Popular/Working control schemes on mobile. What's your experience?

[Coder Apprentice]

I don't have too much experience as a gamer on mobile. Everything I played so far was left hand holding the device, right hand touches the screen. When I look at the other end of the spectrum FPS games usually use somekind of an auto aim/shoot system as far as I can tell. So what's in between? How far virtual joystick and buttons can go without being inconvenient? Can a Game Boy/Game Gear like control with a virtual up/down/left/right on the left and a virtual fire button on the right work well?   

[RemiD]

on a android smartphone, i have played first person shooter game, racing game, action game, but also console game (playstation) with the joystick cross / buttons shown on the screen. so yeah you can make all kind of controls, it is sometimes not as easy to use / as responsive as with a real mouse + keyboard or real joytick, but hey with training you can play quite good...

[Matty]

Mobile games in my opinion benefit from a gameplay mechanic designed for the device.

So although many games exist that replicate functionality on consoles and pc...they dont play as well as they do on devices designed for them.

I believe when designing for mobile if you design an interface with minimal user interaction or no complex interaction you have a better chance.  That goes against everything you design for pc or console but you have to keep in mind that on mobile you are dealing with a device where the display that provides feedback to the user is also covered by the users fingers on interacting and the size of the interface makes complex movements difficult.

Think outside of game mechanics you'd do on pc or console for best results.

[Dabz]

I dont like virtual joypads/sticks, yeah, they do the job, but, they obviously dont have the physical feel of normal buttons, and for me at least, games dont play right because of it!

I find it all a bit shoe-horny! But if you do get horny over shoes, well... Each to their own... Oh er missus!

Dabz

[Pfaber11]

I've used the AGK Classic virtual joysticks and buttons and they're not too bad . They get the job done .
They are also pretty responsive and can be added into your programs with a couple of lines of code . It's really very easy to do. I just use the left joystick to turn left and right and a right button to move forward , seems to work fine .

[Steve Elliott]

I dont like virtual joypads/sticks, yeah, they do the job, but, they obviously dont have the physical feel of normal buttons, and for me at least, games dont play right because of it!

Yep they are horrible IMO too, no satisfying feedback and when you try to use them you block part of the screen!  A bigger percentage of the screen when using a small phone screen...On a larger tablet they would work better, but still not great.