Why don't most console games let you remap their controls?

It's rather annoying how I've come across only two modern day console games (The Elder Scrolls and Resistance) that allow me to remap every single button on the controller. As a lefty, I'm used to having the two trigger buttons reversed (luckily, some games allow that, but not all) and I'm used to certain configurations, such as the A/X button for jumping, the X/Circle button for reloading and the B/Square button for melee attacks. Every single PC game ever made allows for control reconfiguration. Why don't more developers give this option? It would certainly make Muscle Memory much less annoying.

edited 8th Dec '11 6:50:04 PM by RLNice

A fistful of me.

I'd assume it's budget reasons. Who knows how much extra work gets added by having that option in console games as opposed to computer games? If they intended on having that option, the game may have been rushed out the door to meet deadlines before they could add it, etc. They could have even not considered that option, or the game uses too many button combinations to do it in a decent fashion...

Plenty of easy-to-think-of reasons why.

edited 8th Dec '11 7:01:34 PM by burnpsy

Super Street Fighter II On SNES allows you to do this.

edited 8th Dec '11 7:40:56 PM by miru

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SNES

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There's no excuse for any game not to allow remapping of controls. It's especially annoying when playing a 3D game that reverses the Y axis for the camera/aiming, or a Wii shooting game that doesn't use the trigger for shooting.

Also annoying is when the game reverses the confirm/cancel buttons for no apparent reason. I'm looking at you, Metal Gear Solid.

edited 8th Dec '11 7:53:13 PM by Talby

It is interesting to note that the further the consoles progress, the lesser control over controls you have.

STEALTH!!!

What do you mean "most"? Most console games I've played let you remap buttons, or are intuitive enough where it's not even necessary.

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Funny, Super Street Fighter IV on 3DS let's you map the controls. The only thing set in stone is the D-Pad.

^^ If most console games you've played let you remap buttons, you haven't played very many console games.

Plenty of shooters at least have southpaw alternate control setups.

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well, there might be issues with pressure sensitive inputs. Like a shoulder button might have a greater degree of pressure sensitivity than the A/X/whatever buttons.

That's the only thing I can think of.

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Technically, it's actually the other way around. Most Japanese games have Circle as "Yes" and X as "No" because the Japanese use a Circle to mark things the same way you would use a Checkmark in the West. MGS is one of the few games that didn't switch it to the X as yes/circle as no style we use here.

Je Suis "Aware"

I kind of wish Sony would stop doing that. It breaks the standard set by the SNES controller and adapted by the 360/Classic Controller button mappings.

It's not a big issue, but going from one console to another takes a few minutes of readjustment.

Earthworm Jim allows you to remap controls.

I am completely, utterly, and thoroughly done with Sola Sonica and 2D

Earthworm Jim HD? Also, thanks for reminding me that I still need to get that.

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To put it simply: You're wrong, even if you're exaggerating. To show this, I will look through all the games I've got and rate how reconfigurable they are. Heck, I'll even ignore the older games even though they more often lacked any control reconfiguration capabilities.

Fully reconfigurable: 32
Partially reconfigurable: 9
Minimally reconfigurable: 9
Not reconfigurable: 28

A figure barely higher than the next highest, and it's definitely not the majority.

Probably because console pads are designed from the ground up to be pure gaming input devices. Compare it with the Keyboard + Mouse; both input devices were created with word processing first, gaming a far distant second. Its necessary to have rebindable keys on a keyboard because keyboards are made for typing, not gaming. On the other hand console controllers were specifically built for gaming and as such, have all buttons in their ideal positions.

now count how many of those games were ported from a console.

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Let's see... Oddworld (all of them; the first two were "partial" while the other two are "full"), Psychonauts (Full), Braid (Non-), and Super Meat Boy (Minimal).

I wish most games allowed you to do this because I wanna take on games that normally don't utilize an arcade stick and see how well I do with one.

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Plenty of PC games don't allow remapping, but's less widespread than it is on consoles. However, on PC you can get programs to remap controls seperately, so basically any game can be customized as much as you like. For example, X Padder can be used to configure a gamepad to work with games that normally don't have gamepad support.

edited 10th Dec '11 11:18:39 AM by Talby

R-Type Dimensions.

You'd think that the game would map shot to A and Force Pod to B. Nope, Force Pod is on X, with B being rapid shot. With no way to change this. This becomes especially awkward on an arcade stick—at least on mine's, A is positioned below X.

Come on, it's only three buttons!

edited 10th Dec '11 2:02:23 AM by TsundeRay

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MOST pc games do allow remapping, at least thats what my experience tells me...

Then again I almost never use them, they are useless. If the game is good enough the default configuration should be good enough as well. Default controls FTW!!!

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death itself may die."

Lack of remapping is what makes the classic gamepad necessary (read: unplayable without) for many Virtual Console games. Mainly, platform games with "Y (left) to run, B (bottom) to jump".

edited 12th Dec '11 1:45:24 AM by Medinoc

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

If the game doesn't allow you to remap the controls, its probably a bad game. Stop playing it.

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