Tank Controls

[Hatta]

Smash TV should really be played with 2 sticks. One to move, the other to point. That's not what they mean by "resident evil style" tank controls. That would be a single stick control, that's forward/backwards turn left/right, but with respect to your character not your left/right.

[t0yrobo]

I couldn't stand it back when RE first came out, and I can't stand it now. It's an infuriatingly stupid way to do controls. My only idea is that they did it to make it more intense when a zombie is shambling towards you, and it takes 5 seconds to just turn around.

It didn't bother me so much in Alone in the Dark though, I think I gave it a pass because of its age.

[noiseredux]

the Gamecube remake of Resident Evil offers different control options.

[Marspants]

I wouldn't want to play the old Resident Evil's any other way actually! I think it's one of those few cases where stupid controls actually add to the game.

[Anapan]

Normally I don't mind it much if a game's pacing allows it to be effective. What screwed me up was when Parasite Eve II switched to that control scheme. I went straight from the first one to the second. In the end I didn't play it for more than an hour and haven't touched it since. I can understand if a single game or series has that kind of control, but why change it in between installments?

[MrPopo]

Someone brought up Asteroids, which is a very good 2D analog to what the Resident Evil controls are. I like to think of them as avatar-relative controls. Just like in Asteroids, you have turn left and right, and move in the direction you're facing. What can cause problems in Resident Evil is the constantly changing camera angles thanks to the prerendered backgrounds. You have to constantly change your understanding of how your controller commands correspond with how your avatar on screen moves. With Asteroids you don't have that problem; your view of the playfield never changes. Some people have difficulty keeping up with the changing camera angles of Resident Evil, which is why I suspect they have issues with the old controls.

[CRTGAMER]

For me it wasn't the camera angle but if the game character is say facing to the right, you still have to push up to move forward. Real pain to stop, turn, move, stop, turn and move again.

I posted a work around for on the first page, look for the pic of the chair tank. (I would love one of those)

I agree as for Asteroids, "Tank Control", really is the way to play that Arcade classic. No control pad just buttons.

[pepharytheworm]

How was the term tank control coined? They seem more like remote controled like an r/c vehicle. You stand in one location and control the vehicle like you are in first person in the cock pit.

[Hatta]

I'm guessing it has something to with Atari's Combat, which uses the same sort of controls.

[Dylan]

Bleh, I personally can't stand tank controls. Not enough, well, control.