I just don't get how they seem to be unplayable or completely impenetrable to so many people. I'd say it's a generational thing but even many people who grew up playing PS1 games act like trying to figure them out in 2024 completely short circuits their brains

Now, would I want to play some hypothetical fast paced 3D action game from the 90s where they used tank controls because they didn't know any better? No, but they work perfectly fine in slower-paced games like Resident Evil-style survival horror or the first five Tomb Raider games (though the camera kind of sucks in those, but it took a long time for 3D games to figure out how to handle that in general)

Maybe I'm just weird for enjoying tank controls. Some survival horror games that came out in the PS2 era like Silent Hill 2 and 3 gave you the option between 2D and 3D (tank controls) movement and I always pick the latter if I get the chance

  • M68040 [they/them]
    ·
    9 months ago

    A lot of games either did them badly, or did them when there were better options. (Rascal, for instance)

    • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
      ·
      9 months ago

      I looked it up and that's precisely the sort of thing I had in mind with bad implementations of tank controls (fast-paced, action-heavy 3D gameplay with a big emphasis on platforming)

      • M68040 [they/them]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Yeah, it doesn't help that the game really wasn't designed with them in mind - the switch to tank controls was a fairly late publisher-mandated thing, so there wasn't really much window to retool the game to match.