Last night I fired up Ikaruga on XBL Arcade. Ive played the game to death before on both the Dreamcast and the Cube/Wii but I felt like a blast and grabbing a couple of achievements too. Big mistake.
20 minutes later and I am swearing at the screen, wondering if it would survive a Nana Shoryuken. For real.
You see I didnt get my achievements. First time round I barely cleared stage 1. And why? Because of the bloody 360 controller.
Analogue sticks just dont cut it for careful placement of your ship in Ikaruga, its just not precise enough. When I tap left I want to move left a tad, not jolt miles left and a bit down.
No problem, use the D-Pad I thought. After all, D-Pads and old skool style games usually go well together. Right? No! Because the D-Pad on the 360 pad would make you think that weve gone backwards since the days of the SNES and the Mega Drive. To put it bluntly, its *expletive deleted*.
Now I know that in an ideal world Id have an Arcade Stick plugged in the 360 and none of the above issues would matter. Id be happy blasting, satisfied that when my craft explodes its because I screwed up. And probably because my reflexes and hand/eye co-ordination are not quite as good as they used to be.
Problem is I dont have an Arcade Stick for the 360. I have a few dotting around for various systems but in the case of the 360 they are only going to be useful for pretending to play in attract mode.
Ironically if I could have used the PS3 pad Id have probably been ok since the D-Pad on it isnt too bad. With that its just the sticks and triggers that suck (although some aftermarket add on trigger extensions have helped with one of the issues I have with that pad). But of course, despite the fact it has a USB lead, I cant plug it into my 360.
And here lies my issue. Games consoles have come a long way since the days of the SNES, Mega Drive et all. The 360 that survives (just!) under my desk can stream things from my PC, play online, and has USB ports. The PS3 in my living room can take keyboards and USB sticks because it too has USB ports. But I cant interchange my pads to my liking. Even if I buy a third party 360 Arcade Stick, chances are it wont work on the PS3 and Ill be damned if Ill buy a stick for each console. Ive done that too many times in the past as it is.
Thing is, now that modern consoles support and use USB, why the bloody hell cant we have a standardised controller format? Why cant the consumer just buy one style of specialist controller instead of having to potentially buy two or three?
If I want to use the FPS superior 360 pad on the PS3, let me! Whats the problem if I want the PS3 D-Pad on my old skool style XBL Arcade games? Why cant I have an Arcade Stick for SF IV that works on both machines? Would it really hurt that much?
Im not saying each machine shouldnt have its own controller design, but seriously the basic functions are the same, let me choose whose I want to buy, stop forcing me to compromise my gameplay or have more controllers clogging my living space up than I have games!
Because ultimately thats the choice you get, compromised gameplay or spending more money than is reasonable on suitable control equipment. And thats not Next Gen, its last gen ideas from companies that still cant think outside the box.
Happy Fragging,
[22g] Nana
20 minutes later and I am swearing at the screen, wondering if it would survive a Nana Shoryuken. For real.
You see I didnt get my achievements. First time round I barely cleared stage 1. And why? Because of the bloody 360 controller.
Analogue sticks just dont cut it for careful placement of your ship in Ikaruga, its just not precise enough. When I tap left I want to move left a tad, not jolt miles left and a bit down.
No problem, use the D-Pad I thought. After all, D-Pads and old skool style games usually go well together. Right? No! Because the D-Pad on the 360 pad would make you think that weve gone backwards since the days of the SNES and the Mega Drive. To put it bluntly, its *expletive deleted*.
Now I know that in an ideal world Id have an Arcade Stick plugged in the 360 and none of the above issues would matter. Id be happy blasting, satisfied that when my craft explodes its because I screwed up. And probably because my reflexes and hand/eye co-ordination are not quite as good as they used to be.
Problem is I dont have an Arcade Stick for the 360. I have a few dotting around for various systems but in the case of the 360 they are only going to be useful for pretending to play in attract mode.
Ironically if I could have used the PS3 pad Id have probably been ok since the D-Pad on it isnt too bad. With that its just the sticks and triggers that suck (although some aftermarket add on trigger extensions have helped with one of the issues I have with that pad). But of course, despite the fact it has a USB lead, I cant plug it into my 360.
And here lies my issue. Games consoles have come a long way since the days of the SNES, Mega Drive et all. The 360 that survives (just!) under my desk can stream things from my PC, play online, and has USB ports. The PS3 in my living room can take keyboards and USB sticks because it too has USB ports. But I cant interchange my pads to my liking. Even if I buy a third party 360 Arcade Stick, chances are it wont work on the PS3 and Ill be damned if Ill buy a stick for each console. Ive done that too many times in the past as it is.
Thing is, now that modern consoles support and use USB, why the bloody hell cant we have a standardised controller format? Why cant the consumer just buy one style of specialist controller instead of having to potentially buy two or three?
If I want to use the FPS superior 360 pad on the PS3, let me! Whats the problem if I want the PS3 D-Pad on my old skool style XBL Arcade games? Why cant I have an Arcade Stick for SF IV that works on both machines? Would it really hurt that much?
Im not saying each machine shouldnt have its own controller design, but seriously the basic functions are the same, let me choose whose I want to buy, stop forcing me to compromise my gameplay or have more controllers clogging my living space up than I have games!
Because ultimately thats the choice you get, compromised gameplay or spending more money than is reasonable on suitable control equipment. And thats not Next Gen, its last gen ideas from companies that still cant think outside the box.
Happy Fragging,
[22g] Nana
