sorry for the delay! we’re back. this will be the final round with 8 matchups; this doesn’t contain every game still in the running (some are seeded for later rounds), but we’re slowly winnowing down… voting is open for the next week - losers of winners will be sent to losers, losers of losers will be eliminated. bracket here.
Katamari, Doom, Chrono Trigger, Nocturne, F Zero GX, Tetris, Quake vs Demon’s Souls is the only one I’m conflicted about, Link’s Awakening (Rocket launcher arrows is still great)
Quake vs Demon’s is rough. Quake is the only 3D FPS representative in the entire bracket (Mirror’s Edge and Deus Ex are borderline cases) compared to three FromSoft souls games. However, Demon’s is almost certainly going to win this one.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter since each of the three souls games are likely going to be whittling down their respective portions of the losers brackets. There aren’t many crazy left field choices left that will incline people to vote against the souls (maybe outrun 2 and god hand). I don’t see SB choosing a mainstream crowd pleaser like Mario 64 or SOTC over Demons or Dark Souls.
this is me, except i’m abstaining from quake v demsoul because i disliked quake but can’t be critically interesting about it, and i’ve not played demon’s souls
demon’s is why i still play these things after finding 2007-08 trends really miserable but yeah i think i have to vote quake, feel genuinely privileged to have played qw at its peak before esports, money, software as a service, obsessive pursuit of “balance” and ever slower pacing etc. ruined competitive games
the singleplayer is criminally underrated, there was a ton of talent in the modding and mapping scenes and it’s still the greatest 3d platformer
I think that Katamari is probably an objectively better game. It’s cute as shit and has all these fun, pop quirks. But it irks me to no end that the little prince is such a fuckin’ pansy-ass and lets his belligerent dad walk all over him. I don’t wanna be like that, I’m not that dude. I’ll roll up cows and babbling teenagers all day, but it’s because I want to- okay, dad. Maybe next time you get drunk you can fix the stars yourself. Also, the levels where you have to like carefully roll around to pick up the biggest bear sucks and I just get the teddy bear everytime.
Anyway, after one awful year and what looks to be the start of another one, I’m gonna vote for the game that just lets you get in a car and hit the open road. Sure wish blondie would leave me alone, though.