Why on-screen controls make or break a mobile game

I've uninstalled more games over bad controls than bad graphics. A gorgeous racer is useless if the steering lives half an inch outside my thumb's reach. The good ones let you move things around.

Resizable buttons are underrated. My hands aren't the same size as the designer's, and a slider in the settings fixes that in ten seconds. Neon Drift Rally gets this right; plenty of bigger games don't.

Tilt versus touch is personal. Tilt feels natural at a desk and awful on a moving bus. Any game offering both, like a few in our catalogue, instantly earns goodwill.

My rule of thumb: spend five minutes in the settings before you judge a game. Half the frustration people report is a default control scheme that was never going to suit them.