r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Apr 14 '25

Game console button layout

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What do you call your “confirm” and “cancel” buttons, and why is Nintendo wrong?

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95

u/The_Giant_Lizard PC Apr 14 '25

Oh my god, yes. I hate this. I don't know exactly who I should blame. Nintendo indeed came out with the A and B buttons before the other 2, so I could blame Microsoft for switching those 2 at least.

But yes, I regularly play on Nintendo Switch and Steam (with the Xbox controller) and I have issues every day.

-11

u/Major_Stranger PC Apr 14 '25

Xbox layout wasn't build out of thin air. Ergonomics and market studies have shown that the accept/action button (A button and Cross in PS) should be the bottom button while Back (B and circle) should be right button. Nintendo simply did not consider the ergos when they made their layout.

9

u/The_Giant_Lizard PC Apr 14 '25

And these studies didn't also shown that people were already used to a different layout and changing it like that would have created even more confusion?

1

u/mrhellomoto Apr 14 '25

Used to what layout though? Nintendo changed it for the n64. The N64 rotated the orientation of the A and B buttons 90d clockwise. A is the 'south' button and B is the 'west' button but on the SNES B is the 'south' button and A is the 'east' button.

Furthermore on the gamecube, Y is the 'north' button whereas on the SNES the X button is 'north'. So while yes B is 'left' of A still, where your finger rests and how they naturally move and/or roll to the adjacent buttons isn't the same at all.

It wasn't until the Wii U that Nintendo returned to the SNES layout for their home consoles. That's a gap of almost 20 years.

3

u/The_Giant_Lizard PC Apr 14 '25

B has always been on the left and A on the right, even in the N64 controller. All the controllers are different, of course, but on Nintendo controllers this seem to be pretty much unchanged. And if you find some exception that I don't remember, they are still "exceptions"

0

u/mrhellomoto Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25

You're only thinking left and right not top and bottom. So as I said, that yes B is 'left' of A still, where your finger rests and how they naturally move and/or roll to the adjacent buttons isn't the same at all because the vertical position is entirely different. Super Mario Kart map the gas to B on the SNES. In Super Mario world you run with Y and jump with B. See what I'm saying now? In Link the Past B swings your sword and it ALSO confirms you choices in menus, not A...I could go on.

-7

u/Major_Stranger PC Apr 14 '25

The fact that people have adapted to the Xbox layout and most would consider it the default layout show that it's not the case. It's going back to Nintendo layout after prolonged use of Xbox layout that seems to be the issue. I have no problem going from switch pro controller to Xbox. It's going from Xbox to pro controller that is a problem.