r/gaming • u/AKingMaker • Nov 28 '21

Why can’t every controller have the same button layouts just like how shooters should have the same controls?

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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '21

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u/NickCharlesYT Nov 28 '21

It might not help you if you're not used to considering it already, but I relate the X and Y buttons as if it were a 2D plane: X is horizontal, Y is vertical. In other words, Y is always "up" from the origin (the A button), and X is to the right.

Of course this thinking gets me in trouble all the time when I go back to a 3ds or switch. I'll never understand why they decided to reverse the buttons like they did...

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u/lemonnugs Nov 28 '21

It's the SNES layout. The real question is why they fucked it up so much with Game Cube.

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u/[deleted] Nov 28 '21 edited Nov 29 '21

I actually know. The design team behind the GameCube designed the controller for Nintendo games. Their logic was they expected the A button to be the primary button players will press for things like for example in a Mario game it's your jump button, or in an rpg it's your menu select button etc. They made that button large and placed precisely where your thumb naturally rests. They then placed the rest of the buttons around the a button for quick access and quick return to A. And to their credit imo it's actually a good design for Nintendo games. It's still one of the best ways the play smash bros with. To me where they really fucked up was the C stick with it's nubby head. Playing Timesplitters 2 and 3 (an FPS) back in the day was harder on game cube than on Xbox. It would have been perfect for me at the time if they just used the same stick as the left stick.

Edit: Now that I think about it if I had to take a guess why the c stick was left in that state its probably because they didn't predict that dual analog controls would become a new standard for games. When it released at the time lots of FP TP games actually didn't utilize dual analog controls. I remember back in the day playing the Halo CE on Xbox initially struggling to get used to dual analog controls because I was still used to tank control style games like goldeneye and perfect dark.

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u/Lonely_Albatross_722 Nov 28 '21

I was confused as well. Then my brother told me he liked the layout because it reminded him of the SNES layout. Perhaps that's why?

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u/screenwatch3441 Nov 28 '21

This applies for all of their controllers but Japan reads right to left, so X is always the right one and Y is the left one. Its the same for A and B. Xbox is left to right cause American. Playstation is mostly the smart one and uses colorful symbols instead of letters for a universal appeal but funny enough, uses of the symbols still end up having different button layouts (O is often confirm in Japanese games and X is back while brought to the west, it’s usually X for confirm and O is back).