Inspired by a real conversation with Select Buttoners held in a real Saizeriya (it was fantastic), I want to create a scenario and for you to indulge in the role play:
Imagine you are reading selectbutton in 2024 at age 20. You make an introduction post and want to list your 3 favorite/best/games to impress the forum. I must specifiy these must be games you respected when you were 20 years old. Don’t worry this will make more sense in my example post which is next:
Around 2005:
Day of Defeat 1.3, Phantasy Star Online, Metroid Prime
2004: gemstone, earthbound, warioware
I’M THE SAAAAME
2012:
killer7, Mother 3, Katamari Damacy
Yep
gone home, kentucky route zero, titanfall
June, 2004 (must specify because HL2 was November):
Morrowind, Super Metroid, Colony Wars
2008: Shin Megami Tensei III, Shadow of the Colossus, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Had to go check if I posted a top game list on SB when I was 20
Even in shitpost there is a kernel of the true post…
But based on my other posts it was probably
Cave Story
Links Awakening
Touhou 7
I guess mine would probably be something like
trying to channel myself from 2011…
seems about right
if this list describes any 20-year-old in the present day I would be pretty surprised.
2009
As someone who was actually occasionally lurking SB at the time, I think there’s also a distinct chance I would have substituted Yoshi’s Island for WiiWare minimalist puzzle game Rotohex, which I was playing a lot of at the time, in order to appeal to the forum’s contemporary fondness for Simple Series games.
There were a lot of games I respected when I turned 20 in December 2004 but if I had to pick the three I was playing at that moment they would probably be:
GTA: San Andreas
Halo
Super Mario Bros. 3
2006~
nights into dreams
global defence force (edf2)
rayforce
(i got a saturn in 2003, and saturn games were still mostly dirt cheap in the 00s, so i was catching up on what i’d missed out on, as well as discovering a love for taito thanks to the articles of that one italian guy in the gamers quarter)(though it’s possible i wouldn’t have been so excited to buy global defence force on release day if i weren’t already on sb)
way too PC-centric, that is why i didn’t post on SB then, just occasionally lurked for views on the mysterious world of console gaming. if pressed for console games at the time i would have had to go with tetris (i played a shitload of 2-player snes tetris in college), katamari damacy, and yoshi’s island or mario brothers 3, but felt uncomfortably normie about it
Angband
Escape Velocity
Playmaker Football
In 2014 it would have been earthbound, mgs2, nier.
I still love earthbound obviously. I might have last replayed it 8 or 9 years ago.
I have forgotten almost everything about mgs2, my last playthrough was 12 years ago, the HD version. I barely used my Xbox in those days so it finally RROD’ed in 2012. During the solidus fight I kid you not.
I may have forgotten concrete details but I still remember what it felt like emotionally to hang out in nier world. I would have just discovered that game at 20 and been really excited about it.
Silent Hill 4
Final Fantasy XII
Shadow of the Collosus
Rez, Secret of Mana, GTA 3
It took a few minutes to reconstruct my mindset enough to remember how highly I used to think of Secret of Mana. Nobody really respects the game anymore but it was very ambitious for its time: 3-player coop, RPG and action systems at the same time, you could fly around a Mode-7 globe on a dragon. Plus check out this cover art:
I started posting on SB when I was 18
King of Dragon Pass
Arcanum
Knytt Stories
2001 so the games I’d played the most/was most fond of, probably Doom, Quake, Jet Set Radio
