Total Control

[DaiSuki]

Which is the game which, more than any other, you felt you were entirely in control of? You knew how to do absolutely anything you could possibly want to, you never put a foot wrong and if you did die it was entirely your own fault and not because that damn inconsistent inertia took you a couple of pixels too close to that giant spider? Can be anything; fighters (I expect there'll be a fair few people claiming total mastery of Ken in SF2), shooters, platformers, whatever.

Because it's my topic, I'm going to take the easy way out and say Super Mario World. I doubt if a more finely honed control system has ever been committed to silicon (or, more recently, disc), and I really did feel that I could do anything with the game once I had mastered the cape enough to get to the secret exit from the Cheese Bridge. In retrospect, though, the SNES Donkey Kong Country games came close to achieving the same nirvana-like level of precision control, and by DKC3 the game design forced you to become a master of it. That said, I still don't think it feels quite as accomplished and polished as Nintendo's classic.

Any others?

[Jay]

Super Monkeyball. You can never lose a life in that game and honestly say it wasn't your fault.

[Tom Salter]

Mario World was extremely fun, but I'd say in terms of control, DKC just pipped it at the post.

The way you could do a barrel roll over an edge, and then jump in midair, was the only way of getting some of them tricky bananas, and required pin-point timing, yet the visual feedback from doing this was perfect.

Not as great a game as Mario World, yet it's control was undoubtedly sublime.

[Loc Dogg]

The game i felt in total control of was SSB, it was soo good when you did the training in slow motion aaahhh, anyway, i think that i was a bit of a MASTER with Captain Falcon.

[rjpageuk]

yet the visual feedback from doing this was perfect.

I thought the collision detection was poor. Due to the way the graphics were you could never be quite sure where the edge of a ledge was - not at least to pixel perfection which meant I often fell of edges I thought I was nowhere near.

[Tom Salter]

Strange, I never had any problem with it. I found the collision detection to be fine, the only problem was the way the levels were drawn, which wasn't as clear as say, Mario. But this wasn't a problem, as it was easy enough to work out where the edge was, after a while of playing.

Another game with perfect controls I feel is Nights - you really could feel the inertia of flying through the air, looping around, and generally just having fun!

Also, Pilotwings 64 - every time you crashed, it was always your fault. Absolutely brilliant this one.

[lordcookie]

Super Mario Kart. THE most finely honed controls of any game, ever. Just great powersliding round corners, working out the angles to fire a green shell off of the side to hit another racer up the exhaust. Gaming perfection.

Super Monkey Ball is another one with perfect controls too.

[metal_mutley]

I have to say that, given the variety of things you could do, I was most impressed with the control and environment of Metroid Prime. When you did die, it was mostly because of your inability to solve a puzzle or refusal to accept that your attack pattern needed to be modified.

Thoroughly enjoyable learning, control and exploration experience.

[Popo]

Hohoho, thought this would be about the old magazine Total Control :P

I was initially going to say Zelda 64, but I think my ultimate choice would have to be Halo - not only does the first person perspective give it that much more of an absoluteness when it comes to control, but the incredibly finely tuned motion and button mapping makes Halo stand out for me by far.

Don't think I've ever felt more in-tune with a game character than with 'ol Master Chief.

[delb3k]

HALO, PGR and wipeout 3 SE, I felt in total control of them all and any mistakes were always my own fault.

[recipher]

The control of Mario in Mario 64 can't be beaten.

[Tom Salter]

Super Mario Kart. THE most finely honed controls of any game, ever. Just great powersliding round corners, working out the angles to fire a green shell off of the side to hit another racer up the exhaust. Gaming perfection.

Super Monkey Ball is another one with perfect controls too.

Lord Cookie - you sir are right!

I must have played Mario Circuit 1 with Koopa Troopa roughly 1000 times on time trial, and I've got to admit that it's the simplicity of the controls that allows you to get in touch with what truly matters - the lines through the bends. Gran Turismo is fine and all, but I found you couldn't get the correct line because you had to fight against the car, which isn't a bad thing, but Mario Kart hit it right on the head with this.

Unsurpassed.

[Firsty]

Oooof, Zelda OoT. Nasty controls. Totally surpassed by WW.

F Zero X is fantastic. The feedback from the rumble is the best I've used.
You can tell exactly you far you can push your craft when turning.

I thought NiGHTS was awful. Cumbersome controls.

How about Sega Rally?
Or Metroid 3. I loved wall jumping and bomb jumping top get upgrades early. Fun to 0wn the bosses . Special Mention has to go to Resident Evil on GC for control type C.

[metal_mutley]

Not wanting to go off topic or anything, but what is control type c? I've stayed away from resi games because I hate the standard control style. It gives me no freedom whatsoever.

[Firsty]

I hate resi controls. I've only played one through; the GC version.
Because type C is only on the GC remake.
It's very intuitive. Almost like Shenmue.

Imagine hmmm,
Analog turns left and right but doesn't move you forward and back.
You use the R trigger for that, push to walk, click to run.
L aims the weapon. A fires.
C is 180 turn if you flick it any direction.
Y and X are status and map.

It might not sound very good, but it's a fantastic control system IMO.
It's omission in RE0 means I won't be playing.