Why don't console games let you remap controls as you want?

This has always bugged me.

My first big venture into the world of gaming was Team Fortress Classic back in... 1999. That game (and the Half-Life engine in general) let you do crazy stuff with your controls. I could map every button on my keyboard to shoot gun if I wanted to just roll my face across it and fire my weapon.

Yet the console trend (I speculate is due to Halo's popularity in 2001) was to give you a meager smattering of pre-mapped button layouts that may or may not put all your critical functions within comfortable reach.

Now some console games still allow this. For the most part it seems to be fighters, like Street Fighter IV, that let you remap every button to some form of attack, even making single button mapping for an attack that's default can require 2 or even 3 buttons to be pushed at once.


So why... why do all the console shooters give you a 4-8 pre-set control layouts for your controller instead of letting you put what every move you want on what ever button you want?

Is there some kind of hard code that prevents this? Does microsoft simply poo-poo this kind of remapping for shooters (but not fighting games)? Is it some fear that being able to put the jump button to both A and Y would cause some kind of catastrophic exploit or game ruining bug? Maybe... it just takes a lot of time and coding for what devs feel would serve no real purpose?


I'd really just like to know. :mrgreen:

I think I remember one of the devs saying that it is because if there could be a bug with a certain control scheme. So all of them have to be tested out and since Uber isn't that big that's a bit hard.

buttons * functions = possibilities

Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo are very careful not to break their games so any new control schemes must be approved by them. And it takes about a month to get it approved. So it's just not in Uber's best interest.

I can kind of understand that just from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. You could get some weird things to happen by mapping the special move button to the C-stick (gamecube's right analog stick). Lucas' PK Fire gained extra momentum and let him sling shot around the screen by combining it with his energy absorbing move. Peach could actually continue moving left and right to a small degree while pulling turnips.

Hmm, now that I think about it, menu navigation could be seriously screwed up without special coding. I seem to recall a few games where swapping the attack and jump buttons would also change the confirm/cancel buttons for getting around the mode select menus.

Scathis posted here about that very question.

Sucks but there you have it, heaps of work wich (imo) could be better spend on more of this awesome DLCness


If you are really bent on perfecting controls you can look into the Razer Onza, it should come out anytime soon now.

One of the few games that has ever managed full custom controller mapping for the console was Armored Core 4 (and AC:4A). So to put it simply, yes it can be done if the developer wants to do it. The game had built-in checks to make sure that every button was properly mapped and while AC4 allowed you to map multiple functions to a single button, AC:4A removed this option.

Not to derail the thread but I'm looking forward to the Razer Onza controller (if it is ever released) for this very reason. Two bumpers that can be mapped are better than none.

It's the developers choice, Lots of console games let you completely remap the controls.

There's no real reason. It's just because they don't. I believe GI once had an article on the issue also dismayed at the access to such an easy function.

Because these games belong on PC