We're celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Nintendo's famed pink puffball Kirby on this week's episode of the podcast, so join us for a bottomless feast of Kirby memories and favorite moments.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, 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. 

Travel back in time with me tor a moment to the era of pre-release hype for Capcom's Mega Man 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  After Mega Man 2 seemingly came from nowhere to score critical acclaim and player popularity, fans were eager to see what was next for the blue bomber.  GamePro magazine took an advance look at the game in the November 1990 issue and ended up mistranslating a few things from Japanese sources.  My absolute favorite mistranslation of all time in gaming media has to be this one in which the magazine proclaimed that Mega Man would face off against his evil brother named Bruce.

During this level Mega Man encounters his evil brother Bruce (an early experiment of Drs Light and Wily that failed) for the first time. Sometimes he'll just get in MM's way, and other times he'll try to destroy MM by shooting him or pouncing on his head.

PROTIP: To beat Bruce, time his jumps and run under him just as he's about to jump on Mega Man. Then, turn and shoot him with the Mega Blaster.

Bruce!  I love it.  It seems like such a random choice for a name and makes you wonder if someone at Capcom was a fan of the E Street Band, but I can see how GamePro ended up with the wrong name.  Bruce, as we know now, is actually Proto Man whose name in Japan is Blues which could easily be munged into Bruce when translating.  Oh classic GamePro, sometimes I really miss you.

When you spend forty-five days in the hospital like I did, you miss a lot of video gaming industry news.  That's why on this week's podcast, Blake Grundman fills me in on all of the stuff that I missed.  Join us for months worth of events jammed down into ninety minutes.  Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, 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. 

After reading Dylan Mansfield's complete history of Majesco's 2005 attempt to revive the A Boy and His Blob franchise for the Nintendo DS, I can only say "I'm sorry I wasted my time."  I was excited about this!  I didn't know better.  Back at E3 2005 I did my best to find a playable demo of the game and was unsuccessful at every turn, and knowing what I know about the project now, I wish I'd put my time on the show floor to better use.  The Majesco representative at their booth even denied they were working on the game.  At the time I chalked it up to industry secrecy, but now that I've seen how the game was shaping up at the time, perhaps the rep was just embarrassed by it.  We definitely dodged a bullet on this one from the ugly character design to the uninspired used of jellybean power-ups to control Blob to the repetitive levels in which the Boy kills human enemies, completely betraying the pacifist themes of the original games.  I'm so glad that when Majesco tried again in 2009, they went with Wayforward's must more beloved take on the franchise.  Anyways, go read the article over at Gaming Alexandria to learn how it almost went so wrong (twice over if you count the axed Game Boy Advance version).  You can even download the unfinished game to try if you want to be personally disappointed.

Sega's classic Sonic the Hedgehog games for the Genesis are still held up as the best in the series, but the handheld Game Gear titles deserve a little spotlight of their own.  The last of those games, Sonic Triple Trouble, was the companion game for Sonic 3 and Knuckles featuring Knuckles as an enemy tricked by Dr. Robotnik once again and a new rival in the form of Nack the Weasel who is running his own plan to collect Chaos Emeralds.  Now Triple Trouble is back as a fan-created game developed by Noah Copeland for Windows and Android that converts the game into a Genesis title and expands on it with new experiences including adding Knuckles and Nack as playable characters, real-time character switching between Sonic and Tails, new level gimmicks, and much more.  Best of all, as a fan game, it's completely free!

My Sonic fan game #SonicTripleTrouble16bit launches on 8.2.2022 after five long years of hard work and passion! See ya then. #SonicTheHedeghog pic.twitter.com/0GsyUQ7c8E

— 🟡Noah N. Copeland🟡GAME OUT! (@NoahNCopeland) July 12, 2022

Now then, where were we?  Sorry to be away for so long, but that's what happens when one of the show hosts dies.  Don't worry too much though!  I got better.  Join us for an all new episode in which I tell the harrowing tale of just what happened to me, and then Blake Grundman steers us into discussing my rehab game of choice, Sonic Origins.  It's great to be back! Download this week's episode directly from PTB, listen with the player below, find us on Stitcher, subscribe via iTunes, Amazon Music Podcasts, and Google Podcasts, 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.