What good touch controls feel like

Good touch controls are the thing you never notice, which is exactly why they're so hard to get right. When a game is tuned well, your thumb goes where you expect and the action follows. When it's not, you spend the whole time fighting the screen instead of the game.

The best games give you options. Tilt or buttons for racing, repositionable virtual sticks, adjustable sensitivity sliders. Neon Circuit Rush does this nicely, letting you pick the scheme that fits your grip.

Dead zones matter more than most people realise. If a virtual stick responds to the tiniest touch, you'll drift constantly; too much and it feels sluggish. A short calibration option fixes most of this, and I wish more games included one.

My rule of thumb when reviewing: if I'm still thinking about the controls after twenty minutes, something is wrong. The goal is to forget they exist. The games that manage that are the ones I keep going back to.