looks like we have a clear winner
5 Likes
I can’t bring myself to vote on Killer7/Super Metroid, it’s like my own personal sophie’s choice
2 Likes
Still can’t decide about Breath of the Wild vs SF3. I’m inclined to say SF3 is the more ‘complete’ game but BotW is a good Zelda. But there are too many Zeldas…
Depending on how the RE4 vote goes I might go BotW
Don’t let Game Boy Camera get robbed, we need creative and bizarre underdogs in the winners brackets.
I invested legit time in getting good at this race. I always wondered if beating the mole was even possible.
6 Likes
Um, there are too many Sonic games in competition and I’ve decided upon replay that Sonic Adventure is the best Sonic up for vote, so changing from Mania to Riven
6 Likes
i voted on all of them except re4/mm and then went back for it and just stared into space for like two full minutes before voting and then loled when my vote brought the result to 50/50
3 Likes
Aw, I wish I coulda voted for GameBoy Camera. It’s almost unfair. I spite-voted for a couple of things but I can’t do that to Outrun 2.
2 Likes
Voting against SSF2T has made me really really want to fire it up. Why does work have to be so busy today!?
1 Like
Well I guess I oughta play Shiren the Wanderer and see what all the fuss is about but I’m turning it off if there’s no German dubbed anime intro.
4 Likes
I did start shiren for a bit and play further than I’ve done before to start figuring out what it might be about, and it’s actually really damn solid. still like rondo of blood more, but like, I’d feel very ok with shiren winning
3 Likes
It’s not too late to change!
I really wanted to write a massive thread-clogging self-indulgent novella about these matchups like I’ve done in the past two rounds, but my head and heart weren’t in the right spot this week. I will keep my participation points up by at least writing a little something, though:
KATAMARI DAMACY
vs.
SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO
Katamari is a fermentation crock of absolute style that has been forgotten in the back corner of a storeroom until the day the new guy pulls it out to see what it is and accidentally drops it, shattering the ceramic and watching in horror as a sparkling mass of undeniable pizzazz plops out. This game was such an injection of distinct art and feeling into the year 2004.
One of the last positive memories I have with an old friend (didn’t die, just revealed himself as an awful person so I dipped) is him getting high as fuck and asking if I could put the Katamari Damacy soundtrack on so he could fall asleep in a state of “auditory bliss”. I laid down next to him, sober, and fell asleep in bliss too.
RESIDENT EVIL 4
vs.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA MAJORA’S MASK
I haven’t played Majora’s Mask, but I want to. There’s a book I was really moved by in my youth (On the Beach by Nevil Shute) that was about the different responses people have to impending doom + certain death. Someday that will be me! I will die! That scares me! And I want to know how others have faced the same thing. I might be hoping for too much here but I’d really like to believe I can learn something from Majora’s Mask.
UNDERTALE
vs.
CRAZY TAXI
Undertale is cheesy but also knowing the age range of this forum I think the vast majority of us were just a little too old for it when it came out. We have enough life experience that it’s more likely for it to come off as cloying than earnest. Hearing younger people talk about Undertale is pretty neat. I hope it inspires them to dive deeper into art that’s about being genuine. When I see zoomers who are deep into everything-is-ironic-as-defense-mechanism it breaks my heart.
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
vs.
PUYO PUYO SERIES
Shadow of the Colossus is a really wonderfully done exploration of grief. The world the game takes place in is genuinely interesting to me and I remember how much fun I had reading through the “Last Big Secret” thread on Playstation Forums or whatever so many years ago. The game is an atmosphere I like to wallow in every few years.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD
vs.
STREET FIGHTER III THIRD STRIKE: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
I like to explore and see new spaces more than anything else in the world. I played BotW at the start of covid getting serious when I was in my room basically all day every day. It was really something I needed. It’s one of the first open-world games I’ve found (one of the others being SotC, but in a different way) where the exploration is actually fulfilling. Exploration is always about the journey rather than the destination and BotW has done a very good (not perfect! but very good) job of internalizing that.
CAVE STORY
vs.
TETRIS: THE ABSOLUTE: THE GRANDMASTER 2 PLUS
TGM is one of the only other games I’ve found besides IIDX that push a simple gameplay mechanic to the peak of its human limits. I’ve got big respect for it.
KILLER7
vs.
SUPER METROID
Killer7 has a level that takes place in Gunkanjima, right? I only got about 2/3 of the way through the game as a kid. More games should pull from neat places on earth that people will never get to go to. Also, the game’s art direction is so memorable!
CASTLEVANIA: RONDO OF BLOOD
vs.
MYSTERY DUNGEON: SHIREN THE WANDERER (1995)
No opinion on either, really, but it’s Halloweenmonth and I’m a fake goth so I’m gonna go Castlevania.
DEMON’S SOULS (2009)
vs.
NIGHTS INTO DREAMS…
Demon’s Souls is dripping with atmosphere. I was leaned so far into my 14” CRT my entire playthrough. Beating this game for the first time was one of the highlights of my year.
RIVEN
vs.
SONIC MANIA
I truly have not even the smallest little horse in this race. Riven seems more cognitively engaging.
OUTRUN 2
vs.
GAME BOY CAMERA
Game Boy Camera is going to die in this round but I’m going to vote for it anyway because I believe that the ability to instantly freeze a moment in time to be able to share it with other humans is one of the most important tools of communication we’ve discovered since language. The Game Boy Camera took that idea and tried to make it accessible and fun. That’s neat!
this tournament has been making me think a lot about what video games mean to me, why i care about them, what i try to get out of them — i have no answers yet, although i’m starting to at least have the right questions to ask. like, i have realized i don’t always play video games for fun…so why do i play video games? this competition gives me space to think about and analyze these things, and most important to see how others respond to these same prompts and learn more about the framework from which they approach video games through their writing. it’s cool! this is cool!
16 Likes
I voted in all of these except RE4/MM as I have no idea which to go with there, and of course that one was tied. If RE4 was just the first third of the game it’d win clean, but it ain’t.
2 Likes
Uh oh, looks like this is the bracket where both Street Fighters get knocked out.
1 Like
Balance will be restored if Crazy Taxi knocks out Undertale
3 Likes
I lend SF3 my soul energy.
1 Like
Riven vs Sonic Mania
I love Sonic like a child I don’t have and Riven like the father I wish I had.
Riven accomplishes something so rare in video games. It still looks beautiful and more than real. I cannot wait until enough time has passed for me to play it again.
Outrun 2 vs Gameboy Camera
I want a Gameboy Camera so badly. I love when games reach outwards with and take up a physical space. Even better when they can pull inwards.
3 Likes
voted super metroid but now ive actually played killer 7 through and have to change
later, peace
7 Likes
theres so many ‘important’ games that i dont care about this round!
KATAMARI DAMACY
vs.
SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO
super turbo is my favorite fighting game but its creator didnt pretend to not know english at me at a party to avoid talking to my obnoxious ass. his fucking loss. i just wanted to talk about colors. also my brother would give me a noogie and call me a pussy for making this choice and i love pissing him off. we love katamari is a better game because of the meta narrative and level gimmicks but the first one is an ok representation of the second one to me
RESIDENT EVIL 4
vs.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA MAJORA’S MASK
guess who hates both these series (except link to the past) ? its meeeeeee. but lightgun game is better than close moon game. that one bendrowned majoras mask creepypasta rules though
UNDERTALE
vs.
CRAZY TAXI
undertale was made by someone who followed me on livejournal and i feel bad because my livejournal was 18 plus and they were not 18 plus while following me and i really dont want to think about that. crazy taxi is one od the few games my alive best friend plays and loves, ive never seen someone so dedicated to being amazing at those impossible fucking challenge stages. oh also the turbo start with dreamcast triggers feels AMAZING.
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
vs.
PUYO PUYO SERIES
i posted about my shadow of the colossus adventures unthread
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD
vs.
STREET FIGHTER III THIRD STRIKE: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
i dont like weapons breaking and thats in breath of the wild and i hate parrying and thats what third strike is all about! but i still play third strike whenever i see it at an arcade and I haven’t touched breath of the wild since i put it down the first time
CAVE STORY
vs.
TETRIS: THE ABSOLUTE: THE GRANDMASTER 2 PLUS
cave story is a platformer with a gun. GRANDMASTER CAN HAVE TERROR IN THE NAME WITHOUT A GUN IN THE GAME TO BE FOUND. also the drama with the seattle tetris community was my favorite soap opera of 2018
KILLER7
vs.
SUPER METROID
super metroid wins for me for ONE REASON ONLY. when killer 7 came out on gamecube i very much wanted it. the graphics and blood were super cool and itd get me into suda51 for a while. so i went to toys r us and bought it fucking NEW. i split the price with my friend who agreed cuz it was a 40 dollar game. when we got home to play it we realized OH FUCK WE LEFT THE BAG ON TOP OF THE TRUCK…so we drive back out the way we drove home looking for the game. we found it right next to the toys r us in the middle of the street, but the first disc had flown out and was damaged beyond game doctor repair, like the clear parts of the mini cd were showing through, so i was haunted by only having disc TWO of killer7 for a bunch of years. i have dropped a bubsy cart out a 3, 4, and five story window and it wont fucking stop working. if killer 7 came on a snes cart it might be perfect
CASTLEVANIA: RONDO OF BLOOD
vs.
MYSTERY DUNGEON: SHIREN THE WANDERER (1995)
shiren all the way. rondo is my second favorite castlevania after portrait of ruin but it doesn’t have narrative added when you lose, or a pet weasel, or jars that you can hide in…someone once tried to get me to have sex with them by showing off their snes disk system version of shiren and it worked.
DEMON’S SOULS (2009)
vs.
NIGHTS INTO DREAMS…
no one hates demons souls more than me
RIVEN
vs.
SONIC MANIA
WOO RIVEN this is my manhole representation GO MANHOLE I LOVE MANHOLE MAKE ANOTHER MANHOLE YOU WEIRD MORMONS. taking this opportunity to restate that i love manhole so much i went to cyanworlds, which is laid out like one of their games, and pulled the myst lever. i also said ‘i dont really care about myst’ and thats true because riven is better… BUT MANHOLE IS THE BEST
OUTRUN 2
vs.
GAME BOY CAMERA
i just remembered the cabinet at the ice cream shop is an outrun 2 cabinet, so whoops on my last vote, but ill still take the creative camera with a printer coming out years before selfies became an art form
11 Likes
I don’t feel too compelled about any of these except to vote against any souls games and I think third person action resident evils are better when they have co-op.
KATAMARI DAMACY
vs.
SUPER STREET FIGHTER II TURBO
i respect SF2TURBO a whole lot for creating a genre that i’m a casual fan of, but i would choose to play many fighting games over it. I genuinely can’t think of a single game where if you asked me to pick it or Katamari Damacy i wouldn’t pick Katamari Damacy. I guess future brackets will test that. No matter what Katamari Damacy is guaranteed to put a huge goddamn smile on my face. It is the purest, most distilled essence of videogames. It’s why you should care about the medium. Here is a simulation of an experience that never happened. Here, take control of this weird thing that someone invented. There’s no other game you can play like Katamari Damacy (except the sequels its creator never wanted to make) and there’s nothing on earth you can do that’s like Katamari Damacy. Hadoken all he like, ryu can’t touch that
WINNER: https://youtu.be/95jD5tMFjhs
—
RESIDENT EVIL 4
vs.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: MAJORA’S MASK
I like MAJORA’S MASK a whole lot and i think it is the best 3D zelda game if you have a very purist idea of what a zelda game “should” be — breath of the wild is a better game, but it’s more clearly an open world game borrowing from its genre. Majora’s Mask is a game to be borrowed from. And i think it holds up (particularly in the 3DS remake, which sands off all the right edges). The central conceit really glues it all together.
RESIDENT EVIL 4 is a game that has been borrowed from time and time again, and it was amazing to go back to. It’s way better than anything that ripped it off. It is from savepoint to savepoint one of the most FUN games ive ever played. Every time i went to a new area i wondered what kind of wild shit i would see next, and just about every time RE4 delivers. Its trick — starting the game as a genuinely tense close-quarters horror shooter and using that to wear the mechanics into you, then slowly turning into an over-the-top action game mashup — is something that can’t really be replicated, but fuck i wish more games would try.
WINNER: https://youtu.be/zSGPoLCY0xU
—
UNDERTALE
vs.
CRAZY TAXI
I’m both happy and kind of annoyed that UNDERTALE is so beloved. I watched some clips of the anniversary show the other night, and i got to see a lot of people on my twitter post their fanart and gush about what the game means to them. And it reminded me what it means to me. I love Undertale, i think it’s one of the most unbelievably made for me games ive ever played. I think the monsters are adorable, i think the “bosses” are all genuinely lovable and funny and i love their character designs, i appreciate how sweet the intended story is and how grimdark amv creepypasta the genocide route is (btw i kind of hate that it’s called “genocide route” but like. that is an accurate description of what you do if you commit to that path lol). The music unambiguously kicks ass, i had the combat theme as my ringtone for awhile. It’s inspired by my favorite game, the Earthbound. It has some of the most well-hidden and plain cool meta storytelling in games (there’s a character who you can literally only learn about from weird mew-under-truck tricks and file manipulation because he has been dummied out of existence! fuck!!). It is not a perfect game, but it’s flawed in ways i really appreciate. But a million other people agree with me and won’t shut up about it, so instead of being a small imperfect thing i can keep close to my chest, it’s a phenomenon that everyone feels obligated to have a take about, and that everyone is sick of hearing about. But fuck it im gonna vote for it over crazy taxi
WINNER: https://youtu.be/zNd4apsr3WE
—
SHADOW OF THE COLOSSUS
vs.
PUYO PUYO SERIES KIRBY’S AVALANCHE
I still can’t believe not even one Kirby game got nominated. I won’t brook that. I’m treating this as a nomination for Kirby’s sake. Especially the incredibly rude Kirby from KIRBY’S AVALANCHE. Kirby takes their Puyo Puyo fucking seriously. I wish i was as good at Puyo Puyo as them. I usually get wrecked in a spectacular fashion at about round 6. It’s still the things drop onto the screen puzzle game ive played the most. I love those blobs!! My favorites are the purple ones that look like jelly beans. All of them look delicious
Shadow of the Colossus is a fucking enchanting singular visionary experience etc. blah blah blah and i love it even though the second half of the colossi mostly suck, and the one that you have to lure over geysers to make it flip is one of the most hateful bosses ive ever experienced. I’ll use that jerk as an excuse not to vote for a game i nominated. It doesn’t need my help anyway
WINNER: https://youtu.be/OOAxM1gqbrg
—
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD
vs.
STREET FIGHTER III THIRD STRIKE: FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE
This is testing my allegiance to a genre more than anything. I like fighting games, and i like SF3. it’s pretty. I’m such a casual fan and player though, and i have no idea what i’m really doing in most 2D fighters. like my favorite Capcom fighting game is Vampire Savior and i suck at it, i just think it looks really cool and like to mash the buttons.
I think BotW looks really cool too and i also like to mash the buttons in it. I button mashed my way through all 120 shrines the first time i played it. I don’t think it’s 10/10 best game of all time but it’s certainly my favorite mountain climbing/paragliding/offtrail snowboarding game i’ve ever played. It’s a game where the tutorial area could give you hours of entertainment. Also, Hyrule castle is the best dungeon team zelda has ever modeled in 3D and guardians are the coolest enemy they’ve ever come up with. You are robbing yourself if you don’t go to the castle ASAP
WINNER: https://youtu.be/Pq3nncuA1Ak
—
CAVE STORY
vs.
TETRIS: THE ABSOLUTE: THE GRANDMASTER 2 PLUS
I don’t care about Tetris. It bores the shit out of me and I’ve never gotten into it. I don’t care if it’s the perfect game or whatever the fuck. Would be one of those ones where i say “i don’t really like this game but i respect it” but guess what? I don’t. It’s stuffy and played out and i’m sick of being told why i should care. I certainly don’t care about Tetris: The Final Countdown: 2 Electric Boogaloo: The Legend of Curly’s Gold S+
Cave Story is still a really neat achievement for one person and still a pretty good game. I played the hell out of the original aeon genesis translation in high school and it kinda blew me away with how fresh and modern and yet “retro” it felt. Lol, that was a novelty once. Still looks and sounds great, fuck the remakes and fuck nicalis.
WINNER: https://youtu.be/HVzC6WZImGY
—
KILLER7
vs.
SUPER METROID
I’ve never played Killer 7 but it’s been an sb favorite long enough that ive watched let’s plays and read many posts about it. It’s cool and i get why it stands out. Will never play it.
I quite like SM as a game but the best things about it to me are the soundtrack and the way it feels to control Samus. I’m not the first to observe that it’s a game with over complicated controls for a SNES controller but i’m probably one of a few who actually likes that. If your protagonist has a special power suit then it should feel like they’re being controlled from inside said power suit imo, and it should feel both empowering and unwieldy. The last Metroid is in captivity where Samus controls the way i like, and also the last one where she’s a lone, relatively anonymous explorer who’s built like a brick shithouse
WINNER: https://youtu.be/Ai2dhNW0-sc
—
CASTLEVANIA: RONDO OF BLOOD
vs.
MYSTERY DUNGEON: SHIREN THE WANDERER (1995)
The original release of Shiren on the SFC is the best. Table Mountain is the most unique dungeon the MD series ever had and making the permadeath a means to unlock more items and randomly encountered stories was a brilliant move. Unbelievably replayable (and the DS version certainly isn’t bad, i just don’t agree with some of its choices). Beautiful too. Not the best rogue like that i like, but my favorite by a country mile and it’s what got me into the genre. Eat your heart out nethack.
Rondo of Blood is a really kickass game that i suck at. Its not my favorite CV but if it’s your favorite i totally cant argue with you. I’m a huge scrub who can’t get past the second half without Maria but also playing as Maria is really fun so that doesn’t feel like it matters much.
WINNER: https://youtu.be/j2gdl3QrsZg
—
DEMON’S SOULS (2009)
vs.
NIGHTS INTO DREAMS…
Demon’s Souls utterly whips ass and i have nothing remotely new to say about it. Probably the actual best souls game. I do not care about NiGhTs
WINNER: https://youtu.be/y5z2-hpZB1w
—
RIVEN
vs.
SONIC MANIA
Sonic Mania is a really gorgeous official fan thing and I feel very warm-hearted about everyone involved getting to make their perfect sonic game. Shoutout to tyson hesse in particular getting to work on the intro, i still remember reading his sonic parody comic years ago (not to mention his webcomic). Unfortunately it was kind of the sonic game that made me realize my affection for the sonic brand has little to do with the design and play style of the games lol
I love love love Riven… it’s one of the games i put in a nomination for and one of the ones that has been a favorite since i was a literal child. and the way i played it then was actually perfect, stumbling from island to island and disc to disc, not being sure if i was “solving” anything or “learning” how to solve anything. i learned to solve the puzzles by immersing myself in the world like cyan wanted, not because i was trying to learn to solve puzzles. Other myst games, much as i like them, can’t really say that. there are a lot of adventure games that ripped off myst but not enough that ripped off riven
WINNER: https://youtu.be/ITObGdvx7x4
—
OUTRUN 2
vs.
GAME BOY CAMERA
I don’t care about Outrun 2 and i don’t even really care about Outrun besides that animation of your car flipping over. Racing games, what the fuck ever.
WINNER: https://youtu.be/s4YYfPjf5tM
WHO ARE YOU OUTRUNNING FROM
8 Likes