That is exactly how it works. There were very few games that actually made use of the d-pad but they were out there. I distinctly remember having to make use of the d-pad for one level in Mischief Makers because your thrusters were actually marginally slower when using the c buttons vs double tapping on the d-pad. I just figured I wasn't pressing fast enough and got a madcatz controller to automate the button pressing, but when that didn't work I was floored and eventually puzzled it out or read something online. I forget which, it's been a while.