Splatoon: An Amazing Game with TERRIBLE CONTROLS

[IkaMusume2012]

Hey all. So first of all, I'm posting here because I bought Splatoon a few days ago, and have been playing it like eight hours a day with my little brother. The game is some of the most fun I've ever had with a videogame. Rad as hell soundtrack, fantastic atmosphere, and addictive and hilariously fun gameplay. Super FRESH all around, lol.

So I came here to post this in hopes that you guys will agree with me. Basically, I think Splatoon's controls could use some major improvements, and it would take Nintendo thirty seconds to implement the features I'm about to propose. I really hope they patch this game in the near future.

The first thing is the joystick sensitivity. Either I turn it down, so I can actually aim at enemies, and then I can't turn around fast enough to survive in close firefights, or I turn them up, and then whenever I try to turn quickly to face an enemy, I end up looking at the sky or at the ground. Proposed fix: let us set the aiming sensitivity for the X and Y axis seperately, like Halo did like fifteen years ago. That would go a long way in making the the joystick aiming better, in my opinion. We need to be able to turn 360 degrees quickly, but we only need about sixty degrees of motion on the Y axis usually, so why are the X and Y axis' sensitivity locked together?!

Edit: As PremiumFootwear points out in the post below, there's no acceleration when aiming, either, making small adjustments while aiming extremely difficult with the josysticks, no matter which axis you're on. Also needs to be fixed. =(

Second of all are the motion controls...I got up to level 13/rank C+ yesterday, and I'm starting to bump into some good players. The sniper rifle type weapons are actually starting to become a real threat in the hands of these good players. When I played against them, I thought "how the hell are they aiming so precisely?! They must have bionic thumbs!" Watching them play though, I realized they're almost definitely using motion controls, because their movements are so fine and slow.

So I turned motion controls back on. And holy ****, aiming with motion controls is SO precise. The only problem is is that it's confusing as hell to use them for a few reasons.
-The first reason is that using motion controls automatically locks your Y axis. Why? What's the point of that?
-The second reason is because you have to CONSTANTLY reset the calibration by pressing the y button to make sure you can physically turn the controller to aim in all directions when you need to.
-The third reason is that the motion controls are ALWAYS ON when you have the option ticked. Whenever I look down at my map or anything like that, my character ends up looking sideways and at the ground as I move my arms. Terrible when the game is so fast paced.

The way to fix the motion controls is super simple. Allow us to simply hold the LEFT BUMPER when we want motion controls enabled. When we press the left bumper and enter motion controls, set our current arm position as the starting position for calibration, since the player will obviously be sitting in a comfortable position while they're playing. With this simple fix, we could run around for 70% of gameplay time using the regular joystick controls to quickly turn and squid around without motion controls messing us up whenever our arms accidentally move, and we could quickly toggle motion controls on when we need them - when we're already facing an enemy, and want a quick and accurate way to fine-tune our aim.

So there we go. I think these few simple fixes would make Splatoon's gameplay a million times better than it already is. I love the game to death, and for the most part, I'm tearing it up in both battle modes. It just sucks when you die because of imprecise controls. I have a feeling a lot of the better players are using the motion controls, but when the motion controls are so much of a pain in the *** to use, the situation becomes "aim worse and have fun," or "put up with keeping track of where your arms are for four hours straight, or put up with not being able to aim as well as all these crazy Japanese squids." Not an ideal situation.

Anyone else agree? I hope Nintendo takes notice of these problems and fixes them. I'm surprised they didn't get them sorted before the game launched, honestly. Nintendo games almost always have perfect controls!

EDIT: As I mentioned in a post below, I played the single player campaign with the motion controls, thanks to you guys convincing me. Played with 2.5+ sensitivity. After about an hour, the controls felt pretty natural. After a few more, I couldn't believe I ever preferred the stick controls. The motion controls are fantastic! So much faster than the joystick-only control set up. So accurate and satisfying to use! That said, they could still improve them a little probably, especially for people who don't prefer motion controls. But yeah...I've done a complete 180 on the controls, now. They're amazing once you get used to the motion controls, in my opinion. Thanks again for convincing me to try them, guys!

 

[PremiumFootwear]

I think the motion controls as they are are fine really, your suggestion as an optional addition certainly wouldn't hurt, but I think it's more of a matter of getting used to them. They feel really natural and responsive after a while, there's no need to constantly use y to reset them either. I usually only need to do that at the start of a match because I changed position in my chair. The key is to find a balance between the whole refined aiming with the gyro controls and turning with the right stick. I notice I'm always using both, and that I've pretty much started to look up and down with gyro, and to the sides with the stick. I had to raise the default sensitivity some though, it was way too slow for me.
I do however want to qualify and say how bad the stick controls are without gyro turned on. I felt like this was a big oversight for Nintendo in the way they implemented them. I tried using them during the testfire and was amazed to find that they had little to no acceleration, so tapping the stick lightly had the same effect as holding it all the way in. Aiming in any real sense is nearly impossible with motion controls turned off, as I'm sure you found out based on your experiences so far. Just keep using the gyro controls, you'll start to get the hang of them, they really aren't annoying at all and feel perfectly natural after a while.

 

[IkaMusume2012]

I feel like I'll get used to them sooner or later too, but controls aren't something you should have to "get used to" after tweny-five years of gaming. Now that you mention it, the lack of acceleration is the other reason the stick controls feel so twitchy and unrefined. =(

I really hope Nintendo fixes these problems. I'm sure I'll get used to the controls (like I said, I'm already doing pretty well with them), but I think if Nintendo patches in the suggestions I made, along with yours, the gameplay would feel a lot more polished and enjoyable. I'd like this game to be as much fun as possible for everybody. The game is fantastic already, despite what I consider surprisingly bad controls for a Nintendo title.

 

[missingno]

Thread title calls it terrible, body merely has minor nitpicks. Clickbait much?

 

[PremiumFootwear]

I completely agree, Nintendo should easily be able to make those fixes and make the game more accessible. It seems to me that they are always more intent on pushing their innovative new ideas though. Which isn't all bad I guess, I was one of the people that loved the motion controls and jumped right on them, but I'm willing to bet there's a lot of people that played this game, thought to turn off the motion controls just to stick with what was familiar, and were left confused and frustrated until they either gave up, or decided to turn them back on.

 

[IkaMusume2012]

missingno: Minor nickpicks? Really? DX
I said in the body of my post that shooters from FIFTEEN YEARS AGO controlled better. Lack of aiming acceleration and having the X and Y sensitivity locked together make aiming with the joysticks nearly impossible. The way the motion controls are set up are the most counterintuitive way I could dream up. If the game itself wasn't so fun, I would've dropped it half an hour after starting it up.

I only listed a few problems, but they're BIG problems. The game controls badly compared to almost every other shooter out there. And it's only because of a few stupid, easy-to-fix problems. I really hope the game gets patched.

Premium: Yes, believe me, I'm glad Nintendo is crazy and amazing enough to push games like Splatoon out onto the market. They've been my favorite game company since I've been a kid for just that reason. I hope Splatoon does ridiculously well so they keep pushing forward with games like this. Lack of polished controls is going to turn a good number of people off though, I think, especially the larger, more casual market. If I wasn't such a "core" gamer, I probably would've gotten frustrated with the game's joystick controls and quit pretty quickly. I'm glad I stayed on, because I'm having a huge amount of fun with the game, but I can't help but feel annoyed that the gameplay is being held back by what I consider common sense oversights on Nintendo's part. It's even more painful that these problems could be fixed with a few hours of programming by a mid-level programmer and patched into the game if Nintendo takes notice.

I don't want you guys to think I came here just to **** on the game. I posted this because I legitimately hope Nintendo patches Splatoon to make the controls better. I've sunk six to eight hours into the game every day since I bought it. I haven't had this much fun with a game in a LONG time. If Nintendo notices these control issues and makes the game even better, I'll be very happy. =D

 

[Crucifigo]

I'm a 100% no-console PC gamer since I could sit upright on a chair and I don't think it's TOO bad. Yes, Splatoon is a shooter, but all of the weapons are pretty inaccurate compared to more 'hardcore' shooters, aka not Nintendo-style. I use the sticks with motion control turned on (swerve gamepad when necessary), and I get a regular 1,300+ points in Regular. While I would looove if Splatoon was keyboard/mouse compatible, I think it was designed around a specific set of controls.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your ideas though, I think a lot of players would appreciate them. Either you get on well with Splatoon's controls by Lv.10, or you don't. More options for people who don't enjoy the current setup would be great, regardless of how efficient they are. There's a different control scheme for everyone, but there's no one-size-fits-all scheme for everyone.

 

[pixelatedcody]

I use the gyro controls...and I'm A-.

I don't really think the game has any control issues.

But I can see where you are coming from.

If I enjoyed the non-motion controls I do think a in game toggle button during matches would be nice. Allows us to switch our scheme on the fly.

 

[Litagano Motscoud]

I think the controls are pretty good as they are right now, but I'm not going to complain about more customizable controls.

I do think it's pretty dumb how the y-axis on the control stick is disabled with motion controls though...

 

[Lenrap]

While I'm fine with the current control sensitivity, I completely see where you're coming from with motion controls. One of the main reason why I switched from squiffler to aerospray...

 

[Leather Belt]

I was just thinking about this. Motion controls feel terrible to me and I really don't want to take a step back mechanically by trying to learn them. Classic controls would be fantastic if they tuned the Y axis just slightly and made negative sensitivity actually slow. I'm sitting on -5 sens and I'm still passing right over people. It really feels like it's inhibiting me from progressing.

 

[JuddTheCat]

At first I wasn't happy with the controls, then it grew on to me. Don't think of this as any other shooter, especially if its not on a Nintendo console. The Gamepad will obviously control differently than a game controller on PS4/XboxOne.

 

[IkaMusume2012]

I'm glad a lot of you agree that the controls could use some work, or at least that more options would help certain players. The game is so well loved (for very good reason), that I was a little worried I'd just get a lot of angry responses here. I probably should've had more faith in my fellow Nintendo/Splatoon fans, hahah. =D

@Judd: I know. I'm going to jump back into the game with the motion controls on, and play for a few hours that way. They'll probably grow on me. I turned the controls off, though, because almost every single review and comment I've read on sites on Kotaku and such have said the motion controls are horrible. That says something about how unintuitive they are, I think. Now that I've come here, and a lot of high-level players are endorsing them, I'll give them a shot, and I'm sure I'll like the controls a lot more once my brain wraps around them. That said, though, I know I'd prefer the control scheme I outlined in my original post, and there's no reason not to have it as an option.

And the unpolished way the joystick aiming handles has nothing to do with the game being a Nintendo game or being played on the Wii U gamepad. It's just badly programmed. =(

@Lenrap: Yar, like I mentioned earlier, the controls are keeping me away from certain weapons, too. It's a shame, since all the weapons are unique and would be fun to use, if I could control them.
@Leather: I agree completely, which is why I made this thread. It's a real shame that the controls in Splatoon are keeping me away from certain playstyles and weapons. So far with the motion controls on, I haven't been able to react quickly enough in close fights, so I've been taking longer range options and hanging back to make use of the better accuracy. And dying as soon as anyone with a roller or anything pops up close to me. When I play without the motion controls, I take something short range and try getting as much ink around me as possible to make good use of my faster reaction times to make up for my horrible accuracy. Both ways of playing are fun, but it's really too bad that it feels like the controls are working against me in half the situations I find myself in, no matter which option I choose. I'm going to try the motion controls again and hopefully they'll grow on me.

So yeah. I love the game to death, but it's frustrating that something so easy to fix is holding the game back (for people like me, at least!) The game's only been out a week, though, and Nintendo has been really fantastic this generation with patches and DLC. I'm crossing my fingers we'll see something soon. I just spoke up here because if nobody says anything about the controls, Nintendo isn't going to consider doing anything about them.

 

[JuddTheCat]

I'm glad a lot of you agree that the controls could use some work, or at least that more options would help certain players. The game is so well loved (for very good reason), that I was a little worried I'd just get a lot of angry responses here. I probably should've had more faith in my fellow Nintendo/Splatoon fans, hahah. =D

@Judd: I know. I'm going to jump back into the game with the motion controls on, and play for a few hours that way. They'll probably grow on me. I turned the controls off, though, because almost every single review and comment I've read on sites on Kotaku and such have said the motion controls are horrible. That says something about how unintuitive they are, I think. Now that I've come here, and a lot of high-level players are endorsing them, I'll give them a shot, and I'm sure I'll like the controls a lot more once my brain wraps around them. That said, though, I know I'd prefer the control scheme I outlined in my original post, and there's no reason not to have it as an option.

And the unpolished way the joystick aiming handles has nothing to do with the game being a Nintendo game or being played on the Wii U gamepad. It's just badly programmed. =(

Some sites may say that, but it might not work for them, people here play this game way more than reviewer sites.
I'm really liking the motion controls much more than joystick (as you say, yeah the joystick is not suited for this game, probably the reason why the devs left motion controls on automatically).

 

[suavevillain]

The only thing i hate is when i'm trying to shoot someone and it get's stuck on a ledge.

 

[Aura]

If I were to hate anything about Splatoon, yes it would be it's controls. Call me hipster, but I perfer my controllers to not flash in my face. And it's size? Good god, I have big hands (shut up) but even I find it uncomfortable. Motion controls are very wonky, and the placement of Inkstrikes are a bit distracting.

Overall, I'm still hoping for controller capabilities. It's definitely possible, and should be enforced so we aren't forced to one controller.

 

[Poxnixles]

tbh when the testfire went up it basically only took me seconds to get used to the motion controls. Sometime after the game came out I turned on the dual stick controls and was instantly reviled. Must be my PC shooter background.

 

[PremiumFootwear]

Sites are openly complaining about the motion controls? I find that kind of odd, for me they were great right off the bat. I figured them out quick and got the hang of things. Obviously I'm not everyone so I can totally imagine why some people would be turned away from them, but I personally would go so far to say that they are fantastic. I actually have 0 complaints about the gyro controls themselves, I haven't once been in a situation where I felt the controls prevented me from accomplishing something, once I was used to them anyway. I didn't start using weapons that required more refined aim until a little later though, so they're probably less fun at first.
All of that endorsement aside, the fact that they openly mentioned you could disable motion controls suggested to me that without gyro controls the game would be just as playable with them on. It isn't though, as I'm sure everyone who started with stick controls has discovered, with them you're going to lose out to people with motion controls very often. It should be a super easy fix for Nintendo though, so if we get the word out there about this hopefully they'll step in and make a quick fix. With all the patching they've started doing to their games, I'm thinking there's a good chance we'll see this fix in one. Of course, they'll never tell us they did it directly because for some reason the patch notes are never released ):

 

[Blatikin]

By the way guys, in case you didn't know. When using motion controls. You can turn around 180 degrees (face behind you) immediately if you make your character face the camera (looking straight at you) then press Y. This will orientate your player facing where they are looking, this also applies to looking left and right. Also you can turn left and right using motion controls by tilting the gamepad like a steering wheel. if you turn with motion control and the right stick at the same time you turn twice as fast. Down side is once you turn as much as you can you would want to return to your normal position resulting in you turning the other way for a bit. Its there for situational purposes I guess and I only recommend tilting a little rather than a lot.

Also if you hold Y it locks your camera in place.

 

[IkaMusume2012]

@PremiumFootwear: Yeah, they really are, which is why I started playing with stick controls. Now I regret wasting like 25 hours of playtime learning to use the joystick only method, since all you guys are saying the motion controls are superior. But yeah, lots of people are dinging the game for the controls:

reddit thread, where it's like half and half.
http://www.reddit.com/r/wiiu/comments/38kc70/i_finally_turned_off_motion_controls_in_splatoon/

gamefaqs thread, again lots of arguments:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1053716

Forbes article titled "Nintendo's Splatoon Will Be Terrible Unless You Change One Thing at the Start," completely trashing the motion control option:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...e-unless-you-change-one-setting-at-the-start/

Kotaku's write-up of the demo (the reviewer called the motion controls "a little wonky," and said he did much better after he turned them off):
http://tay.kinja.com/thoughts-on-splatoons-global-testfire-demo-1703359739

The overwhelming majority of the Kotaku commenters also said "you need to turn off the awful motion controls to be able to play the game correctly," which is why I instantly turned them off. I was actually surprised when most of your guys voted in favor of motion controls here. Again, the reaction I've seen everywhere has been very mixed, which is why Nintendo needs to offer more options, I think. The controls work, but they don't seem to be ideal to most people. With the rest of Splatoon oozing polish and style, it's weird that a main part of the game draws such mixed reactions.

Like we said though, Nintendo's been really good with their patches lately. Which is why (again) it's important for the people who have problems with the game to speak up about them. Nintendo's actually been pretty good about reacting to fan input lately, in my opinion.

And thanks for the tips, Blatkin. I'll keep them in mind while I try re-learning to play Splatoon, heheh! I guess now's a good time to play through the single player campaign. =D

@Suave: trying to shoot over the ledge from the middle tower in the skatepark level using the motion controls was probably the most frustrating thing I've done in gaming this year. Good thing there's no voicechat in Splatoon. So much swearing, hahah!

@Aura: yep. I'm really surprised Nintendo locked everyone into these two uncustomizable control schemes when there are probably literally ten different controllers the Wii U supports, lol.

@pox: That's lucky for you! Hopefully after I play through the single player campaign with the motion controls, I'll be a bit better at them. Still, the twin-stick method feels SO much faster to me when I'm popping in and out of ink and strafing everywhere. I don't know if my slow brain will ever allow me to match that speed when it feels like I'm juggling two control methods at the same time, no matter how much practice I get in. =(

So, yeah. Nintendo, come read this board! Help me and other players like me out, please! =D