Would Recommend: Action Button

I remember a year or so ago reading frustration - from, oddly, several unconnected places around the internet, as if part of some miniature unconscious zeitgeist - that video games, despite having become a huge cultural and commercial force of entertainment, didn't have much in the way of real criticism. In other words, lots of publications telling you how a game does x well and y not-so-well, but very few sources really trying to beyond and find something deeper. Which, I had wondered, might have had something to do with the inherently interactive nature of the medium itself, since "art" and "statements" and all that would seem to take a backseat to the bigger question of "can player 1 jump over this pit".

But, I have been proven wrong, at least by one website. Action Button Dot Net so far seems to be doing a great job of providing the kind of deeper insight I never knew I needed about my once-favorite mode of entertainment (now probably my third, but who's counting). The site design may strike you as off-putting as some review lengths (seriously, you think my writing is long-winded, check out more on FF XIII than you may ever want to read), but what's here is really good, insightful and unapologetic, and has made me rethink some of my own gaming opinions one way or another (though I still love Mario Galaxy).

Of particular note are the reviews of their 33 favorite games of all time. Check out their review of my number one and their number two, Super Mario Bros. 3, fascinating (the review) and enlightening despite taking 10 minutes of reading time to actually begin discussing the game in question. There's a particular bit that especially spoke to me, which I'll quote here - but behind the cut, since it works better in context of the review, so go read that first, seriously, I'll wait, my blog's got time--

--and so in talking about how part of the game's magic is inextricably linked to the times before Gamefaqs when gameplay was about discovery and trading secrets with friends and how often half the fun just came in running the little plumber around and trying shit and playing not to see how the story ended or to get all 101% of the hidden secrets but just to play the fucking thing, Tim Rogers asks:

"Did all this psychological kleptomania really spew from Super Mario Bros. 3, a game we played so much that it became literally incorrect to not crouch before jumping to catch the falling magic wand at the end of the airship boss battles? (The only true way for Mario to be victorious is for him to split-second-snap out of flying crouch and into triumphant standing, wand upraised.)"

...I mean... yeah, that-- that was me, in a nutshell, really. Me and my friends, growing up and playing this game. This paragraph is actual truth, what you might call Earned Resonance. And part of it's nostalgia, sure, but not at all the same kind you get from discussing, say, or The Goonies or Saved by the Bell. It's almost like the Internet isn't making the world a smaller place, just showing us how small it's always been.

Anyway: thumbs up. Would Recommend. Check it out if you like reading extensive, thoughtful essays on video games, and especially if you believe the medium's about more than just pressing buttons for a few hours. Which, if you're a real gamer, you should anyway, right?