Microsoft broadcast a special hour-long look at upcoming games for its Xbox Series X console recently, so on this week's podcast we spend eighty minutes discussing the showcase and talking about which games interest us the most.  We also dig into the console's Smart Delivery promises and touch on how Microsoft buying up a whole slate of developers is about to pay off for them.  We'll leave a light on for you, Battletoads! Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes and Google Play, 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

Destiny 2 continues to expand as developer Bungie recently outlined its revised roadmap for the ongoing development of its popular shooter, so on this week's podcast it's only natural that Blake Grundman would want to discuss it.  I'm not a Destiny fan, but my fiancee is, so Corey is back for her second appearance on the show to talk all about Vex and the Warmind or whatever it is that goes on in Destiny.  I'm glad they know what they're talking about because, in this case, I certainly don't. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes and Google Play, 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

One of the best parts of the Internet gaming community involves watching fans of a beloved franchise dig into games and discover remnants from the development process.  For whatever reason, Sega's 1990s archives of development materials is wide open to the right people and a bunch of unfinished versions of Sonic the Hedgehog titles have escaped to the Internet over the years.  Over at Kotaku, Heidi Kemps showcases seven such prototypes that each show us something interesting about the finished product by virtue of not being in it.

One wonders if Sega in the 1990s was just an exceptionally leaky company, because there are quite a few classic Sonic prototypes floating about. Many of them are simply incremental builds of the same game, each one featuring a little tweak to a stage design, maybe a handful of edits to the sprites. But several of the early builds that have been found are far more interesting: featuring cut stages, discarded gameplay elements, placeholder graphics, and wildly different soundtracks. Taken together, they paint a vivid picture of how these games were made: what the developers prioritized, what didn’t work, what needed to get the axe, what could have been.

Some of these prototypes are kind of well-known in certain circles such as the Sonic Crackers demo that would go on to become Knuckles Chaotix for the Sega 32X and the in-progress version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 that still includes the Hidden Palace Zone in a playable state.  Others are a little more esoteric such as a Sonic CD version dated from December 1992 (which predates the version I mentioned in April that was sent out to magazines).  It's an interesting article about what could have been, what eventually happened, and what was never meant to be.

Hallmark has done it again with its recently released Keepsake ornament of a classic Nintendo Entertainment System.  I ordered mine last week when it became available and happily received it yesterday.  Sculpted by Rodney Gentry, the little NES is incredibly detailed and includes tiny little video and audio ports plus antenna connector, channel switch, and power input.  The control deck door even flips open to reveal a Super Mario Bros. game pak inside.  Underneath the ornament is a small compartment for batteries (representing the infamous unused expansion port on the real console).  Press the Power button and the red LED lights up and the ornament plays the overworld theme from Super Mario complete with flagpole tune and end-of-level fireworks.  It's a must-own ornament for all NES fans.  I'm not even saving it for a Christmas tree.  It's taking a place of honor on my game room shelf.  Check out the embedded video below to see and hear it in action.

This NES Hallmark ornament is fantastic. I love the attention to detail. pic.twitter.com/CHgCbHRLBn

— Matthew Green (@PressTheButtons) July 15, 2020

On his fifth attempt to get into Borderlands, Blake Grundman is finally making progress on his way to open the vault thanks to playing the Borderlands Legendary Collection for the Nintendo Switch.  Now that he's ready to talk about his experiences on Pandora, we brought in our resident expert vault hunter, my fiancee Corey, to join the discussion.  We have an our of conversation about all things Borderlands for you, so catch a ride to Moxxi's bar and pull up a seat. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes and Google Play, 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way. 

Capcom's Street Fighter II and its various upgrades tend to get most of the attention in the gaming world, but when telling the story of the game that revived the arcade market in the early 1990s, it's important to go back to the very beginning.  While the original Street Fighter hasn't aged well and doesn't have much replay value today, at the time it was the start of something big.  Polygon is on a mission to chronicle all of the Street Fighter history over the next several months starting with the first game in the series that was greatly overshadowed by its successors.  Here's a piece of the detailed oral history that describes the game's original control method that involved pneumatic sensors that players would physically pound with fists instead of the traditional buttons.

Takashi Nishiyama (Street Fighter director, Capcom Japan): The problem was, during location tests, we realized that it was very tiring to hit the sensor over and over. It was basically like exercising. The whole point of monetizing this business was to get people to become repeat customers, where they would put in 100 yen coins over and over again so we could make money. And when you're getting tired from playing the game, that's not going to happen.

Todd Cravens (son of Bill Cravens, Street Fighter vice president of sales and marketing, Capcom USA): You had to beat the hell out of it. I remember playing it for the first time and being absolutely exhausted. Everyone was kind of like, "Oh my goodness. It's gonna be hard to get the second and third quarter on this." [...] They were doing a big unveiling of this at a gym in Philadelphia for the U.S. distributors, and they had boxers there who [played the game], and even those guys were tired afterwards.

Street Fighter was ported to the TurboGrafx-CD and a handful of computer platforms of the time, but an easily accessible console version was never produced (the game was apparently slotted for the Nintendo Entertainment System once upon a time, but was never released). The easiest way to play Street Fighter today is the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection which includes it and all of its sequels through the II, Alpha, and III branches.  I played through it once for the experience but see no need to go back to it.  Unlike the depth of II or the dazzle of the Alpha games, there's just not much going for it.  Animation frames are limited and the playable characters (Ryu and Ken) are identical, but there's definitely the seed of an idea in there.  It's important to play from a historical perspective of understanding how the series began.  Such importance, but don't forget there are many games like these all over the world!

My fiancee and I love Borderlands, we love artwork, and we love our cats, so of course we found a way to combine them all.  Thanks to @Natashagalyaart we have commissioned artwork of two of our cats in Borderlands settings.  First we have Moxxi the cat styled after her namesake, Moxxi the bartender.  We even have a little Moxxi costume for her to wear for special events.  Our local GameStop invited us to bring her to their Borderlands 3 release event last year and she was very popular.  Next there's the loudest cat in the clowder, Emma, who we refer to as a Mouth Siren thanks to her emergency siren-like volume.  She's drawn as an actual Siren, cribbing Amara's summoned extra limbs for her tail.

This is turning into an entire series of artwork of our cats crossed with Borderlands, as last week we adopted a little cat just out of kittenhood that we've named Tiny Tina Athena (merging the names of two Borderlands characters), so it's a safe bet we will commission art of her as her namesakes.  Reach out to the artist if you'd like art of your pet as a video game character.  She does wonderful work!

In a normal year would have just come off of a June full of E3 announcements and news, but this is no ordinary year.  News has still come in bits and pieces though, so as we leave this Not-E3 behind, it's time to take an hour and discuss some of that news.  We have Min Min arriving in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo backing away from the mobile gaming world, Crash Bandicoot 4 on the way, and more.  Join us and escape for a little while.  Apologies for my poor audio quality this week.  Skype decided to be "helpful" and use the ambient room microphone instead of the proper desk microphone. Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes and Google Play, 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. We also have a tip jar if you'd like to kick a dollar or two of support our way.