THE HOTTEST NEWS.  THE RUDEST MUSIC.  THE SICKEST TIPS.  SELECTBUTTON.COM.

Selectbutton.net's 2011 Year in Review.

This episode is all about Japanese video game developer Treasure.  We are prepared to live in the plain and die in the plain.

Well it looks like you've been pretty good this year so we're resurrecting a holiday tradition (please forget that we did not resurrect this last year).

Join us as we fly blind in cold weather: heady topics abound as we talk about the guy that looks like Justin Bieber in the UMVC SoCal Regionals Finals, the strangeness of Square's output during the PSX era, people who think James in Silent Hill 2 is a swell guy, the underwhelming amount of mystery in gaming, the overwhelming terribleness of Hard Corps: Uprising, the PSP Vita, the copy of NCIS: The Game: Based on the Hit TV Series that's still sitting on my desk, and much much much much much much more. Shit!

If you've payed even a scant amount of attention around here you've probably picked up on the general enthusiasm and fervor some of us have for From Software's "Soul" series: Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. We once did an experimental episode of the podcast which featured some footage of co-op in Demon's Souls, way back in episode 22.

Of course Dark Souls has been released since we did that, so in this episode we broaden the topic to include that game as well as its predecessor series: King's Field. This episode is about the appeal of these games, and what makes their experiences meaningful. We talk about the effectiveness of their atmosphere, the density of their combat, and the exhilarating ridiculousness of their PvP. Furthermore, someone will die at the end of this episode! 

The SBDNPC peers over the edge and takes a long and ponderous look at the Metroid series.

After a decade of making games, Cavia has ceased to exist, and are now virtually seconds away from being forgotten forever by everyone. That sure didn't stop us from dedicating an episode to them, though.

For as long as vidcons have existed there's been a driving need to adapt their narratives into other types of media - books, television, movies, comic books, cereal - this episode we take a look at that creative process.

This epsiode, ROM hacking.  From silly sprite edits to translations to total conversions, we talk about our favorites from over the years.  Panel also discusses hacks they've either contributed to or created over the years. 

The Game Boy was a damn good platform, in the end.  Built for battery life and technically inferior to the competition, but time after time developers (well, first party mostly) embraced the limitations of the system to bring us some of the best entries in many long running series... and yeah there were plenty of developers who missed the point to hilarious effect too, in attempting to shrink 8-bit and 16-bit console experiences down with no no forethought. Goddamn it why did I forget to mention Revenge of the 'Gator.