Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Button Checks

Hello and welcome to today's lesson in our ongoing series of how not to do things. Today: button configuration in fighting games. If you've ever heard the phrase “Get hype for button checks” then you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't then a button check is the process of configuring the buttons on your controller to your preferred settings then verifying both that all the buttons still work and that you've assigned the functions correctly. Well, you might be thinking, that doesn't sound so bad and you would be right. Button checking isn't some great design blunder that renders the game unplayable, rather it is a much more subtle error that simply leads to a lot of time being wasted. The issue here is that most button configuration utilities aren't implemented correctly. The word 'correctly' is used here instead of 'differently' as this is one of those rare cases where there really is only one correct way to do it.

Pictured: Button configuration done right.

Here you see a picture from 'Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix'. In this example of the correct way to do things you highlight the function you want and then press the button you want assigned to it with bonus points for being able to easily un-map unwanted buttons or functions. Sadly, only three mainstream (and I use that term loosely) titles that I am aware of have their button configurations this way. That would be our example, 'BlazBlue: Continuum Shift' and the soon to be released 'Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online'. Everyone else not so much. That would include today's subject: 'Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds'. So without further adieu here is MvC3s button configuration screen:

Pictured: The wrong way.

How this works is that you click down to the button you want and the start going through the options until you've found the function you want and then you move on to the next button. So, why is this so bad? Simply put, it wastes time and even with pre-sets it's still an issue to un-map the unwanted buttons (for example most people don't want macros enabled). Also, because it can only usually be done after the start of the match the process is select character(s), start match, configure buttons, go back to character select screen and start for real this time. As a brief aside it's worth noting that of the above 'correct' examples only BlazBlue and Third Strike Online allow for button configuration to be done before the start of the match thus avoiding the whole configure buttons then restart match issue.

Ok, so here's where I admit that if a console is only ever being used by a single person who only ever needs to configure their buttons once then none of this is an issue. However for tournaments this can be a major headache as there are going to be a lot of people using the same console and since no one wants to lose due to something as stupid as having their buttons mapped wrong they're going to be doing a button check before every match. Even playing at a friends house can be a hassle if more than two people are going to be playing for the same reason that tournaments have this issue albeit on a smaller scale. What we're looking at is a cumulative wasting of everyone’s time through a single incorrect decision.

Alright, so how do we fix this? Well, the easiest way would be to implement the correct configuration utility and make it available from the character select screen. But let's say we can't do that. We're stuck with the inferior one. Are there any easy fixes here? Yes! There are at least two that I can think of. The first is to allow for button configuration from the character select screen. This saves time due to not having to restart the match after configuration. The other possibility would be to have a option within the pause menu to restart the match without having to return to the character select screen. Either one of these options would be better than nothing and even when using the inferior configuration utility would still save a decent amount of time compared to the current process. Hopefully, the soon to be released 'Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online' is a sign that developers have finally gotten the message about this. Hopefully...

See you next week.