The 5 Worst Video Game Controls

A video game needs to be challenging to be rewarding. A game that is too easy to beat will be quickly forgotten and scarcely replayed. There are many ways developers add difficulty to a game. It can be achieved through clever level design, great enemy AI, or by testing players' memory and reflexes. The added difficulty is appreciated by gamers who will derive a high sense of satisfaction from beating a well designed and difficult game.

There is however, one way to make a game difficult that leads to nothing but frustration and foul language: bad game controls. There is nothing more annoying than dying in a video game when your obvious intent to move left was interpreted by the game as wanting to jump straight into a lava pit. A game can get away with many flaws, but a bad control scheme will always ruin the game experience.

The following games have two things in common: they are considered terrible games and they have some of the worst controls on the market.

Superman (Nintendo 64)

This game is considered to be one of the worst video games of all time. There are several things amiss with this game, the graphics are uninspired and the gameplay extremely tedious and repetitive. On top of these problems the controls are extremely poor.

Flying around Metropolis as Superman is an experience that is difficult to mess up, but the flight controls in Superman are so bad that it is tempting to think they were developed as some sort of bad joke. This is a huge problem for the game since flying around is virtually everything the game has to offer. You can never know if pressing a button will have any effect at all and trying to control the character is left almost entirely to chance.

Sonic the Hedgehog (Xbox 360 and PS3)

Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most recognizable characters in video gaming. In his hay-day on the Sega Genesis he was going toe to toe with Mario himself for platforming supremacy. Since then the Sonic franchise has taken a disastrous nosedive. One of the worst offenders is Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 for the two HD home consoles.

Like many other classic 2d platformers, Sonic the Hedgehog have been struggling with moving to a 3D world. The worst case of this is on display in this game. Released as a celebration of Sonics 15^th anniversary, the game is more of a swan song than a homage to a great character.

The developers of the game has since admitted that the game was rushed to get it on the market for the holidays. Simultaneously developed for two platforms only led to the game being glitchy and broken for both.

The most glaring errors in the game are in the handling of the camera angles. The camera is consistency out of position and frequently obscure the action. Many times the camera angle will shift to a completely new viewing angle resulting in all action in the game grinding to a halt as the player suddenly is controlling sonic in the wrong direction.

Wipeout (Wii)

Not surprisingly this licensed game from the popular TV show is a pretty bad game. Terrible graphics, a laughable physics model, and 1999 like voice acting. However, all this might have been excusable for the cheap fun of seeing virtual people flung around the wipeout zone like ragdolls.

The way the game controls however makes it very difficult to find any enjoyment in the game. Not only is it a great shame that a game of this nature does not use the balance board at least as an optional control device, but the use of the motion controls of the Wii are ludicrous. Worse, trying to control your character is virtually impossible, especially on obstacles that require movement in 3D space is virtually impossible.

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing (PC)

Terrible video games are released every day. Some games are even more terrible than others, then there are games that are so utter rubbish that they get a kind of cult following. Big Rigs is that kind of game. Based on the quality of the game it deserves to sell not a single copy, yet the game has been fairly successful. This is only because the game is so bad it is impossible to understand how terrible it is until you have seen it. Even then you can't bring yourself to acknowledge that this 'game' can actually exist.

Tagged as an exciting big rig racing game, Big Rigs is nothing like that. It can barely be called a racing game at all since the rigs you will be 'racing' never make it off the starting line. The game is absolutely useless and has no challenge what so ever, no purpose for anyone playing it, no objectives or even any time limits or scoring system. The 'controls' consist of the four arrow keys. The big rig you're supposedly controlling has insane acceleration, easily doing 0-60 in under 5 seconds only to stop immediately if you let up on the gas pedal. It doesn't matter if you go forward or reverse, your big rig will outperform any sports car on the market easily.

Resident Evil

The Resident Evil series is arguably the best survival horror games on the market. The atmosphere and immersion the games offer are fantastic. Since the whole concept behind a survival horror game is to make you feel uncomfortable and scared, the horrific control schemes in the earlier games might actually help the game experience.

The main problem with the Resident Evil controls are the counter intuitive way characters turn. Running straight forward is easy enough, but when it is time to turn, Resident Evil turns evil. Moving the control stick left or right merely pivots your character left or right. In essence, you can not turn just run straight ahead or rotate around your own axis. This is not only quiet unrealistic, it's also highly annoying when trying to turn and run from advancing zombies. Having zombies chew on your arms while you ever so slowly spin on your heels is nerve-wracking indeed