Button Mashing: Difference between revisions

 

----

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

* ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'', but only in Easy Mode. Using moves with defined button sequences and stringing together elaborate combos become increasingly crucial at the higher difficulty settings. Played straight however, during the [[Quick Time Event|Quick Time Events]], where you sometimes must frantically mash a button to either kill or avoid being killed.

* ''[[Asura's Wrath]]'' will use these for many of its [[Quick Time Event|Quick Time Events]]. This fits the overall theme of the game being about [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|mindless rage]] rather than skill.

 

* 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.

* [[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 ''[[Star Fox Adventures]]'', how difficult the Test Of Strength is is inversely proportional to how good you are at [[Button Mashing]], to the point where if Button Mashing's not your thing, it can easily become [[That One Level]].

** 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.}}

 

* Thanks to the ''[[DJMAX]]'' series's timing judgment system (in which the only "bad" judgment triggers when you not hit a note at all), it's fairly easy to button mash even the hardest songs in the game for a full combo, even moreso in games with the "auto correct" feature (which gives you credit for a note even if you hit the wrong key). It's not very good for your accuracy, however.<br /><br />Some charts in ''DJMAX Technika'' have repeat notes that are very quick and require you to mash not a button, but ''the touchscreen.'' Thankfully the touchscreen on a ''Technika'' machine is very durable.

* ''[[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.

* 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.

* Prevalent in many older [[Shoot Em Ups]], as autofire was not something every gamer had, and not every game would let you continuously fire by holding down a button. Also, to be honest, quite a few could press fire more rapidly than the controller could register. When you can do that, who needs autofire?

* 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.

 

* A deliberate use of [[Button Mashing]] was used for ''[[Track and Field]]'', where the primary may of winning is to hit the fire button as fast as possible. Some gamers have created unconventional methods to press the buttons - stuff like putting a sheet of hard plastic and moving a pen over the buttons, or hitting the buttons with a vibrating ruler - while other have actually created mechanical button pressing devices to help their progress through the game.

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

* 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.

 

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots]]'' features a scene near the end where you have to push the triangle button rapidly to progress down a hallway.

{{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.

* ''[[Vanquish]].'' Oh boy, Vanquish. It makes you tap a single button (Or spin the analog) until Sam moves at full speed. And that's the speed of a man with ''rockets'' on his legs and back.

** 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.

 

* Konata of ''[[Lucky Star]]'' explains that the way she wins track races is by imagining them as video games... and then button mashing.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'': This is Attenborough's only job. Most of the time, the buttons cause something to be fired from the mecha he's sitting in.

 

 

* ''Hungry Hungry Hippos'' is the mechanical version of this.

 

 

* Pick a movie that shows a game or two. Any movie. Odds are the actors' fingers will be rattling at the controllers [[Zero Punctuation|like nervous little crabs]].

** Parodied in ''The 41-year-old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall And Felt Superbad About It'', where the gamers in question do this while holding the controllers in various absurd positions.

 

* In Ice Hockey, some fighters adopt a simple tactic known as "[[wikipedia:Fighting in ice hockey#Tactics|going for it]]" where the player puts their head down (to avoid face blows) and in the words of [[The Other Wiki]], "just throws as many punches as he can, as fast as he can".

 

 

* 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].

 

 

* ''[[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.

 

 

* 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]].}}

 

 

* [[wikipedia:Takahashi Meijin|Takahashi Meijin]], who became famous in the 80's for being able to pull the light gun's trigger as fast as 16 times per second.

 

{{reflist}}