Games, past or present, with the WORST controls

I've been playing a lot of retro games from the 80's and 90's lately, since I am a retro gamer at heart.

I recently (I don't know why) played Bart vs the Space Mutants for NES, a game I played back in the day, and maybe I didn't notice this before (maybe I just accepted it back then to play games that have shall we say, "different" controls), but that game has some seriously bad controls. You can't run and jump at the same time, you would jump right through a platform, unless you land dead center on it, etc. Castlevania for N64 (not Legacy of Darkness) was another game with bad controls (well, it was the bad camera that made the game in certain areas damn near unplayable and would often give me a headache).

What are some other games you guys remember, past or present, with really bad controls, and why?

 

Heavy Rain

Damn stupid movement controls.

Action controls - different and in the end quite repetitive and boring

 

Shaq Fu had the worst controls ever for a street fighting game. Nobody can dispute that, which is why there used to be a website devoted to finding and destroying every copy of the game that existed (I don't know how far they got to achieving that).

 

LOL. i never heard of that. :lol:

 

I actually quite liked Shaq Fu. The animation was very nice, but it paled in comparison to most other fighting games, I suppose.

 

Mortal Kombat: Subzero Mythologies - I tried very hard to love this game but it tested my patience with its crap controls.

Resident Evil 1, 2, 3, and 0- that's self explanatory, especially if you are used to proper 3D games courtesy of a nintendo 64 or better. I m saying this because the PS, the Saturn and even the PC at the time had a habit of mapping "forward" to "up".


Faxanadu - He fell like a ton of bricks after a jump, awesome game though

Iron Sword: Wizards and Wariors 2 - His sword is useless. I really don't know where they got that idea from and I m surprised no one complained for 3 sequels and a GameBoy version

Iggy's Wrecking Balls.

Those are some off the top of my head

 

I think most 3rd party rare NES games had horrible controls, Dirty Harry for the NES is one example.

 

I've just recently dusted off my copy of Scorcher for the Saturn and come to realise that virtually all of Scavenger's output looked great (which you'd expect from a group of former Amiga demoscene teams), but in terms of control their games were mostly awful to actually play - don't even get me started on their Megadrive titles!

 

Worst fighting game controls? Criticom for PS1 / Saturn

The game is terrible, but the controls are the worst EVER!

Racing game? Maybe Driving Emotion Type S for the PS2. The japanese version is impossible to play, while the western version isn't much better either. Also, R: Racing Evolution for PS2 / GC / Xbox, that has annoying sensitive controls.

Honorable mention goes to Cosmic Race for PS1. If you guys understand WTF is that, please let me known.

 

I actually think this added a lot to the game. The restrictiveness of the controls made the game feel a lot more nerve wracking, especially when you are up against the faster monsters later in the game.

 

I was going to say the same thing!

Was a good game, I enjoyed the story and twists, but goddamn the controls sucked balls when you were walking around. I ended up getting caught during one section as I got trapped between 2 NPC's and couldn't navigate around them in time.

 

Shutoku Battle on the Saturn. It feels like you you sitting on a small hill of sponges, sliding down a mountain and the only way to steer it is to shovel air with your hands into the opposite direction.

Buriki One's controls are pretty original, but I don't think that makes the game any better.

 

Just to mention some of my worst control memories:

Crash N Burn - 3do
Mega race (any platform)
Way of the warrior - 3do
Kasumi Ninja - Jaguar.. man oh man those controls...
Any Zelda game on CDI
I agree.. heavy rain.. wtf is all that about just to inhale that astma thingy
Total Eclipse 3do..

 

Yep, Shaq Fu is what I was going to say as well, hahaha. :lol: Controls are atrocious. & I wonder if that site still exists? I personally have two copies of Shaq Fu, one with Box and Inserts. ;-)

 

That Bubsy game on the PSone, God that controls were awful

 

I thought the handling in Gran Turismo 3 was awful. Pokemon Pearl could have utilised the touch screen in many more ways, and even wasted some buttons. Anyone ever played that off JP DS game where you are a little magnet? You have an attachment for your ds where you have to drag your DS around on a desk to move the character in the game (its got a sensor like an optical nouse)

That can be awkward.

 

Senko no Ronde I have no idea what the shit I'm doing in it

 

That Freefall 2035 AD game for the little-seen NUON platform is a prime example of a good game marred by infuriatingly bad controls.
This game screamed for twin analog sticks, but alas, the NUON system did not provide such a control scheme. Thus, you were forced to make do with odd controller/trigger combos to make your way in the game.

 

I don't mind cinematic angles.. but I do mind when I m asked to land perfect headshots with each bullet. You need some sort of point of reference to do the shooting. That's why I still haven't completed by GC RE1make.:crying: