As far as the controls go, yes they are a bit awkward at first. Once you get used to it however, it's not so bad. Personally I use the face buttons to aim the camera. I know people have said it's not as quick or accurate to use them over the stylus, but i definitely prefer them. Especially if you melee a lot. I do pretty well too. The best I have done was 10 kills and 2 death with 3012 points. (in real multiplayer, not vs the bots lol)

Using the face buttons to aim a staff is a bit more difficult, but if you practice you should be able to get everything working smoothly. (ie be competitive)

It's literally a "practice makes perfect" scenario. Don't let the controls stop you from buying the game. It's a great game and the controls just take a bit of getting used to.

Love the game. I am quite a tall humanoid with fairly big hands and it does hurt a bit, but the game is amazing. Really funny, clever game. It feels a bit like Smash Bros in design and in the gameplay (not as much -but the dash firing system does feel like a Smash type of control method).

I have put about 7 hours in this week, which isn't too shabby.

Aargh, you are one of these guys that totally would whoop my ass online. It seems I suck at this. But it's fun anyways.

IT IS GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's still on my list, tought I won't play fr a while, I just bought a PSP, God Of War 3, Killzone 2, Infamous, Mod Nation, Balzblue for 50euro at Blockbuster's closing-down sale.

I saw this game on a store yesterday and wow!!!!

The 3D effect is a thing of biblical proportions!!! Better than Starfox! Can't wait for my copy to arrive, looks amazing and apparently controls amazing too from what I've played!

2 more weeks...

When saw the first teaser I thought it would be more like Kingdom hearts style of gameplay and was really looking forward to it. I just can't get used to the controls. Don't get me wrong they work and I'm able to play it but I just don't like them. Maybe it'd be different if I had the circle pro but I don't want to spend money on that.

Well I'm enjoying it so far (only came out here in oz yesterday)...
The controls are mostly fine for me (I have small hands) but I have slight trouble with the camera which is annoying (not a dealbreaker though!)

I would, if I would live at the south-pole and there are -45° (Celsius not Fahrenheit) out there. Something like there: http://wiki.xkcd.com/geohashing/2012-02-26_global

There was a guy here in VGC that posted he played 3DS with a glove to avoid his finger from sliding too much on the 3d pad. But I have no idea who (or when) it was said.