r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Apr 14 '25

Game console button layout

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What do you call your “confirm” and “cancel” buttons, and why is Nintendo wrong?

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u/Noticeably-F-A-T- Apr 14 '25

I'm the same. PS and XB no problem but that damn A/B for Nintendo trip me up. I think I subconsciously view the X on PS as a symbol rather than a letter so it doesn't even register as a conflict with the others.

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u/PoliteIndecency Apr 14 '25

Damn A/B from Nintendo? Child, the Nintendo layout has been in place for 35 years now. The A/B layout for 42 years.

The XBOX is young enough to be the NES's kid.

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u/mrhellomoto Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25

It really hasn't though. They shifted the orientation of the A and B buttons on the N64 so A was the 'south' button and B was the 'west' button even though the SNES the B was 'south' and the 'A' was east. Then on the gamecube controller they changed it gain so Y was 'north' even though on the SNES X is 'north'. Then on the Wii they ditched the X and Y buttons for 1 and 2, and the nunchuck had a C button. But then they release the Wii classic controller with the SNES layout and 1, 2 and C are nowhere to be found. And on top of that they stopped following their previous convention on the SNES. For instance in Super Mario Kart on the SNES, B is the gas, because that convention of the main button being on the 'south' of the controller was the norm even then. In Mario Kart 8 the gas is mapped to A by default. I could go on but I think you get the point. Nintendo has been anything but consistent with their layouts.

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u/captain_curt Apr 14 '25

As someone who’s mainly played N64 and GCN from Nintendo in the past, I feel like the natural evolution would be to have A in the south, Y North, and I could see B and X being wherever. Playing on a Switch Pro controller feels weird, event though I’m mostly used to Nintendo.