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

King of Posters
85

I have spent the last 20 minutes entranced by an Ikaruga superplay. This is an exquisitely designed game, it is so fucking tight that I don’t think I ever want to play it again but I will watch it and I will be hypnotized by every single element of it.

Zero Ranger is some dude doing kitschy pop music mashups while Treasure composed a symphony. Sorry, maybe that’s very 1.0 of me, I often prefer the less polished work – again, I don’t think I will ever play Ikaruga again in my life but I could see myself coming back to Zero Ranger some day and having a good enough time – but God, objecting to the inclusion of the game that inspired so much of that other game just boggles my mind.

Also Ikaruga is half as long. No shooter should be longer than 25 minutes.

10 Likes
86

I voted Zero Ranger on impulse as I just started to check it out but I think Ikaruga is taken for granted. I mean, I’m controlled by novelty so whatever recent thing I’m experiencing for the first time feels more invigorating than any of my old darlings.

As other posters have said, Ikaruga is a poor stand-in for the whole of shooters. It shares so little in common with those made by CAVE, 8ing, Psikyo, or any other studios‘ efforts. I think that’s why it was chosen though. Not because it’s better, but because it is the most singular. There’s nothing next to it.

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87

This thread is making me want to play Ikaruga again. Though Daphny makes a good case for that other game I’ve never seen.

I don’t even have appreciation for the mechanics, beyond the color switching. But just things like how the music introduces the levels, the streams of dots on the screen, how the bosses explode, etc.

5 Likes
88

One thing that stuck out to me was how the first level’s music was synced up with your ship launch blasting out of the catapult (at least on the DC/Naomi versions that used their sound chips to generate the music “live” rather than as redbook audio).

The chaining system, which yeah I know it only matters if you care about scoring, and overarching aesthetic and gameplay reliance on symmetry/elegance in everything put me off of it somewhat, I think.

2 Likes
90

i love both equally, in that i died a bunch and gave up in both

but i think ikaruga is more readable and i think about it more in my day-to-day life

2 Likes
91

I somewhat agree with your points but also I’ve listened to Girltalk’s Feed The Animals about 2000 times. I am going to put it on my ipod today even. To listen to girltalk’s Feed The Animals.

So I enjoy a good mashemup and that would have made ZeroRanger good but it then has this whole another layer of it’s own confidence and style and vision along with all the references. It is so much more than a indie platformer with world 1-1 or the starting hallway from a search action game.

And new Vanilla Light Mode is 20 minutes long.

Also all the stuff about death and encarnation and another quarter and the last life and hitting dipswitches is so cool. Also co-op in ZeroRanger is good and is miserable in Ikaruga.

Which is like the one fault in Ikaruga. Ikaruga is perfect. Maybe this poll was a mistake! I almost can’t think of something to write about Ikaruga (which is one of the four shooters I have devoted months of my life too).

5 Likes
92

MINECRAFT
vs.
SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO

Minecraft. SFII is cool but i like SFIII better! i agree with what everyone said about Minecraft being a great creative tool for kids. I was into it for a little while, it was neat, i got bored with it but i’d be down to kill some time with it if you ever put it in front of me

CRAZY TAXI
vs.
METAL SLUG 6 (Metal Slug 3 romhack)

Metal Slug. I haven’t played this metal slug 3 romhack. I think metal slug generally kicks ass though. Crazy Taxi is fun too but if i saw both at an arcade, my quarters would probably go to Metal Slug 6 (Metal Slug 3 romhack) just because i am more engaged by pretty 2D run and guns

EVERYBODY VOTES
vs.
PUYO PUYO series

i think it’s very funny that everybody votes is on here and i love you guys. it’s Puyo Puyo though. it’s my 2nd favorite puzzle game! after Tetris Attack!! wait fuck why didn’t i nominate Tetris Attack!!!

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

ooh. as previously mentioned, i prefer SFIII to SFII. but as also previously mentioned i am more into pretty 2D run and guns. hmm… in Hard Corps you can play as a cyborg wolfman. …but ive never gotten past the second level. hmmmm. Im gonna go with Street Fighter III: Third Strike: Fight For the Future because it has the announcer who says “YEAH THAT MAKES SENSE” and that’s touched my soul more

YAKUZA 0
vs.
SUPER METROID

Super Metroid. i haven’t played a Yakuza game. it’s a series ive looked into and it looks cool, it seems like it would be up my alley. but that’s not enough for it to beat Super Metroid which i only left off my list from the first thread because i knew it would get nominated anyway

NIGHTS INTO DREAMS
vs.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

Sonic 2. I have never played NiGHTS, ive watched gameplay of it and always thought it seemed neat. again though, not enough to beat Sonic 2 which ive played through like a dozen times and which basically changed my life

GAME BOY CAMERA
vs.
DEUS EX

Deus Ex. i adore the game boy camera and i think it’s an amazingly cool innovative little widget. but i gotta listen to my heart and my heart is screaming OH MY GOD JC A BOMB. (im also biased because i just replayed it the other day and it’s fresh in my mind)

IKARUGA
vs.
FINAL FANTASY XIV

Ikaruga. Ive never played either of these. I dont like mmos, though credit to FFXIV that it’s probably the only one i’d ever play because i like final fantasy flavor. I don’t really like “shoot them ups” either, or at least am really bad at them, but Ikaruga has a novel concept and it’s impressive to watch people play it well. I’m also confident that if you put both games in front of me for a taste test, i would get more out of Ikaruga, because every mmo ive ever tried has had a fucking dull start and no ones said anything about FFXIV to convince me it’s any different

7 Likes
93

I’m sorry, @Daphaknee. Watching that video made me remember how much I like Ikaruga. But I’ll try to vote for something else you like at some point.

3 Likes
94

you’re probably right! i think it would be fun if we could keep it irreverent but maybe that’s impossible!

4 Likes
95

i am so happy people are actually talking about my favorite game, im just excited to participate

1 Like
96

Based off when I did QoP the first time people take it personally. It really made an impact on me.

1 Like
97

I wasted two hours charting out my predictions for every single match in this tournament, AMA(EW)

1 Like
98

I’m going to explain why you’re all wrong and ffxiv is great, but it is a jrpg so bear with me

in the cosomology of ffxiv there’s the source world that the game takes place on and 13 “reflections.” in the first reflection there was a hero of light like yourself, and he wins and all it does is cause a blinding flood of light to wash over the world and kill almost everything. in the ffxiv art and trailers they have a default hero guy and adventuring party they use as a stand in for the player made character and friends. the hero of light and his friends in the first reflection are depicted in game with the same appearance as these art/trailer default characters.

everything was orginally one world, but there was some cosmic climate change shit going on and they had to invent god to fix it, but god splintered everything, including the souls of the ancient races who lived in the original world. humans and other creatures came out of these divided souls, which freaked out the handful of ancient beings who survived intact. and you find out this other hero of light guy shares part of your original soul with you. and you eventually merge together. and you even get to speak a line of dialogue with his voice at the end. a genius move to let you get to be the trailer/art character while still being yourself.

what does ikaruga have? you just shoot things good. who gives a SHIT.

in ffxiv the handful of the ancient race that survived the Big Splintering with their souls intact, they’re trying to merge back all the worlds into one, even though it kills a lot of people they don’t care cause we might as well be fucked up goats to them or something. they’ve already succeeded merging a couple of the reflections back which has been the cause of various “calamities” in the past on the source. this flood of light on the first reflection is going to lead to it being merged with the source and to a calamity humanity doesn’t seem to be able to come back from. it ends up killing you and all your friends, people descend into a mad max state, etc.

but the people in this future try to figure out what went wrong. they figure out some of the cosmology of the universe, that it was this calamity caused by this other world. they decide to throw everything into a chance at inventing time travel, which they know is possible because of the notes left behind from the ALEXANDER RAID you did. only advanced machines are depicted in the game as being able to use time magic and it’s a very rare difficult thing to do etc so its a momumental effort that takes generations and having to understand and modify the most advanced structure in the world, the crystal tower, to turn it into a time machine, and a guy has to merge himself with it to use it etc.

the antagonist of shadowbringers, one of these intact ancient beings, tells you how a third of the ancients volunteered to sacrifice themselves to save the world and they deserve to live again, what human beings would sacrifce themselves to save others on that scale. but the only reason you are even there on that world, is because people of the future voted to go with a convoluted time travel scheme to an alternate reality in the past, knowing succeeding would do nothing for them in their world if not write them out of existence altogether, and they picked you, not because you can beat up monsters real good or they could of just went with brooding dragoon guy, but because you’re the one who delivers sandwiches and flowers to people in tedious sidequest after sidequest, you do the little things that matter and people remember, remembered enough that their great grandkids with no first hand knowledge of you still committed to it. that’s like 2 of the 100 reasons ffxiv is a beautiful game

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does ikaruga have these dragon dogs who love humans so much in them? no, it doesn’t. ikaruga is a shooter and shooting is VIOLENT and BAD. it knows nothing but violence.

you want to vote for ikaruga, vote for ikaruga, but I want you to look seto in the eye while you pull that lever

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16 Likes
99

Yeah this is both Ikaruga’s greatest strength and biggest flaw.

Or

Ikaruga feels like it was largely solved when it shipped. Maybe I’m wrong but there’s always been a clear Right Way To Play it (or Another Right Way To Play It [Dot Eater]). It’s incredibly R-Type in that way. It is not the game to play if you value, like, player expression. It’s a dance where all the marks you have to hit are mostly laid out for you already. That is something I really don’t want to play much nowadays.*

Though if there have been any recent developments in, like, breaking the game I’d love to see them.

It’s a game that I deeply loved but now I have to take a few steps back if I want to properly appreciate it. You don’t hear quite so many people saying It’s The Only Good Shoot 'Em Up nowadays but it still has that baggage. I’m still kinda fatigued by that shit.

I really do respect Zero Ranger but it is very much not the game for me. It’s hard to find any novelty in it as I am well acquainted with everything it’s cribbing from because it’s a video game inspired by video games. This is a community that has always leaned towards games with incredibly strong aesthetics largely inspired by outside media. Like, Ikaruga is pretty much Garage Kits: The Game but that’s still somewhat fresh, to me. That’s something I really can’t find in a movie or an anime (other than Dragon’s Heaven) or many other games, really. I value that a lot. I could probably hang an Ikaruga screenshot on my wall and it would not spoil the vibe. If I did that with Zero Ranger my room would come 20% closer to looking like it belonged in a FOR THE GAMER IN YOUR LIFE spread in the 2009 Target Holiday Catalog**. Don’t get me wrong, the game is incredibly well put together and everyone involved is clearly working on a level I could never hope to attain but…it looks like just another video game, y’know? And that’s cool. That’s fine. I guess.

Anyway that’s part of why I nominated Ikaruga!! A game I never want to play again. I hope I am not being too mean. I love you all.

I’m going to be so mean if I have to talk about FF14 though. Fuck that game. I’m gonna go log into it right now, bye.

Oh yeah I didn’t crunch the numbers for other shooters but I have to think there were a fair number of nominated. There was just no effort in the nomination thread to rally folks around a certain game in a series/by a developer like there was with, say, Puyo or the AKI wrestling games. It’s a bit of a downer that there’s only one shooter on this list but like 30 games about rodents wearing sneakers but what you gonna do, eh. It’s a pretty good list overall.

Wait did any Kirby games make it? I thought we had so many Kirby nominations.

*Unless it’s FFXIV boss battles.

**We’re talking about my room before it became dominated by Gundams, okay. Different times.

11 Likes
100

I’m with you on this but sadly FF14 gets knocked out by Mario 3 in round 72

4 Likes
101

If I am completely honest I am bothered by the thought of possibly my favorite game getting dropped in the first round by a frickin’ MMO so yeah, a more aggressive version of that might go badly. Really my two favorite games of all time are in this group and both look like they may lose, so I’m just gonna do something else for the next week and hope for the best.

2 Likes
102

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NEVER MIND TAKING BACK EVERYTHING I SAID THEY ADDED AN ACHIEVEMENT TRACKER TO THE HUD ON THE PC PORT? THIS IS GARBAGE

Edit: Also watching and discussing this with Rudie made me realize this is one of the few arcade games of the last 20 years where a player can easily grasp its scoring mechanics without a tutorial. No wonder so many people latched onto this.

2 Likes
103

It’s double elimination, remember!

So it may go 0-2.

2 Likes
104

Assuming you’re talking about Ikaruga, it actually makes it through quite a few rounds before it gets knocked to losers bracket

1 Like
105

MINECRAFT vs. SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO

Towards the end of my first week of playing Minecraft I ended up playing for something like 24 hours in a 48 hour period, took a look at myself, and decided that the game was fundamentally unhealthy for me and haven’t touched it since. On the other hand I can barely pull off a QCF to save my life, but at least Ken’s theme is an absolute banger.

CRAZY TAXI vs. METAL SLUG 6 (Metal Slug 3 romhack)

My dad once played a couple credits of Crazy Taxi at some random arcade and I wanna say that was the only time I ever saw the look of child-like joy in his eyes playing a video game.

EVERYBODY VOTES vs. PUYO PUYO series

I’ve already made my opinions known regarding colors my eyes can’t distinguish, so let me just say:

EveryBraveAlaskajingle-small

sorry mean beans

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

Hard Corps has its issues (like that autoscrolling boss fight in the jungle), but those maximally-skeletally-animated sprite-based bosses tickle my brain more than the lush 3000 FPS animation of SF3. Sorry, but threatening to ban me for that does nothing.

YAKUZA 0 vs. SUPER METROID

I once wasted 2+ hours of my life playing a ROM hack because what I thought was a Super Missile door was actually a Power Bomb door. Say what you want about Samus Returns, but at least it distinguished it’s stupid technicolor doors with things like 4-eyed slimes or heavily armored shrimp or whatever.

I’ve never played a Yakuza game, but they were made by Amusement Vision, so I trust y’alls opinion on it.

NIGHTS INTO DREAMS vs. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

No offense to either of these games, but neither of them are inspiring any emotions in me right now. Maybe later.

GAME BOY CAMERA vs. DEUS EX

You can take a picture of Deus Ex with the Game Boy Camera, and no amount of in-game hacking skill points or whatever in Deus Ex can stop that.

I think it’s pretty clear which game has the upper hand here.

IKARUGA vs. FINAL FANTASY XIV

I just listened to the Ikaruga soundtrack so I can’t imagine not voting for it.

parker’s plot summary is tempting though.

(Can’t wait for myself to look back on my votes 5-10 years from now and cringe once I’ve played more than half of these games.)

18 Likes