Bark! Swear! Its the best single-action buttons in video games

Some games feature an extra-special button that doesnt really do anything significant. But theyre the best buttons. The one we cant help but push all the time, just for the hell of it. Heavy Rain appreciates the value of a single button (JASON!), even though that instance of brilliance is fleeting. So here are our other favourites, which all last much longer.

Theres a minigame in Okami. One that we made up, admittedly, but a really good one, nonetheless. Basically, it involves running up to NPCs, trees, chests pretty much anything that isnt nothing, then stopping and pressing circle to bark at it. We were worried the HD remake might sterilise the charm, but no - barking at stuff in HD proves to be just as enjoyable and hard to resist. In fact, our thumbs are twitching now over an imaginary circle button as we bark at this article. Bark!

Ah, the ace of scarves. Also ace of expletives, as the game features a dedicated swear button. It has a vague benefit by helping fill your Balls meter but essentially just adds taunts to the already heady mix of guns, blood and general criminality. With that lot already weighing on your conscience (and potential police record), a few swears are just a drop in the ocean. So **** you, other buttons. Swear button will take your ****ing bullets. You **** with this button, you *** with the best. ****!

Micro Machines has two useful buttons: Go and Go backwards. The latter works as a brake if youre already going forwards, so theres no need to complicate things further. But wait! a Mega Drive pad has THREE buttons, leaving (incredibly) a whole button unused. So Codemasters made that the horn button. Beep, beep and, indeed, double beep. It has zero effect on the AI or any other aspect of the actual gameplay, but oh, how much fun we had with that horn. And it was kinda sad to drive the tanks and have it turn into a fire button. A waste of a perfectly good horn button.

Theres nothing funny about fart jokes. You know, why would we want to press a button that [press] Hehe. [press] Well, that is quite funny. [press] Oh, and that was a loud one. [press] [press] Eeeew! [press] [press] [press] [press] Man, this game is awesome. Happy times on PSone. Annoyingly, the sequel (Abes Exoddus, pictured) recognised the universal love for the fart button and started making more of a feature of it beyond simple call and response puzzles, allowing you to possess your farts and make them explode. Hmmm. It was funnier when it was just a fart button, really.

The Wii remake of A Boy and His Blob is one hell of a long game. Its not that its particularly lengthy in terms of layout or impossible puzzles. We just spent so much time hugging our blobby companion, the days soon turned into nights, then the nights into blob-filled dreams where the blob was real and we could give it an actual hug. But the morning came and it was back to pawing at the hug button, longing for a blob of our own.

Everyone's talking about things they want to see in GTA V, but most are forgetting about the fart/burp button from the original GTA and its sequel. You could run up to people, expelling air from every available orifice, without alienating everyone you know or getting arrested for being a public nuisance like you probably would in real life. Listen out for it in the next GTA V trailer. Our fingers are crossed.

Technically, there are two buttons here, up and down on the d-pad, which change the expression on Sackboy's face, through three levels each of joy and sadness. But we're just going with the 'up' button because those three stages of joy are brilliant. Note: We almost went for the L2/frying pan combination, which is a proper knockout if you're playing with a mate. But that's definitely two buttons.

You know - that really cool thing that doesn't have any impact on the gameplay other than to make you say 'hot dang, that's a darn fine button if ever there was one'. We can't remember exactly which game that particular button was in, so let us know in the comments and maybe we'll press it a few times and agree with you.

And if you're looking for more, check out 100 A buttons and Grand Theft Auto 1 Fart Button showcase.