is motion controls better than regular controls?

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xoalora

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My experience with motion controls was great except sometimes it just bugs out
my experience with regular Was better tho because you dont have to wave the controller around, its too exhausting
 
It really depends on the game specifically and how the controls themselves are integrated/used by the game. I can definitely see the advantage of it for a sports game, but beyond that, it becomes less and less useful in my mind. An example of it being useful like if you were swinging your controller for a baseball game where you were trying to hit the ball when it came close to the screen itself. Though for something other than a sports game it becomes less and less useful and practical I feel. I think Mario Galaxy when it came out on the Wii, made really good use of the motion controls when it first came out though. I guess I would say it might also depend more on the developer of the game itself too and how well they utilize those technologies in the game's own programming.
 
Depends on the game, really. Mario Super Sluggers is one of my favorite Mario games and I owe it largely to the motion controls, it gives you the experience of actually "playing" baseball that you wouldn't get with just button presses.

That being said, as a whole I wouldn't say motion controls are better, and a lot of times they seem unnecessarily shoved into a game just because the console has the capability to do it. (Similar thoughts on touch controls in DS/3DS games, honestly.) I would prefer that if there were motion controls in a game you had alternatives to them, Odyssey for the most part does a good job with this.
 
Depends on the game really. Obviously for games like Wii Sports and Wii Play motion controls are an integral part of the game and it wouldn't be nearly the same without them. However I feel for other Wii games like the two galaxies and super paper mario, I honestly enjoy them just as much if not more on Dolphin with a "normal" controller (and in the case of SPM a keyboard is just fine too)

My wrist can get a bit tired if shaking is involved a lot like in the two galaxies and a lot of the time I feel that motion controls can be cool but aren't that necessary (like in super paper mario the motion controls for item action commands are pretty decent but TTYD managed a huge mix of fun action commands with just a gamecube controller)

And like in dream team with the luiginary ball using tilting the 3DS to move, like it feels odd since I'm pretty sure it's the only DS or 3DS game I've ever played to use motion controls, it's not really bad but I just felt I would've been entirely fine with just steering the ball with the control stick
 
Raven said:
And like in dream team with the luiginary ball using tilting the 3DS to move, like it feels odd since I'm pretty sure it's the only DS or 3DS game I've ever played to use motion controls, it's not really bad but I just felt I would've been entirely fine with just steering the ball with the control stick
Click to expand...
See that's the thing, a lot of applications of motion/touch controls would've been just fine (even better, in some cases) if they used normal controls. I think the Wii in particular suffered from this a lot because that was the big gimmick of the console, so developers (especially Nintendo) felt the need to justify their game being on it by throwing them in where they really didn't need them.
 
I think motion controls increases accessibility, especially when the game is being designed around them.

Take an example: the Mario Kart games have steering as a motion control option, and it makes the game more accessible to those who didn't grow up with digital controls like some of us. It's no coincidence that Mario Kart Wii sold very well for that reason. Splatoon is another game that utilises motion controls well that it is considered the most optimal control for competitive players even in its sequel because it offered a more flexible control. Mario Party is another series where it uses motion controls well for accessibility, although I felt that it had a bit of growing pains in Mario Party 8.

Some games do feel a bit cumbersome that it's not surprising that it was dropped. An example is Donkey Kong Country Returns, where motion is required to do certain actions that when it comes to the 3DS port its functions are mapped to a button press despite the 3DS itself having motion controls. New Super Mario Bros. U is another game where the motion control is rendered unnecessary (coming from New Super Mario Bros. Wii).

Thank you for reading.
 
In some cases, yeah. There are some things that motion controls do better than normal buttons. Gyro aiming in games like Splatoon 2 make it much easier to aim. Also games like Wii Sports are built around motion controls, so they just wouldn't be as fun with a standard controller. I like motion controls when they either enhance the experience, or are at least are something optional I can use if I want to.

What I don't like, is when motion controls are tacked on and ultimately harm the game. Super Mario Odyssey is a game that I love, but I hate how they implemented motion controls. Stuff like throwing your cap in specific directions is fine, it lets you be more accurate with your movements. However, certain moves in that game are actually worse if you use button controls. Rolling is the best way to travel long distances, yet if you want to go fast as possible, you have to shake the system. You can jump really high as the frog, but if you want to jump the absolute highest (Which is required for some moons), you have to shake the system. You can spam Y to punch Bowser during his boss fights, but to punch as fast as possible you have to shake the system. There are even some moves that you don't even have access to unless you shake. The Cheep Cheep's spin attack (Which is really important for underwater sections) is locked behind shaking the system.

Playing in docked mode, this really isn't a big deal. But unless I'm doing couch multiplayer with friends, I'm always using my Switch in handheld mode. So if I want to roll as fast as possible across one of the game's many large kingdoms, I have to repeatedly shake this $300 console around, and it doesn't feel good at all.

TL DR
Motion controls are at their best when they enhance the experience.
 
To mirror what everyone else has said already, it's something that depends on the game and how it implements motion controls.

Obviously this being a mostly Nintendo-centric community, the Wii is probably everyone's go-to example of 'motion controls' and there were plenty of games on that system that suffered from the dreaded 'waggle', where the devs didn't bother to actually build the game around the unique features of the controller and instead just have you shake the controller to do a basic action that could have been managed via a button press. But that didn't mean that motion controls themselves were bad or inferior to normal ones because stuff like Wii Sports would be completely different had it just used a regular controller.

Or, in a more modern context, VR gaming. I'll confess that I've never done VR gaming myself, but based on what I've seen, every VR game involves motion controls and that helps immerse the player into the game, especially if the game is a first person game because it makes you feel like you are actually part of the game world and are interacting with it. And that's a big reason why a lot of people who use VR, while they acknowledge the benefits of 'non-VR mods' so people who can't use VR can at least experience a VR game's story, will also point out that one won't get the same experience of playing a VR game in 2D with a controller as one would get when actually using a VR setup.
 
Can verify that motion controls suck. (See my horrible streaming attempt for proof.)
 
ik everyone shits on motion controls, but really, whether theyre good or not depends on the way theyre implemented.

for example games like mario galaxy and wii sports make good use of them. it feels like the game was made for them, but then you have games like nsmbwii where they feel like they just exist because they wantedto squeeze motion vontrols into it. overall, i like them. theyre not better than button controls but theyre overhated imo
 
I mean, they're fun, but only to a point.
 
I usually don't like motion or touch controls, preferring the lack of physical effort involved with pressing buttons. Allowing more focus on what's happening in-game and less on physical to digital translation.

Once in a while I'll opt to the gimmick controls for a new experience, and although fun, it's usually short lived.
 
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