without that most basic option. For someone like me, all the updates in the world don't make the game any more playable if you totally drop the original control scheme!

What truly makes it worse is just how easy it is to provide multiple control options. It's as if they wanted to piss off huge fans of the classic title.

Rare, if you're listening, update these controls, the lack of options is unacceptable.


 

Comments

Kathrine Theidy Staff Alumnus

03/20/2010 at 06:39 PM

I'm actually curious about this. How could the original control scheme be adapted to the XBox 360 controller? The default controls for the Nintendo 64 game used the analogue stick to move, and the C-buttons to strafe and look up/down. Are you suggesting that they should map strafe and look up/down to the face buttons?

In any case, I agree that more games today should have control options. I'd like it to go beyond just having presets, they should be fully customizable and allow you to put any action on any input you want.

Jason Ross Senior Editor

03/20/2010 at 07:06 PM

I'd almost suggest that console makers should allow a little bit of customization options on a per-game basis, to be saved along with a save file. If anyone remembers Mega Man Classic Collection on the GameCube, Capcom switched the position of the "Jump" and "Fire" button with each other, and while the switched positions weren't a bad control scheme, it was very awkward for absolutely any Mega Man fan with experience from just about any Mega Man generation.

So I've got to agree, whenever possible, offer a control scheme that mimics the original game's control schemes in ports and remakes. It's just too alienating for several people who already have experience with the game.

Lukasz Balicki Staff Alumnus

03/20/2010 at 07:08 PM

Jason,

That wasn't a fault of Nintendo or Capcom that the controls got flipped, Planet Moon did a bad job with the Game Cube version in terms of controls and cutting some content.

Jason Ross Senior Editor

03/20/2010 at 09:43 PM

Ah, regardless, it was entirely frustrating, and Capcom, as the publisher and license holder could have done something about it. It definitely made me wary of the follow-up Mega Man X Collection, which allowed controller configuration changes in each game, like the games did originally, IIRC.

Nick DiMola Director

03/24/2010 at 09:40 PM

@Mop it up

Basically, I want the right stick to mimic the C-buttons. So left and right on that stick would strafe and up and down would look. Then on the left stick you would have movement forward and back for up and down and look left and right for the corresponding stick movements.

Most modern FPS games have this scheme and they label it Classic or Legacy.

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