We all dream of buffets
Plus games from Prime Day, a cat with arms for ears, and Peach’s BDSM boyfriend in Lego form.
Hello Button Buddies and welcome back to another week of more games than you could shake a stick at. Though, that said, is there a limit for things a stick can be shaken at? Must the stick be shaken for each individual thing or can you just shake it at a pile of things?
Anyway, there are plenty of things for your stick shaking needs (perhaps we should abandon this phrase now?) in this week’s Press Any Button; including a new Kirby game, Amazon Prime Day, new Nintendo Lego sets, and Tim telling us all about a nightmare creature he saw in a game once.
Enjoy, friends.
I dream of Kirby
By Alice
Sometimes surprises involving beloved characters are weird or bad; that time CGI artists gave Sonic the Hedgehog human teeth, for example. But, sometimes, they’re good, like the bizarre Kirby game Nintendo announced today that I’m already low key obsessed with.
Kirby loves cake, and I love that for them. In this game, Kirby and friends are going to go around a sweet-themed obstacle course. trying to get as fat as possible without falling off the giant cake. I call this ‘Tuesday’, but the game is called Kirby’s Dream Buffet. I am so glad to discover that Kirby and I have the same dreams.
While a lot of people are comparing the game to Fall Guys, the comparison doesn’t quite fit. Fall Guys is you vs 59 people across up to five rounds in an attempt to be the last one standing. Kirby’s Dream Buffet, appears to be you vs three other people and a bunch of AI in an attempt to eat as much cake as possible.
Because it allows 1-4 players on one console, as well as having a separate online mode, it seems like it might occupy more of a Mario Kart kind of space than Fall Guys, though taking the best bits from both. Because details are light for how it will end up, beyond a short trailer and a shorter release on the Nintendo website, it’s currently a free space for our imaginations to run wild and build it up to be potentially more than it is.
It’s going to be a Nintendo Switch eShop exclusive, and no price has been announced yet, so it’s hard to know if this is going to be a full game like Kirby and the Forgotten Land, or a smaller experience like Mario 35.
No matter how it ends up, though, it is most certainly already one of my most anticipated games of the year.
What to play
This week’s new Apple Arcade Game is Subway Surfers Tag. Play as a cartoonish skateboarder unleashing both spray paint and epic combos on the subway. It looks like a fun distraction.
This coming Tuesday will see the release of the new Hot Wheels Forza Horizon 5 Expansion. I (Alice) haven’t played it yet, but if you have Xbox Game Pass, you should be actively anticipating its release. If you haven’t already jumped into Forza Horizon 5, you’ll need to play through the first hour or so of the base game before the expansion unlocks, so you might want to jump in over the weekend so you’re both emotionally and physically prepared for the 19th of July.
The July deals are still going on the PlayStation Store. If you’ve been waiting for a sale to get Deathloop, now is your chance. It’s $39.98, reduced from $99.95.
Garden Story is new to Game Pass this week. At a glance it looks like just another "cozy" and "wholesome" low-fi indie Stardew-like, but it actually has a lot more going for it that kept me (Tim) hooked for a while on Switch last year. It's more of a chill Zelda than a pastoral farming sim; you can hang out doing light tasks and foraging with a vague goal of bringing a community back together, or you can head to the dungeons for some hacking and slashing. Plus, obviously, it is cozy and wholesome with great music and a nice sense of humour. You play as a grape.
It’s a bit of a quiet period at the moment so I (Tim) have been replaying 2018’s God of War in anticipation of this year’s sequel. If you’d like to do the same, don’t pay $25 for the digital version; the disc is currently going for $8 or it’s included with PlayStation Plus. It remains an incredible example of the “wide linear” character adventure genre I love so much, with an awesome narrative, and if you have a PS5 it’s been patched to run at a buttery 60 frames per second.
Prime cuts
By Tim
Today is Amazon Prime Day, a marketing occasion somehow even more overt and offensive than the American Black Friday phenomenon that inspired it. In this yearly ritual the entire Amazon artifice is put through its paces in a cycle of media referral links, Prime membership subscriptions and so-called deals, providing that kind of magical capitalism where consumers feel like they’ve saved money while forking over more than they can afford.
HOWEVER! A person still has to buy stuff, right? And if you were going to buy this particular stuff anyway, why not get it for a less expensive price? Just don’t forget to factor in the minimum it will cost you to sign up to Prime for the month (it will either be nothing or $7), and don’t forget to turn it off once you no longer need it. And also remember to ignore the big discount numbers and percentage drops; you can get most of these items for below RRP any day of the year.
In terms of video games, there are a few interesting deals worth an impulse buy between now and midnight.
Some physical Nintendo games are marked down, which is a rare treat. You can get Pokemon Legends Arceus, Metroid Dread or Super Mario 3D World for $50, or The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for $40.
Elsewhere PS5 and Xbox controllers are down to $63, but the actual games mostly have very mild discounts. Deathloop on PS5 for $40 isn’t bad.
Also note that Amazon is offering 30 PC games through its Prime Gaming service, for today only. That means that you can sign up to Prime, redeem the games, and they’re yours to keep even after you cancel Prime. The list includes a few bangers like Mass Effect Legendary Edition and Rain World, but also a fair bit of chaff. You can see the full list here (click on the 'Prime Day' tab).
Bricks, Boards and Beginnings
by Alice
Another week, another major Lego announcement. Because we’re coming up to the big August 1 release of Lego Super Mario sets, it means it’s time for a new large Nintendo set.
There were a lot of rumours going around that it could be an expert-level Princess Peach Castle, given the theme of the next crop of the kids Lego Mario Range. Turns out, it’s Peach’s secret BDSM boyfriend, Bowser.
While I’m a bit disappointed by the lack of a huge Princess Castle, Bowser looks pretty cool.
Releasing October 1, The Might Bowser has 2807 pieces, costs a whopping $399.99, and stands 32cm tall. He’s got a little battle platform with adorable little cracks and fire on the sides with banners. His knees appear to be made out of new quarter-dish yellow pieces, which is neat. He’s still dressed like he’s going to a Bear night at The Laird, with the eyebrows of a Scottish cartoon character.
While he looks really cool, and almost certainly will be an excellent build, it’s an interesting departure from other expert-level Nintendo sets.
The first was the brilliant NES build, which I think might still be my favourite Lego build of all time.
The second was the Mario 64 Question Block, which I have to keep talking myself out of buying even though it looks very cool.
Both of those were celebrating specific consoles and aspects of Nintendo history as well as Mario. NES was obviously the NES console, but it also had a TV where you could make the picture move, adding an extra dimension.
The Question Block had little parts that came out to reveal little scenes from the Nintendo 64 Mario game.
This is a statue of Bowser. It’s a very nice statue of Bowser, and I will probably end up owning it, but it lacks that wow factor I’ve come to expect from this collection.
Retro Esoterica
by Tim
Wahoo everybody, Klonoa's back! You know, Klonoa. That cat with arms for ears? You don't know Klonoa? Ok well anyway he's back now, in a remaster package called Phantasy Reverie Series.
This guy is one of those mascots who’s had a few good games but never really took off as a household name, and who seems doomed to be perpetually snubbed by its own creators (Namco in this case, who will take any opportunity to throw out lame old Pac-Man but rarely gives a look-in to Klonoa or Mr Driller).
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile is a 1997 PlayStation game that introduces our hero; an edgy-looking cat thing with an oversized collar and a Pac-Man hat (let it go Namco!). He traverses a dream world with a magic ring that can adorably (and horrifyingly) inflate his enemies into harmless balloons, which he then uses to throw at things or kick off for a double-jump. Imagine a talkier and more narratively complex Kirby or Yoshi platformer; lovely to look at and very easy but with optional challenge. The game was remade with nicer graphics for the Wii in 2008, and that's the version used as a base here.
The other game in the package is 2001's PS2 sequel Lunatea's Veil. It's more of the same, but with some sick airboarding and a slightly more grown-up look.
There's a lot to love about these games, especially for fans of early 2.5D platformers, and I'm really enjoying returning to them. But it is hard to ignore the cynicism with which Namco’s treating its B-tier buddy here, relative to some other retro collections.
The two serviceably cleaned-up old games are offered with very little warmth or celebration, and no acknowledgment of the other (mostly portable) games in the series, at a very high price of $70. Some of the stuff that you'd expect to be included with a nostalgic collection, like art galleries and soundtracks, cost an additional $30. And as a final insult, that overpriced DLC also includes the ability to entrap Klonoa’s adorable face in a heinous, yellow, Pac-Man globe head.