Minecraft Dungeons Xbox Cloud Gaming touch controls are surprisingly great
After months of testing from thousands of faithful gamers, Project xCloud graduated from game-streaming-in-preview to Xbox Cloud Gaming, the latest service to be integrated into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. A piece of news that may have slipped by people, however, was the announcement that Minecraft Dungeons, the ARPG from Minecraft-creators Mojang Studios, was going to be the very first game to implement touch controls on Microsoft’s fully-fledged cloud streaming platform.
Of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take these touch controls for a spin, and find out how well a console game translates to a mobile one. The result was surprising, pleasant, and shows a future where you can not only bring your entire console on the go with you, but you may be able to leave the controller behind.
A catalog of games
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
All your gaming needs, in one subscription
Is the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate the best value in all of gaming? It’s possible. Ultimate bundles your Xbox Live Gold subscription, an Xbox Game Pass subscription for both Xbox consoles and Windows PCs, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. That means access to hundreds of games, with more added all the time, for a single monthly subscription cost.
Setting up Minecraft Dungeons on Xbox Cloud Gaming is a breeze
Source: Windows Central
You only get the controls you need, every player will get the exact same controls, and it’ll just work every time.
Mojang Studios also enabled touch controls for all the game’s various menus, meaning you can navigate around the map, inventory, or main menu by touch alone, which goes a long way towards making the game feel more at home on your mobile device. This is even more noticeable whenever you go into the Xbox Guide, which brings up its own virtual touch controls to navigate since it doesn’t accept touch controls itself (future update, Microsoft?).
These are all notable accomplishments, considering this is a game that occassionally struggles to run well on the Switch, let alone on a mobile Android device. However, Microsoft takes it one step further by giving the player control over, well, their controls, with intuitive ways to customize the layout of the touch controls. This couldn’t be any easier, with an always-present but often-hidden button in the top right corner (it’s cut off on my tall phone, but this feature is still beta), that brings up the touch controls with simple menus to manipulate them.
With this, the overall layout remains the same, and is instantly accessible for anyone who is familiar with an Xbox controller, but it’s now personally tailored to you. This will likely be saved per game, so other games that add touch controls will have their own custom layouts that you can then customize even further. Microsoft clearly put a lot of thought into how to make this as seamless as possible.
Playing feels natural, if not flawless
Source: Windows Central
I didn’t take it easy on myself either. I chose to play through Desert Temple on the hardest difficulty level in the game, and took on the Nameless One, one of the more difficult bosses. Despite using a character the priortizes hit-and-run tactics with high attack speeds, I was able to overcome the Nameless One and finish the level while only losing a single life. Even then, the one life I lost wasn’t because touch controls failed me, but because I dumbly rolled into a skirmish I couldn’t escape from.
Source: Windows Central
The value of touch controls and game streaming
Source: Windows Central
It also helps that Xbox Cloud Gaming prioritizes responsiveness over visual fidelity, so I never felt like the game wasn’t going to respond when I tapped my screen. It was reliable, intuitive, and comfortable, and short of buying a Razer Kishi and carrying it around with you, I’m not sure how it could get better than this.
The future is on display: the best games at home on your console, or away from home on your phone.
It’s especially enticing for gamers on a budget, who possibly don’t want to invest in a full setup or sometimes pricey accessories. All you need is a decent budget phone or tablet, and an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription that gives you instant access to over 150 games, more of which will add touch controls over time.
Xbox Cloud Gaming touch controls feel good enough that I could almost see Microsoft implementing touch controls for every game and letting players customize the touch controls, with interested developers coming in to put in the extra time for their games. It would be clunkier for games that don’t make the effort like Minecraft Dungeons did, but would still mean console gaming without a controller. That’s the future on display here. You can get the best games either at home on your console or PC, or on the go entirely on your phone.
Let it be known it all started with Minecraft Dungeons, and it was pretty great.
Not your average Minecraft
Minecraft Dungeons
Minecraft explores the dungeons
Minecraft Dungeons is the next saga in Minecraft’s story, and Mojang Studios have knocked another one out of the park. Awesome co-op combat paired with powerful loot, all at a crazy affordable price? There’s not much more you could ask for in an epic dungeon crawling ARPG.
A catalog of games
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
All your gaming needs, in one subscription.
Is the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate the best value in all of gaming? It’s possible. Ultimate bundles your Xbox Live Gold subscription, an Xbox Game Pass subscription for both Xbox consoles and Windows PC’s, and Xbox Cloud Gaming for on-the-go. That means access to hundreds of games, with more added all the time, for a single monthly subscription cost.
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.