Jump, fire, talk — most video games involve so many actions that developers struggle to fit them on a standard controller. A simple roll in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (a notorio💎usly tricky title for newcomers to get to grips with) requires going prone, holding the left trigger, moving the left joystick and clicking it in. But some games d🌳edicate entire buttons to seemingly useless actions.
These may be flourishes, gestures of affection, or lulls in otherwise intense e💯xperiences. Such button commands make virtual worlds come alive, suggesting there is more to do here than efficiently fulfill an objective and leave. Let’s hope developers take inspiration from the following games and stuff our controllers with useless, but extremely charming, button commands.
10 A Boy And His Blob: The Hug Button 🌱
The 2011 remake of A Boy And His Blob is a simple and quite forgiving game, so maybe developer 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:WayForward ha𓆉d run out of actua🧔l uses for the controller when they assigned up on the D-pad to “hug blob.” Still, the hug animation is lovely, infinitely repeatable, and adds to the game’s family-friendly vibe.
Unfortunately, you can also press down on the D-pad to scold the blob, which makes them stay in place. Hugging is nicer and, as an added benefit, serves absolutely no purpose. It's just so cute, though.
9 Garden Story: The Secret Twirl ♓Combo
Technically, pressing the D-pad in Garden Story has the practical purpose of switching your equipped tool. But grape hero Concord is too cute for rules, and there was no practical purpose for the developers at Picogram to make the tool-switch animation an adorable twirl. We're so glad they did, though.
If you press the D-pad while Concord is moving, they&rsqꦰuo;ll perform the roundest pirouette of all time, a highly effective secret combo. Although Garden Story also features card-based fishing and squelchy fighting, the pirouette is its 🗹best and least useful mechanic.
8 Nights Into Dre𝐆ams: The Trick List 💖
This colorful, dizzying 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Sega Saturn release is 🐭a one-button game at heart. Using the joystick to maneuver Nights and pressing any face button to dash will see you through ܫNights into Dreams, but you can also use the left and right triggers to perform acrobatics.
Various trigger and joystick combinations open up a surprisingly long list of flourishes (nothing like a combo list from a complex fighting tit🥃le like Guilty Gear Strive, but a lot nonetheless). Under certain circumstances, these flourishes can even increase your score, though not enougღ🍸h to make them truly useful.
7 Shadow Of T𝔍he Colossus: Petting The Horse 𓄧
In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Shadow of the Colossus, protagonist Wander shares a simple companionship with his horse, Agro. The game’s other characters — such as the expressionless colossi, a disembodied shadowy voice, and a girl without a soul — are all mysಌterious to Wander, but Agro is easy to understand.
Appropriately, pressing the Circle button when Wander’s sword is sheathed makes him gently stroke and encourage Agro. You could even consider this a commentary on violence from the creators of this extraordinary💝 title: in this game, the same button can be used to𒐪 kill a colossus and pet a horse.
6 🌺 ✱ Shovel Knight: The Duck To Dance Command
Yacht Club Games added ducking to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Shovel Knight just because they loved useless actions. Pressing down on the D-pad lowers your sprite by one pixel, so it can’t help dodge projectiles — but 🗹it can make Shovel Knight appear to dance.
, this functionality was added just for fun, and allows our faceless, voiceless, armored hero to participate when other characters start bobbing and swaying along to the music. A quite minor animation has an outsize effect on Shovel Knight’s &mda🗹sh; and the player’s — engagement with this beloved pixelate🦩d world.
5 💜 Luigi’s Mansion 3: Calling Mario For Help
Luigi has long been cast as the cowardly Mario brother, so it makes sense that the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Luigi’s Mansion series has historically featured a “call Mario” button. In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Luigi’s Mansion 3 on Nintendo Switch, pressing down, right, or l♋eft on the D-pad wilไl make Luigi shout Mario’s name in a range of tones.
This button demonstrates the protective relationship between the siblings. Or, maybe, since Mario never actually responds, it demonstrates that Luigi has the fortitude to solve ghostly pro🦩blems without his brother&rsquo💎;s help. A reluctant hero, but a hero nonetheless.
4 The Last Guardian: The C💟ont🌜emplate Command
Pressing both joysticks in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last Guardian will make your character cross their legs and contemplate. It’s a great thing to do when you’re becoming frustrated with a puzzle, as it slows the game’s♛ pace and prompts the narrator for a hint.
These hints, sadly, are generally unhelpful, as the struggle is less in knowing what to do and more in coaxing your cat-bird-friend to actually do it. Still, seeing such meditative stillness onscreen may encourage the player into a similar calm. “Contemplate” is a sit button with added significance (a trait of most things in this wonder🅷fully realized title).
3 Nier: Automata: Petting Yourꦫ Companion Pod ꦜ
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nier: Automata, usually 💦known for its violent style and philosophical androids, always has time for a moment of kindness. In what must be the cleverest use of the PS4’s touchpad, protagonist 2B can pet the levitating, bullet-spewing Pod that accompanies her everywhere (workarounds are availa💖ble on other control schemes).
Maybe this isn’t a surprise, though, given that Nier: Automata allows you to fish, ride bears, long jump between massive gaps, and uninstall your own character’s operating system. The game is truly overflowing with mechanics (there's much more to the Pod alone than you might think), and although not every design decision works perfectly, pod-🍃petting certainly does.
2 Sable: Theꦯ Best Sit Button
Another game with simple controls — talk, jump, crouch, cancel — 2021's Sable is a coming-of-age adventure set in a beautiful, mostly empty world. “Empty” isඣn’t a criticism; on t༒he contrary, Sable’s expanses of sand and rock prevent the world from feeling narrowly designed around the player.
The sit button, m✃apped to down on the D-pad, contributes to this unusual feeling. The title character settles into a relaxed pose, one knee raised, the other flush against the ground. Several games have sit buttons, but few are quite so evocative.
1 Transistor: Hum 𒐪And Flourish ღ
This special game features not one but two useless buttons: left trigger to hum along with th♚e current in-game music, right trigger to skip and toss your giant sword. Skipping is a great animation, but humming is more meaningful because it resonates with the game’s plot.
In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Transistor, you play as an outlawed singer who has lost her voice. Humming is her sad approximation of full-throated song. Also, developers Supergiant Games🎃 took the trouble to record this humming over every background track, which is a lot of work for one mostly useless button.
