EVERYBODY VOTES 2 PART II: THE SELECTBUTTON.NET TOP 64 VIDCONS 2020 (voting closes september 22, 2020, midnight cst!!)

King of Posters
148

FINAL FANTASY VI
vs.
REZ

I haven’t played final fantasy VI. I also haven’t played a ton of rez either! but rez is a Music-Ass Music Game and I don’t know if y’all have heard but music games constitute the entirety of my aesthetic so I can’t vote against my own damn aesthetic - REZ WINS

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING
vs.
MIRROR’S EDGE

I have a sneaking suspicion that my cousin who only really listens to game and movie soundtracks only got into chvrches because they did a song for the sequel, which is kind of indicative of what was exciting about the mirror’s edge visual and audio aesthetic. alas, I don’t think I liked the game very much but I also don’t have a ton of history with classics like link’s awakening so if you were wondering why my nominations were 90% arcade sports games, there you go - MIRROR’S EDGE WINS

SUPER MARIO 3D LAND
vs.
SKY ODYSSEY

in the battle between land and sky, I can only go with where my heart is - SKY ODYSSEY WINS

OUTRUN
vs.
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS

there are no mathematicians in outrun - FINAL FANTASY TACTICS WINS

BABA IS YOU
vs.
BUBBLE BOBBLE

my brother always talked about the little dinos in bubble bobble and how they looked so stressed and worried when the bubbles were getting close to you and how he got really sad when you lost because those dinos went from being super stressed to just full on weeping and watching that happen makes me feel more emotion from a diegetic element than anything I’ve played in the last 10 years - BUBBLE BOBBLE WINS

WCW/NWO REVENGE (AKI N64 wrestling representative)
vs.
UMIHARA KAWASE

gotta go with the aki game here because aki made DEF JAM: FIGHT FOR NEW YORK and that’s just the logic I’m operating on these days I’m sure umihara kawase is really good too - WCW/NWO REVENGE WINS

YUME NIKKI (2004)
vs.
GUNSTAR HEROES

my only interaction with either of these two games is watching nika’s brother play through basically the entirety of gunstar heroes while waiting for nika to get home from work before we went to grab dinner somewhere and I thought it was pretty cool - GUNSTAR HEROES WINS

DISCO ELYSIUM
vs.
SILENT HILL 2

I like to think about an alternate future in which silent hill became the dominant survival horror franchise and I feel like it would be a more interesting one, but I get scared easily and can’t really play horror games. on the other hand, everyone at my studio got really mad that disco elysium beat out our game for best PC game or whatever and I took a lot of petty enjoyment from that. at the end of the day I would rather be petty than scared, so - DISCO ELYSIUM WINS

SILENT HILL
vs.
KLONOA: DOOR TO PHANTOMILE

here is where I can redeem my hope for a future where silent hill is the dominant survival horror game and I also haven’t played klonoa so - SILENT HILL WINS

DOTA 2
vs.
ELEVATOR ACTION RETURNS

I haven’t played elevator action returns but I can barely stand DOTA even in its simplest form of the ARAM mode of Blizzard’s super simple MOBA and there’s no reason I should still be playing it so I have to give it to - ELEVATOR ACTION RETURNS WINS

SUPER MARIO BROS.
vs.
ANIMAL CROSSING

I just really, really enjoy the idea of living in a place with a bunch of animal friends, i’m sorry! also shawn wasabi never made a song about super mario bros. so - ANIMAL CROSSING WINS

OUENDAN / ELITE BEAT AGENTS series
vs.
EARTH DEFENSE FORCE series

EDF is the only game that my brother and cousins play with me these days - EDF SERIES WINS

DRAGON QUEST III
vs.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

abstaining! I’m lazy!

9 Likes
149

Alright I’m changing my vote from Baba Is You to Bubble Bobble. The evidence in favor of bubbob is irrefutable

4 Likes
150

I think a really good video game double feature/future top 64 matchup could be Def Jam ICON and Rez/Lumines or its music-responsive ilk because of how the arenas get shaken up by the soundtrack beats like earthquake tremors and take on realistic environmental damage, but that’s all I know about it

2 Likes
151

The theme of this round, for me, is “cool” vs “classic”

FINAL FANTASY VI
vs.
REZ

Classic wins - Its indisputable. The greatest fantasy, the most final of them all.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING
vs.
MIRROR’S EDGE

Classic wins again. Mirror’s Edge has attitude, but you can’t deny Link. His path is righteous.

SUPER MARIO 3D LAND
vs.
SKY ODYSSEY

I have to be real with you: I haven’t played either of these games and don’t know which one is cool and which is classic. I think 3D land might be Fake-classic. But Sky Odyssey sounds real cool. Verdict: Sky Odyssey.

OUTRUN
vs.
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS

If this is not the Felix edition, then Outrun takes the cake.
COOL WINS!

BABA IS YOU
vs.
BUBBLE BOBBLE

You know me. I don’t have to say anything about this. Classic all the way.

WCW/NWO REVENGE (AKI N64 wrestling representative)
vs.
UMIHARA KAWASE

I have never admitted this on the forum before and I know I can catch flack for it but I don’t give a shit about wrestling.
UMIHARA KAWASE is both “Cool” and “Classic”

YUME NIKKI (2004)
vs.
GUNSTAR HEROES

This is a tough one. Gunstar Heroes is supposed to be a classic, but it never Grabbed me (shake, shake!). I’m going with Yume Nikki. You dreamin… C o o l…

DISCO ELYSIUM
vs.
SILENT HILL 2

Neither of these games mean anything to me, and I know they are beloved by the forum. I’m keeping my choice secret because I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.

SILENT HILL
vs.
KLONOA: DOOR TO PHANTOMILE

Is this the first Klonoa? I don’t care enough to find out. Silent Hill is a classic game in the Silent Hill series (That I don’t care about). Idk!

DOTA 2
vs.
ELEVATOR ACTION RETURNS

EEARETURNS is the Classic, and DOTA is not even cool. No questions here, EEAR is the pick.

SUPER MARIO BROS.
vs.
ANIMAL CROSSING

Fuck!!! Shit!!! Piss!! Gotta go with those SMBs though.

OUENDAN / ELITE BEAT AGENTS series
vs.
EARTH DEFENSE FORCE series

WHO CARES

DRAGON QUEST III
vs.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA

The challenge of the classics, and maybe the only matchup here that is giving me some personal anxiety. If I’m being honest, LOZ has meant more to me in my history. It is the first game I watched someone else play in a state of total awe and wonder. How does this world exist inside the television? What mysteries does it hold? You can’t shake memories like that. I’ve only played a few hours of DQIII, and not until the shitty iPad release. But I can tell it must have had the same magic for others as LoZ did for me. I have to vote with my heart, but it isn’t easy.
Legend of Zelda, baby!!!

12 Likes
153

Yume Nikki vs Gunstar Heroes

just finished yume nikki. it hits. as someone who has had periods where everything feels pointless and terrifying and all I wan’t to do is sleep and dream all day, and never leave my apartment, yeah. dreams, even bad, self-accusatory dreams that just make you feel worse, can be very intoxicating when everything else seems out of reach. that’s my experience anyway.

have beaten gunstar heroes once. it’s pretty fun, but I also get kinda annoyed at how the game works. the bosses are cute but treasure tends to only hit or miss for me on wether I like using their control setups, and both setups here are a miss for me here. I also don’t have any particularly strong feelings about it, it’s cute. it’s fun. the bosses are hilariously creative.

gonna vote yume nikki on this

4 Likes
154

SH2 vs Disco Elysium is so hard.
my copy of mgs2 came with a dvd that had this SH2 trailer on it, and i’m not sure there is a video that has affected me more:

the music, the grain, the really specific compression of the voice work. (that last point is actually what made me play The Missing, a game that actually hits the tone of this trailer more than playing SH2 actually does for me).
but yeah, playing SH2 has always been disappointing. 3 and 4 are games i much prefer.

Disco Elysium is a singular piece of art that gets my vote here.

3 Likes
156

my last two votes are hard cause I have so much incomplete experience there, but I guess I’ll take a stance since apparently not voting on them is cowardly

Final Fantasy VI vs Rez

I have a hard time staying with ff6. I’ve tried to restart it multiple times, but the furthest I got was the opera scene. there’s cool stuff about ff6, but I’m a shallow bitch who gets way more into prerendered environments than topdown pixel tilesets. also, all ff games from 4 to 9 suffer a minor penalty from featuring atb which I personally hate. still, every once in a while I muse on the possibility of “maybe I should finish ff6 tho” because… there’s cool stuff going on. I know the twist later on and kinda want to see just how bad it gets.

I’ve never played rez. it looks super stylish, and I tend to gravitate towards arcade genres, which rail shooters definitely belong to (proven further by many of the prominent console ones beng games you are supposed to beat in one go). but I’m not convinced rez would be a game I love. just a little bit of doubt.

so it’s doubt about a game I haven’t played vs a game I don’t quite feel but which I think might have more to give than I’ve gotten out of it, so I guess I’ll default to style. rez wins

Baba is You vs Bubble Bobble

baby dinosaurs are cuter than baba. but baba is one of those logic sequence puzzle games that I tend to get hooked on. but I sometimes really hate those puzzle games because solving them gets rote. meanwhile, bubble bobble has cute music, but I hate the feel of jumping in bubble bobble. this would have been easier had I played baba at any point and known for certain wether it just sucks me in or wether it’s depressingly rote.

guess the vote goes to bubble bobble for being a cute game I’ve played

2 Likes
157

Booji mentioned having a vote of OUTRUN vs OUTRUN 2 would be funny so I am voting OUTRUN.

3 Likes
158

ALWAYS VOTE AGAINST MARIO

159

yeah idk, i think the PS2 version kind of botches things. it’s not bad, but i’d certainly take the arcade version over it, and probably the 32x version as well

they kind of messed up the handling in the ps2 version. it’s still decent but i can’t call it the best version by any stretch

2 Likes
160

Yume Nikki vs Gunstar Heroes

This is hard because I think both are equally strong but evoke opposite emotions.

Yume Nikki is entrancing, a place you can get lost in, a place you want to be lost in. It’s a beautiful and haunting simulation of self-isolation. I frequently feel the urge to detach myself from others and I wonder what sort of life I would have now if I wasn’t able to hold on to the handful of relationships I gathered in high school. It scares me and Yume Nikki helps me explore that fear.

Gunstar Heroes is maximalist, candy-coated good times. Its co-op is thoughtfully designed to intensify playful conflict. If you play with me, I will throw you at the enemy. I don’t even care. It’s a parade of fireworks, pure spectacle.

In a time where I’m alone more often than not, I long for the feelings that Gunstar Heroes evokes.

Decision: Gunstar Heroes

3 Likes
161

Bubble bobble is going to win this because all of you are afraid of disappointing me

5 Likes
162

Oh, but you underestimate how familiar I am with disappointing people!

7 Likes
163

As of my vote, the Disco Elysium / Silent Hill 2 poll is evenly split.

1 Like
164

I can understand the Mirror’s Edge vs Link’s Awakening votes, but I still feel the pangs ;(

I guess Link’s Awakening has the edge

3 Likes
165

FINAL FANTASY VI vs. REZ
I’ve logged a few aborted attempts to play FF6 and never got into it. While I would have preferred a Panzer Dragoon to get on here Rez is solid and beautiful and holds up to repeated plays. Plus as a fan of hangoutittude in games, you can totally hang out in the trance mission mode and let yourself be buoyed by CD-scratch underwater sound spelunking and splats of digital paint blasting out of the polyhedrons from the 2001 stargate sequence.

LINK’S AWAKENING vs. MIRROR’S EDGE
I don’t feel strongly enough about either game to feel good about voting but I appreciate surrealism and dreamworld exploration in games and further appreciate Link’s Awakening is an opportunity to dream within the usually strict confines of a Zelda. I love the conceit of a parkouring fps and Mirror’s Edge has a great stark aesthetic that lets you flow through its candy-colored critical path-highlighted industrial parks nicely but I felt the demo was maybe enough for me. So to LozLA it goes.

SUPER MARIO 3D LAND vs. SKY ODYSSEY
Um, I just got Sky Odyssey in the mail yesterday and haven’t played it but am voting for it on the strength of yarusenai et al’s arguments. And am just hardwired by 2000s and arcade action and evocative game dreamworld nostalgia to vote for PS2/GBA/platforms of that era anyway so to Sky Odyssey.

But I played 3D Land up to the point where the hard post game levels unlocked and loved it, and fear it’s not going to be in the 3D World rerelease when 3D Land is probably the more compelling game to me holistically, since I never bothered to play past the first world in 3D World’s very multiplayer-design-principled levels that don’t suit my lonely shut-in self, so that is a painful vote anyway.

OUTRUN vs. FINAL FANTASY TACTICS
Um, I’m a dumb Sega brand loyalist. But am looking forward to Felix’s script and exploring that first diorama medieval post-apocalypse iteration of the contorted backroom political dramaworld of Ivalice because I love FF12 so much.

BABA IS YOU vs. BUBBLE BOBBLE
Taito brand loyalty, beautiful music, candy-pop-bubble aesthetic wins.

WCW/NWO REVENGE vs. UMIHARA KAWASE
Umihara wins aesthetically for me and I didn’t have friends in the N64 era, still don’t.

YUME NIKKI (2004) vs. GUNSTAR HEROES
This is painful, but Sega over lovely abstract dreamland that I got stuck in.

DISCO ELYSIUM vs. SILENT HILL 2
I only got up to the point in Disco Elysium where the only way I could figure out how to proceed was accept/internalize a racist security guard’s viewpoint but I appreciate how uncomfortable that made me. SH2 also makes me uncomfortable and stimulates self-loathing here and there. Also I played and loved it when I was 12 and too young and dumb to appreciate it for what it was saying, and still love it at 31 when I’m still just as dumb but know all too well what it is saying to me. So to SH2.

SILENT HILL vs. KLONOA: DOOR TO PHANTOMILE
morkitten convinced me but this is the most painful adolescent-PS1 Sophie’s Choice to make and I voted for a Silent Hill already, so Klonoa.

DOTA 2 vs. ELEVATOR ACTION RETURNS
Taito, not unapproachable e-sports that requires you to have empathetic friends to carry you through a game or put in a 200-hour work week. Sorry hobo et al.

SUPER MARIO BROS vs. ANIMAL CROSSING
Animal Crossing for hanging with my animal buddies and sitting in the glow of my coelacanth and anglerfish tanks, but I acknowledge that without Mario we wouldn’t even be talking about a lot of these.

OUENDAN / ELITE BEAT AGENTS series vs. EARTH DEFENSE FORCE series
EDF! EDF! EDF! I know Simple 2000-core lives on in these and Disaster Report 4/Granzella’s work but wish there were more of these in a game media environment where the particular charm of low-mid budget Japanese PS2/early 360 games is sorely lacking and needed

DRAGON QUEST III vs. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
DQ because even though I never played 3, the first Zelda is too intimidating for me to think about positively and I can just grind cute slimes until I’m strong enough to power through.

5 Likes
166

I’m glad Silent Hill vs. Klonoa is not particularly close. That way, I can just tell myself my vote makes no difference and abstain so I don’t betray either game.

6 Likes
167

Same

2 Likes
168

With like 50 to 60 votes left to go, it’s still anybody’s game in all of these matchups.

171

i just realised that people looking for simplecore games might want to look into getting a ps vita.
there’s something about the combination of the super sharp hd screen and the ps2-level 3d graphics that works.
plus, since it had such a weeb-heavy userbase, there’s a lot of games set in modern japan, just like the simple 2000 series

4 Likes