I like Minecraft's console versions, and plan on buying the Switch version for the portability, but one issue that's always bugged me is the controls. Simply put, they're deep-fried garbage on every version except maybe the PS Vita, which is ironic considering it has the worst button setup of all the consoles. At least compared to other first person console games. Many buttons are left unused (the D-pad), and functions you don't use very often are being assigned to extremely valuable buttons (right face button for dropping items and up and left face buttons for inventory access), while forcing us to use other unintuitive methods to do important actions (double-tapping the left analog stick forwards to sprint). Here's my idea for a control scheme that should work much better and allow easier use of a variety of commands (Image), and I will explain why these changes are useful.

First up, moving around the buttons for sprinting, dropping items and sneaking. Currently, dropping items is done with the B button (Or A on the Switch, or Circle on the PS4, or whatever, but I'm going to use Xbox button names). You're not going to be dropping items enough that you'd want to assign it to such an easily accessible button, when there are other functions better suited to it. For example, there's currently no button to sprint. You are forced to flick the left analog stick forward twice, which is incredibly unintuitive and uncomfortable. Most games have you sprint by clicking LS, but that button is presently used for sneaking. But with dropping items moved to a different button (as you can see in the image, I propose 'down' on the D-pad), you can sneak with the B button and sprint by clicking LS. Plus, when flying, having the controls for ascent and descent (A and B) be very close to each other, and easy to press and hold, makes it much easier to control. LS and RS are uncomfortable to keep held down, and are best suited to occasionally clicking to toggle something, like iron-sights aiming in a FPS.

Second, a similar problem occurs with the inventory buttons. The X and Y buttons are easily accessible and are best suited to actions that you need to regularly and quickly do while things are happening around you. Checking your inventory and crafting, however, are things you do in calm situations, while you don’t need to be doing anything else. I propose they also be assigned to the D-pad, to the left and right buttons. When you’ve got some breathing room and you want to sort your items or craft some torches, it’s easy to take your thumb off the left analog stick and press one of the D-pad buttons. This way, the X and Y buttons are free to be used for something else more useful. Like…

A DEDICATED INTERACT BUTTON! That’s the third point. If you want to interact with something, you use LT, which can be annoying if you wish to place a block on (if it’s a block) or behind it (if it’s an entity such as a Villager). Instead, you need to enter sneak mode first, then place the block. By having a dedicated interact button, you can just press that when you want to open a door, smelt something or interact with any of the other things in the game world. Then when you want to place a block, you can place it normally without any nonsense. This is also a feature I would like to have on PC versions of Minecraft.

And there are two other features which we need to be able to do. On the PC, you can click the scroll wheel while looking at a block to ‘pick’ it, instantly switching to it if you have it in your inventory so you can easily place it. This cannot be done on consoles, and I believe it would be a useful addition, considering that console players do not have mouse control for easy navigation of Minecraft’s menus. I believe that the best button for this is RS. This button is currently used for switching cameras, but this can instead be performed with the Y button, which would go unused otherwise. And we need to be able to chat easily. You don’t seem to be able to easily type messages on consoles, but I propose the ability to press ‘up’ on the D-pad to bring up the text box, then type messages using a daisy wheel interface similar to what Steam’s Big picture mode uses, where you rotate an analog stick to select certain groups of characters, and press corresponding face buttons to type those characters.

I’m sure that changes can be made to this. I don’t think switching camera angles is used often enough that it should be applied to the Y button, but at the same time it’s not used rarely enough to put in the Options menu. But I think it’s still a vast improvement on our current controls. What do you guys think? And while we're talking about controllers, if anyone from Mojang is reading this, can you also add controller support to the Java version?

TL;DR: I designed a better control scheme for console versions of Minecraft that has a more logical and intuitive button layout.