PSA: You Can Now Remap 'Nintendo Classics' NES And Game Boy Controls

The fact we've had to wait so long for something so simple, is a bit silly, but better late than never.

And it only took... 7 years. It's funny that the Nintendo emulators had rewind before button remapping.

Once they update the Mega Drive app with the mapping option, the N64 controller will be the best classic controller to play with the NSO games: home button, six front buttons, great dpad and better ergomomics than the Snes controller.

Great news as we can now view the controls in the Japanese games to make it easier to know what's going on in some of them.

I heard they updated the CRT filter on the NES too. I'm a little scared to try it as I really like the existing filter. Then again the SNES filter update was improvement so we'll see🤞🏻

I wish they fixed the GameCube controller. Not having the - button stops it being on of the best controllers on switch 2.

Nice. As someone who grew up with the SNES, I always use Y to attack and B to jump, so switching to the NES type controls always messes with my fingers.

Probably the ones that'll most benefit from it. Y and B is so much more natural with modern controllers than B and A are.

@Woodyshoe Wish they'd let us remap the classic controllers in general. I'd happily turn the C button into a Minus button, zero hesitation. Already turned it into a second Home button on my Pro controller because meaning to do that and hitting the wrong one is the only scenario where I'd actually hit that button.

So now are all the NSO apps updated to the 3.x versions? Okay except the Mega Drive one.

I know a certain Angry Video Game Nerd who would be happy to hear about this. One of his recurring complaints with some NES games was that they would have the jump button be the B button instead of the A button. Some even use the up button on the D-Pad to jump. Basically, he wanted the control scheme to be more like Super Mario Bros.

@Protion9 ooh that’s a good shout. I never thought of using the N64 pad in lieu of the Mega Drive controller. Saves me having to purchase yet another NSO controller. And of course it’s only a 3-button controller anyway.

@Lizuka it’s bizarre. When I play games on a real Game Boy / Color, I find it perfectly fine that B is run and A is jump. But the moment I play GB games on something like the Switch, I don’t like it. It must be the placement of the buttons, and the fact they’re bigger on Game Boy hardware. Who knows.

Man you can now remap every single one of the two buttons. Hmm what shall I do.

@GravyThief Compare the angle your thumb is at for B and A on a joy con or pro controller vs on real GB hardware and it makes perfect sense

@OmnitronVariant the angle of my thumb doesn’t answer it for me. Plus the angle changes depending whether I’m using joycons, pro controller, or even a SNES pad, yet all still feel wrong. I think part of it is muscle memory, on all these pads I’m just used to Y being run and B being jump. But checking a DMG and GBC, I do think a big part of it is the size of the buttons, especially on a DMG. My thumb sits nicely across both of them, especially the DMG where the buttons are both bigger and closer. Doing the same on a Joycon or pro controller, the buttons are smaller and the gaps are (relatively) larger too. I think that answers it for me anyway.

@Protion9 doesn’t the lack of ZL and/or ZR (can’t remember which if any the Z button on the N64 controller maps to) cause an issue for getting in and out of the emulator menus?

@jfp I map A&B to be the A button and X&Y to be B. Feels more comfortable and I can have my thumb over B&Y at all times. The A&X are just in case I have a brain fart momentarily.

Still hoping they release a rail-less version of the nes controller with normal usb charging.

@dazzleshell Especially for Switch 2. Since you can't easily charge them if you don't have a Switch (anymore).

I wish they would also allow to remap memory the way the Action Replay and other devices let you back in the day.
I think I would play these games a lot more if you could modify some things like number of lives, the way difficulty progresses and so on

@GravyThief What’s a DMG?

Wonderful! I've been waiting for the button remapping! Time for some SMB3!

@RobbySuave the original Game Boy model, the first one released. The big grey one. Its model number is DMG, and people generally use that as an easy way to identify which Game Boy model they’re referring to. Other models are Game Boy Pocket (GBP), Game Boy Light (GBL), Game Boy Color (GBC), and the Game Boy Advance (GBA). Hope that helps.

Nice! I just tried out the Ninja NES game last night, and Bionic Commando on GB, and could have used a change in controls.

@Glassneedles
For NES and GB I would remap the Select Button to L, as L and R are not needed. For GBA, C-Left and C-Down are my Start and Select buttons. For snes as far as I know you cannot remap the C-buttons unfortunately.

So now I can finally have run with Y and jump with B? All ive wanted

@Protion9 makes sense to me! I have a Retrobit NES style controller that has 4 shoulder buttons so that is normally my go to controller for NES and GB/GBA. I also have an 8bitdo M30 which I use for both the Mega drive and SNES apps which I might be a bit sacrilegious to some people but it’s the controller that’s most comfortable to me. Also got an 8bitdo Pro 2 I sometimes use for SNES.

GameCube and N64 I have the official classic controllers but N64 might see me use one of the Retro Fighters N64 ones depending on my mood. I have a bit of an addiction to buying controllers as you might of guessed!

Oh and Goldeneye/Perfect Dark I have set up customised schemes that use a Pro Controller to be as much like a modern shooter as possible. I played so much Goldeneye and Perfect Dark in the 90s/early 00s but my brain just can’t adjust back to any of the control schemes built in.

I would love to see a black background without the player icons for both SNES and NES.

@GravyThief Interesting. I’ve only seen it abbreviated as GB, never DMG.

They put all that work in and you still can't open the system menu in the GameBoy app using the official wireless NES controllers. Nintendo really fell off.