I am working on a street fighting game and am trying to get the perfect controls. I have always hated the controls for Smash Bros because they feel so random and unnatural; It may just be that Minecraft was the only game I consistently played with a Controller, but who's idea was it to make the A button for punching and the trigger button for jumping? I've testing many controller layouts but none of them feel natural or comfortable. Controller layouts seem to be a bit controversial and I'm not sure what I want to go with. Any ideas?

    PizzaHutsAlat The game I've always played was mortal kombat. this game had two control layouts, in both you would jump with the UP button, which in a modern controller would be moving the left stick up.
    the buttons would either do different attacks, and blocking was done by moving back while being attacked, while running was done by double tapping left or right, or one button was reserved for blocking and one for running. the trigger was used for dodging and leg swipes in the 3D version.
    And then in King of Fighters UP was also jump, and you had a weak punch, strong punch, weak kick and strong kick, these were more easily translated to a PS style controller. I think blocking was done by moving back while being attacked too.

    I would say left stick for moving left and right, jumping and crouching, buttons for attacks, and any additional mechanics like running would be trigger. That would be the Standard fighting game controls, just like for an FPS it's WASDER-Space.

      Take a note from Tekken7/8. DBZ FZ.

      Check out the most popular fight stick layouts.

      https://support.focusattack.com/hc/en-us/articles/207447753-Control-Panel-Templates

      And make a decision on how many buttons you want to implement.

      Id say the most natural for fight sticks is up on the stick,

      If youre talking about just basic 3rd person game not a fightin game, then just copy what BOTW did. It felt really natural (ofc had to relearn cancel/ok button switcharoo) but overall it felt natural to me.