The Best Video Game Controls Of 2023
Plus: Bad numbers for blockchain gaming, 2K on WWE scandal and a new boss at Blizzard
There are a lot of video game awards for outstanding achievements in graphics, music, story and more, but I’ve searched fruitlessly for anyone awarding a trophy for the thing that ensures gaming is a uniquely interactive medium: controls.
Maybe I can make that a thing. Today, I present six nominations for 2023 games with great controls, from six smart people.
But, first, let’s ponder…
What it means for a video game to have great controls.
Maybe you shouldn’t notice them. The best controls might be those that allow you to feel so intimately connected to a video game that you forget you’re pressing buttons. Here, maybe a racing game such as Forza Motorsport or the cleaning game PowerWash Simulator would be strong candidates. You steer with a wheel; you power-spray with a squeeze of the trigger. The controls just work.
Maybe you should notice them. Or the best controls might be those that have the best feel and that reward the user’s performance, as would a piano or a guitar. Here, I go back to an older game, Super Mario 64, and the feeling of pushing a control stick forward and timing three button presses just right to land a triple jump. Two exceptional indie games that pulled this off in 2023: the 3D metroidvansia Pseudoregalia and the 2D platformer Pizza Tower.
They might be perfect. One complication of recognizing games for their controls is that, unlike graphics, music and story, you can actually have objectively flawless controls (yes, yes, I know someone will remind me that Killer7 had a flawless story. Anyway…). A puzzle game such as Storyteller has exactly the controls it needs. Give it the Gold?
They might be useful for more people. Great controls also might be those that let people who typically haven’t been able to play a game do so. Back to Forza again, a racing game with such deep accessibility options and audio cues, that it can be played by gamers who cannot see.
Simple, right? Just like all the other easily definable video game awards categories.
Here, now, are the six picks. The selection was informal. I asked each person to pick a 2023 game whose controls they thought were excellent.
Maybe these are The Best Video Game Controls Of 2023.
At the very last, they represent six games for their Outstanding Achievement In Video Game Controls In 2023
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Developed by: Massive Entertainment (and sister Ubisoft studios)
Xalavier Nelson, studio head at Strange Scaffold, writes: Ubisoft faced an immense challenge with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, taking gameplay paradigms and expectations from franchises often built around some variety of exploitation, to give life to a universe built on ecological harmony.
If you've worked on large, established [intellectual property], you know this is even more difficult than it sounds. However, against all odds... the team at Ubisoft Massive pulled it off.
One of my favorite indications of this achievement can be seen in the gathering system. To gather high quality ingredients for several key game systems, you must gently pull the trigger part-way, find a sweet spot with a thumbstick (indicated by visual and audio feedback), and then finish pulling the trigger to accomplish your goal without harming either the ingredient or the plant.
In this world, you've missed the point if you *just* pick up three branches, and you're encouraged to only take as much as you need. It's a microcosm of the entire game's unusually nuanced take on what it means to exist in a AAA open-world, and a stunning example of the recontextualization of proven gameplay systems that can occur when a team is empowered to do so.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
Developed by: Team Reptile
Gene Park, critic at The Washington Post, writes: Bomb Rush Cyberfunk demonstrates how controls can be an accessibility issue for anyone. Netherlands developer Team Reptile made this game as an inspired homage to cult Sega Dreamcast game Jet Set Radio. That game and its sequel, JSRF, are cult hits, but its controls were horrendous.
Released in 2000, Jet Set Radio was created during a trailblazing era of 3D game development. With rare exceptions like Nintendo’s Super Mario 64, most projects struggled with interpreting a full range of movement on video game controllers. But it wasn’t actually the 3D camera of JSR that presented the biggest issue: It was the button responsiveness and layout.
In Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, jumps, attacks and trick buttons are labeled by many common modern control layouts. This allows for quick and stylish trick transitions while keeping button functions simple.
Sega is relaunching the Jet Set Radio brand, and from the few seconds shown in a trailer, the series may have picked up a few tricks of its own after more than two decades of evolved game design, including the work by Team Reptile. It’s another clear and simple example of how game design is iterative and evolving.
Hi-Fi Rush
Developed by: Tango Gameworks
Kirk Hamilton, podcast host/producer for Triple Click and Strong Songs, writes: All the best action games involve some degree of musicality—that’s just the rhythm of play. But Hi-Fi Rush much more directly turns the controller into a musical instrument. Every enemy move-set and audio-visual cue in the game works to get you mashing out quarter notes across the controller.
Dodge-counter-hit-hit-pause-HIT-grapple-hit-jump-dodge-hit-hit-ULT-thump-pop-BOOM…
It never gets old!
Jusant
Developed by: Don’t Nod.
Willa Rowe, staff writer at Kotaku, writes: There’s an admitted simplicity in Jusant's controls. By pulling and releasing the controller's triggers, players repeatedly place one hand over the other to summit the game’s cliff face. That’s about it.
But in turning a single movement into the central loop, Jusant focuses on the intricacies of climbing and reflects the protagonist's journey through the player's controller inputs. It brings the player's experience more in line with the game's themes. This makes Jusant a uniquely rewarding game to play, not just upon reaching the game’s finale, but in the small moments of success after every incremental handheld it took to get there.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Developed by: Nintendo’ EPD Production Group No. 3
Carolyn Petit, managing editor of Kotaku, writes: Tears of the Kingdom’s versatile building mechanics have been widely recognized as a remarkable achievement that allows for tremendous player creativity. They helped make Link’s latest adventure a meaningful leap forward from 2017’s Breath of the Wild. With the new Ultrahand ability, you can manipulate objects large and small in the world around you, attaching them to each other at will to create useful and fun things, from rickety bridges to killing machines. Its controls make doing all of this feel approachable and intuitive.
I’ve never been one for arts and crafts. In school, if I ever had to build things with construction paper or make a diorama, I felt out of my depth. When games ask me to do anything that feels remotely like building or engineering, I still get intimidated. I was sure that the versatility of Ultrahand would also produce complexity and frustration.
But Nintendo are the masters of approachability. Very quickly, using Ultrahand to rotate objects, move them in three-dimensional space and attach them felt as natural to me as climbing a mountainside or gliding through the air.
Forget defeating Ganon and saving the kingdom. Tears of the Kingdom’s brilliant design and wonderful controls made me feel like I can create some pretty amazing stuff, and that is a towering accomplishment.
Resident Evil 4 (Remake)
Developed by: Capcom
Ralph Panebianco, aka the critic Skill Up, writes: We don't talk about controls all that much these days, but plenty of reviews zeroed in on just how good it felt to control Leon S. Kennedy.
In a genre that is often defined by is deliberately clunky controls (we didn't call them 'Tank Controls' for nothing), RE4 Remake's controls felt like a revelation, allowing us to duck, dodge, dive, dodge, round-house kick and dodge so effortlessly, the barrier between Leon and player melted away. Genuinely genre-elevating stuff.
Want to highlight any other 2023 games with great controls? Send me an email or write an entry in the comments of the online version of this article.
Item 2: Blockchain gaming investment drops in 2023
A new report from Drake Star about video game deal-making in 2023 shows a reversion to pre-pandemic levels of overall investment—and a possible retreat from the funding of blockchain gaming efforts.
The games industry saw just over 160 mergers and acquisitions in 2023, down from around 300 each of the last two years and closer to 2020’s 180+. (Disclosed deal value was $10.5 billion, the lowest in the past four years). Private investment also declined, per Drake Star.
The most conspicuous drop was in blockchain gaming deals:
In 2021: 151 blockchain deals, valued at $3.6 billion, representing 28% of all money invested in gaming
In 2022: 405 blockchain deals, valued at $3.9 billion, representing 35% of all money invested in gaming
In 2023: 160 blockchain deals, valued at $0.9 billion, representing 26% of all money invested in gaming
Item 3: Take Two side-steps WWE suit
Take-Two has given no indication that it will pause or alter promotion for WWE 2K24, the recently announced wrestling game slated for a March 8 release, despite a graphic lawsuit filed last week by a former WWE employee.
The suit claimed the wrestling company “knew, or recklessly disregarded” alleged sex trafficking by the company’s long-time leader Vince McMahon. It also alleged that WWE benefitted from McMahon offering the former employee to a top wrestler “as a sexual commodity for their use."
“We’re focused on WWE 2K24,” a 2K rep told Game File today, when I asked if the company was planning to alter its promotional plans for the game or if the suit would lead to the exclusion of any implicated WWE officials or performers from the game. (To be clear, there has been no indication that they would have been in the game). The rep added: “Please reach out to WWE PR for any comments from them."
Take Two’s game was part of promotional efforts for this past Saturday’s Royal Rumble event, which saw event sponsor Slim Jim pause its support on Friday and then resuming it Saturday after McMahon resigned from WWE parent company TKO.
McMahon has said the suit is “replete with lies.”
WWE parent company TKO said last week that it takes the “horrific allegations very seriously and are addressing this matter internally.”
Item 4: In brief
🚨 Eidos Montreal is laying off 97 workers, the company confirmed today, amid a Bloomberg report that the Embracer-owned studio had to shut down the studio’s development of a new game in the Deus Ex franchise.
⚖️ Three former Ubisoft leaders, including chief creative officer Serge Hascoët, will be on trial for sexual misconduct next month in France, French outlet l’Informé reports (via Bloomberg).
Notes Bloomberg: “The company and its chief executive officer, Yves Guillemot, were named in the complaint plaintiffs lodged in 2021 but will not face trial.”
🌨 Johanna Faries is the new president of Microsoft’s recently-acquired Blizzard Entertainment, following the exit of Mike Ybarra last week. Faries was previously the general manager of the Call of Duty franchise at Blizzard sister company Activision. That role will now be assumed by Activision veteran Matt Cox, the company said.
📺 Sony PlayStation will air a new 40-minute State of Play digital showcase on Wednesday at 5pm ET. Featured games will include 2024 releases Stellar Blade and Rise of the Ronin, along with other games for PS5 and PSVR2.
💰 Day of the Devs, the long-running indie game showcase (with in-person and online events), is now a non-profit organization and is accepting public fundraising, the group said today. Organizers plan at least three events this year, including an in-person one in March.
🤔 Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launched in New Zealand this morning, as the calendar turned to January 30. But the long-awaited game’s servers were swiftly shut down for 5+ hours, making the game unplayable, after the discovery of a bug that made it seem like players had completed the game.
At launch, the story-driven game requires an internet connection, even when played solo, though an offline mode is promised for later this year.
🧙♂️ Hogwarts Legacy, last year’s best-selling game in the U.S. but also one of the least-updated, will receive “additional updates and features,” later this year, per the game’s social media.
🚙 Bloodborne Kart, an indie racing game, is getting a “short delay” after a nudge from Bloodborne rights holder Sony PlayStation. “We were all expecting this to happen, so we could be pleasantly surprised if it didn't,” one of the game’s developers said on social media, also noting that the game, under a new name, will “just look slightly different.”
Item 5: Brain power
Speaking of outstanding achievements in video game controls….
Sure, you can play a Pokémon game while you are sleeping.
But someone has now played Palworld hands-free using their brain.