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Dedicated Hug Buttons. Unnecessary Flavor Inputs

Becksworth

Becksworth

Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Recently I've been playing two games with these.

Yo Noid 2: Enter the Void has a dedicated dabbing button that works with both the Noid's 3D model and his character portrait. It's even analog input in 3D instances.

More juvenile, if you press the P key in Peeb's Adventure, he'll monotonally say boner as his floppy nose becomes erect. There is also like a 1% chance he'll exclaim PENIS instead.

Post other examples of inputs that don't really do anything gameplay wise, but still add to the overall tone.
 
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ArugulaZ

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
Captain Toad has this, doesn't it? There's a jump button but he has all the air time of an elephant.
 
Mogri

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
Of course, A Boy and His Blob has the dedicated hug button.
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I know this isn't quite the same thing, but I can't help thinking of the Warcraft 2 sound card test:

 
Mogri

Mogri

Round and round I go
(he)
Staff member
Moderator
lincolnic said:
I know this isn't quite the same thing, but I can't help thinking of the Warcraft 2 sound card test:
Click to expand...
I think about that often.

Man, I don't miss configuring games to work with sound cards.
 
MCBanjoMike

MCBanjoMike

Sudden chomper
(He/him)
Iron Brigade (né Trenched) allows you to unlock a variety of salutes that you can equip on the human character that you only control between missions. Not only do they dedicated a whole button to the salute, it's an analog button, AKA a trigger. Pulling the trigger will gradually progress through the animation, allowing the player to hand-animate extreme slow-motion fingerguns or rapidfire salutes. It's a system that has never been topped.
 
JBear

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
I feel like basically half of the Last Story could be characterized as unnecessary flavour, but if fishing for a specific example, I don't think there's ever a mechanical purpose/benefit to the banana peel gun, that I can recall.
 
Lokii

Lokii

—
(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
Some of the Metal Max games let you fire your tank cannons on the world map with a button push. You can't use this to pre-emptively attack enemies or destroy structures or anything. Other than a showy salvo it does nothing except use up ammo.

I like it!
 
Octopus Prime

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I think Knights of the Old Republic had a dedicated “Pull out your lightsaber and twirl it around” button which served no mechanical purpose except what else would one do with a lightsaber?
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
MCBanjoMike said:
Iron Brigade (né Trenched) allows you to unlock a variety of salutes that you can equip on the human character that you only control between missions. Not only do they dedicated a whole button to the salute, it's an analog button, AKA a trigger. Pulling the trigger will gradually progress through the animation, allowing the player to hand-animate extreme slow-motion fingerguns or rapidfire salutes. It's a system that has never been topped.
Click to expand...
This is beautiful.
 
Becksworth

Becksworth

Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
I guess taunts in a lot of fighting games fall here too, unless you count tilting your opponent as a game mechanic...
 
fanboymaster

fanboymaster

(He/Him)
Octopus Prime said:
Vanquish has a button dedicated to pulling out a cigarette, smoking it, and tossing it away
Click to expand...

This actually has mechanical significance for distracting enemies when you are behind cover.

Becksworth said:
I guess taunts in a lot of fighting games fall here too, unless you count tilting your opponent as a game mechanic...
Click to expand...

Taunts are weird because in most fighting games they don't do anything but in the first game I can think of that had them, Art of Fighting, they drain the opponent's special meter and are thus so important they have a dedicated button. They even sometimes have effects in games you wouldn't expect them to, like SF3 3rd Strike.
 
ArugulaZ

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
You can take down an opponent with Dudley's rose or Sean's basketball, although it's very difficult. As for The Art of Fighting, it's a battle that's thirty years too old to fight, but I always thought it was irritating how taunt got its own button but hard punches and hard kicks did not. They couldn't assign taunts to start like Capcom did? They couldn't make taunts a button combination? It's too much of a sacrifice to have one of the four action buttons on the Neo-Geo be used JUST for taunts. At least this was addressed in the home versions, although much of Art of Fighting's appeal came from its impact, and the Genesis version has all the ferocity of a gerbil with a cold.
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Taunts are also a little different in that fighting games often have another human player so the taunt is theoretically bothering them rather than just bothering an AI.

This was my number one way of winning against my younger cousin for a full summer. He could not deal with taunting and would get all flustered and I'd destroy him.
 
q 3

q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
Fighting games should have hug buttons. If both players press it they draw. Good way to teach gamers about game theory
 
Kalir

Kalir

Do you require aid.
(whatevs)
Deep Rock Galactic is an amazing game because they set a key to have your dwarf bellow ROCK AND STONE to your team and everyone loves it.
 
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