Minecraft Dungeons and Xbox Cloud Gaming show the value of good touch controls

After months of testing with thousands of loyal gamers, Project xCloud has transitioned from preview game streaming to Xbox Cloud Gaming, the latest service to be integrated into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. One piece of news that may have eluded people, however, was the announcement that Minecraft Dungeons, the ARPG from Minecraft creators Mojang Studios, was going to be the very first game to implement touch controls on the streaming platform. Microsoft’s full-fledged cloud.

Of course, I couldn’t pass up the chance to try out those touch controls and see how well a console game translates to a mobile game. The result was surprising, enjoyable, and shows a future where you can not only take your entire console with you, but perhaps leave the controller behind.

Setting up Minecraft Dungeons on Xbox Cloud Gaming is a snap

The idea behind touch controls in Xbox Cloud Gaming is simplicity. You load up the game you want to play, and if there’s no controller connected, the touch controls will appear and you can start playing right away. Microsoft aims to achieve this by allowing the developer, in this case Mojang Studios, to customize the controls to suit their game. before the player connects. You only get the buttons and controls you need for the game so every player trying Minecraft Dungeons through Xbox Cloud Gaming will get the exact same control setup, and it will be just work Everytime.

Mojang Studios has also enabled touch controls for all of the game’s various menus, which means you can navigate the map, inventory, or main menu just by touch, which goes a long way to making the game more user-friendly. comfortable on your mobile device. This is even more noticeable when accessing the Xbox Guide, which displays its own virtual touch commands for navigating as it doesn’t accept touch commands itself (future update, Microsoft?).

These are all notable achievements, considering this is a game that sometimes struggles to run well on the Switch, let alone on an Android mobile device. However, Microsoft goes one step further by giving the gamer control of their controls, with intuitive ways to customize the layout of the touch controls. It couldn’t be simpler, with an ever-present but often hidden button in the upper right corner (it’s cut off on my large phone, but this feature is still in beta), which shows touch controls with simple menus to manipulate them.

Source: Windows Central

These controls let you change the position of each group of controls, increase the spacing between buttons, and rotate the groups so you can position the buttons where you want them. You can also choose to mirror certain actions if you want them to be exactly the same on both sides, or freely manipulate them one at a time. With Minecraft Dungeons, for example, you might want to position the controls a bit lower on the screen, increase the spacing around the side of the joystick, and then rotate the buttons around the joystick so you don’t accidentally open your inventory. with the bottom. of your thumb.

With this, the general layout remains the same and is instantly accessible to anyone familiar with an Xbox controller, but it’s now customized to you. This will likely be saved per game, so other games that add touch controls will have their own custom layouts that you can then customize even more. Microsoft has clearly thought about how to make this as seamless as possible.

Play feels natural, even perfect

So how do these controls feel in practice? Amazingly natural. Minecraft Dungeons isn’t a first-person shooter like Halo, and doesn’t require fast reaction speed above all else, so touch controls feel right at home on this third-person dungeon raider. I never felt like using the touch controls was the reason I failed (just my terrible gaming), and I never wished I had a controller in my hands instead of just my phone. This shocked me, since I honestly expected to want a physical controller after only a few minutes of play.

I didn’t let myself go either. I chose to play Desert Temple on the hardest difficulty level in the game and faced the Nameless One, one of the toughest bosses. Despite using a character that favors hit-and-run tactics with high attack speeds, I was able to defeat the Nameless One and complete the level with only a single life loss. Even then, the only life I lost wasn’t because the touch controls failed me, but because I foolishly rolled into a skirmish I couldn’t escape from.

That being said, the touch controls aren’t perfect. There were numerous instances where certain controls, notably the joystick, would freeze on me, locking in place for a few seconds at a time. This meant every once in a while that I would start walking in one direction, sometimes straight into a group of bad guys, or stop and punch the air uncontrollably. I can only assume this is a bug, but hopefully Microsoft fixes it soon.

The value of touch controls and game streaming

At the beginning of this experiment, I was not convinced by the idea of ​​touch controls with cloud gaming. While it makes conceptual sense, I couldn’t help but play a console-only game with generally terrible screen controls. Microsoft and Mojang Studios officially won me over and showed me the value of touch controls and game streaming. I could see myself playing Minecraft Dungeons everywhere, not having to worry about having a controller with me, because the touch controls really feel it’s good.

It also helps that Xbox Cloud Gaming prioritizes responsiveness over visual fidelity, so I never felt like the game was going to be unresponsive when I tapped on my screen. It was reliable, intuitive, and comfortable, and short of buying a Razer Kishi and carrying it around with you, I don’t know how it could get any better than that.

It’s especially appealing to gamers on a budget, who may not want to invest in a full setup or sometimes expensive accessories. All you need is a budget phone or tablet and an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership that gives you instant access to over 150 games, more of which will add touch controls over time.

Xbox Cloud Gaming touch controls are good enough that I can almost see Microsoft implementing touch controls for every game and allowing gamers to customize the touch controls as interested developers come to spend more time on their games. This would be clumsier for games that don’t make the effort like Minecraft Dungeons did, but it would still mean game on console without controller. It is the future that is displayed here. You can get the best games at home on your console or PC, or on the go entirely on your phone.

Know that it all started with Minecraft Dungeons, and it was pretty awesome.