FWIW I prefer the Sega/Xbox layout, but Nintendo’s isn’t arbitrary. It goes back to the NES, when there were only two buttons.
A is essentially the forward or “accept” button and B is essentially the back “cancel” button.
So their placement makes logical sense. Right = forward. Left = back. It’s the same as the forward and back arrows on an internet browser, for example.
Moving to the SNES era, there were four buttons in their current placement, but they were paired up in the design. A and B together with a border around them. X and Y together mimicking the other two buttons’ order, with a border around them. So the A and B were still forward and cancel buttons.
In Japan, PS1 games almost all followed this same logic. ‘O’ was accept and on the right. ‘X’ was cancel. If you played Final Fantasy VII on PS1, you’ll remember this was a thing. I want to say MGS was the same.
And it was arbitrarily changed for the west, if anything. The cross symbol meaning yes rather than no is actually way more illogical when you think about it. And the right button meaning forward makes logical sense. Although I can definitely see the argument that the bottom button being the most used button feels logical too. Obviously this is what most of us have defaulted to nowadays.
The Nintendo order also mimics the pedals on a car. A for accelerate on the right. B for brake. Which is probably why Mario Kart continues to use those buttons rather than the triggers.
Is it only pragmatic because that's what we're used to, though? If you and I grew up with the Japanese style I'm sure that's what we'd say feels more natural.
No, you are currently using the same argument americans use to justify the MM/DD/YY system.
The system used in the west is just completely random and follows no logic, and anyone defending it is only defending it because that's the "standard" for them, not because it makes sense. Same with the imperial system and fahrenheit, they are inaccurate, not accepted by the technical fields, and do not follow a standardized logic like the other systems. Yet those who use them (literally just americans) still defend them with their only argument being "this system is pragmatic, the other system is dumb and stupid"
Japanese is traditionally a top-to-bottom right-to-left language, that's why the NES controller goes B A not A B. If that isn't following tradition I don't know what is.
And despite all that, Sega got it right. I II on the master system and ABC(XYZ) on the mega drive.
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u/Kenny_Bi-God_Omega 3h ago edited 2h ago
FWIW I prefer the Sega/Xbox layout, but Nintendo’s isn’t arbitrary. It goes back to the NES, when there were only two buttons.
A is essentially the forward or “accept” button and B is essentially the back “cancel” button.
So their placement makes logical sense. Right = forward. Left = back. It’s the same as the forward and back arrows on an internet browser, for example.
Moving to the SNES era, there were four buttons in their current placement, but they were paired up in the design. A and B together with a border around them. X and Y together mimicking the other two buttons’ order, with a border around them. So the A and B were still forward and cancel buttons.
In Japan, PS1 games almost all followed this same logic. ‘O’ was accept and on the right. ‘X’ was cancel. If you played Final Fantasy VII on PS1, you’ll remember this was a thing. I want to say MGS was the same.
And it was arbitrarily changed for the west, if anything. The cross symbol meaning yes rather than no is actually way more illogical when you think about it. And the right button meaning forward makes logical sense. Although I can definitely see the argument that the bottom button being the most used button feels logical too. Obviously this is what most of us have defaulted to nowadays.
The Nintendo order also mimics the pedals on a car. A for accelerate on the right. B for brake. Which is probably why Mario Kart continues to use those buttons rather than the triggers.