Some advice. I think to get your point across about the games you identified are having "tight" controls you should also also point out games that do not. Identify something well know that will allow players to better understand your point by pointing to it's antithesis.
I was thinking that as well. It's all well and good to show a number of games that got it right, but like they said in the vid, when it's done right, you don't notice it so it makes sense to show a couple of examples where it's done wrong as a contrast. But, in the vid's defense, it's hard to talk about bad controls in a non-interactive medium like a video, as shows like AVGN and Caddicarus have pointed out.
The controls for Hollow Knight are just incredible. It has the same jumping mechanic at Meatboy, in that as soon as you let go of the button you started to accelerate downwards. The weapon swing is a key part of the platforming, to the point where it becomes second nature to use it even in new areas. Part of that is the consistency in the artstyle in regards to objects, but it really does feel fantastic to play. Ori and the Blind forest also goes into a fabulous category of movement controls. Always fluid, and it never feels like the character does anything that you didn't tell it to do.
I actually hate the controls in Hollow Knight, because they are sometimes unresponsive. I press the button and because there is some kind of delay between actions or something, character just ignore my input completely. And no, it's not my fault, neither my controller's. I play many games and for example, I have no issues in Ori. Great responsiveness. Which unfortunately Hollow Knight lacks.
@@ManjCactus Game is working as intended. Which isn't really that good. You can often not get pogo on spikes when You literally press the buttons. There is weird delay between performing action after the last one has ended. And no. It's neither my controller, my PC, connection or anything else. I played more requiring games with the same specs, like Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Using same controller. Ori doesn't have that issue either. It's just Hollow Knight. And I hope Silksong will have it fixed.
Ori and the Blind Forest is by far my favorite game in terms of gameplay and character actions. In the definitive edition you can use the teleport mechanic, but in the original game you had to "walk" through the levels. The more you progress and unlock more abilities, the "walk" becomes an acrobatic act and it is so satisfying overall to see how easy it is to go through the earlier levels again with the new movement controls. Despite character controls, I also like the tilt mechanic of racing games, for example Motorstorm was one of the first games I think with with the controllers being able to tilt, so you could get a better sense of steering the vehicle.
Something that I've noticed is very important to me in a 2D game is camera behavior. If the camera view is fixed and the overall screen perspective doesn't respond to my changing movement or facing from left to right, it leads to the character themselves feeling stiff, which in turn makes the game somewhat unpleasant or unwelcoming at the start, before I have sufficiently mapped my brain onto it. What I like is for the camera to smoothly pan to show further into the distance on the side of the screen my character is looking towards. This has gameplay ramifications, so it's unreasonable to simply demand it always be there, but I find the sense of dynamism it provides the game invaluable. Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that; I've further realized that, in games that follow the Mario example and include acceleration at the start of any movement before the avatar gets up to speed, the camera shift may not be necessary. It's really an either/or question. If I'm playing the kind of sidescroller that has simpler movement in which you reach top speed the instant you press left or right on the d-pad or stick, then the game definitely needs to perform a smooth camera pan to show me more distance in either facing direction to compensate for the character's stiff movement. And by smooth camera pan, I mean that the camera movement needs to have its own acceleration, fast at first when you turn and then gently settling into place. Essentially, either the character can feel stiff or the game can; not both. So if your gameplay calls for your character to have simple, pretty much binary movement, you need to create some dynamic camera movement.
yea, the way the camera acts is really important. I've been looking at dedicating an entire episode to it. As you've shown it's a very broad and interesting topic. I like it when I have some control over the camera but if the game has a good enough cam I don't usually think about it!
The Megaman games, especially speaking about the X games (first 3) they give you total control over X and his jumps, you can change your position mid air and you can "cancel" the jump when you stop pressing the jump button, this gives you time to respond to enemies that are above you, because the Megaman games have a lot of them, also the hitbox of your buster when standing or jumping is basically aimed so you don't miss your shots easily, that way you have the option to calculate jumps in order to hit weird positioned enemies, enemies above you, enemies in platforms and such, and the dash is a great alternative to the slide of the classic Megaman games, because it's basically a emergency escape button, you can have fast reactions with the dash and that makes boss battles more fair and enjoyable
See, I've never felt like the original Super Mario Bros. had "tight" controls, because the game is just so... slippery. Mario has so much momentum that it's hard to do precise platforming with him. To me, "tight" controls are controls where your character literally only moves when you tell him/her to. When you stop pushing right, your character stops moving right -- there's no slide. When you jump, you can move left or right in the air at will, with no momentum, guiding yourself to a pixel-perfect landing if you so desire. Basically, I don't really consider controls in a game to be "tight" unless momentum is more or less disregarded in favor of 100% player control.
This. I tried playing Mario 3 for the first time and I just couldn't get into it due to how slippery Mario is. I like games like Mega Man where movement is as responsive as I want it to be
honestly one of the most beautiful and fun games ever. how did they do it? how does it's beauty still hold up till this day? and how does it still run so well? that game worked wonders.
Skiing in Tribes. Back when it was Starsiege, players discovered that rapidly pressing Jump effectively gives you 0 friction, allowing them to jetpack up hill crests and ski down the back side. This enables players to travel large distances in little time, even with extra-heavy characters. Eventually it was included as a feature (hold Space to ski) and it's been that way ever since.
Tribes: Vengeance was by far the best controls I ever felt. When moving you just felt like you were gliding. Even today when i pick up the game it feels awesome.
brothers a tale of two sons is the best example i know that really lets you feel the strain of actions and thereby connects you to the character SOOOO good
The thing about Spelunky though is that even before the HD remaster, those changes were already made. In the 1.1 version build that I first played, run had been relegated to shift, and the A and S buttons on the keyboard were dedicated shortcuts to Ropes and throwing bombs. Actually when they made the jump to HD, they eliminated the ability to cycle though items at all. This made the game much harder in early levels, because you couldn't use coiled ropes or unlit bombs to trigger arrow traps.
Still remember the first and second Assassin's Creed games. The controls were so fluid and fun to just run around and parkour for hours on end. There was a distinct connection between the controller, my movements and the character on the screen and they were all mapped in just the right way so it felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Gaming Faster than Light! Maybe a "Math in Videogames" would be interesting, From Trigonometry, to just how certain games used math (For example, Doom's ray casting) Or "Pseudo Logic for Game Mechanic" Where you basically explain certain mechanics from a high-level perspective. (The latter is rather hard to do, since it requires logical examination of certain game mechanics, I mean think of how you'd go about implementing Portal's "Portal" game mechanic... not that simple xD) I'm not sure how well informed you are on Game Design / Game Development stuffs, so these are just suggestions, :P
I'm awful at maths however the pseudo logic is a really cool idea. there are definitely a lot of things we take for granted as 'the way things should work'!
Gaming Faster than Light! I was leaning towards that too, And the topic is pretty broad, for example, in Sonic the hedgehog (Classic) series, how would one implement sonic's "If you press the right button while moving left, you stop faster than if you let the button go", Or Mario's "Variable jump", when you hold down a button you jump for as long as that button is being held. C: The Math in these is fairly simplistic, (Velocity and acceleration are simple as heck), but the logic as to how these were to be implemented behind the scenes would be tricky! You might not always be 100% spot on as to how they implemented it, but if it works, it works! :D
I really like the controls of two of Clover (now Platinum Games) masterpieces: Okami and God's Hand. The flowing movement of Okami is so smooth while controlling Amaterasu, yet you can grasp the agility and swift her attacks while in combat or maneuvering the Celestial Brush. On the opposite side, in God Hand you can interrupt any animation with any animation, giving you that empowered feeling, to pull the nastiest combos, like you're supposed to do.
My favourite video game controls, and the tightest controls I've played of any game thus far is Super Smash Bros. Melee; they're unforgiving when you first play, but the lack of buffer and the accuracy of the analogue inputs makes it feel responsive and crisp, and you know if you mess something up it's you and not the controls, which is always nice
I think that Brothers - A tale of two sons has great controls. There is just one button to make all the stuff you need and it makes the game much more immersive. It is a great game that can tell a good story without even using words.
Super Mario Sunshine was fluid as hell. F.L.U.D.D. supplemented the already solid Mario controls (in the levels without F.L.U.D.D., it really showed that Mario was fine controlling on his own)
I think "tight" is just a euphemism for "good" when describing game controls, the same way "loose" means bad. This might originate from how lots of games have bad controls because the character is too "floaty" or too "slippery".
i always liked how in first 3 Assassin's Creed games the four buttons had their meanings (head, empty hand, armed hand and legs) and those meanings changed with low or high profile. I like it so much, that it pains me that nowadays AC games tend to be without this immersion.
I think that harder controls, like in the original spelunky, allowed for more skilled controls. Like, if you wanted your character to do something, you needed to know which keys to press, in what order, and how many times to press/hold them. This means more playing = more skill with the controls, which makes the difference between skilled players and newbs pretty obvious.
In the Castlevania series, Super Castlevania IV (SNES) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) are outstanding examples of smooth controlling of the characters!
Off the top of my head one of my favourite actions in games is latching on and swinging from a hook with the whip in Super Castlevania IV. It's so fun.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night was a game I always really enjoyed when it came to how it felt while moving. There were various actions we would run around performing as we moved around the stage, for no other reason then they were satisfying to do. XD Same with Super Mario 64. I especially liked doing the triple jump with the ending back flip. Oooh! And Crash Bandicoot Warped is still probably one of my all time faves for how the controls and motions worked and felt. You know it's got good 'tight' controls when you just mess around in a stage performing actions because they are fun and feel good. ^.^ Especially nice control construction is something I always notice in games, and I am extremely thrilled with and grateful for when I run across a game that it is pleasing just to move the character around.
gonna be that guy and say Crash Team Racing for PS1. Those controls are GLORIOUS. What I love most is two things: *the controls and programming are done so well to the point I don't have to fight my own kart along with competing with the other racers.* Other racing games devs wanna code the fancy ass cars to fight the player for control, thus having them feel like your racing on ice at only about 30mph game speed. 2, *BECAUSE* they took out the need to fight the vehicles for control, it puts *ALL* the responsibility for success or failure on the player. boosting is easy. Drifting is just a tad bit more challenging. all of which can be learned. If you win, it was because you used your skill at the game. If you failed, it was because you messed up. despite it being an obvious Mario kart clone, I like this better. in CTR, the items used on you by the CPU characters aren't so punishing to the point you can't catch back up. you won't drop down 7 or more places. 4 is the average. CTR does not give you any excuses. everything and anything you need is *LITERALLY* at your fingertips. You will either succeede or fail.
I think Sonic in Sonic 2 is a good example vs Sonic 1. The spindash makes him feel far less sluggish without entirely removing the point of speed conservation
Just about every, if not every, Spiderman game I've come across has had very tight controls. Ultimate Spiderman on ps2 I remember feeling particularly nice.
Wow. I know this some sort of joke but it is pretty annoying. just because you click on a video on anime boobs then end up with click bait doesn't mean.. ARGH, yeah i know it's the internet. 😑
Steep's controls are somewhere between tight and not. Half the time ot feels really nice, but then sometimes even when used to the controls, things dont feel like they respond how they should
Funny, I would have said that Super Meat Boy *didn't* have tight controls. He can't stop on a dime, hell from full run speed to stopped, even trying to move back in the opposite direction takes *at least* his own body width. His jump might have a perfect arc (except when it doesn't, looking at you, 3:23) and it might be predictable once you get used to it, but so many jumps require incredibly tight accuracy, the controls are *very slippery* in comparison to literally every other game you mentioned.
Nice insight into character controls. I'm actually surprised you didn't use Megaman (or 2) as an example of good mechanics. I feel it's also one of the best examples of good game design in nearly every aspect.
games that allow you to double jump for some reason i tend to like. probably because such an action is impossible naturally. Also being able to control the in game camera is also something i expect unless it is restricted for a reason
Dark Souls gameplay in general is pretty "weighty," and things like landing parries and succeeding at a dodge are very satisfying (the jumping physics are a good example of how not to make tight controls, however.)
Controls are only a part of the feel in a game. I noticed the video touched base on this without saying it, but the controls that support the narrative are often better than the "tightest" controls out there. Castlevania (NES) has the entire game developed around the the clunky jump and whip motions you're locked into. The enemy layout and patterns reinforce the controls so that they both compliment the other. Meatboy has the same concept, except the difference is how reactive the controls are. The level design and controls compliment each other to reinforce the narrative that each offers the player. Narrative is essentially how the game portrays itself to the player and how well each component of the game meshes together. Plot, aesthetics, various mechanics, controls, etc. all impact the narrative as a whole.
I always felt like super mario 64 has really messed up controlling compared to the nes and snes versions. but in both versions I always have the feeling mario is "too heavy" moving slower.
The experimental nature of getting game feel 'right' (that being wherever you want it) has always bothered me, being a software engineer. There should be a sort of 'encyclopedia of game mechanics' which quantifies these things. Grab a bunch of games (hundreds) that you can fairly easily classify into different categories, and then measure them quantitatively. Then you can find what traits the games have in common and where they differ. Break down something like a 'jump' into character speed (defined in pixels per millisecond), length of 'successful' region (how many pixels are there from which a launched jump will succeed), etc. I've been thinking about this for awhile, and there are a lot of factors that could be at play. Once all the data is gathered and some statistical analysis is done (wouldn't need to be anything terribly complicated I expect), you could come up with guidelines that developers could use as a starting point to get whatever 'feel' they want their game to have. Aside from movement and jumping, I'd also like to see (or do) a comprehensive study of turn-based battle mechanics. There are so many different ways to do almost everything in games, and while something like film has a long history of experimental films and analysis nailing down how to achieve certain effects, games have remarkably little information and certainly nothing comprehensive.
For me I would pick the GBA version of Mario vs Donkey Kong that game has super silky controls that or flight in super Mario world. The Indy game One Finger Death Punch Also feels great
