Button Mashing: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

The act of frantically hammering at the buttons on a controller or arcade console.

In a [[Fighting Game]], the idea is that random button-pressing will somehow unlock a super-powerful attack or result in a series of attacks that will overwhelm your opponent. As you may presume, this is the act of an amateur, and is derided by [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys|"serious" players]]. Only someone completely unfamiliar with the game or their chosen character has to resort to this tactic. Of course, it can be a bit infuriating for these [[Scrub|"serious" players]] when, due to some poor design decisions, their skillful finesse on the joypad leads to them getting walloped by someone who just taps the "punch" button so fast they can never get a move in.<ref>Same "serious" players would never cut a newbie a moment's slack to get oriented with the controls, and take it as a personal shame when they get trashed by a [[Beginner's Luck|random neophyte as a result]]. What a pity.</ref>

 

 

 

Some games will have ''streak breaker'' code in place to make button mashing less effective, as well as to make it harder for someone to simply spam the same cheap attack repeatedly. Often this works by making the attack miss automatically if used too many times in a row.

With the advent of motion control in video games, the term "[[Waggle]]" has been used describing a similar practice in which one simply shakes the controller frantically.

 

 

 

Unrelated to [[Rapid-Fire Typing]].

 

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* The final boss battle of the indie game ''[[Assassin Blue]]'' ends with this. As do the ''[[Marvel Universe|Marvel]] vs. [[Capcom]]'' games.

* ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' has "crazy combos" activated by button mashing during execution of certain moves. All of them are variations of "hit it two dozen times per second"

** This isn't so much the "spray-and-pray" button mashing as it is just hitting one button rapidly, as stated above, to execute a secret move. Exactly how fast you need to mash to trigger the move is determined by your current [[Awesomeness Meter|style ranking]].

* Despite what some critics have said, this only works in ''[[Bayonetta]]'' on Very Easy ... and up to a point.

 

* Some pinball games' video modes make you do this.

* ''Bishi Bashi''

 

* The various ''[[Dragonball Z]]: Budokai'' games are often accused of encouraging this practice.

* Eddy Gordo, the capoeirista from ''[[Tekken]] 3'', is one example of the single-character version of button-masher. However, randomly mashing buttons with any character other than Eddy (and sometimes even with) will result in a swift and merciless beating by anyone even vaguely decent with the Counter system.

* Maxi of the ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' series seems to have been built with this strategy in mind.

** On the other hand, characters such as Ivy and Voldo are so far away on the opposite side, that either you are awesome playing with them or you suck. Hard.

** Raphael also has his share of quick, light rapier combos activated by button-mashing that can interrupt other players' attempts at combos.

* In the ''[[Virtua Fighter]]'' series, characters like Pai Chan, Jacky Bryant and Lion Rafale can punch fast enough while mashing it can stop most of the opponents' attempts at attack (unless the opponents block, duck, reverse, or evade). The arcade AI (around Level 4 or 5), and any decent player will bring a world of hurt if you try this.

** Pai Chan is especially notable in her ability to grab opponents attacks, by pressing punch+back. A number of people rather quickly figured out that if you just kept pressing punch and back repeatedly, you could advance towards your opponent and fairly often counter their attacks, ala Geese Howard from Fatal Fury. Any decent player will of course spank you if you try this, but it will get you through the first few rounds against the cpu quite handily, especially in the first one.

*** That only worked in the first two games. From the third onwards, you get a reversal miss animation if you try a reversal without the opponent preforming a matching attack (and the move was changed to Back+P+K).

** Its sequel ''Continuum Shift'' actually has a beginner mode where you can pull basic combos by mashing. If anything it does disable more advanced techniques and abilities, and the tutor for the tutorial mode is Rachel Alucard, who will mock your "hollow cavernous void you call your mind" when you go through the tutorial.

* [[Super Smash Brothers]] averts this trope completely. Most fighting games use only the control stick/pad and [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|4-6 attack buttons]], but Smash Bros. is more elaborate, making diverse use of its buttons. Instead of pressing back to guard, you have a guard button. Instead of grabbing being something you automatically do when you're really close to an enemy, you have a grab button. You can tap up to jump [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!|if that's what you're used to]], but since jumping is something you MUST have as much control over as possible if you want to survive, it's better to assign that action to a separate button too. As a consequence, button-mashing only gets you killed. (Tragically, the quote on top of this page was said about this game.)

 

* Each installment of the ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' series has at least one semi-automatic beam, which fires as rapidly as the player can hit the fire button. Naturally, when that beam is used, the players tap the button as rapidly as they can (while still dodging and weaving, mind you)

** The first one practically required it at the beginning, as you lost literally everything except the Power Beam when your suit got damaged, meaning the only reliable way to cause damage was to just spam.

* Pistols in first-person shooters often have no maximum rate of fire, so clicking as fast as possible will fire as many bullets as possible. Since pistols are usually weak, this is not in and of itself a [[Game Breaker]], but changing the controls so that you fire by spinning the mouse wheel tends to result in [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|overkill]]. Partially averted in that really, it's more fun to kill your opponents with a rocket launcher.

 

* Basically the point of ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]''. Most levels have only the objective of killing enemies through mashing buttons about thirty times.

* ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' is possibly the reigning champion of this trope, with the sixth installment actually ''requiring'' incredibly long chains of Button Mashing in order to build up to your very best attacks (the much-reviled [[Scrappy Mechanic|renbu system]]). Or as one fan introduced a You Tube video: "Are you ready to press square three times and roll?"

* ''[[Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman|Rising Zan the Samurai Gunman]]'' has these as part and parcel of the gameplay, known as "All Button Events". Finishing off bosses also requires you to do this to get more [[Finishing Move]] time.

 

* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is sometimes accused of this, probably due to its emphasis on leveling and getting high-power items, especially in comparison to games like ''[[Guild Wars]]'', where the emphasis is on using the right skills at the right time on the right enemy.

** On the other hand, many people complained that Paladin class was no fun due to having far too little buttons to press in a battle.

** The newer Cataclysm expansion takes further steps to remove any button mashing. Prior to Cataclysm most classes had an ability rotation, which required hitting buttons in a certain order. Once one knew the order of their rotation a fight that involved standing still was a simple mater of hitting the buttons in the right order, with expert players squeezing out relatively minor increases to their maximum damage vs moderately skilled players. The new Cataclysm game replaced spell rotations with spell priorities. This involves a heavier emphasis on randomized effects and special abilities which can change the strength and importance of a characters abilities. Thus a skilled gamer has to constantly watch for these effects to ensure he is using the best ability at the best time. The game also introduced introduced some minor dead time into most rotations. Occasionally the best option in the game is to not press any button so you can wait for the more powerful ability that will be avilible in another half second.

 

* Non-[[Fighting Game]] examples include several activities from the ''[[Mario Party]]'' and ''[[Wario Ware]]'' series. In some of the minigames, the scores are directly tied to how fast players can mash the buttons. Also in ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'', some of the magic attacks were powered by mashing the buttons or rotating the control pad. The same is true for its [[Spiritual Successor]], ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]''.

* Pretty much every game in the ''[[Mario Party]]'' series has extensive button mashing, usually involving hammering the A or B button as fast as possible with said control as the only control in the mini game. There's also the kinda derided 'rotate the control stick as fast as possible' from the first game which was removed from later games because the rapid rotation [[Revenue Enhancing Devices|damages the analogue stick]], causing its full range detection to unalign (effectively meaning that even if you fully tilt the stick, the system reads it as a 3/4 tilt). The pain it caused on gamers' hands helped the decision.

 

* In the game ''[[The Legendary Starfy]]'', after beating the final boss's two forms, he launches a meteor at you which you must button mash to repel; not doing this quickly enough kills you and sends you back to the boss's ''first'' form, making it something of a ''[[Press X to Not Die]]" as well. As the game is rather easy and not really hardcore, the game's target audience seems to find this quite difficult. A common method of beating this is taking a long, somewhat thin object like a pencil or the DS stylus and rub it against the edge of the button.

* In the N64 game ''[[Banjo Tooie]]'', in Glitter Gulch Mine and Cloud Cuckooland, you race an annoying bird name "Canary Mary"; both instances require button mashing to beat her. In particular, the 2nd time you race her in Cloud Cuckooland, it is nigh impossible to beat her without some sort of turbo controller, and even then, you have to utilize the ''[[Rubber Band AI]]'' aspect of the race to win.

** It is still possible to beat her without a turbo controller if you vibrate your hand rapidly. Just be prepared to pause the game often during the race to take rests.

 

* ''[[Meteos]]'' has "scribble-fu," the act of, when in a pinch, randomly scribbling on the touch screen until a bunch of rockets go off. The sequel curbs this by allowing side-to-side movement (the original only allows movement in columns, so random scribbling would scramble a ton of meteors quickly). Its next sequel could only be played with analog sticks, so no scribbling there.

* In ''[[Tetris]]'' games that utilize the Super Rotation System, mashing a rotation button while pushing the current piece (assuming it's not the 2x2 "O" piece) in the direction of a sufficiently step-ridden stack of blocks will allow your block to climb up the stack. As a result, SRS is regarded by some players as a [[Game Breaker]].

* One question of ''[[The Impossible Quiz]]'' requires you to [[Memetic Mutation|"CHARGE UR LAZER"]] by rapidly clicking on the lazer, and one in ''The Impossible Quiz 2'' requires you to mash your keyboard. One in the second quiz is a subversion, though - {{spoiler|it asks you to hit Tab fifty times in a short time period. [[No Fair Cheating|Hitting Tab is instant death.]] But if you wait, just as the clock is about to run out, the game tells you "Wait, don't, you'll die!" and moves to the next question.}}

 

* ''[[Rock Band]]'' has the Big Rock Ending at the end of some songs, which represents the tendency for bands during live concerts to finish songs by whaling on their instruments for about 10 or 15 seconds. However, this is actually a subversion, as the mechanics for scoring these Big Rock Endings means if you hit notes quickly, each note is worth fewer points, so you get the same amount of points regardless of how much you're actually mashing the buttons. Basically, as long as you hit a note in each lane for guitar or bass every 1.5 seconds, or any note for drums every 1.5 seconds, you'll get about the same amount of points.

* Wii's motion controls for ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'' are very subject to random 'waggle'. Practically every hand indicator can be satisfied with a punch in any direction, and the time frame is rather forgiving so it doesn't necessarily need to be in rhythm.

 

* The ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' games, especially the sequel, are frequently accused of being button mashy, because most enemies can be defeated by simply using physical attacks repeatedly (tapping the X button), rendering magic and special attacks largely unnecessary.

** In the GBA game, ''Chain of Memories'', however, this attack strategy will quickly lead to your demise, even in the early stages. Thanks, card system.

** There's also the fact that even typically [[Useless Useful Spell|useless spells]] like Stop are here incredibly useful and almost guaranteed to work on mooks.

** The [[Final Boss]] battle in [[Kingdom Hearts II]] has a section involving lasers that requires you to do this or die.

* Multiple characters throughout the [[Tales (series)]] have skills that either add hits to combos while button mashing or reduce casting time to spells when doing so.

 

* In ''[[Star Soldier]] R'', there's a mode called "Quick Shot" mode, and the objective is to mash the fire button for 10 seconds, after which your button pressing rate is shown.

* ''[[Darius]] Gaiden'': if you mash the fire button really fast (or use a turbo controller), you can achieve a firing rate much faster than the autofiring rate you get by holding it down. This makes the game go from extremely [[Nintendo Hard]] to somewhat manageable but still annoying. There's even a cheat in the Saturn port that grants this kind of autofire without the need to mash the fire button, and the official [[ROM Hack]] ''Darius Gaiden Extra'' has it as the default autofire. The ''Darius Gaiden'' high score thread on [http://shmups.system11.org Shmups Forum] permits scores achieved with the super fast autofire. Sadly, the ''Taito Legends 2'' version of the game prevents you from firing this fast, even with a turbo controller.

* The game ''Lethal Thunder'' is all about this. Continuously mashing the button allows you to attack and builds up your attack gauge, which powers up your weapon (as well as giving you a [[Smart Bomb]]). Furthermore, you have to do this constantly or else your attack gauge will drain.

 

** In ''[[Lucky Star]]'', Konata [[Deep-Immersion Gaming|imagined herself playing this game]] while running a real footrace, using the ruler method.

** Parodied in ''[[NieA 7]]'', when the final round of a video game tournament uses this game. The winner? An old lady with the shakes.

** Alternating buttons to run / build power / whatever was pretty much ''de rigeur'' for '''every''' damn sports game released on anything in the 1980s; ''Track & Field'', ''Hyper Sports'', ''[[Daley Thompsons Decathlon]]'' (and ''[[Daley Thompsons Super Test]]'') and even the ''[[Viz]]'' sports game used it, to name but a very select few.

* Waggling the Wii Remote and Nunchuk randomly and as fast and hard as humanly possible in ''Wii Sports: Wii Boxing'' is more effective than any other strategy.

* In probably one of the earliest examples, ''Decathalon'' for the [[Atari 2600]] required you to waggle the joystick back and forth as quickly as possible to run.

 

{{quote|"Don't even think of using autofire. I'll know."}}

::This is a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 1'' where you have to mash a button to resist torture, and Revolver Ocelot [[No Fourth Wall|says the same thing]]. And he ''won't'' know if you're using autofire, incidentally.

 

* In ''P.N. 03'' for the [[Game Cube]], many of the early suits required you to bash fire as quickly as possible. Eventually you had the ability to upgrade to a suit with autofire and the ability to add autofire to the early suits.

** The effects are awesome, though. For example one of them makes you ''drill a hole through a giant transforming mecha.''

 

* ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'' features many powers, but unarmed style fighting gives the player '''plenty''' of options regarding offensive maneuvers. The most button-mashy moves are simply chaining normal attacks as well as the notable Air Combo with a complimentary Spike Driver finisher for it.

 

== Web Comics ==

* This ''[[VG Cats]]'' comic pretty much illustrates button mashing at [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=27 its worst].

* Largo of ''[[Megatokyo]]'' [http://www.megatokyo.com/strip/631 name-checks and denounces it].

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[The Angry Video Game Nerd]]'': The Nerd has scathingly said that every time you see someone in a movie mashing buttons on a console controller, they're playing ''Winter Games''.

* Strong Bad of ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' tends to use "mash" as a synonym for "push", and is clearly fond of old, button-mashing video games himself.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Regular Show]]'', this is Rigby's default way of playing arcade games, as seen above. It doesn't really work that well. {{spoiler|Except against the [[The End of the World as We Know It|Destroyer of Worlds]].}}

 

 

 

{{reflist}}