I seem to be obsessed with making game designs that can fit onto a NES controller (or a Wii remote on its side) while still giving the player as much freedom and control over the game as possible. The biggest problem with this is first-person shooters of course. Usually I'm forced to have EITHER an overhead OR side-view perspective to create an overhead or platformer game (when controlling a character, not all games focus on controlling a character). Also, I'm forced to create unique, weird patterns out of players and the challenges they face in order to make up for the lack of control (best example of this imo is Megaman. Enemies have very unique patterns, but the player can only run left/right, jump, and shoot)

Recently, I kind of wonder how essentially call of duty team deathmatch could be recreated with NES-only controls (but modern graphics allowed) even if it's made as a platformer or overhead view or isometric-view game.

Truly a challenge for the ages and one that fits with my obsession with maximum efficiency, minimalism, and newbie-friendly game design(complex controls are NOT newbie-friendly)

One possibility for keeping it first person:

"select" cycles through your weapons

'A' fires guns, and based on context, actives stuff (chests/doors/whatever).

(when 'B' isn't being held) D-pad moves you, with left/right rotating. You auto-sprint after half a second of moving. Double-tap left/right to do a side-ways roll.

(when 'B' is held) D-pad looks (left/right strafes, up/down looks up and down)

This means you'll often need to move, stop, hold B, rotate, and fire - but so does everyone else.

One possibility for keeping it first person:

"select" cycles through your weapons

'A' fires guns, and based on context, actives stuff (chests/doors/whatever).

(when 'B' isn't being held) D-pad moves you, with left/right rotating. You auto-sprint after half a second of moving. Double-tap left/right to do a side-ways roll.

(when 'B' is held) D-pad looks (left/right strafes, up/down looks up and down)

This means you'll often need to move, stop, hold B, rotate, and fire - but so does everyone else.

I like this idea. Actually, metroid prime 2 : echoes has an interesting multiplayer mode with lock-on and free-aiming kind of comparable to this. It was always one of the most unique multiplayers I've ever played. Though I only actually played it once, it was amazing.

You're cheating D: That game uses more than 2 buttons and a d-pad (and start and select)