What sort of controls does everyone use & what reasons do you have for your layout?

[DelugeFGC]

I didn't see any of the sticky threads or threads in the last couple of pages relating to this, and I didn't want to go necro something old so I figured I'd post a fresh topic.

In Smash Ult, what sort of control bindings do you find yourself using? Across the board, not just the button bindings.


I myself use an official GCN controller + adapter, of which I have a custom layout that I favor immensely and have gotten very broken in on / used to. I have jump mapped to Z (primary jump button) and X (secondary jump button), grab mapped to Y and C-Stick set to tilts, otherwise all of my button bindings are default (L/R Shield, A Jab, B Special, etc) and I couldn't imagine them being anything else.

That said, outside of button mappings, I find myself being quite picky over stick sensitivity. A lot of people close to release were singing the virtues of High sensitivity, but I found this to sometimes cause things such as misinput Smash attacks.. for me the frame window for a stick flick is made too large with High. I prefer Low, as I like to A+B Smash (another setting I have turned on) and in the event I want a quick UTilt or DTilt, I typically do it off the L-Stick which I find the Low setting best for. I also have tap jump set to Off and I actually like the rumble feature and keep it set to On.

I have flirted with the idea of setting L trigger to special so I can do easier wave bounces on Link and Wolf as well.. but I'm unsure of this particular change as of right now. The reason I have Z set to jump is both because it's far easier / more natural to use your index finger for one input (jumping) and your thumb for another (C-Stick / A) in quick succession as opposed to the good old quick Melee finger flingin' method that would leave my thumb sore as hell an hour or so after playing AND because a lot of the buffer techs like attack cancel RAR's and such are made easier and more consistent to execute with a shoulder button set to jump. I got used to using Z for jumps playing PM back in the day and never looked back, Z jump is godlike in my eyes. It's so easy for me to quickly slide my index finger off of the Z button for short hops.. and I'm one of the few people who actually likes the press feel of the GCN Z button. Otherwise my control scheme has fairly obvious reasoning behind it.

What about you guys? Just figured I'd start the topic out of curiosity / longing for discussion, and I also feel some people could benefit from hearing the praises sung of custom button mapping a little louder.

 

[Cyn]

I usually switch between GC controller and Pro. The pro controller is just really comfortable to use and I’ve started to gravitate to it more and more.

 

[Deleted member]

I'm a bumper jumper so Pro for me

 

[DelugeFGC]

The Pro controller isn't something I could personally get used to, nor could I see myself ever getting there.. BUT, that said, if you can get over the GCN programming or you lack it in the first place.. the Pro is a very nice choice imo. The extra shoulder bumper can also go a long way in giving you more options in terms of custom button mappings, I think it'd be a lot easier for me to dedicate setting an L-Bumper to special than setting L-Trigger to special on my GCN.

Ah well, as much as I do envy the Pro I'm just too baked in on the GCN.. I love the thing to death.

And hey man I'm technically a bumper jumper too (I jump with Z primarily) and I'm rocking it old school on the GCN. The Pro does seem more intuitive for this though.

 

[Quillion]

Just wondering, is "bumper jumper" is becoming the "pro option" now?

I personally have been ending my longtime relationship with GCN and going for ProCon as well. Doesn't help that the old things' sticks are getting worn out and the reprint controllers are hard as hell to find. I'm starting to find the "baseball diamond" more convenient than what the GCN had.

 

[DelugeFGC]

Just wondering, is "bumper jumper" is becoming the "pro option" now?

I personally have been ending my longtime relationship with GCN and going for ProCon as well. Doesn't help that the old things' sticks are getting worn out and the reprint controllers are hard as hell to find. I'm starting to find the "baseball diamond" more convenient than what the GCN had.

If you can track down any used GCN controllers, replacing the sticks can be easy. Battle Beaver Customs sells domed thumbsticks that feel great for Smash for GCN controllers as well, though since I'm pretty sure I've seen you post about Melee I will mention it's known to cause some snapback issues (causing dashback / shield drop anomalies) but I'm not sure if something such as UCF fixes this.. I truly don't know.

They're perfectly fine for Ultimate though, I actually prefer them to the stock sticks now. I also have found places like Gamestop can be a goldmine for the Ult reprints, a local one about 30 miles from me still to this day have over 30 in stock and all 4 of my current controllers were bought there. Just browse locally within about 50 miles or so. BBC also makes custom controllers, but the price can get a little hefty.. no more than buying the marked up ones on Ebay though. I highly recommend BBC in general, though. I have my main controller decked out with a set of custom buttons from them, a custom domed thumbstick from them and I've flirted with the idea of getting trigger spacers but the thing stopping me there is further modification being required due to the way newer Smash games handle the 0-100 trigger range.. idk. What I do know is ever since I decked my controller out with their stuff, I've fallen all the more in love with it.. especially the stick. I'll probably end up having my C-Stick dyed soon to match the domed stick I got from BBC too.

I'm a bumper jumper for life and I can't ever see myself putting the GCN controller down for Smash, Z Jump is where it's at.

 

[Wunderwaft]

I use the pro controller, it's more comfortable for me and I've gotten used to it. I did try the gamecube controller from a friend but it was a bit awkward for me to use, I don't like the triggers I guess.

 

[DelugeFGC]

I personally can't understand the trigger gripes. Yes, the GCN has analogue triggers with a fair amount of travel.. BUT, the Switch is a console with no analogue support so even the TINIEST of analogue presses is registered as a full digital press. That said, I never find myself missing techs (I actually have a hard time hitting the timing for them on other controllers) or shielding a frame or two too late.. or etc. Due to how the Switch handles analogue inputs, I find them just as responsive as any digital triggers out there.. plus spacers are a thing too if you want to go even further.

If it's just a 'feel' preference thing, however.. I suppose I can understand that. I myself adore how the GCN triggers feel and I love how your fingers naturally rest and melt on top of them.

 

[Rehnquist]

Pro controller
A - jump
B- attack
Y - special
X- grab
L - attack
ZL- special
R- jump
ZR- shield
tilt stick

Having a shoulder heavy setup frees up my thumb to follow ladder combos

 

[DelugeFGC]

I'm so bred on bumper jumping via Z on the GCN that if I had the option, I'd even rebind jump in Melee to be Z.. too bad that's not an option without emulator trickery and such. Ultimate it's beyond habit / preference / ease of aerial inputs, though.. some buffer tech is near impossible without having both your thumb + index free to independently do inputs without much window of lenience between.

I'd say it's basically necessary in Ultimate in higher level play due to the kind of tech we've seen develop thus far into the meta, I use BAir RAR's out of an attack cancel as an example so often because it's one of the most useful I've found (but by NO means the only, there's so much buffer tech once you start digging to learn it..) by far due to how it can completely change your combo / follow-up game. Stuff you were 2-3 frames off of landing most of the time with turnarounds or RAR's the normal way.. you're now landing consistently. Something feels so natural about it too, I really like attack cancelling the most thus far of all the tech I've learned in Ult.. and shoulder jump plays a big role in being able to execute some of it consistently.

 

[nirvanafan]

The only changes I have from default are swapping a and b plus turning off stick jump

 

[DelugeFGC]

Jabbing with B?

You absolute madman.

In seriousness, that's one of the simpler changes I could see one getting used to.. but after 10+ years of hitting A for normals and B for specials, I'd probably look like Timmy from Day Care if you turned me out in a game of Smash with A and B swapped.

 

[Xelrog]

I use a Gamecube controller. All regular button mapping, except that I have the top button (Y?) set to special as well as B. I use this with Ganondorf so that I can jump+side special for a ground aerial dark dive.

I set stick sensitivity to high after that ZeRo video but honestly I haven't noticed a difference any way I set that. C-stick is set to tilts but I've never used the C-stick, so it's kind of a pointless change unless I'm able to train the habit in the future.

 

[DelugeFGC]

I use a Gamecube controller. All regular button mapping, except that I have the top button (Y?) set to special as well as B. I use this with Ganondorf so that I can jump+side special for a ground aerial dark dive.

I set stick sensitivity to high after that ZeRo video but honestly I haven't noticed a difference any way I set that. C-stick is set to tilts but I've never used the C-stick, so it's kind of a pointless change unless I'm able to train the habit in the future.

Said ZeRo video is where I first heard someone praise high sensitivity, but in reality it changes the frame window for stick flicks to something like 7-8 frames as opposed to 2-3 on low. For me personally this caused stuff like misinput Smash attacks when I was trying to do something like say, UTilt with L-Stick.

 

[MarioMeteor]

I use a Pro Controller since it’s the closest thing to the CC Pro that I used for Brawl and Smash 4. As for controls, I have tap jump turned off because I’m not a degenerate, A + B Smash turned off, and Rumble turned on. I have X mapped to grab for two reasons: one, because two face buttons with the same function is unnecessary, and two I could never get used to using the shoulder buttons for grabbing during the 3DS days, so I mapped it to X to circumvent this and I’ve been unable to unlearn this since.

I mapped ZL to jump because I did this in Smash Wii U to make jump cancelling easier. Much like grabbing with X, I can’t unlearn this, so I’m still doing it.

I use smash stick for most of my characters, but when I’m playing Chrom, Roy, Belmont, or Ike, I use tilt stick.

I’m still fooling around with stick sensitivity. I’m personally having trouble doing RAR back airs standing still. Will changing sensitivity make this easier?

 

[Dingding123]

GC controller, completely default buttons. I'd use tilt stick if I used a character that really needed it; dtilt/utilt are easy enough to do without it though.

 

[DelugeFGC]

I use a Pro Controller since it’s the closest thing to the CC Pro that I used for Brawl and Smash 4. As for controls, I have tap jump turned off because I’m not a degenerate, A + B Smash turned off, and Rumble turned on. I have X mapped to grab for two reasons: one, because two face buttons with the same function is unnecessary, and two I could never get used to using the shoulder buttons for grabbing during the 3DS days, so I mapped it to X to circumvent this and I’ve been unable to unlearn this since.

I mapped ZL to jump because I did this in Smash Wii U to make jump cancelling easier. Much like grabbing with X, I can’t unlearn this, so I’m still doing it.

I use smash stick for most of my characters, but when I’m playing Chrom, Roy, Belmont, or Ike, I use tilt stick.

I’m still fooling around with stick sensitivity. I’m personally having trouble doing RAR back airs standing still. Will changing sensitivity make this easier?

Look into the tech known as 'attack cancelling'. You can do instant BAir RAR's out of a forward facing position right as you begin your dash via flicking the C-Stick in the opposite direction right after the dash / FT starts, holding the L-Stick forward still (don't return it to neutral position) and then hitting jump button. You're cancelling a couple of things to get what you want here and it may seem convoluted, but the end result is the ability to do literally instant RAR's and once learned execution is very natural to do.

Basially this: (L-Stick) - > or < and hold it (C-Stick) - < or > and then finish it with a jump input, all in quick succession. Three inputs, just make sure you continue to hold the L-Stick forward after beginning your dash, otherwise the aerial you get out of the AC will likely turn into a NAir.

 

[MarioMeteor]

Look into the tech known as 'attack cancelling'. You can do instant BAir RAR's out of a forward facing position right as you begin your dash via flicking the C-Stick in the opposite direction right after the dash / FT starts, holding the L-Stick forward still (don't return it to neutral position) and then hitting jump button. You're cancelling a couple of things to get what you want here and it may seem convoluted, but the end result is the ability to do literally instant RAR's and once learned execution is very natural to do.

Basially this: (L-Stick) - > (C-Stick) - < (Jump) - Z/ZL/X/Y/Etc.

I’ve been meaning to look into this for the longest, but I’m most definitely going to heed your suggestion and do it now. Thank you kindly.

 

[DelugeFGC]

In regards to your original question, stick sensitivity changes the frame window of what the game allots for a stick flick input to be registered.. the only thing this really has an affect on is tilt / smash attacks.

I recommend learning and using ALL 3 of the RAR methods. Regular turnaround's, normal skid-cancel RAR's and then the attack-cancelled RAR's. Each of them has use and when you've gotten the hang of all 3 methods you'll feel like the lord of back airs. It completely changes your combo / follow up game, totally wonderful thing to work into your gameplay and a HUGE game changer.

You can also use this method to change the BAir to any other aerial, though the easiest is a NAir (just reset the stick to neutral instead of holding it once you initiate the dash and flick C-Stick back) but it can be anything.. UAir, DAir, FAir, NAir or BAir. Wonderful little tech. I'd also really recommend learning how to pivot cancel your dash for instant tilts and also tilt cancel NAir turnarounds. These are all fairly simple techs in the grand scheme (some Ult tech isn't so forgiving to learn sadly) but can have a huge impact on your gameplay.