Nintendo of America set off an Internet gaming community firestorm earlier this year when it announced that it had no plans to release the smaller New Nintendo 3DS system in favor of the larger New Nintendo 3DS XL while, in other regions, both systems were made available.  North Americans cried out for the opportunity to buy the smaller, pocket-sized handheld with the exclusive swappable faceplates, and now the company is reversing course and bringing the regular New 3DS stateside.  The catch?  You'll have to buy a special $219.99 bundle.  I hope you like Animal Crossing!

On Sept. 25 the New Nintendo 3DS system will launch in the U.S. as part of a special bundle, which includes the new hand-held system, the upcoming Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer game, two cover plates and one amiibo card.

If you want to buy a plain New 3DS without the extras, I suppose this news is a little like making a wish on a monkey's paw: you get what you want, but in a way you don't want it.  As Hank Hill once said, "It's like when you get a wish from a genie but you ask for it in slightly the wrong way and wind up with a solid gold head or something".  I still want a New 3DS, and while I'm not interested in Animal Crossing, I'm patient and will wait to see if other decorative options and/or bundles are made available later that catch my interest.  My regular 3DS is chugging along just fine and aside from lacking some of the optional enhancements for games like Super Smash Bros. and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, it meets my needs.  My interest in upgrading is purely to futureproof my 3DS collection with refined hardware.  Still, I'm glad that Nintendo of America, for whatever reason, is releasing the New 3DS in any form at all.  While it may not be coming in the form that I want, it's just great to see it here.

Mega Man Legacy Collection for the Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, and PC offers something besides the first six original Mega Man games: a new challenge mode.  Snippets of the classic Nintendo Entertainment System titles are cut up and rearranged in thematically similar structures and require the player to complete them before time runs out.  Watch as I run through a few of these challenges.  I'm not a time attack fan, nor a speedrunner, nor a perfectionist.  I'm out for fun.  If poor Mega Man dies along the way, so be it.  Embarrassingly enough, I was actually chatting my way through these levels while I was livestreaming this video, but found out after the fact that the microphone was muted, so you'll just have to imagine all of the hilarious and insightful commentary that I had to offer.

It's been nearly a year since Bungie and Activision released its ambitious Destiny, so has the big The Taken King expansion prepares to arrive, the time seemed right to look back at the game's performance so far. Blake Grundman tags in Chris Nitz for this discussion while I tag out this week.  We've teamed with Strategy Guide Reviews for this week's show as well; the Power Button audio version has exclusive content featuring Blake and I, while the SGR version is a videocast.  Either way, there's something for everybody.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton.

I'm still playing Pinball Arcade's collection of classic pinball tables on my Sony PlayStation 4, sharing the video of my favorite moments across tables such as the classic The Addams Family (*snap* *snap*), the delightful Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Engage!"), and the mysterious Theater of Magic ("You have the magic!").  For even more pinball videos, take a look at my Pinball Arcade and Zen Pinball 2 playlists on YouTube.

As I rest and deal with my ongoing health issues, one of the distractions I've turned to for help is Farsight Studios and its flagship Pinball Arcade platform for the Sony PlayStation 4.  I've stocked up one new tables, adding the Season 2 and Season 4 collections to my base Season 1 package.  I've been plowing through the tables, earning trophies and achieving the Standard and, in some cases, Wizard goals on each table.  Whenever I score well, I save the video and post it on YouTube for my own amusement and, hopefully, yours as well.  Here are three recent pinball performances from The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot (over 1,000,000,000 points scored!), Funhouse (Rudy is not happy!), and the charming Champion Pub (O'Brien's knuckles pack a mean punch!). 

Telltale Games has received a lot of critical acclaim for its Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead adaptations, but those powerhouse properties have blasted away attention from what I believe to be the company's finest effort: Back to the Future.  Trilogy film writer Bob Gale teamed up with the company back in 2010 to create a five episode series continuing the adventures of Marty McFly, Doc Brown, and the town of Hill Valley which was released as a downloadable title for last generation consoles.  Now, on the thirtieth anniversary of the original film, Telltale is bringing the game to the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One as a budget-priced retail disc.  If you missed out on the game before, don't make the same mistake again!  For more on Back to the Future: The Game, dig into the Power Button podcast archive for Episode 36 in which we spoke with the new voice of Marty McFly, AJ LoCascio, and stay tuned for a future episode of the show focusing on the games based on the iconic films.

M. Bison is best known as the ultimate villain of the Street Fighter franchise, but there's more to this snappily-dressed warlord's place in history than just as the final challenge at the end of a handful of games.  Gavin Jasper at Den Of Geek takes a look back at the many versions of M. Bison to grace the series from series boss to film star to animated ham.  It's not all Psycho Drive and Tuesdays for this fearsome force.

See, despite Street Fighter’s rather thick storyline (which not only includes the main series, but also Saturday Night Slam Masters, Final Fight, and Rival Schools), they never did explain who won Street Fighter II’s tournament. All we know is that at some point, Akuma showed up and vanquished Bison with his powerful and unfathomable Raging Demon attack. Considering the attack supposedly kills the soul of the victim based on the severity of their sins, that meant Bison was toast.

Funny thing is, before Street Fighter II was re-released into oblivion and we only had twelve characters to play with, they attempted to make various Street Fighter comics in both America and Japan and only had so much to go on. In the Street Fighter II manga by Masaomi Kanzaki, he tried to make sense of the game’s sparse story by putting Bison in charge of some kind of decrepit island called SHAD where fighting tournaments are constantly taking place. Since Akuma hadn’t been created yet, Masaomi had Bison be the one responsible for Ryu and Ken’s master Gouki’s death.

I thought I knew Bison's backstory, but I was surprised at the comic and manga interpretations.  I was unfamiliar with all of the strange ways that writers shoehorned him into the expanded narrative, and there are some confusing but intriguing ideas going on in his past.  While the character doesn't have the intimidation factor today that he once did, he's still an important part of the lore and a Street Fighter game just isn't the same without him.

With the last of developer Rocksteady's acclaimed Batman games released at last, it's only right that Blake Grundman and I should take an hour or so to discuss the Dark Knight's final adventure (for now).  In this episode, we take you through roughly the first half of Batman: Arkham Knight with spoilers abound up through the point in the story where Batman goes to rescue an important kidnapped hostage.  We discuss the Batmobile, Riddler's challenges, Scarecrow's fear toxin side effects, key scenes & elements, and much more.  We'll be back to crack open the second half of the game down the line.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, toss this RSS feed into your podcast aggregation software of choice, and be sure to catch up on past episodes if you're joining us late. Remember that you can reach us via , you can leave a message on the Power Button hotline by calling (720) 722-2781, and you can even follow us on Twitter at @PressTheButtons and @GrundyTheMan, or for just podcast updates, @ThePowerButton.

Zen Studios continues its fruitful partnership with Marvel with another pinball table for Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX2 based on a film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Ant-Man is the latest movie to cross over to the world of pinball, bringing a set of flippers and bumpers featuring elements and set pieces from the Paul Rudd / Michael Douglas action-comedy.  See the table in action as I run through it for the first time.  I always like to go into new Zen tables blind without reading the table guide first, so I have no idea what I'm supposed to do on the Ant-Man table in this video, but I think I start to find some of the sweet spots pretty quickly.  Next time I'll try and trigger a mission or two, perhaps.