Interesting thread. We often talk about a game''s control system being either ''too hard'' or ''too simplistic'' but of greater importance (to me anyway) is how intuitive the controls are. Defining ''intuitive'' is very difficult and quite subjective so here''s an (entirely subjective) example of what I mean.

Tekken 3 and SF2 in its various guises are both great fighting games that I really enjoy. Both games offer instant playability through ''button mashing'' as well as providing highly advanced moves and combos that are complex enough that very few people will ever master all of them. This is where Tekken gains its edge.

SF special moves are fairly arbitrary and the only way to find them is through trial and error. In Tekken on the other hand, the four buttons = four limbs system means that the advanced moves can be found by mimicing other players. For example when you see the CPU making Heihachi do his double handed punch thing, you can be pretty sure that this is done by hitting the two hand buttons together.

Similarly with the combos. When one of Gun Jack''s punches leaves him standing with his right arm raised above his head then you instinctively press triangle to swing it down and continue the combo. This leads to those sublime yet elusive gaming moments where you stop thinking about the controller, sometimes stop thinking entirely, and ''become'' the character on screen.

Sorry about the long post! In summary, control complexity (or lack of it) is not the problem. A highly intuitive system that responds in a predictable way is the key to reducing the barrier between the player and the game.

I think LtKicker has a point but he went too far with it. I remember times when my character does automated things and even tought I found new uses for it, since my character can only do it in exact circumstances under the supposedly apparent fact that it will be needed only at that time.

With the dash thing, when playing megaman most of the time I don''t jump, I dash then jump, unless that large jump is going to make me hit against spikes or something like that so in those cases I do the normal jump.

You are right, the memorized button combination is not suitable for many situations, but when you have more than 8 or so moves and not so many buttons, they are probably the best way to go. Besides, all that memorizing might be part of the challenge. The better your memory, the bigger the number of moves you can perform.

And abot the carging thing, I find it really annoying to keep presing the button... until it became necesary to shot a little bullet because otherwise the robot with the ice spike won''t let it fall so you can get on the plane side and jump to the other side, because if you hit him with the charge, it blows the ice too...

I think the buttons used in games like megaman could be designed in a more clever way but its okay like that. I have found times when buttons are unnecesary, and times when I think, it would be a lot better if you had a button just for ''that''(replace that with some simple frecuently used action that instead is performed using some complicated procedure), like some article I read, but can''t remember the name, you should have extra stuff just to make the game cool, it will just ruin it.

The last thing is just to make sure the player has easy access to the most used and basic moves. ;D

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Nothing in the world is the way it should be; that''s why we, the champions, exist and live for: HOPE.