Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Difference between revisions

*** On PC, this is even worse as ''GTA IV'' no long allows to customize the controls like you could in <s>GTA III, VC and SA</s> [[Porting Disaster|every PC game of the post-DOS era and many before it]].

*** And when GTA came out for the Xbox, first in the double pack with [[Grand Theft Auto III|III]], [[Grand Theft Auto Vice City|Vice City]] and then [[Grand Theft Auto San Andreas|San Andreas]] separately they had completely different controls. When driving, what was attack in San Andreas was now handbrake in III/Vice City... so imagine coming up on a motorbike at top speed, about to fire your Uzi and instead hitting the handbrake and spinning out of control.

** ''[[Saints Row]] 2'' has closer controls to the PS2 ''GTA'' games, except moving around the controls for attacking, weapon switching, running, looking behind, handbrake, and entering missions is the same button as entering/leaving vehicles. It's not so bad, but it does make for confusion, and frustration for the final placement.

*** ''[[Just Cause (video game)|Just Cause 2]]'' is an equal offender. The driving controls are pretty much identical to Grand Theft Auto IV, with one difference. The button or key for the handbrake in ''GTA IV'' is the same as the command to deploy the player's parachute in ''Just Cause 2'', which can be problematic when you are driving someone somewhere and instead of stylishy doing a handbrake turn you jump out of the car and watch it spiral into a wall.

* Variation in ''[[Bionic Commando]] Rearmed'' after just about any other 2D platform game. You ''will'' instinctively try to jump, despite the complete lack of a jump button.

** Same for the original ''Bionic Commando''. Much of the challenge of the game is derived from that very inability to jump, which ''Rearmed 2'' finally does away with.

* Play ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' a lot using the sniper rifle. Notice how you zoom in using the c-stick and use the y-button to open up your inventory. Now play ''[[Killer 7]]'' and use the sniper pistol. The y-button is used to zoom in a pre-set distance, but that's no problem. Unfortunately the c-stick is used to ''reload'', which is a fairly lengthy process. Not fun when you're in a tough fight.

* The original ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' has the circle button to confirm decisions and the X button to cancel. This remained true for the sequels until ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]'', where X became the confirm button and circle was now cancel. This is made worse in the HD versions of ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty]]'' and ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]''. Players of the original PS2 versions are likely going to have a hard time for a few minutes adjusting to that, even if they've played ''MGS4''.

 

== Fighting ==

* Try playing Mortal Kombat on the PS Vita. Now go back to Midway Arcade Classics on the original PSP and play any of the Mortal Kombats. Watch as you do a crouching highkick everytime you try to uppercut someone.

* ''[[Super Smash Bros]]. Brawl'' can do this just within itself. Try playing the Boss Rush mode on Intense so many times in a row that you become an expert at it, then switch over to any easier setting, even Very Hard. All those bosses that can't hit you on Intense will get a lot more hits in.

* ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' games have this between the ''Budokai'' and ''Budokai Tenkaichi'' series on the [[Play Station 2]]. In ''Budokai'', square is punch, triangle is kick, circle is [[Ki Attack]], X blocks/dodges, and 'double tap in a direction' is for dashes. In ''Budokai Tenkaichi'', which is a fully 3D arena fighter unlike ''Budokai'', keeps square as punch, but also adds kicks and other moves in combos, swaps triangle for [[Ki Attack]], circle for blocking, and X is now dash. Many times, you will find yourself getting punched repeatedly in the face as you forgot how to [[Team Four Star|DOOOOODGE!]]

* In the [[King of Fighters]] series, the LP+LK command has changed a few times. In 94 and 95, it was a standing sidestep. In the rest of the series, it became the more popular rolling mechanic. The trope really comes into play in 99 and [[Capcom vs. Whatever|Capcom Vs SNK]] series. In 99, backwards rolling popped you forward straight afterward, while accidentally press a button during forward roll brings you back into the line of fire. In the [[Cv S]] series, there was no backwards rolling whatsoever, so KOF veterans got messed up by this.

 

 

** Try this: Play ''[[Mario Kart]] Wii'' with a [[Game Cube]] controller. Once you're used to it, play ''[[Mario Kart]] Double Dash'' with a [[Game Cube]] controller, or vice versa. "[[Hilarity Ensues|Hey, I wanted to look behind! I'm sure I pulled a stunt off that ramp... What happened to the mini-turbo?]]" are but a few of the questions you'll ask yourself.

*** Somewhat lesser known is that if you press down on the D-Pad on the 3DS version, you switch to "tilt" mode where you turn the 3DS to steer. Simple enough but the Trick command is still mapped to the shoulder Jump button - in ''[[Mario Kart]] Wii'' you jerked the Wii Remote up to do the same thing. Wheel Users in Wii found their 3DS screens flying off if they do this too much with their more fragile handheld.

* An example within a game: ''[[Track Mania]] United Forever'' has 7 environments with 7 cars with ''completely'' different handling. Most ''Trackmania'' servers have a playlist of tracks on all environments in random order. Going from Desert to Stadium or from Snow to Bay ''will'' cause you to overshoot the first turn. Going from Coast (100 kph average speed) to Island (many tracks are pegged at 999 kph all the way) is worse.

** [[It Gets Worse]]: today there exist hex edited tracks that have the cars from one environment in another environment, and even if you get the speed intuitively right, the ''gravity'' is different between car types. Cue repeatedly faceplanting the landing ramp of 'easy' jumps with a Snow car in Stadium because it dropped like a brick - before the server switches over to another Stadium track, this time featuring the Coast car and its moon gravity.

== First-Person Shooters ==

* The vast majority of shooters on the Xbox 360 use either X or the right bumper to reload. While this makes switching between [[Gears of War]]/Halo and [[Call of Duty]] minorly irritating, it doesn't compare with the handful of games ([[Red Dead Redemption]], [[Left 4 Dead]]) that insist on making ''B'' the reload button. Worse yet, the games that use B typically lack a control scheme option that puts reload on X or RB.

* A particularly infuriating example is ''[[Bioshock]] 2''; in the first game, when dealing with one of the game's Little Sisters you could choose to either save (for a good ending) or harvest (for a bad ending) her, which was done by hitting one of two buttons. The feature returns in the sequel, but for an inexplicable reason, the buttons are switched...

** The [[Bioshock]] series in general uses a completely reversed control scheme compared to 90% of other console shooters. The use button and jump button and swapped, etc.

* ''Bodycount'': R1/RB is throw grenade. L1/LB is lay mines. Melee isn't R3 like pretty much every other current FPS, it's O/B. R3 is Crouch.

* ''[[Fur Fighters]]'': the [[Play Station 2]] version had a control scheme that flew in the face of most if not all other shooters on the platform.

* In ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]]'', the B / Circle button is the hand-to-hand takedown button. The problem is that it is also the "Back out of a conversation" button in nearly every other game in existence. So, a common occurrence is for a player to totalk to an NPC they didn't intend to, hit B to back out, and wind up accidentally cold-cocking the poor sap.

* ''[[Call of Duty]]: World at War'''s tank controls. In the earlier games, the tank controlled like, well, a tank (strafe keys turned the tank's body, turret would turn with the body). In ''World at War'', the tank controls were overhauled to work more like the on-foot controls (strafe only turns the tank until the body faces the direction you're holding, at which point it moves forward, and the turret stays oriented where you're aiming regardless of what direction you drive).

* In Japan, the standard for Playstation game menus is O to select or confirm, and X to go back or cancel. In North America, the standard is X for select/confirm and O (or triangle in older games) for back/cancel. Even some games like ''[[Sonic Heroes]]'' got released here with the menu scheme. Makes sense when these symbols have a meaning in Japanese culture. O (maru) means yes and X (batsu) means no.

** Just try to play Japanese version of ''any'' Playstation game, and then switch to English version of exact same game. You'll be screwed.

* [[Simulation Game|Space sims]] don't all use the "like an airplane {{smallcaps|In Space}}" model of ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'', ''[[X Wing]]'', and the like. In more realistic games that have at least make a passing nod to [[Real Life]] physics. For those who use both methods, depending on the game, it can be confusing to attempt a maneuver in one [[Game Engine]] physics model, while actually using the other model.

** A particularly good example is ''[[Free Space]] 2'', specifically the fan-built Source Code Project engine upgrade. One release implemented Newtonian physics as an option, essentially just to prove they could (It's since been used by a couple of mods). Switching this on in the main campaign would result in hilarity, as the AI pilots no longer had any idea how to fly their ships.

** ''Tetris: The Grand Master 4'' is slated to replace the third rotation button, used by some players to achieve a quick 180-degree rotation, with an instant autoshift button. [[This Is Gonna Suck]].

* Shooting games, notably [[First-Person Shooter|First Person Shooters]], tend to mush up button assignments for commonly used actions.

** Similarly, grenades and secondary firing.

** As a video game specific example, the ''[[Uncharted]]'' series uses the R2 button to reload. Most [[First-Person Shooter|First Person Shooters]] use Square.

**** Unless the Blu-ray disk uses Java and has gotten creative with the buttons...

** This is especially when you switch from watching movies on DVD or Blu-ray on your Playstation 3. The menu and control configuration is different on almost all buttons.

* The standard TiVo remote control and the DirectTV-branded version are identical in all respects other than markings -- and the placement of two buttons. One of them turns your TV off.

* Not to mention most modern TV's no longer have buttons lined up on the front of the set, but rather a cluster of them on the side of the TV instead. This is supposedly for aesthetic reasons. Apparently the designers forgot the first rule of engineering and design: design for ease of use, not because it looks nice. Which is why you don't let artists design electronics or any home appliance for that matter.