When mapping controls for a console game, you need to figure out how to map as many actions as possible without running out of buttons on the controller.
Running out of buttons usually result in developers having to resort to simultaneous button presses, holding down buttons or double-tapping for remaining actions.

This could be avoided if developers are careful not to throw in useless actions or purposes for the buttons on the controllers.

Here's a list of how you waste buttons:


1. "Weak Attack, Strong Attack".

So, basically your character has an attack button that is weak and another one which is strong.
Any action-adventure game that implements this has automatically wasted a button.

Instead of two attacks with varying strengths, they could have added another attack with a different property (such as "gun attack & sword attack" in Devil May Cry or "physical attack & magic attack" in Onimusha) or a totally different function altogether.

The "strong attack, weak attack" setting is usually implemented so that developers can set up a shitty dial-a-combo mechanic (weak, weak, strong, weak, strong, etc.).

The only time a "weak, strong" setup is acceptable to me is if it's implemented in a fighting game (Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, etc.), where the focus is solely on fighting and doesn't have other features, such as exploration or puzzle solving.

2. "Face Button To Access Menu Or Item Inventory".

This is where you press one of the face buttons on the controller to access a menu screen to manage your items and equipment.

Nice job, ASSHOLES.
That's what the "Select" and "Start" buttons are for. The same goes for their equivalents for other consoles.

Having a big, round & colored face button to open up your inventory might be more comfortable than pressing the "Select" or "Start" button because they are "small &/or squishy" but in the long run, that button could have been used as an action for something else.

To access your inventory in Resident Evil 5, you need to press Triangle(PS3)/"Y"(360).
If only they'd assign this to "Start" instead, like in Resident Evil: Outbreak, the Triangle/"Y" button could have been used for, say, melee or dodging, bypassing the need to press some randomized on-screen prompts.

3. "Add A "Run" Button".

A "Run" button is basically a button you hold down so that whenever you move your character around with the D-pad or analog stick, they run instead of walking.

If you're making a game for a console that has pressure-sensitive analog sticks and you add a "Run" button, I will appear next your bed at night while you are asleep, with a steel pipe in my hand and will shove that pipe up your anus after I have tied you up in spread-eagle fashion, face down to your bed.

Why bother with a motherfucking "Run" button when pressure sensitivity on the analog stick allows you to run or walk depending on how much you tilt it?

If the "Run" button is mapped amongst the Face buttons, then my right thumb will be occupied holding down that button, unable to perform certain actions while running.
For example, if I want to run while moving the camera.
With my right thumb already occupied holding down the "Run" button, which finger do I use to tilt the Right Analog stick?
A 3rd thumb? Fuck.
I'm looking at you, Batman: Arkham Asylum.

It will definitely be more easy on my fingers if they mapped the "Run" button to one of the shoulder buttons (like in Dead Space) but it still won't change the fact that the "Run" button could have been something else, like "Jump", "Dodge", "Crouch", etc.

The "Run" button in Batman: Arkham Asylum could have easily been "Jump" instead, bypassing the need to double-tap the Run button to evade enemy attacks.

I'm assuming that the continuing implementation of the "Run" button is to make games that has a PC port more "Keyboard-friendly", since not everyone has controllers with pressure-sensitive analogs for their PC.
Games that are either console-exclusive (Metal Gear Solid 4) or based off console controller mechanics (Devil May Cry 4) won't have a fucking "Run" button.

This is all the "Wasted Button" list I have for now, I believe that I might add some more.
You're free to suggest some of your own "Wasted Buttons".