One of my favorite NES games: The Goonies II.
One game I hope gets made: The Goonies on the Wii:
(h/t: Play Your Station)
If we never see The Goonies on the Wii, we may still get to see a sequel to the original movie.
Mashing buttons since 1984
One of my favorite NES games: The Goonies II.
One game I hope gets made: The Goonies on the Wii:
(h/t: Play Your Station)
If we never see The Goonies on the Wii, we may still get to see a sequel to the original movie.
by Tony 3 Comments
Behold, the Gaming Glut of 2007, she is upon us. We here at Buttonmashing.com are well aware and are ready to go with the blogging you crave.
I haven’t been able to blog lately as we have family visiting from out of town. I was busy last weekend and I’ll be busy this week entertaining them (which thankfully includes lots of 360-time in the form of NCAA 08, Forza, and Burnout, so it’s not a total loss) but I don’t have as much time to blog as I’d like. Heck, I don’t have as much time to game as I’d like. I still haven’t finished Bioshock, which I must do before Tuesday. I hope to get to that soon.
We still have some good stuff on tap. Nat has told me he’s working on some Metroid Prime 3 posts and he just picked up some PSP games, so we’ll be hearing about those as well. He’s really enjoying MP3 and I am jealous. I need me a Wii!
Dark Reyule has been busy on the 360 front and he’s mentioned he’s got some reviews in the works, possibly one for Two Worlds. I know he’ll be busy with Halo 3 once it drops. We’ll be giving it the co-op business together.
I’ve also been asked by video game blogger extraordinaire Kyle Orland to guest-blog at his review site, Games for Lunch. The premise of the site is to take a game you’ve never played before, play it for an hour straight and then write up your impressions based on your first hour. I’m thinking of doing a Pixar game on the Xbox 360, something along the lines of Cars or Ratatouille (which I saw with the daughter and absolutely loved). I’ll probably play the game with the kiddos watching so I can get their impressions along with mine. Should be interesting. Of course, I’m always open for suggestions. Let me know of any 360 game that may have flown under my radar.
Finally, since we are almost seven days away from Halo 3, I’m declaring it Cuteness Overload Week here at buttonmashing.com. Since I won’t have a lot of time to dedicate to blogging, I’ll be going the easy route with a heaping helping of cuteness so cute you won’t be able to stand it. It’s just to remind everyone it’s not all about blasting aliens and pwning noobs on Live. There’s more to gaming than that. Sometimes we just need to be reminded.
It’s a great time to be a gamer.
(As an aside, tonight was the Prison Break premiere! What did you PB fans think?)
by Tony 2 Comments
Not all comic watch posts will be snarky. There are times when a cartoonist “gets” gaming. And I’m not talking about the Penny Arcade guys or Scott Kurtz. Basic Instructions isn’t a web-comic about video games. It’s a comic about being awesome (among other things). I highlight these two particular strips because they are good (you can see bigger versions here) and show that poking fun at gamers can be very funny.
If you read Scott Adams‘ (The Dilbert Guy) blog, than you already know about Basic Instructions. If you don’t, give the comic a chance. It’s usually pretty hilarious. These two comics ring true to so many gamers. Whether you’re married or have a girlfriend, they are right on the money.
by Tony 3 Comments
It’s been a while since I’ve done a comic watch, but I caught this one this past weekend and figured it was as good a place to start it up again as any. The comic in question is called Moderately Confused, but really should be called Moderately (but not really) Funny. Being that it’s a one-panel “strip” I always read it because it takes such little energy, but I am routinely disappointed. This one is no exception. Going for the easy “when I was a kid things were better” and the “all you kids do is play video games” is a pretty weak attempt. Besides, that kid is way to young to have a Playstation. A Nintendo, sure. He is a kid afterall. Color me unimpressed.
At least he got Playstation right. He probably could have pointed at a sandbox and said “when I was your age, that was my Xbox” but that would just be weird.
by Tony 5 Comments
Just got back from Bourne Ultimatum. What a ride that was! Two hours of crazy non-stop action — chases, fist fights, free running, car crashes and all manner of mayhem that makes men smile from ear to ear.
I mentioned to my friends after we saw Transformers that even though I really enjoyed it, I thought Bourne Ultimatum was going to be the best summer blockbuster. I whole-heatredely stand by that statement. While Transformers was a good time, I had a laundry list of things that bothered me. That is not the case with Bourne Ultimatum. My only complaint is the shaky camera. It can be used to great effect, but when it’s over done (the way it has been in the Bourne trilogy) it’s simply annoying.
That single complaint aside, Bourne Ultimatum was extremely enjoyable. It never really took a breath, grabbing you by the collar and dragging you along for the ride. Without spoiling anything, just about every dangling story line was wrapped up, with a few twists thrown in. It was an excellent end to a most excellent trilogy. I will definitely be seeing this one again.
It may be premature to rank this movie in my Top Five Movies All-Time™ but it is definitely in the running for insertion in the Top Ten™.
by Tony 9 Comments
I went with a couple buddies to see the Transformers this afternoon — WOW!
I’m sure I was in the majority of kids who grew up in the eighties, fearing the worst. Michael Bay making a movie about one of my favorite childhood memories? Transformers weren’t simply a cartoon and a bunch of toys — they were my life for a long time. I spent countless hours assembling my Constructicons into Devastator so he could wreak havoc on GI Joe’s HQ (what I lacked in actual Transformer toys, I made up with imagination. And GI Joes). This was not a flash in the pan! This was important stuff, not to be trifled with by someone who thought Ben Affleck would make a great star opposite Bruce Willis. I half-expected the movie to stink like so much garbage.
On the other hand, I am a total sucker for summer blockbusters where a whole bunch of stuff gets blown up. I’m not ashamed to admit I like most of Armageddon or Independence Day. But I was nervous.
Well, I am nervous no more! Transformers was seven kinds of awesome. It has its cheesy moments, sure, and I could have done without some of the characters, but the first time the phrase “more than meets the eye” was uttered, the theater was electric. Chills, I tell you. It was non-stop trash-kicking from there on out. I didn’t even care Megatron wasn’t a gun! It was everything the ten-year-old in me could have hoped for.
Huge thumb, way up!
** Needless to say, spoilers abound below. **
First off, I just finished watching the season finale of Lost. That was how a season finale is done! Everything about the episode was great. The pacing, the action, the suspense. The flashback-that-wasn’t had me riveted. I’m dying to know whose obituary Jack had found! I was a little sad to see Charlie go, as he was the reason why I started watching the show to begin with, but someone had to go. (And is he really gone anyway? You never know with the Island) Everything about this episode was great. I had let my Lost viewing lapse a few months ago, but I’m glad I picked it back up.
As a stark opposite of the greatest that was the Lost finale, the Heroes finale demonstrated how not to end a series. I was deeply disappointed with the Heroes finale. Everything up to the last ten minutes was shaping up great, but the ending was a huge “meh.” I had hoped that all the “good guys” would finally gang up on Sylar, with Peter or Hiro delivering the final blow, but they didn’t go that route. I was glad that some loose ends were tied up, but I was wanting a little more super-hero action. And who was the really bad guy the little girl was worried about?
Even though they ended a couple weeks ago, My Name is Earl and The Office both ended strongly. This season of Earl was lacking something, but the last couple episodes were great and the finale was pretty sweet. The scenes with Randy and the two little Hellions were great. The Office is starting to get a little too “soapy” for me, so I hope they go drop some of the Pam/Jim drama and go back to the practical jokes on Dwight and more episodes like the Pretzel Day episode. That’s TV comedy at its finest.
Finally, I don’t know if 30 Rock had a finale, but that show is quickly becoming my favorite show on Thursday nights. I used to hate Tina Fey on SNL, especially when she did Weekend Update (is that all she did?) with Jimmy Fallon, but I may have just been projecting my white-hot hatred of Fallon onto her and not giving her a fair chance. I do, however, have much love for Tracey Morgan and anything he does, so I’m glad I stuck around with 30 Rock. I’m hoping that weirdness that happened with Alec Baldwin doesn’t spell an early end to the show, as he’s crucial to its success.
Now that all my shows have wrapped up for the season, I’ll hopefully have more time to play some video games. I don’t know why I let myself get caught up in TV shows, but I do. I even go as far as letting them dictate my schedule. It can’t be healthy. I don’t know what I’ll watch now. At least I still have Iron Chef America to keep me company.
(BTW: I don’t know if 24 has wrapped this season up yet, but if you survived to the end, I’d love to hear what happened. I stopped watching when Jack was going to save his girlfriend from the Chinese. It got too hooky for me after he strung up the bad guy in chains.)
by Tony 3 Comments
I get visitors from search engines all the time. As you probably already know, people search for some weird stuff. Unfortunately I don’t get the hilarious search phrases all the cool bloggers get and mock, so I’ve never had enough funny searches that would warrant a blog post. Until today, that is, when someone hit buttonmashing.com searching for:
Wow. I don’t have anything witty to add to that. I simply want to meet the man (or woman) who wants to become a Jack Bauer and shake his or her hand.
On a 24-related side note, I stopped watching 24 a few weeks ago and started watching Heroes again. 24 got stale and jumped the shark with the whole “save Audrey from the Chinese” storyline. Did I make a mistake? Or was it still an over-the-top cheesefest?
by Tony 2 Comments
Here’s my two word review (spoilers abound!):
Everyone cries.
by Tony 8 Comments
It’s no secret that I like to play games. I play a lot of games. Call it a hobby. But I also consume other types of entertainment. I’ve talked at length here of the TV shows I watch and I mention the occasional movie, but I really haven’t mentioned what else I’m consuming.
As geeks go, I’m not very well read in the “Classics”. Sure, I’ve read The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, I, Robot, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and others, but I haven’t read as much as I’d like to. When I was in high school, I read a lot fantasy books (mostly Dragonlance Novels), but I’ve recently endeavored to broaden my reading horizons. Going off of a few “Top 20/50/100 lists” (here and here and here and here) I’ve been diving right into some of the best Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels I’ve missed out on. I’ve just about finished up Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, and I’ll be moving on to the next book on my list. The next five books on my list are:
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Dune, Frank Herbert
The Foundation Series, Isaac Asimov
In addtion to that, I also started reading the Harry Potter books. (Yes, I am a hypocrite)
I’m also a voracious consumer of music. Recently I’ve been listening to Fort Minor. Fort Minor is a hip-hop/rap side project of Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. If you’ve seen any ABC/ESPN/TNT NBA promo commercials, than you’d recognize their song “Remember the Name“. But there’s more than just that song. The entire album, The Rising Tied is all pretty good stuff; great rhymes and serious beats. I’m digging it.
On top of it all, I’m excited about a lot of movies coming out this summer. We’ll be seeing Spiderman 3 this Friday because I’m a huge fanboy of the Blockbuster/action/blow-stuff-up kind of movie. Can’t wait. I’ve also got a huge list of movies I’m looking forward to this year, but I won’t bore you with that list. At least not yet.
As always, I’d love to hear what you guys are consuming. Any recommendations are also welcome.
(I should mention that this post was inspired by a post over at The Game Chair discussing reading lists of gamers)