Press A

Ah the immediate pulse of button mashing that we as gamers have come to know and hate. To be honest, who actually thinks that mashing the X button (or which ever respectable platform you play on) makes for a better gameplay alternative to say a quick-time press or even a combination of buttons like those seen in Mass Effect safe hacking.

The idea that puzzles me is that develops actually think that button mashing is a good alternative to another gameplay input type. Recently I was playing Prototype and the scenario where you hijack a tank came up. I press the button to initiate the sequence to hijack the tank. Soon after initiating this sequence I was prompted with a button with a flashing starburst around it. This symbol, the symbol I have come to hate, signifies that I need to mash the crap out of the Y button until something happens. Not only is this inconsistent in that they do not tell you how many you need to mash, so in theory (and plain far-shot) a developer could make a completely blasphemously long mashing sequence. Of course, no self respecting interface developer would make this terrible decision, but the possibility still remains.

Now, I'm not going to have this post existing to bash Prototype, but another instance I don't care for in the button mashing sequence is that sometimes I continue to get bombarded by the NPC characters. If an instance reveals itself as necessary for button mashing I should not continue to eat the bullets and tank shells from all 360 degrees around me.

I do not mind quick button presses, but haven't we, as a medium, evolved passed the need for button mashing? I'm sure I'm not the first person to voice some opinion against this mediocre solution, but I'm surprised we haven't seen any major changes away from this decision.

Ah well, when I become a dev I suppose I'll turn a revolution!