By Alec Meer on February 27th, 2013 at 5:00 pm.
Take the opening credits from Mad Men, add a dash of James Bond, sprinkle with generous helpings of Canabalt and serve. The Button Affair is an excellent auto-runner steeped in style and variety, far too good to be free and yet it is (presumably due to its short length). You should most certainly go and play it, discover that you enjoy it greatly, and then give a donation to its chosen charity, Special Effect.
The look’s the main thing, a sort of 70s spy movie-themed take on Another World’s coloured silhouettes, but lending a narrative and justification of sorts to what auto-runners tend to leave highly abstracted makes a big difference too. It’s a shame the presentation of the dialogue is on the clunky side, as it upsets the panache of the whole affair, but never mind.
It comes off a bit like a more consciously gamey and less oblique Gravity Bone in some ways, though ultimately it is of course a Canabaltlike. Only with laserbeams, death-pits, murderous prisoners and speeding trains. A Good Time. Get it from here, then lob a quid (or more) to disability charity Special Effect to show your appreciation.
27/02/2013 at 17:55 HyenaGrin says:
For some reason Chrome is flagging TheButtonAffair_PC_v2.zip (from mirror 1) as a malicious file.
I imagine it’s a false positive of some kind, but it is concerning nonetheless.
27/02/2013 at 18:06 Jim Rossignol says:
Doesn’t chrome warn that any zip containing and exe might be malicious?
27/02/2013 at 18:43 HyenaGrin says:
I have downloaded scads and scads of zip files using Chrome and I have never once seen this warning pop up. So no, not unless it is a new feature.
I ran a couple of other scanners on the zip file and there were no positives, so I’m taking Chrome’s warning as a false positive either way.
27/02/2013 at 19:19 Hdfisise says:
Chrome always warns on files they haven’t indexed/have a low number of downloads. It sorts itself out eventually but it sucks when uploading for the first time.
28/02/2013 at 01:06 Kitsunin says:
It happens all the time. As long as Chrome isn’t actively preventing you from downloading the file (Which also happens sometimes) it doesn’t mean anything at all. Just that it’s a .zip or.exe file which hasn’t been confirmed yet – which every file ever is at first.
27/02/2013 at 18:13 Hilden2000 says:
Love the music and the motif, very Man from U.N.C.L.E.
27/02/2013 at 21:14 ollieclarke says:
Hi,
If anyone is concerned about downloading the game from the site I will be totally happy to email you a direct link. Just drop me a mail saying which version you want at ollieclarkesjournal@googlemail.com
Thank you for taking a moment to look at The Button Affair!
Ollie
27/02/2013 at 22:49 CantankerousDave says:
Wow, a definite homage to the many, many deaths of Another World / Flashback there.
27/02/2013 at 22:50 Sinomatic says:
It’s telling me that it can’t reach paypal when I try to donate. Anyone else having the same issue?
27/02/2013 at 23:45 suibhne says:
Nicely done. As a proud pedant, I would’ve preferred the punctuation be complete and correct, but it has real charm. The death animations are particularly wonderful.
28/02/2013 at 01:20 Skabooga says:
Lovely. Absolutely lovely.
28/02/2013 at 06:29 Urthman says:
This is good.
28/02/2013 at 12:21 thessalian_pine says:
Oh how very charming.
It gives me NOLF-Bumps.
28/02/2013 at 14:43 sirdavies says:
Oh my glob!