Thanks for the answer about the "making of", it was really instructive.
I don't know if "isometric controls" is the basic words for that, but what I mean is to move your player to the North East or North West when you push the up button for example. When I wanted to move in your game, I needed to push two button simultaneously to move to the right direction (or making some zigzag which was not very productive XD). It's like project your input axes into your game coordinate system (or camera axes if you prefer). I don't know if it will work, maybe it will be too weird for the player, but I would give it a try.
And you'll probably right. It could be better with analog controls. :)