Whilst the rise of the touch screen and the release of the Wii have seen games with alternate control schemes become more prevalent in mainstream game, in reality alternate methods of controlling video games have been around since the 1980s, including things such as light guns in arcade shooters, steering wheels in racing games, and dance mats for some rhythm games. Where once the majority of titles were played using a controller with buttons, now you can easily find games of pretty much any genre that do not utilise these at all, even where an alternative control scheme may not traditionally fit with expectations. How do you feel about alternative control schemes, such as motion controls? Do you find that they work better for certain styles of game, or do you prefer the (relatively) simple elegance of button-based controls? Do you have any games that don't use button controls that you enjoy? In games that utilise both, do you ever find yourself using the alternate controls over the buttons, or is this something you go out of your way to avoid if you find it in a game?
Definitely prefer button-based. I've tried motion controls on Mario Kart very briefly at some point and playing was an absolute disaster haha. I've got a much better handle on gameplay and my character when I stick to buttons or the keyboard if it's a PC game. Never really gave thought to any other types of controls, since what I am used to works so well already.
It depends on the game. I prefer motion controls for games like Zelda where you actually hold your sword and swing it. I played a little bit of Breath of the Wild the other day as a demo. I don't know if you can swing the joy-con to use it as a weapon, but it had a wire attached to keep people from stealing it, so I couldn't do that anyway. Just pressing a button and hoping it works feels weird after playing Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess, even though with Twilight princess it doesn't need much more than just a flick of the wrist. Alternatively, I tried replaying Phantom hourglass a while ago which has a very heavy emphasis on the use of the touch screen and it just felt so clunky to use. I've noticed that a lot of the original DS games had that heavy emphasis on using the touchscreen, while as the system aged and eventually transitioned into the 3DS, the touch screen slowly became more of a thing for convenience, showing maps, menus, or inventories and things like that with more emphasis being put on what you see on the 3D screen. It might just be because I haven't played very many systems with classic controllers. The only exception was Shadow of the Colossus, which I only played part of on a friend's Playstation back in college. It was hard to adapt to and always felt weird, but I found out recently that Shadow of the Colossus was always a weird game to control, so that might have been more on the game itself rather than the controller. I've played a lot of PC games though (to the point where WASD are kind of faded on my keyboard and two computer mouses have died) and that feels second nature to me at this point.
I generally prefer button controls, but like Wolf Expert said, it depends on the game. It would make sense to use motion controls for games like Mario Kart (and even for that, I generally use the d-pad) so you can get the feel that you're actually playing in real life.
For games that require very precise inputs, such as fighting games, button controls are usually the best option. Fitness games, rhythm games, and casual puzzle games tend to work better with alternate control options if they were designed with them in mind. I can’t imagine playing a game like Cytus 2 or Wii Fit with a traditional controller. It wouldn’t work.
Touch screens have almost never given me any troubles as far controls go. However, motion controls are often terrible unless the game is built around it (for example: Wii Sports Resort, NintendoLand, etc.) The worst control gimmick for me has to be the microphone back on the DS. I mean, sure it was fine for a few minutes in one of the DS apps, but having it in games? I don't want to blow in my microphone in order to beat a level or do something. That's just lame. Button based for days.
