Mashing buttons since 1984
Cuteness inventory:
Familiar, cute video game mascot? Check!
Familiar, cute medium? Check!
Fact that this was made for someone’s 30th, not 13th birthday? Check!
Cuteness factor: stratospherically cute.
Cuteness Overload Week continues, reminding us that there is more to gaming than splattering someone all over the bumper of your Warthog.
Q: What’s cuter than a couple kids playing Wii?
A: Nothing.
Day #2 of Cuteness Overload Week, just to remind us there is more to gaming than dual wielding SMGs.
Try to withstand the cuteness:
This is an oldie-but-goodie. My little girl (in the pink) playing some Mario Party with her cousins. She’s more of a Playhouse Disney girl now, but back then she loved mashing buttons!
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?)
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.
I received a package yesterday from Microsoft that contained an Xbox 360 console and a note that read:
Dear Xbox Customer.
So that you can get back to playing and enjoying you Xbox quicker, we have replaced your Xbox console with a replacement unit.
As you probably know, my previous Xbox 360 overheated and was subsequently sent in for repairs less than a month ago. I was interested in seeing how Microsoft would handle the repairs, so I specifically wrote down the serial number from my broken unit to see if they’d repair my unit or send me a different one. Microsoft has some ground to make up with its customers, so how would they perform?
First off, I’m impressed with Microsoft’s response time. Less than a month turn-around is greatly appreciated. Second, I’m 99% sure they sent me a brand new unit. It’s quieter, cooler (after a four hour gaming session) and has a manufacturing date of 2007-08-09. I’m assuming that means 2007-August-9th, not a unit that was built 3 days ago. Either way, I’m giving Microsoft credit for being responsive and handling customer service appropriately. It’s a pain to send in a broken unit and wait, but this was fairly painless. The also gave me a free month of Live. A nice touch.
So now it’s back to gaming!
My gamer regret usually takes the form of drawing up a humiliating list of other, potential activities I’ve forgone. I could have … volunteered at a local hospital! Learned a language! Cleaned up my rats’ nest of an office! Gotten a head start on a new writing project! Hell, I could have just, you know, played the guitar or something. Wouldn’t that have been a less howling waste of my precious time on Earth?
Do you suffer from it? If I sit down after I’ve accomplished something off the “list,” then I hardly ever regret the time played. But if I have to push a pile of stuff off the desk so I can play Everquest 2, then more often than not the time feels wasted. For as long as I’ve played games, though, I think I’ve done pretty well. The biggest regret for me would have to be all the time I spent with Diablo 2. I loved the game to death, but I played it way too much. Luckily there was no way to check how many hours I was logged on to Battle.net.
It wouldn’t be pretty.
I’ve been seeing rumors about the possibility of Capcom announcing Dead Rising 2 at the Tokyo Game Show. Of course this is contrary to what we heard earlier, but we’ll see.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge Dead Rising fan. In fact, I’ve been thinking about a great idea for a crossover game from Capcom’s franchises for Dead Rising 2. Take Leon from Resident Evil 4 (another Capcom franchise), send him to investigate some undead activity on a remote island. Frank
West, the photo-journalist from Dead Rising, follows him to document the investigation. The island will naturally be crawling with zombies, looking for some brains to eat, and Frank and Leon show up ready to bash some faces. It’s a can’t miss!
Frank powers up the duo with some sweet action photography and Leon keeps them alive with some sweet stinky weed. (Come on, he heals himself with green herbs. How else could you explain it?). The combo moves would be amazing.
Actually, I would be happy if they announced an online co-op mode for Dead Rising. Meeting up with pals in the mall to impale zombies with the post hole digger would have to be the pinnacle of online gaming.
(On a side note, supposedly Dead Rising 2 is happening on an island. How Capcom say this game has no resemblance to the Dawn of the Dead? Even if it’s the 2004 remake?)
I have a confession to make. I’m cheating on my wife. She knows it and she condones it. Why? Every couple of years Nintendo presents us with its butch vixen, Samus Aran. She’s the only other woman allowed in our house.
There has been no exception with this year as the recently released Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has finally been brought to the masses for the Nintendo Wii. For what was originally intended to be a launch title, the extra time put in by Retro Studios to polish the game has been well worth the wait.
However, instead of me gushing about this game over one post, I figured that while everyone else is playing that other game and soon to be OTHER GAME, that I would write up some gameplay sessions. Now, before you get you panties all in a bunch (You do wear panties, right? The granny kind?), these posts will be spoiler-free. I’ll do my best to not give anyway any story elements.
With that in mind, I’d like to give a quick impression.
Brilliance. This game exudes brilliance. This is probably the most polished game that Nintendo has ever made, and if you know Nintendo, you should know that says a lot. Their games usually exhibit an above average shine. This game is loaded with tons of homages to the earlier games (in the timeline of the Metroid series), and doesn’t take itself too seriously all the time. Some diehards may not like this, but I for one, love the bobble head doll of my Mii on the spaceship dashboard.
Nintendo and the Wii are bringing gaming to the masses. From the description on Flickr:
This is a picture of the marquee at the Schaumburg Township District Library advertising a Wii program. The aim of this program is to bring together multiple generations, in this case, through videogames. The library has embraced gaming and has hosted several gaming programs, tournaments, and groups primarily for children and young adults. This new program will be a great way to bring in these kids’ parents and grandparents.
Gaming with grandparents? Sign me up!