Let me start off my rant by saying that while I do have a good PC and a PS3, I don't really identify myself as a console or a PC gamer. I honestly don't have a preference when it comes to games, except perhaps the price tag. Most times when I buy a PC game, it's because the games are available exclusively there, a Steam sale is in progress, or it's available on the Xbox and PC but not the PS3.
In this particular case, I purchased Super Meat Boy on the PC at a very reasonable five dollars, because I don't have a 360 and I have no plans on getting one any time soon. And then, the first screen I saw was that "This game is best played with a controller," along with the helpful image of a 360 controller. I didn't think much of it at first, as I'd gotten the same image from Bit Trip Runner 2 (which played just fine on the keyboard), but then I actually started playing the game.
So, for those of you who don't know, in order to use the sprint action and clear absurdly long distances with your jump, you need to hold down a button. On a controller, this is simple since all the buttons are right there at your fingertips, but on the keyboard, they decided to relegate this button to the left shift key.
Now, since they have the jump button set to the space bar, this forces your hand to tilt at an odd angle since you use the sprint almost as much as you use the jump. After playing through a dozen levels, my pinky was in enough pain to bring me back to my Guitar Hero days. So I decided to try and change the key layout to something more favorable...
Oh wait, no, I couldn't. There is no option to change your key bindings. Why? I don't know. I also don't know why they didn't decide to put the sprint key to something more reasonable, like, perhaps the Left CTRL which is right next to the space bar and far more friendly for a human hand. Or maybe even make the jump key optionally be the Up Arrow so you could just hold the sprint when necessary and jump with your right hand. But no, instead all you get is a mocking image telling you that a controller isn't necessary, but neither is bathing. Think about it. Yes, they actually say that.
So here's my question. Why in the bloody nine hells would they assume that me, a PC customer, would have an Xbox360? Did they assume that I was going to re-buy their game for the PC? Was that the target market? Am I supposed to have a 360 controller laying around for these occasions, or a special game pad for my PC?
I don't think I'm terribly out of line when I say that if you're planning to make, or even port a game to the PC, your chief goal should likely be to make the game playable on a flipping keyboard and mouse and not assume that your PC gamer is going to have a controller just laying around, and if you're not confident in your keyboard layout, let the customer change their setup. Off the top of my head, I could think of three different button layouts that would have benefited this game, but sadly I can't use any of them. Why? Well, the only explanation I can think of is that the developers are just that lazy, especially considering the dozens upon dozens of games that let you change your controls and already have an optimal layout on the keyboard.
And, unfortunately, while I found Meat Boy to be challenging, engaging, and oft times hilarious, this stupid inflexible control scheme really colored my opinion of it.
Unfortunately-er, this seems to be a common trend. I really liked the game Bit-Trip Runner Presents Runner 2 Future Legend of Rhythm Alien (despite it's ridiculous name), yet it still had an odd habit of making you use the A key to dance while relegating everything else to the arrow keys and space bar. And again, you couldn't change the controls. Again, the Left CTRL key would have been a much better choice overall...and they gave me that same smarmy message that I should use a controller instead.
In conclusion, I hate this trend. I hate it with a passion. I hate lazy ports, and I despise these games telling me that I should use a controller when I bought it specifically for the PC. So Escapist, what do you think? Have you had similar experiences to mine?
***Side Note: I have beaten Super Meat Boy and Bit Trip Runner 2 in their entirety, so please come prepared with a better argument than: "You're just not skilled enough."