Hi Armorgnome,
The game pad should not be taking you back to the menus,etc. while you are playing a game. This issue is, I believe, related to an issue I'm tracing with CMD_Set_Screen_Type not being fired to remote devices properly. This command re-maps all the buttons when you change menus/enter game_player. But is not doing that properly right now. I hope to have a solution to this within the week.
Jason.