I’m afraid the moment I’ve not-so-casually alluded to will finally, almost, nearly arrive in 23 more hours: the moment my stint at ButtonSmasher ends, and with it, possibly even the blog itself. It’s been nice knowing you, dear readers–or at least imagining you, as I more often have, as you read and wondered, “why does this writer wait to make her first post on the last day of the month?” and, “isn’t there some other, more worthwhile torture I could enact on my brain?” Though the likelihood of your existence was never high, I’ve continued to write for you, and for my money, for just one month short of a year now, about games that were sometimes better known to me than the language of Swahili. I think my enthusiasm lit up the place like a dim bulb, in the end, and it failed to impress. I’m sorry to everyone.

Well, amidst any tearful departure, there’s always a craving for some good news. My Xbox 360 has mysteriously regained its ability to work, just in time for me to have no further posts to write. And I can’t use it to play Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, an original Xbox port of a swell throwback/update to the PC adventure genre, that, true to form, comes full of sass and pith and novel goings-on. And just look at that box art, an artistic abomination only a child of the 80’s could love. All is as it should be, I am in my happy place. Anyone want a 360 that can never die?

Samba de Amigo finally hits the Wii–geez, that only took as long as a Spanish holiday, or the saying I’m actually looking for. I’m not even too late on this one either, as it’s been only 3 days or so since the release; for once, the game should still be available. Official maraca mods not on the horizon.

Another one hot off the presses is Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, which hadn’t been raking in the best rankings pre-release, but I’m betting it’s not the shovel-full that is a typical Wii game, either. I love Harvest Moon; I’ll always love its quaint, Chibi-headed painting of a simple country life, surrounded by good-hearted folk and too-cute, smell-less, immortal animals, told over and over with as few modifcations as possible. Harvest Moon is one of the warmest gaming fuzzies imaginable and I’ll maim any reviewer who says otherwise.

What else… well, whatever Myth Makers: Orbs of Doom might be besides a game, ‘orbs’ and ‘doom’ figure prominently in the title and that’s reason enough for me to recommend it. Final lesson: the less time and resources spent marketing, the more extravagantly stupid the title, means the more chance the game might actually be good.

I don’t really know what else is new and shaking in this industry, so the time is probably ripe that I left it. Or at least took a break.

See you somewhere on the flipside, perhaps. Keep on your happy button-smashing.

Not only do digital historians dig old games, but they will actually dig in an archeological sense just to get to their hands on the oxidized, label-torn real thing. The quest for these true classics, which took me to ruinous pawn shops and grime factories, thankfully need not take you further than this site. I hope you appreciate just what I do for you.

See for yourself if any of these fill the gaping holes in your collection (n.b.: collections lacking these games are full of gaping holes). because we’re going so old-school, this post will be a completely text-based adventure.

Psychic Force 2012 — cage fighting in midair. Seriously better than anything Dragon Ball Z has tried.

MARVEL VS. — whatever this may refer to, anything with ‘Marvel Vs.’ in the title is a great wallop of fun. Marvel as in the comic-book superheroes, versus as in against Capcom characters.

dr. Mario 64 — you know this, the virus-busting game? It appeared on the N64, and so it appears here.

Nights into dreams — the original Saturn game, classified under Dreamcast here because it has nowhere else to go. Helping you find it gave me my job.
…there are mroe than that, but I’ll leave them for the next post. This is my near-to-last gift to you, loyal readers… enjoy it.

Loyal robo-pets, soccer-playing androids and so many Baby Alive dolls have not come so far that an ancient advanced civilization in a game world can’t do better. In the world of Tokobot, archeologists have dug up the ancient advanced technology of magnetized, Bomberman-as-LEGO robots that take the player as leader of their a communal hive-mind. While I can’t elaborate much more on a story I don’t remember, we can view it as ancillary to the main action-attractions of this game. The versatile (and cute) AI’s follow you around and take the formations you choose to form bridges over gaps, ladders to unreachable heights, or spokes for your character to wield in whirling enemy death.

It’s an artistically-simple, but pretty enough game on PSP–meaning it’s a little weak for PS2 in Tokobot+ Plus, but graphics are graphics. The high point comes in the polygon deformation and transformation that ensues whenever you bonk your enemies, and the fluidity of animation in general. Cartoony and fun, the visuals indicate nonetheless accurately which objects you can interact with, how far to jump, and facilitate all the other requisite elements of a good platformer. Tecmo has never had a problem making a technically-competent game. Solve button-puzzles by assigning individual tasks to your wee charges, find and upgrade the Tokobots towards the ultimate goal, and um… enjoy.

When I was studying (or, as was the case in third year, not) at my first post-secondary institution, I was in only the second cycle of the ‘laptop programs’. It was the early 2000’s, you see, and no one had yet discovered the potential for utter distraction posed by personal computers (and non-academic software) in the classroom. Granted, it WAS a computer programming course, but much of what resulted was students throwing one-hundred-eighty-player Counterstrike LAN parties right in the middle of Professional Management.

…didn’t they realize that if they were going to host a game, it should be Worms World Party? The tactical war-fighter starring the cutest lil’ invertebrates ever to blow each other up, Worms has been mortars o’ fun since 1995. Since my first contact with this still-fantastic oldie in school, it’s been the repeat subject of LAN parties in my own home. The 2001 PC CD-ROM, also available for PS1, Dreamcast, and GBA offers single-player campaigns and a map editor, as well. Whatever the mode of play, WWP exhibits fluid animation, a lovably goofy art style, and humorous dialogue in languages from around the world. It also features a buttload of map-making assets and map-destroying artillery–that’s sure to please.