The Nintendo Switch, Motion Controls, and Handedness in Gaming

[vanguard333]

A while back, I created a topic about the upcoming Skyward Sword remaster on Switch and the apparent lack of a left-handed mode for the game's motion controls. With the game releasing worldwide tomorrow with no such left-handed mode, I wanted to make a follow-up topic, less about the game itself, and more about what I feel is a wider issue with Nintendo's implementation of motion controls, particularly in the Switch era, and failure to account for left-handed players; something I had mentioned in that previous topic but didn't really explore. And, while doing that, I also want to address a surprisingly common misconception about the Switch hardware when it comes to motion controls:

 

Standard button & stick controls aren't typically affected by handedness: the main effect of handedness is on things involving precise and/or complex motions and hand-eye coordination: writing, using scissors, etc., whereas with buttons and control sticks, the movements are tiny, imprecise, and the hardware provides immediate physical feedback. For console gaming, it wasn't until the advent of motion controls and touchscreen controls that the player's handedness needed to be accounted for.

In terms of motion control hardware, the Wii Remote had an accelerometer, an IR pointer and, as an add-on through the Wii Motion Plus, a gyro, while the nunchuck just had an accelerometer. This meant that the Wii remote could be used for the full range of motion controls: pointer controls & aiming, 1:1 movement through the gyro, and shaking through the accelerometer, while the nunchuck could only be used for that last one. Nintendo's method of accounting for the left-handed was to make the shape of the Wii Remote and the nunchuck symmetric: you could hold the Wii Remote in the right hand and the nunchuck in the left hand or vice-versa and either would be just as comfortable. However, because most of the action buttons were on the Wii Remote, while the nunchuck had the only control stick, this instead created an interesting conundrum among left-handed players: do you hold the nunchuck in the left hand and the Wii Remote in the right; thus retaining a semi-familiar control layout at the cost of using most of the motion controls with your non-dominant hand, or do you hold the Wii Remote in the left hand and the nunchuck in the right; ensuring you can use the majority of motion controls with your dominant hand at the cost of potentially fighting against your own muscle memory with the buttons & stick. In my case, I opted for the latter, and one reason for that was that, because I grew up solely on Nintendo consoles and went from the 64 to the GameCube and then to the Wii, for me, there was no such thing as a familiar control layout.

In this regard, the Switch's hardware is pretty much perfect, and here's where I want to address a fairly common misconception. The misconception is that the right joy-con, like the Wii Remote, has motion control hardware that the left joy-con doesn't have; this is not true. Both joy-cons have the exact same motion control hardware: each joy-con has both a gyro and an accelerometer, and since the Switch, unlike the Wii, doesn't have a sensor, there's no IR pointer. The only hardware that is unique to the right joy-con is an IR sensor that can detect different shapes that are immediately in front of it; a gimmicky feature that is both unrelated to the motion controls and only used in games like 1-2-Switch. As far as motion control hardware is concerned, there is nothing one joy-con can do that the other can't. This would, ideally, eliminate the need to put the controllers in the opposite hands just to use the majority of motion controls with the left hand, which is especially good because they joy-cons are very asymmetrical in both shape and button & stick layout, so putting them in opposite hands isn't really feasible.

 

So, why did I say "wider problem" earlier, and not "solution"? Well, the Switch's hardware may be perfect for incorporating motion controls while accounting for the left-handed, but in terms of the software, Nintendo's track record on the Switch has been abysmal.

To my knowledge, there have been at least two games that have been ported to Switch with the control scheme being essentially a remapping of the Wii Remote & Nunchuck controls (if there are more than these two, please let me know): the Mario Galaxy port in Mario 3D All-Stars, and Pikmin 3 Deluxe.

Mario Galaxy was a standard Wii game, so it used the pointer and the accelerometer; you could shake either the Wii Remote or the nunchuck to make Mario spin, and pointer controls were used for navigating the menu, collecting and shooting star bits, etc. Since the Switch has no IR pointer, the pointer controls were remapped to the gyro for 3D All-Stars, but only the right gyro, with no option to instead have the pointer controls mapped to the left gyro. I don't mind the gyro being a bit slower than the IR pointer and needing to manually be re-centered, but having to use my non-dominant hand for the pointer controls was uncomfortable and infuriating. One particularly annoying thing about it was that you can shake the left joy-con to make Mario shake, so they evidently either were just remapping all the Wii Remote & Nunchuck controls in their entirety without thinking it through, or must've thought during the porting process, "Wait; some players may have found it more comfortable to shake the nunchuck" and still just assumed that everyone played the game with a right-handed control setup, and I honestly don't know which is worse.

I didn't purchase Pikmin 3 Deluxe, as I still have my Wii U and a copy of Pikmin 3 (and I honestly wasn't a big fan; I enjoyed the game enough to finish it, but I likely won't be replaying it any time soon). However, from what footage I have seen of it and from what some people who did purchase it have told me, it has that exact same problem as Mario Galaxy: motion controls being mapped only to the right gyro with no option to have them instead be mapped to the left gyro.

And now, tomorrow, Skyward Sword HD will be at least the third game on the Switch to map the motion controls with separated joy-cons in mind and without accounting for left-handed players. The hardware is all there, and it can't take too much time to implement a simple swap on the software level, yet they just refuse to do so. It makes no sense on any level; not even business sense, as business sense calls for appealing to the widest market possible within your means; why appeal to potentially only 90% of the population when you can potentially appeal to the full 100% with minimal extra time, cost, or effort?

The fact that the Nintendo Switch has a button remapping system but won't let you switch what gyro the motion controls get mapped to by default, and that they went through the effort to implement optional button & stick controls in Skyward Sword HD without adding a left-handed mode for the motion controls that would take far less time and effort to implement & test, tells me that it's simply because they really just couldn't care less, and that's honestly just sad. Shigeru Miyamoto: the guy who created most of their biggest franchises, is a lefty. Link in the Zelda series, for the longest time, was a lefty, and was in fact the only left-handed hero in fiction that people actually remembered was left-handed. Nintendo used to be king of the world in accounting for left-handed players back when handedness meant nothing in terms of how well and/or comfortably you could physically play a game. Now, they've lost that throne, and there doesn't seem to be an heir apparent.

 

What do you think?

Edited July 15, 2021 by vanguard333

[Armchair General]

Don't buy the game?

[vanguard333]

3 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

Don't buy the game?

I have no intention of buying it; as I stated at the beginning of the topic, the point of this topic wasn't the game itself, but the wider trend among Switch titles that it's a part of.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I feel like I can't speak on Left Handed modes as an accessibility concern because I just can't imagine the left handed experience when it comes to gaming. Is it a minor inconvenience? An insurmountable challenge? Is it something you get used to after playing enough of video games in general, or playing enough of that specific game or genre? I have no idea.

I do know that Nintendo are definitely behind on accessibility in gaming. These are the jackasses that put mandatory motion controls in Pokemon. Pokemon! The one super popular game that disabled people can generally have fun with since it doesn't ask the player to make fast or precise inputs like an action game would. My brother has exactly one functioning finger to play games with, and when pokemon came back to home consoles with Let's Go, the inability to turn off motion controls was heartbreaking.

Another thing I'd like to see from nintendo is a "Joycon drift mode" (nintendo wouldn't call it that, I know), where you can disable your controller's control stick inputs for any game where the Dpad is an alternative. And you know, make more games where the Dpad is an option. Because I can't think of many first party games where that is an option. Being forced to use the control stick in a game like Link's Awakening is outrageous.

[vanguard333]

3 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

I feel like I can't speak on Left Handed modes as an accessibility concern because I just can't imagine the left handed experience when it comes to gaming. Is it a minor inconvenience? An insurmountable challenge? Is it something you get used to after playing enough of video games in general, or playing enough of that specific game or genre? I have no idea.

Like anything that was made for the right-handed, the experience for a left-handed person really comes down to the person; some are better at "getting used to it" than others. I am in the category of not being able to get used to it at all (not just with this, but for anything right-handed; the moment I got a laptop that had a trackpad, I never looked at a mouse again), and while the motion controls in these games being made for the right-handed is not necessarily an insurmountable problem, for me and many others, it's awkward, uncomfortable, and can just flat-out make the game not fun to play. And so, even if it's not an insurmountable problem, what's the point if I know it isn't going to be fun? It's like how I theoretically could write with my right hand, but it would be awkward, slow, messy, and uncomfortable.

 

10 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

I do know that Nintendo are definitely behind on accessibility in gaming. These are the jackasses that put mandatory motion controls in Pokemon. Pokemon! The one super popular game that disabled people can generally have fun with since it doesn't ask the player to make fast or precise inputs like an action game would. My brother has exactly one functioning finger to play games with, and when pokemon came back to home consoles with Let's Go, the inability to turn off motion controls was heartbreaking.

To their credit, in some very specific respects, they have gotten better at accessibility in general in recent years by making motion controls more often an option that can be disabled; the key words there being more often; as you pointed out with the Pokemon Let's Go example, there are still a number of cases where it's mandatory.

But yeah; overall, Nintendo seems to be almost allergic to the word "accessibility", even though they know by now that forcing a particular control scheme that's not suited for all potential players is an easy way to decrease sales of a game. I'm honestly convinced that the reason they added a button mode to Skyward Sword HD had nothing to do with accessibility but because of things like handheld mode, the pro controller, and the Switch lite.

 

16 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Another thing I'd like to see from nintendo is a "Joycon drift mode" (nintendo wouldn't call it that, I know), where you can disable your controller's control stick inputs for any game where the Dpad is an alternative. And you know, make more games where the Dpad is an option. Because I can't think of many first party games where that is an option. Being forced to use the control stick in a game like Link's Awakening is outrageous.

That would be a good idea; I'm surprised that isn't including in their button remapping system.

Yeah; I was fine with Link's Awakening with a control stick (until drift began setting in and Link began veering off to the left and having trouble moving right at any considerable speed), and even I can see that making the stick the only option was a bad idea; the game locks you into 8 directions anyway rather than offer 360-degree movement, so what was even the point of not allowing players to use the control pad?

 

So... yeah; I think we can all agree that, in general, Nintendo's terrible at accessibility options. I guess I just wanted to highlight this particular area in which they're especially terrible at it because I feel that it's all too often overlooked by those who aren't left-handed. With Mario 3D All-Stars for example, everyone complained about it being limited-release, 64 being barely-upscaled, the camera controls in Sunshine being inverted from what they were on the GameCube and the inability to use a GameCube controller to play the game, but almost all those same people gave Mario Galaxy a pass and, if they did complain, they complained about the pointer being mapped to the touchscreen in handheld mode. I saw only one person other than myself criticize the lack of a left-handed mode for the Mario Galaxy port. With Skyward Sword HD, I saw so many people look at the "quality of life" trailer and go "Yay! All the game's inconveniences and accessibility problems have been fixed! Now everyone gave give this game a fair chance", and those same people would respond to any comment that was asking for a left-handed mode, most of which weren't mine by the way, by saying stuff like, "Lol just use the button controls".

[Armchair General]

Right now, I'm trying to remember exactly how important motion controls are in Skyward Sword. Since the sword combat wasn't really as fast as the Zelda games and I rarely used the bow outside of the puzzles it was made for.

 

There's only one type of enemy that electrocutes you for swinging the wrong way, but that's well beyond the first hour or so of combat. Other than that, it's me intentionally hitting the lizardman's to trick him into mocking me...Then he dies. Plus, there should be a few training logs in the academy so you can hone your skills.

 

Come to think of it, most of the enemies dies with anywhere to six to three hits.

[eclipse]

6 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

I feel like I can't speak on Left Handed modes as an accessibility concern because I just can't imagine the left handed experience when it comes to gaming. Is it a minor inconvenience? An insurmountable challenge? Is it something you get used to after playing enough of video games in general, or playing enough of that specific game or genre? I have no idea.

My handedness in games is super-weird.  While I can't speak for everyone, if the controller layout forces me to think more about which buttons to press instead of actually playing the game, I'm not going to have fun.

[vanguard333]

1 hour ago, eclipse said:

My handedness in games is super-weird.  While I can't speak for everyone, if the controller layout forces me to think more about which buttons to press instead of actually playing the game, I'm not going to have fun.

Interesting. Out of curiosity, when playing Wii games, did you play them with the Wii Remote in the left and the nunchuck in the right, or vice-versa?

[eclipse]

4 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Interesting. Out of curiosity, when playing Wii games, did you play them with the Wii Remote in the left and the nunchuck in the right, or vice-versa?

My Wii setup looked like a typical right-handed setup.  But I didn't use the motion controls that much.

Give me a good music arcade game, and that goes out the window.

[vanguard333]

1 minute ago, eclipse said:

My Wii setup looked like a typical right-handed setup.  But I didn't use the motion controls that much.

Give me a good music arcade game, and that goes out the window.

I see. That makes sense.

What did you think of my point overall?

[eclipse]

12 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

I see. That makes sense.

What did you think of my point overall?

Unfortunately, it's a little hard to relate when I don't play those games at all!

Not sure if you wanted to see what I meant by handedness depending on the game, so I put an example in spoiler tags.

Spoiler

I can consistently hit the left volume slider (blue line), but am really shaky on the right.  Ironically, I passed this song earlier today.

 

[vanguard333]

On 7/15/2021 at 7:09 PM, eclipse said:

Unfortunately, it's a little hard to relate when I don't play those games at all!

Not sure if you wanted to see what I meant by handedness depending on the game, so I put an example in spoiler tags.

  Hide contents

I can consistently hit the left volume slider (blue line), but am really shaky on the right.  Ironically, I passed this song earlier today.

 

Okay, yeah; I can definitely see how those controls would be affected by handedness. I'd probably be in the same boat as you if I ever tried a game like that: able to consistently hit the left volume slider, but really shaky on the right.

Should I perhaps change what I said earlier about button & stick controls to say something like "in most cases" or, "unless those buttons are the size of your hand, that far away, and you have to time everything that perfectly"? I mean; technically, I did already cover myself on this by saying "standard button & stick controls aren't typically affected by handedness", but I can honestly say that I wasn't thinking of stuff like that when I said that.

[eclipse]

9 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

Okay, yeah; I can definitely see how those controls would be affected by handedness. I'd probably be in the same boat as you if I ever tried a game like that: able to consistently hit the left volume slider, but really shaky on the right.

Should I perhaps change what I said earlier about button & stick controls to say something like "in most cases" or, "unless those buttons are the size of your hand, that far away, and you have to time everything that perfectly"? I mean; technically, I did already cover myself on this by saying "standard button & stick controls aren't typically affected by handedness", but I can honestly say that I wasn't thinking of stuff like that when I said that.

I'm not looking for scientific accuracy in this topic, so do whatever feels the most comfortable for you!

[vanguard333]

On 7/17/2021 at 10:04 PM, eclipse said:

I'm not looking for scientific accuracy in this topic, so do whatever feels the most comfortable for you!

I see. Thanks for the input.

 

EDIT: This doesn't have to do with motion controls, but it recently has been brought to my attention that Link isn't the only left-handed character that Nintendo has recently retconned into being right-handed: they recently gave Bowser Jr. the same treatment in Bowser's Fury. It's like Nintendo is trying to make left-handed people not want to buy their games.

Edited August 11, 2021 by vanguard333