Controlled Swing VS Automatic Swing Thread - Grapple Knight

We are currently in the process of implementing a third grapple surface type, the yellow swing surface, giving us a complete collection of green, yellow and red, kind of like a traffic light
We were playing with two different kinds of ways of implementing the swing and inevitably ended up going with one over the other but would love to get your input.

The method we ended up going with was the idea of a semi controlled swing over a completely automatic one.

• So when attaching to a yellow surface depending on your angle you will begin to swing from it at the distance you were at when you initially attached to it.
• If nothing is pressed then the character will come to a dangling halt.
• While holding the swing button the character will start to build up back and forth momentum until the character can no longer swing any faster or higher so they will maintain the momentum.
• It is then up to the player to jump at the appropriate time.

We felt this gave the player a certain level of control vs the character constantly swinging back and forth at max speed making the swing merely an exercise in timing the jump button, we also wanted to avoid making the player have to press left and write over and over again at the correct times to build up swing momentum as we felt this slowed down the nature of the game.

One of the other things we are considering adding to the swing mechanic is the ability to adjust the length of your chain making it long or short by pressing up and down to allow for Gradius style obstacle dodging while hanging from a moving object.

Thoughts, critiques and criticisms would be very much appreciated.