Well-meaning normies who know I’m into video games: “Are you jumping into Call of Duty this week?” Me: “Good heavens no. I’m playing the one where you’re a rural mouse and you have to survive the winter. And I still have to play the webcam psychic baby simulator”.

I got to talk to the creators of Celeste — one of my all-time favourite games — recently for this article. It was such a great convo I wish I had somewhere to post the whole thing, but enjoy this snippet! www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

Finally I can retire the YouTube Music app, where I uploaded my CD of this OST like a decade ago, and just get my regular fix of Yoshi Star Galaxy direct from the source.

Proud that our state's the first in Australia to introduce legislation for a treaty, not that it should have taken anywhere near this long. Huge congratulations to everyone who's been pushing it for more than a decade. firstpeoplesvic.org/treaty/

Samus the cat does not think I should be allowed to work.

Played Mina the Hollower demo over lunch. First impression was to nerd out about video settings. The game's running at 256x144, so GBC but wider, and uses a perfect integer scale: 15x for 4K, 10x for 1440p, 7x for 1080p, 5x for 720p. Looks amazing, and on Switch 2 it runs 120Hz handheld and docked.

Fun fact: my copy of Final Fantasy has pen writing I've never thought to translate until now. The bit at the bottom says the game was completed on 31/1/89, which rules. But I have no hope of translating the upper message. I wonder what this RPG-beating badass was writing on their games 35 years ago?

We’ve adopted a kitten. The home said she was rescued off the road at five weeks old, having fallen out the back of a moving ute. But she’s tough. I’ve called her Samus.

It's our twice-annual Games of the Half Year special! Come get your recommendations for things to play that released between January 1 and now! pressanybutton.substack.com/p/our-favour...

I've been v impressed with a lot of Nintendo's free upgrades, including fixing the frame rate on Echoes of Wisdom and removing interlacing on Odyssey. But it's cool to see DF break it all down. Splatoon 3 being 4K 60 is wild, and Bowser's Fury look's so good. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L8G...

I reviewed Mario Kart last week, and today put the link in my spreadsheet of reviews, finding I've now covered more than 300 games for Age / SMH over around 11 years. My dream is to one day fill in the (substantial) gaps and put out a Leonard Maltin style review book. Could cover a whole decade!

My verdict after a week of Switch 2 is up, though I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you it rules. www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

In California last week I took a rare media tour of Apple’s durability labs in Sunnyvale, and it was legitimately very interesting. Come read about the several rooms and tests I observed, three of which I was even permitted to take pictures of! www.theage.com.au/technology/i...

Can confirm my favourite modern cube controller, the BattlerGC Pro, works great with Switch 2! Perfect in the GameCube app, but also any time you don’t mind octagonal gates and a big ol’ primary face button.

Crops are the real water hogs! I love the implication that we should consider eating less before we complain about AI energy efficiency. Also, I don't think we need AI to tell us how we can turn plants into food without giving it to cows first :D.

This week on Press Any Button, at the eve of not-E3, we’re wondering how Big Hype Sony became One Game Per Year Sony, as well as talking Playdate, Pride month, Switch 2 games and Perfect Dark! pressanybutton.substack.com/p/playstatio...

The first download of Playdate Season 2 came with an absolutely cooked “live broadcast” service called Blippo+. There’s heaps of stuff on but it all seems to be degrading and interrupted by an alien transmission. I love it.

I spoke to the Doom devs … actually quite a while ago now … but the story’s just gone up and it’s still worth a read! “His greatest strength is not his guns, IT’S HIS WILL TO PERSEVERE!” www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

EXCUSE ME?! This is Sonic Shuffle erasure!

My eight year old: “There are two voices that I am REALLY good at. Mario, and Dracula.” [Bad Mario voice] LEts-a-GO! [Identical Mario voice] I WAnt to SUck your BLood!

When I wrote about game / console prices last week I knew a Microsoft price rise was imminent. Xbox was just suspiciously too far left in the graphs. Too late to update the story now but here's what the console graph looks like adjusted for today's Australian price rise.

Had a deep dive into game prices. Turns out it's possible for "games are getting more expensive" and "games were more expensive in the 80s" to both be true. Also, the internet sucks for finding out Australian prices for anything pre-2000. Google AI straight up lies. www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

Wild timing on the Oblivion remaster. One of my favourite RPGs of all time and this year I set a goal to finally finish all the main quest lines. I did it over Easter. I think I may be all Oblivioned out for now. JK, I’m off to start my 100th wood elf archer.

ICYMI! Yesterday in the newsletter we covered: 🏗️ New season of Playdate coming 🍎 Puffies, Katamari, Roller Coaster Tycoon and all the April Apple Arcade drops 🏎️ The wonder of Micro Machines pressanybutton.substack.com/p/the-joys-o...

They’re learning the art of the play-and-pass 🥲

We had a very rare IRL PAB collab last week as both @alicedkc.bsky.social and I were in New York to cover Switch 2. So now that we’ve done so for our day jobs, enjoy some newsletter musings! pressanybutton.substack.com/p/the-switch...

Some more Switch 2 analysis! Was fascinating to hear from Kawamoto, Sasaki and Dohta on the evolution of the system’s design. www.smh.com.au/technology/v...

I've been in New York playing the Nintendo Switch 2! www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

The dev behind Canabalt has made a Prince of Persia / Wolfenstein mashup for the Pico-8 fantasy console, and it rules. bsky.app/profile/adam...

Is this a test? Because I feel like if I click this and it says anything other than "No! Do not click links on random emails from feasible but unfamiliar sources", then it's already failed. Unless it's a legitimate scammer who knows I can't resist security training fakeouts.

So is Assault Suit Leynos like a spin-off from Leisure Suit Larry? Or is it the same game, just with a regional (and oddly more accurate) localisation?

The more I listen to @lena.fyi ‘s Earthblade album, it reminds me of 80s+90s Ghibli, specifically the vibe of finding an entire magical world unexpectedly within the ordinary. Brief but worth a listen, and if you like it purchase supports a worthy cause. radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/earthb...

There's a new PAB today! It would have been out on MAR10 day, but we realised it was a public holiday, and also a made up event with no meaning or importance. We discuss: -The wonderful Earthblade soundtrack -New Lorcana decks -WWE 2K25 -90s console Kirbys pressanybutton.substack.com/p/the-sad-so...

Split Fiction is an incredible breakneck series of imaginative, collaborative split-screen experiences, tied to an unavoidably cringey narrative and presentation. www.smh.com.au/technology/v...

The wireless retro multiplayer in NSO is super good and underrated. Our littlest one just got a pink Switch Lite for his birthday and is loving it, but most I’ve heard him cackle so far is MKSS Battle Mode with me and his big brother. So much better than link cables.

Also shout out to Sega for sending me this bottle of non-alcoholic Pirate Yakuza beverage from Seadrift, so I can pretend I'm drinking spiced rum on my lunch break from work.

Oh look, a new Press Any Button is out today. Take a read if you: Enjoy non-harmful conspiracy theories Like orchestral game music Hate Ice Climber Want cheap play recs Claim French trainlines for yourself Need literally any words to read at school pickup pressanybutton.substack.com/p/what-is-ni...

Here’s my review of Avowed. It’s going to have some big turnoffs for RPG lovers and RPG haters alike, but for me it’s just right. I had a sublime not quite 50 hours. www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

It's PAB time! This week: 🥊 Why the console wars argument is fundamentally flawed 😓 Who at DeNA thought this Pokemon trading system was ok? 🚗 Magic is all about racing cars now because why not 👵 The Wii is now 18 years old and looking worse for wear pressanybutton.substack.com/p/xbox-is-go...

Funny how "ordinary Australians" means different things to different people. To some, it clearly and exclusively means old beige dudes. www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...

I played Assassin’s Creed Shadows for four hours. It’s looking good, but will it be another “did not meet expectations” for Ubisoft? www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

It’s official: everyone’s favorite weekly games newsletter written by a pair of Australian journalists on their weekends when they should be spending time with their wives and children is back for another year! Please sub, it’s free! pressanybutton.substack.com/p/welcome-to...

I reviewed the Modretro Chromatic. An excellent alternative to a modded Game Boy Color, provided you only and specifically care about GBC and are keen to use cartridges. Amazing screen, great build, very tactile buttons. www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

What we saw. My @smh @theage cartoon.

I was delighted recently to have a tour of Melbourne’s new National Communication Museum. It had me at “play Doom on a CRT in a cyber cafe”, but it turns out all the other exhibits and objects are well worth a look as well. www.theage.com.au/technology/t...

I wrote about CRTs for The Age’s summer opinion series. It didn’t perfectly fit the theme, but I’ll take any excuse to proselytise. www.theage.com.au/technology/m...

Sneaking in right at the end of the year, here are my picks for best games of 2024. It was a huge shortlist but I didn’t end up having any trouble whittling it down. Unless you count the ever-present dread that I hadn’t played enough of the good games people like. www.theage.com.au/technology/v...

I’m sure I’ve made an absolute meal of other people’s special interests with a random comment in a story loads of time, so I’m not judging here. But this intro to a Sonic 3 review had me wheezing.

Birthday haul: Zelda manga and an excellent complete copy of Mario Paint. My wife gets me :).

Archaeologists look at old skeletons w repaired femurs and conclude they had health care, and that’s cool. But in a million years they’ll find my mummified corpse and be like “this guy was playing Sonic Triple Trouble on the Master System, a console for which it was never released, what a GigaChad”.