EVERYBODY VOTES 2 PART I: THE SELECTBUTTON.NET TOP 64 VIDCONS 2020 (voting closes september 15, 2020, midnight cst!!)

FINAL FANTASY IS BETTER THAN IKARUGA THERE IS A ROLE IN THE FREE COMPANY WHERE YOURE ALLOWED TO USE THE GARDEN AND ITS CALLED ‘WOURME’ BC ENOUGH SELECTBUTTON PEOPLE PLAY OUR GUILD CAN BE FULL OF REFERENCES

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FINAL FANTASY XIV IS BETTER THAN IKARUGA in the new nier raid theres a ton of bullet hell dodging, a drakengard 3 boss mechanic, and a bozs that starts out as legion but then turns into a GIANT 2B MADE OF BODIES it rules

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THERE IS A FINAL FANTASY TACTICS THEMED RAID WHERE YOU GET TO FIGHT MATSUNOS SELF INSERT FURSONA. yoshi ps DREAM in games was to work with matsuno but final fantasy xiv is so good MATSUNO ENDED UP WORKING WITH HIM

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do not vote for final fantasy xiv

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final fantasy xiv is better than ikaruga i was able to pull off a joke where i made an alt that was @HOBO’s illegitimate child and i surprised him with the child in the middle of a brothel. best game ever

no one ever votes for games im actually excited about in these things so i decided to be ride or die for metal slug 6 and ffxiv

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alright, I got a big-ass bowl of spicy samyang ramen and a salted leek pancake in front of me, let’s get crackin’.


MINECRAFT (a game i have played)
vs.
SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO (a game i have played)

my harm reductionist politics have me analyzing this along three axes:

  1. minecraft makes many kids very happy and teaches them the power of collaboration. street fighter ii makes kids very upset because it means somebody has to lose and their child-sized egos aren’t capable of taking that blow.

  2. minecraft’s popularity will presumably lead to more engineers in the future. street fighter ii’s popularity has presumably led to cases of carpal tunnel and hypertension.

  3. minecraft players have never personally done me wrong. street fighter ii players have bumped into me while i was playing iidx. well, okay, they were street fighter v players, but i assume they’ve played ii at some point.

it is an unmistakable win for minecraft. it gets my vote.


CRAZY TAXI (a game i have played)
vs.
METAL SLUG 6 (Metal Slug 3 romhack) (a game i have not played)

so at first i was going to vote for crazy taxi, simply because the intrinsic joy of moving around 3d space in a vehicle tends to eclipse the thoughtless plodding of feet. but then i remembered a conversation i had with a friend the other day in which they told me crazy taxi was where they first got introduced to the offspring, and i don’t like the offspring. we listened to the song by the offspring they knew from crazy taxi and i thought it was real lame.

i also think there is a much higher level of craft in metal slug games, although i’ve only beaten the first one, so as someone who is campaigning for more intentionality in all things i can’t leave ol’ slugger out to dry. i’m going to vote metal slug 6.


EVERYBODY VOTES (a game i have not played)
vs.
PUYO PUYO series (a game i have played)

the puyo games make @slime happy, and slime is one of the only other people on this forum who plays rhythm games, so i consider us allies and i am happy to defer to her judgment. in slime i trust.

also, i have never even heard of everybody votes – is this a real game? or a collective dream of the forum? even if it is the real silicon deal, it’s not enough for me to forsake a rhythm game ally. i will be voting for the puyo puyo series.


STREET FIGHTER III THIRD STRIKE: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE (a game i have played)
vs.
CONTRA: HARD CORPS (a game i have not played)

can you parry in contra? i don’t know if you can. but i know you can parry in street fighter iii, and although i am absurdly bad at that game, pulling off a parry feels real, real darn good. i do not have enough faith in contra that they could create any sort of moment that tasty in their game, so, despite all my reservations against street fighter players espoused in the first matchup, i am going to vote for street fighter iii.


YAKUZA 0 (a game i have not played)
vs.
SUPER METROID (a game i have not played)

well darn, this is a tricky one. i have played yakuza games and i have played metroid games, but never these specific games. based on my experiences i’m lead to believe yakuza 0 would be a more memorable experience for me, if only because i have better 3d spatial memory than 2d memory. also, i can use yakuza for japanese practice, but what life skills does super metroid have to offer me? another factor is that i feel like wherever yakuza 0 takes place will have more hang-out-itude than any location in super metroid, although i’m happy to be proven wrong. so yeah, i’m going with a vote for yakuza 0.


NIGHTS INTO DREAMS (a game i have not played)
vs.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2 (a game i have not played)

i’m going to be honest, i don’t know shit about these games except that people like them and they’re landmarks of sega’s first party development efforts. i have never played them and don’t really plan to unless someone makes me. so as an arbitrary deciding factor, i think i would have a lot more fun hanging out with the entity from nights than i would hanging out with sonic, or anyone from the sonic universe for that matter barring the edge case scenario of knuckles performing the pumpkin hill rap. this will be a vote for nights into dreams.


GAME BOY CAMERA (a game i have not played)
vs.
DEUS EX (a game i have not played)

the game boy camera was the first truly accessible digital camera, and as someone for whom a primary motivation is the accessibility of both experiencing and creating art, it would take a lot to beat that. unfortunately for deus ex, i played it once for ten minutes and remember being very bored, and i’ve heard it’s one of those “immersive sim” games, the only one of which i’ve played was the most recent prey and i also thought that was pretty boring. even against a lesser foe deus ex would be really struggling, but against a heartfelt device meant to spread the joy of photography? not a chance. a vote for game boy camera it is.


IKARUGA (a game i have played)
vs.
FINAL FANTASY XIV (a game i have played)

wow! already at the final matchup of this round, i have a lot more thoughts on this one. i have beaten the main story quest of final fantasy xiv (that is, i’ve seen the credits roll in the base game, never touched the expansions) and i have fiddled around in ikaruga but i don’t think i’ve ever even made it past the second stage.

my initial thoughts when i glanced at the matchups was that i have big beef with final fantasy xiv for being such a power fantasy compared to the beautiful player-agnostic plot and atmosphere of final fantasy xi – the mechanical aspects of the game were fine, but i was really soured by the tone of the storyline. i play an mmo not to be the center of everything, but to be a bit player in the world. i think mmo games should play to the strength of having a real community and have that feeling of fame and importance be something earned from other players rather than something given to everyone by the plot.

ikaruga, on the other hand, steps beyond agnosticism to become player-antagonist, as most shmups are, and as one of only two iidx players on the forum (shout out to my other rhythm game ally, @Sakurina) it should be obvious that i truly live to suffer. there is something incredibly appealing to me about a game that genuinely expects me to give up and gives me no quarter (no pun intended and no credit feeding allowed) in surpassing the challenges it sets out for me.

what’s swaying me more than anything is knowing that some amount of people, perhaps even enough to be referred to as “many” have met and fallen in love in final fantasy xiv. i might still be bitter because of my breakup at the beginning of this year, but i really am a hopeless romantic and any game that can foster connections like that makes my heart swell up in a way that video games rarely do. final fantasy xiv is a game that is capable of reaching beyond itself and beyond the typical limitations of the medium and really affecting tangible, positive events in the world around it, and for that it gets my vote.

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SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO -ive played ten minutes of minecraft. i am not a child

METAL SLUG 6 (Metal Slug 3 romhack) - crazy taxi is amazing and im good at it, the taking off driving super fast mechanic rules but I THOUGHT FAKE METAL SLUG 6 WAS REAL FOR SO LONG it’s this haunted cursed thing to me and you all made it real and I love this site for it

EVERYBODY VOTES - never really played puyo puyo

CONTRA: HARD CORPS - i deleted the other choice, tabbed out for a second, and forgot what the other choice was so i guess it sucks edit lol it’s third strike, well that is my least favorite street fighter but i felt compelled to edit cuz i dont think it sucks at all, but im not a big fan of parrying in anything

YAKUZA 0 - super metroid is great but yakuza 0 made everyone notice the series, and it doesnt have doors you need specific weapons to open

NIGHTS INTO DREAMS - why am i picking between two sonic games

GAME BOY CAMERA - ha fucking easy. deus ex has way too many buttons

FINAL FANTASY XIV - this game has reconnected me with so many people and i get to talk with tons of people from here i probably wouldn’t have otherwise. my outfits alone win a prize

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I never had to worry about getting a family court summons cuz I played a shoot 'em up so I’m going with Ikaruga.

9 Likes

oh yeah one of the best things about ffxiv is how much you hate it

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I do think people should play Final Fantasy XIV, because I play it, and it is fun to run dungeons, chop down trees, and visit brothels (but make sure to use protection or you too may end up getting saddled with The World’s Greatest Burden)

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all you anti-PC gaming console hipsters on here are going to trounce the original Deus Ex and i’m just going to have to sit here and take it. i don’t like it!!

these are the only ones i care about

STREET FIGHTER III THIRD STRIKE: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
vs.
CONTRA: HARD CORPS

i’ll say Contra Hard Corps because i’m not a huge Street Fighter person and that doesn’t seem like it’s one of the better Street Fighters anyway

YAKUZA 0
vs.
SUPER METROID

i’m going to vote for Yakuza 0 just because i think Super Metroid is overplayed

NIGHTS INTO DREAMS
vs.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

i’ll vote Sonic 2 just because i think that’s the best Sonic game and invariably it might have to match up against Mario.

GAME BOY CAMERA
vs.
DEUS EX

Deus Ex, because it’s a game and not the gimmicky answer that’s going to win with the anti-PC gaming crowd here.

IKARUGA
vs.
FINAL FANTASY XIV

Ikaruga, cuz i don’t know what other Treasure games are in here. that said i don’t care that much about Ikaruga compared to some of their other games.

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gameboy camera isnt a gimmick it’s that fucking good

also everyone here plays games on computers but me and loki, I think thats an old sb thing

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Declaring R&D1 the most beloved development studio of Select Button, based on this poll, even though I haven’t crunched the numbers, but they did Super Metroid and Wario Ware and Game Boy Camera and a Tetris and also they never developed any icky PC games so they’re clearly easily the best.

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I have played a lot of both GameBoy Camera and Deus Ex and I honestly think Camera has aged pretty well in comparison. It legit got me into actual photography and creative projects and I have much stronger memories of playing it than Deus Ex.

Deus Ex is an incredible game and a miracle that it is so good given that it kinda began as a side project at Ion Storm. It has a lot going for it in terms of narrative structure, secret interactions, character choice, and music. Ultimately I feel like it has more to justify here than Camera. It’s in an established genre and while its among the best of that genre it still has flaws. Some of the NPC voice acting is atrocious. The Area 51 section kinda made the games themes feel a bit deflated for me. Like I get it plays with conspiracy theories but it gets kinda goofy by that point. The visuals are also poor (even for the year it came out) which is a shallow complaint but it’s not easy for a series beginner to stomach and is an issue in comparison (even to a Gameboy game).

I’d need a really good case made to switch my vote but I’d be open to it. Like I say, Deus Ex has some incredible moments and there’s arguments here beyond it just being a PC rep. What makes this game the game?

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I’ll play along with Metal Slug 6 romhack and even Everybody Votes but Game Boy Camera is where I draw my line in the sand. You can’t come back from voting for Game Boy Camera over Deus Ex.

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Because of my 2000s nostalgic/arrested development console fetishism I’m going to play the PS2 port. I think there’s something to be said for consolization making PC games more accessible/approachable to us console plebs. I gave up on making DXPC (at least in its Steam form) playable to me. I don’t want to have to download mods and tweak ini files to wrench an ideal experience out of an old highly regarded game sometimes and this might be one of those times.

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i played minecraft in middle school when it was in beta. building things felt slow and frustrating compared to fucking around in rpg maker and now it has hunger mechanics and has to be reattributed to hatsune miku. i haven’t played much sf ii but you can be a cute girl in it and there’s a chance it wouldn’t leave me feeling hollow.

im one of the only people here to encounter metal slug 6 in the wild. it’s still the only metal slug i’ve played, and i went into it assuming it was legit. by the end it was pretty clear that it wasn’t and it left me feeling vaguely dissapointed that i didn’t get to experience the cool art for longer on a more engaging game. but most of my experience with crazy taxi is of the offspring drowning out the game im playing at the arcade and that has left a deep resentment. metal slug 6

i am terrible at puyo despite my best efforts as a small child but i have strong memories of the cute characters giving me Trans Feelings as a kid and i have way more faith in puyo than democracy. puyo

undecided

one of the crueler choices in this bracket, i think, but super metroid is more aesthetically interesting to me and has great speedrunning potential even if it feels kind of clunky in casual play and the search action format has kind of lost its lustre. yakuza 0 would be better if it was more focused on majima or, even better, miss tatsu.

nights into dreams is the weirder, jankier, more selectbutton pick. but sonic 2 still feels good to play and is too personal to me. sonic 2.

abstaining

mostly im bitter that ikaruga is the sole shmup representative and not zeroranger. i am mentally slotting zeroranger at rank zero on this list in protest. ff xiv has done more for the queers than anything else on this list and it’s also the only contestant im actively looking forward to playing. also, ikaruga won’t let you get gay catgirl married. easy pick

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100%, this is that game’s biggest problem. Kiryu’s stuff felt flatter by comparison.

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personally I hate all audio/visual games on all available platforms equally

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