Tendo City

http://www.britishgaming.co.uk/?p=926

I like the one with the three buttons on top... (the third one)

I think more buttons is better.

-TheBiggah-

Buttons? Where we're going we don't need buttons!

Yeah, one main face button just isn't enough. Even just one more main face button and you could easily emulate the N64 controller on the thing...

Oh, the unique features help make up for that, but still. Four main buttons, three of those shoulder buttons (which are slower and clumsier to access than main face buttons) is just not good enough... I like face buttons! Preferably six of them. :)

... I know, this is a new design. And games will either be made to fit on it or will use the classic/GC controllers. But while controllers don't necessarially need 12 buttons like the PS2/Xbox have, they do need at least six or seven really...

Well, the thing with adding more buttons is developers will fall back into old habits and won't use the uniqueness of the Wiimote as much. That's why I'm glad they probably won't include the GameCube shell with the system. I know it's not a good excuse, but Nintendo really needs to break companies from the old way of controlling games if they want their system to be truly unique.

They said that with the Gamecube and the GBA, and that didn't do JACK. Developers just found awkward solutions (and they were awkward) and Nintendo was the biggest offender with the GBA by breaking their own goal of "not having a bunch of SNES ports" by doing it THEMSELVES, and the two Metroid games, while great in most respects, didn't exactly win any awards for their missile controls (I would have preferred turning missile mode on and off with a shoulder button to having to hold the button to fire them). Cutting away buttons to force developers to use new controls isn't the best way to go. People either will use it or they won't, and with the "classic style" controller already on the system, limiting buttons on the Wii part isn't going to really do much of anything.

Atari 2600: 1 button
Intellivision: 1 plus a numeric keypad
NES: 4
Master System: 2 on controller; Start button on the console itsself
TG-16: 4
Genesis: most 4, some 7
SNES: 8
Jaguar: 4 plus a numeric keypad
3DO: 4
Saturn: 9
Playstation: most 10, a few 12
N64: 10
Dreamcast: 7
PS2: 12
Gamecube: 8
Xbox: 12
X360: 12
PS3: 12
Revolution: Depending on how you count, either 4, 6, 7, or 9... (just the Wiimote: 2 main action, 2 pause, one 'Home' button (is it usable in games or is it for the system?), the two lower buttons (can games that use the controller vertically use them, or are they too low to be comfortably accessible?), plus two on the optional nunchuck.). 8, I believe, on the Classic Controller.

Four, three of those shoulder buttons, isn't enough. Start and Select aren't usable by games for normal functions. I and II (or whatever you call the lower buttons) don't look comfortable to use. I know they want to make people change how they control their games, but not everything can be done through motions... some things need buttons, or are much easier with buttons. This thing just doesn't have enough buttons for the normal functions of most games... and particularly not when you realize that three of those four main buttons are shoulder buttons! One face button may have worked on the Atari 2600, but it hasn't been a "feature" of any console of note since 1983 or so for a reason...

You should recheck your "most, a few" statements. The PS1 started with the 10 button but it was replaced by massive margin to the point where the second type outnumbered the first. So it would be more accurate to say "first, 10, later 12", also you should label the analog stick number :D.

Some DS games don't even need buttons.

And some do. Which is my entire point. Before you mislabel my argument, I'm talking about the ones that use both buttons and the touch screen, like Metroid Prime Hunters.

Quote:You should recheck your "most, a few" statements. The PS1 started with the 10 button but it was replaced by massive margin to the point where the second type outnumbered the first. So it would be more accurate to say "first, 10, later 12", also you should label the analog stick number .

I was just talking about buttons USED. Just like the Sega Genesis, while lots of people do have the later-model controller (6-button for Genesis, 12-button for PSX), most games only use the basic controller's buttons. For the Genesis, pretty much only fighting games and a few sims and stuff use the six button controller. For the PSX lots of games support rumble and analog controls, but only a very, very few actually REQUIRE them, and the only way that a game can use the last two buttons is to require analog since the analog-click buttons are new... so I think my "most 10, a few 12" is quite accurate. If we were talking rumble or analog stick use things would be different, but I wasn't.

I thought you were merely talking about the buttons on the controller, not if games used them, because I can name a number of games that didn't bother using a large number of buttons on a lot of systems.

Well, lots of games don't use some buttons on a controller, but with the PSX controller, like the Genesis as I said, it's not just that games aren't using them but that they CAN'T if they want to be compatible with the older controllers too. And most games don't want to limit themselves by cutting off people who don't have the new controllers -- I think Ape Escape requires the analog controller for PSX, but I don't know of any others...

A lot didn't require it, but a lot certainly were much better off WITH them, and again wasn't this just supposed to be a list of controller button numbers?

No, if a controller has the buttons but no games use them, do the extra buttons matter?

Lots of PS2 games use the analog click buttons, but not PS1 games.

A Black Falcon Wrote:No, if a controller has the buttons but no games use them, do the extra buttons matter?

Lots of PS2 games use the analog click buttons, but not PS1 games.

Now you're getting philosophical. I won't have that. Just the facts.

I have a decent number of games, and I don't think any of my PS1 games actually do anything when you click the analog sticks... :)

I have a few that do. Ape Escape, and I think Megaman Legends is weird because if I click the stick when it says "press any button to end the song" it ends the song, which is odd because it otherwise doesn't support the sticks at all.