It's been a good run for Super Mario Maker for the Nintendo Wii U, but after five years, one port to the Nintendo 3DS, and a sequel for the Switch, it's almost time to say goodbye. Nintendo announced this morning that effective March 31, 2021 that the game will no longer allow players to upload new courses to share with other players and that the game's website bookmark feature will also cease to be. The game is also scheduled for delisting from the eShop on January 12, 2021. Upload 'em while you've got 'em, folks. This is last call. As... Continue reading

We have a very special double-length podcast for you this week as my wife joins us to discuss our recent wedding that was packed full of hidden video game references. From the Borderlands vault symbol arch to the stomping of the Goomba glass to the Super Mario pixel art in my tie, we tell you all about how we slipped video games into our wedding in ways that you wouldn't notice unless you were in on the joke. All of our favorites are there including The Legend of Zelda, Untitled Goose Game, Donkey Kong, Sonic the Hedgehog, and so many... Continue reading

In celebration of my own imminent wedding day, this week's podcast is all about gaming's greatest weddings! From Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach for a wedding on the moon in Super Mario Odyssey to the shotgun weddings of Fallout 2 to the Mad Moxxi love potion scheme of Borderlands 2 to, uh, Booster kidnapping Princess Toadstool for a wedding in Marrymore in Super Mario RPG and beyond, we're talking about the good, the bad, and the matrimony. Join us for seventy minutes of discussion before I head off to say my vows. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with... Continue reading

My fiancée Corey and I love Borderlands so much that we're themeing much of our wedding decorations around it, so while we haven't had hardly any time to play over the past few months due to wedding preparations, we're happy to see this morning that 2K Games has announced a second Season Pass is coming for new downloadable expansions to Borderlands 3. Here's what's coming, although no specifics as to what these expansions are all about are available yet. Get ready to make all kinds of mayhem with Borderlands 3's new Season Pass 2, which will feature two more add-ons... Continue reading

One of our favorite books here at Power Button, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation, is now a documentary streaming on CBS All-Access, so it's the perfect time to talk to the book's author and friend of the podcast Blake J. Harris and his co-director on the film, Jonah Tulis. Join us for an hour of conversation in which we discuss topics such as how the book made the transition to the screen, the difficulty of clearing all of those archival clips for use, the visual impact of showing key moments in the story as... Continue reading

Since the first video games to feature music were created, fans have tried to take those simple composition and tap them out on a piano or strum them out on a guitar. Over the years, the fan community has continued to advance, taking increasingly complex melodies and turning them into impressive new creations. If your game includes Super Mario or Mega Man in the title, then there's no shortage of people who can perform your tunes. The familiar strains of World 1-1 or Air Man's theme are a bit overdone these days, but deeper cut games deserve to have their... Continue reading

We're big fans of Blake J. Harris's book on the Nintendo versus Sega battles of the 1990s, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation. He's joined us on the Power Button podcast several times to discuss it and now that the new documentary based on the book is available to stream on CBS All Access, he's coming back to the show next week and he's bringing his co-director Jonah Tulis with him so we can dive deep into this latest incarnation of the project. We have a lot to talk about, but we also want your... Continue reading

City-building simulators and their ilk are all the rage on this week's podcast episode. Join us as we reminisce over classic titles including SimCity, SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000... well, you get the idea there, plus SimCopter, SimFarm, Rollercoaster Tycoon, SimTower, and all the way to our current obsession, Cities: Skylines. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Play, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late.... Continue reading

The ongoing game of pricing and release date chicken between Microsoft and Sony finally reached the cliff this week as both companies lifted the curtain on their plans for the next generation of video game consoles. We're spending the hour discussing the new details about the Sony PlayStation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X and Series S plus a quick dip into the world of Nintendo for some pre-release Super Mario 3D All-Stars gossip. Pull up a retailer's website and mash the refresh button with us as we try to preorder a console. Download this week's episode directly from... Continue reading

Word came this morning that Nintendo has discontinued production on the entire Nintendo 3DS family of hardware, ending the company's dedicated handheld gaming dynasty that extends back to the Game Boy era and, if you want to argue beyond that, the Game & Watch. Launched in 2011, the 3DS brought us all so many happy memories with stand-out titles such as Super Mario 3D Land, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Mario Kart 7, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Kirby: Planet Robobot, and I could basically fill the rest of this article just naming great game... Continue reading

I have a terrible confession to make, friends, and I hope you can forgive me. You see, Nintendo announced yesterday evening that three more Super NES games will be coming to the Nintendo Switch Online's Super NES collection next week, one of which is 1995's Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. I regret to say that it's my fault that the game is only just now coming to the service instead of arriving weeks ago. Earlier in the summer when the first game in the series, Donkey Kong Country, was added to the service, I took my sweet time... Continue reading

The long-gestating documentary based on friend-of-the-podcast Blake J. Harris' Console Wars is finally ready for its premiere. Set to debut on the CBS All Access streaming service on September 23, 2020, a trailer for the film was released yesterday that looks to keep the heart and soul of the book intact thanks to interviews with key figures from the Nintendo versus Sega battles of the 1990s including Howard Phillips, Peter Main, and Howard Lincoln on the Nintendo side and and Tom Kalinske, Shinobu Toyoda, Al Nilsen, Ellen Beth Van Buskirk, Paul Rioux, and Bill White from Team Sega. I absolutely... Continue reading

PlayStation Plus offered Square-Enix's Rise of the Tomb Raider as a free download earlier in the summer and since my fiancee is an Uncharted fan, I suggested she might want to try it out since they have some similarities. She enjoyed it, got me into playing it, and that led to this week's podcast discussion in which we brief Blake Grundman on our experiences with the dry monologues, hunting animals with poison mushroom arrows, avoiding the gory deaths, and tracking a mythical witch. Good luck to you, Lara Croft! With us at the controls, you'll need it. Download this week's... Continue reading

Some people collect video games, but other people collect video game controllers. Consider the collection of Nintendo GameCube controllers on display at The Controller Library as maintained by Carl Synnett, for instance. You're probably thinking that if you've seen one GameCube controller, then you've seen them all. How many can there be? I mean, there's your basic wired model, and then the wireless WaveBird, and then maybe a few different color variations, and you're done, right? You've got some nerve, mister. There's a lot to see from prototypes cobbled together from spare parts to Club Nintendo-exclusive variants to specialized models... Continue reading

Microsoft and Sony have been playing a game of announcement chicken over the past months, each seemingly waiting to see what the other will charge for their next generation console. Microsoft moved first this morning, announcing that the new Xbox Series X will cost $499 at retail with a release date of November 10 in North America. Yesterday an early leak revealed a budget version of the console, the Xbox Series S, which lacks a disc drive and cannot output 4K video for a reasonable $299. The X price is pretty much on target for what a box of its... Continue reading

Nintendo released a trio of F-Zero titles for the Game Boy Advance to diminishing returns internatio... Continue reading

Nintendo opened the floodgates on its Super Mario Bros. thirty-fifth anniversary plans and game announcements this week with lots of new products on the way to celebrate the occasion. On this week's podcast, we're discussing all of the news including the Mario Kart Live toys, Super Mario 35 battle royale game, Super Mario 3D All-Stars coming to the Switch, and so much more. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes and Google Play, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to... Continue reading

Have you heard about this new Marvel's Avengers game coming out soon? We certainly have, and on this week's podcast we're discussing the beta version of the game that has been available on and off for the past few weeks. Corey is back with us this week to help us pick it apart, put it back together, and look ahead to the finished version of the game and beyond to the datamined list of future playable characters. Excelsior, and all of that stuff! Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe... Continue reading

We can't resist a new Paper Mario title (except for when we do), so on this week's episode of the podcast we're discussing the first half of Paper Mario: The Origami King for the Nintendo Switch. There are lots of spoilers in here for the red and blue streamer areas plus a little bit beyond, so hold off on joining us for this one until you reach the Monty Mole village if you are concerned about spoilers. We'll pick up the second half of the adventure when Blake gets around to finishing it. Download this week's episode directly from PTB,... Continue reading

Zen Studios has gone quiet over the past few months when it comes to new pinball table announcements for Pinball FX3, but the company is back on track with the upcoming Williams Pinball: Volume 6 which includes three more classic Williams tables coming to the usual platforms Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows 10, and Steam. Mobile users can play through the Williams Pinball app on iOS and Google Play. This pack includes 1990's infamous FunHouse (with Rudy!), 1987's Space Station, and 1990's Dr. Dude and His Excellent Ray. There's no announced release date yet, but the... Continue reading

Allowing a previous console generation's accessories to be compatible with a new generation of hardware can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's great for players if those nice arcade sticks, steering wheels, and cameras bought last generation work with the next one because there's no need to replace perfectly functional equipment. On the other hand, forcing a clean break with accessories allows the console manufacturer to better control their messaging and draw a line in the sand regarding what does and does not work with the new hardware. I'm reminded of when Nintendo made their Wii controllers... Continue reading

Microsoft broadcast a special hour-long look at upcoming games for its Xbox Series X console recently, so on this week's podcast we spend eighty minutes discussing the showcase and talking about which games interest us the most. We also dig into the console's Smart Delivery promises and touch on how Microsoft buying up a whole slate of developers is about to pay off for them. We'll leave a light on for you, Battletoads! Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes and Google Play, toss this RSS feed into... Continue reading

Destiny 2 continues to expand as developer Bungie recently outlined its revised roadmap for the ongoing development of its popular shooter, so on this week's podcast it's only natural that Blake Grundman would want to discuss it. I'm not a Destiny fan, but my fiancee is, so Corey is back for her second appearance on the show to talk all about Vex and the Warmind or whatever it is that goes on in Destiny. I'm glad they know what they're talking about because, in this case, I certainly don't. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player... Continue reading

One of the best parts of the Internet gaming community involves watching fans of a beloved franchise dig into games and discover remnants from the development process. For whatever reason, Sega's 1990s archives of development materials is wide open to the right people and a bunch of unfinished versions of Sonic the Hedgehog titles have escaped to the Internet over the years. Over at Kotaku, Heidi Kemps showcases seven such prototypes that each show us something interesting about the finished product by virtue of not being in it. One wonders if Sega in the 1990s was just an exceptionally leaky... Continue reading