Upon re-viewing this thread, I'll add to my old post: Modern 2D platformers.
Bottom line, I don't want to play them on an XBox 360 controller or anything of that type.
I want to use a D-pad controller that was designed for 2D games. Most modern developers don't consider that, they assume you want to use a 3-D oriented modern controller with a subpar D-pad, way too many buttons involved and sometimes even using the clunky analog sticks. They typically dedicate a separate button for every possible action, which I find unnecessarily confusing and frustrating.
I guess the fundamental problem is that devs want the X360 to be the standard controller for every game. Personally I think that should be rejected for 2D games. It seems like the SNES is the most popular 2D era console nowadays and it had a great controller, so if the world could settle on the SNES controller being the 2D standard, I'd be fine with that. Games should support 2 default control schemes, one for XBoxen, and the other for SNES or whatever decent controller the dev is willing to pay attention to. If they can't make their game work on that, then they need to reconsider how it's designed.
River City Ransom: Underground:
I loved the original and thought this would be fun. It probably would, if I could play it with a real controller.
The original was played on an NES controller. So surely, I thought, I can play this game on a Sega Genesis 6-button, which actually has 8 buttons plus the D-pad.
I'm very comfortable with that controller and it should be great, I thought.
Nope. Too many functions to map out. I have to unmap something, and still be left with some functions in awkward spots, because there's too many different moves with different buttons associated to them.
If a simple 2D side scrolling beat 'em up can't be comfortably played with 8 buttons, something is wrong with the game.
Spelunky:
Similar complaint, but for the time being I've been willing to use a 360 controller.
I've only played this a little bit so far. I'm sure I could eventually get used to it, but I grow impatient with overly complicated controls. At every critical moment, I get a little panicked to remember which button to press so something stupid doesn't happen, like how to pick up the princess without dropping a bomb on her or starting a war with a shopkeeper or something. The game thinks confusing you is funny.
Like so many modern games, this game uses separate buttons for every little operation, exercising no contextual logic about what the player is trying to do.
Terraria:
I think I could get addicted to this game, but I don't want to play a platformer with WASD and mouse/keyboard controls. It would probably need to be redesigned to work with 2D console controllers, but I think it would be fantastic if it was.
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There are games where using all the buttons and knobs of a 360 controller is justified. But they shouldn't all be doing it, and it's especially irksome with 2D games where I'd like to use a more appropriate controller.