What makes touch controls actually good

The best touch controls are the ones you stop noticing. When a game maps its actions to natural thumb positions and gives clear feedback, your brain forgets there's a layer of glass between you and the game.

Virtual sticks get a bad reputation, but a well-placed floating stick that appears where your thumb lands works far better than a fixed one. Racing games benefit hugely from letting you choose between tilt and buttons instead of forcing one.

Button size and spacing matter more than people admit. Cramped controls on a big-screen action game cause more deaths than the actual enemies do. A generous, adjustable layout is a green flag.

When we review a game, control feel is one of the first things we test. A brilliant game with awkward controls is a frustrating experience, and we'll say so.