Mode button: useless button, or MOST useless button?

[Slave]

I've found some random uses for it. A basic attack in ClayFighter (same as c button), being able to select a song in the sound test Comix Zone, and Williams Arcade Classics allows you to switch in-game with an onscreen indicator.

[Joe Redifer]

To clarify what Tmee said, the MODE button does not toggle back and forth between 6 and 3 button mode. The 6-button controller is always in 6 button mode UNLESS you hold down mode when you turn the power on or connect the controller to the system. Then it acts just like a 3 button controller. Decapattack will work fine if you power up holding the MODE button. Same with Forgotten Worlds (which is unplayable without using the MODE button on a 6-button controller... instant Game Over!) There is also some EA shooter or something that used the MODE for some sort of action button.

Anyway the MODE button is great on a REAL Sega 6-button controller (very durable). I just wish there were a left one in addition to the right one for true shoulder button action.

[Timstuff]

yes...yes...yes...one of the reasons I wish it wasn't there. I have the same disorder when it comes to clicking PS1/2/3 dual shock joysticks (why the fuck did they have to make them buttons!?!?).

I have the same problem with the dual shock sticks, and I also have this problem with the shoulder buttons on Gamecube since they have a click. Whenever there was a loading screen in a GCN game, I would press the shoulder buttons. Now I find myself doing it on my Dualshock 3 and Sixaxis controllers with the L2 and R2 buttons, even though there's no clicking.

[Slave]

I just remembered that Fatal Fury 2 uses it for taunting.

[j_factor]

Decapattack will work fine if you power up holding the MODE button.

However, this doesn't seem to be the case with the Nomad. What's up with that? This is the only game I've played that has Nomad-specific control problems.

[saxman]

I don't see what the fuss over it is. They included it in case the 6-button controller broke compatibility with a game somehow. Any game that makes use of it regularly is a bonus. I found it very useful in DOOM on 32X (although it's use wasn't documented in the manual -- I found it by fooling around with it; this was back before it's use was printed on internet sites.) And I'm sure it was used in a couple other games. But it serves a reasonable purpose. The fact that it's rarely used is because game developers didn't bother with it. But I wouldn't take a 6-button controller that didn't have it personally!

[The Sports Guy]

Anyone else find that they constantly push it while they wait for screens to load, I have never actually thought about what it`s use is, I just push it because it`s there.

I do, almost all of the time.

[A Black Falcon]

Battlecorps (Sega CD) uses it too, as a modifier for weapon select... X, Y, and Z select three of the six weapons, M+X, M+Y, and M+Z select the other three. C also switches between the six weapons one by one, but obviously you only want to use that method if you only have a three button controller... it's great to have instant access to all six weapons, it's important to be able to do that. It's one of the best uses for the M button I've seen...

But yeah, I agree that it would have been even better paired with a second shoulder button. The Sega 6-button controller is one of my favorite controllers ever as it is, but with a pair of shoulder buttons (probably preferably 'flat' ones like the M button, I love the shape of the Sega 6-button controller as it is...) it'd probably be even better, if by just a little bit. But it's so good as it is that that doesn't bother me much. I only wish that more games had used it... I know a lot did, but even so there were more that would have benefited that didn't always use it. And even among the games that did only a very, very few titles used M.

[ceibant]

I used to think the MODE button was useless until I read this thread. Now I can play Golden Axe 2, Decap Attack, and other games without changing controllers!! YES!!

[awshidahak]

If I remember correctly, Star Wars for 32X used the mode button to switch views.

[Chilly Willy]

In Wolf32X, the MODE button brings up the automap.

[Phantar]

In "Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story" you press Mode + C to switch to different fighting stances (when your Chi-Bar is full, you can use the nunchucks).

[Zebbe]

You use the Mode button in many 32X games and also in The Lost Vikings.

[gamegenie]

you never used the cheat codes in Doom 32X ?

[Lync]

I'll try not to ramble on as I tend to - but I had been toggling around with the Shinobi III six-button configuration code and accidentally happened upon something I find unusual.

With a six-button controller plugged in, start Shinobi III as you would normally; you will notice that the intro logo "SEGA" scales down into view with each individual letter falling into place.

Now enable the six-button configuration code: set cursor on "Options," second controller - "UP + C" and first controller - "MODE + START". Now return to the title and await for the game to go idle and begin a demo screen. During the demo hold MODE and press START or immediately hold the MODE and START button and hit hard-reset on the console, this may take several tries, however an alternate boot logo of the "SEGA" should appear in which the letters slide right to left in a larger size font off screen, then slide left to right on screen and stop with the letters bunching into one another.

Did this happen for anyone else? Is this something I was just unaware of or do other games have different logo animations per playing with buttons?