GameFAQs Contests

I mean a lot of votes in GotY will be based on hype or reputation and not on whether or not the voters have actually played it

it's that way every year

ToS was pretty strong back in the day, don't forget!

Also the Undertale effect is why I referred to Portal 2.

Well, Undertale did still mess with the Sonic 2/UC2 match. It bumped Sonic 2 from 62-63% up to 66-67% by the end. It just wasn't as lopsided as the next round against R/B/Y when Undertale was rallying from the start. Portal 2 would still 60/40 UC2 even based on the pre-rally percentage, but I think both Portal games are strong and have held up really well over the years.

2014 through 2016 have been the weakest years in gaming since the pre-'90s. I don't trust most games/characters from them to have any real strength, other than Smash 4 and maybe a couple of other games I'm missing.

That said, 2018 doesn't look as (relatively) strong as last year, but it's still varied. I've seen Dragon Ball FighterZ have a decent amount of popularity. Megaman X&X2 Collection looks good too.

Edit: Wait! There's freaking Monster Hunter: World! I thought it released last year, but apparently not. There's also Octopath Traveler.

2015 was a fairly strong year. Really I think we've been stuck in a two-year cycle of good and not-so-good years for a while, which is largely down to typical dev cycle lengths I think.

Also everybody here is forgetting Red Dead Redemption 2.

GOTY is Celeste, no doubt.

Not_Wylvane posted...

I'm kinda thinking God of War might beat out Smash for GotY this year simply because the Switch still hasn't fully taken off on this site yet, while GoW has the might of the PS4, the legacy of its series, and the critical acclaim of its current game to ride.

Switch already has over 50% ownership on this site, and it hasn't even been 18 months since its release. We'll definitely see an even higher ownership for the Switch before the end of the year.

LusterSoldier posted...

Not_Wylvane posted...

I'm kinda thinking God of War might beat out Smash for GotY this year simply because the Switch still hasn't fully taken off on this site yet, while GoW has the might of the PS4, the legacy of its series, and the critical acclaim of its current game to ride.

Switch already has over 50% ownership on this site, and it hasn't even been 18 months since its release. We'll definitely see an even higher ownership for the Switch before the end of the year.

Are you telling me people might buy something between now and next year

Big if true

Even on GameFAQs, people still buy stuff.

I have a feeling Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may beat Breath of the Wild in another GotD.

Advokaiser posted...

I have a feeling Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may beat Breath of the Wild in another GotD.

Revenge

I doubt that. How strong was Smash 4 even supposed to be? I don't think Ultimate will be too beyond that.

I don't think smash will ever reach the heights of the Melee vs. Brawl days here

SSB4 seemed to be around the strength of Super Mario Galaxy. It's a good ranking for a fairly recent game but that's still a solid step behind Twilight Princess.

Ultimate will definitely be stronger than Smash 4 just by being on a more popular console.

It'll probably never reach Brawl's peak, but that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Good point about Sm4sh strength, but Ultimate has everything going for it: a more popular console, more hype, everyone back + iconic and requested newcomers, an incredible amount of content, gameplay polishes... And there's still more details yet to be revealed.

I mean, let's assume it somehow reaches Melee's strength (it very well can at some point if we exclude LFF). Could that be enough to beat BotW?

To achieve Melee's height it will have to bring back all of Melee's glitches, I think.

Smash Ultimate would have to be a top game in the competitive gaming scene for years before it would reach the strength Melee had when it clashed with Undertale.

eh Brawl never did that and still beat it straight up in GotD

Yeah, but Melee wasn't as strong in that contest, either.

Nah, Melee's natural strength probably hasn't changed all that much over the years. Unrallied Melee was only worth 55% on KH2 in 2015.

I think Big Bob is referring to rallied Melee since that's the one that fought Undertale. Being a big competitive game isn't going to help much except with rally power.

Big Bob posted...

Yeah, but Melee wasn't as strong in that contest, either.

I think Melee's strength has pretty much always been the same. Its clash with Undertale was purely Reddit's fault.

Melee was going to lose to Chrono Trigger before rallies kicked in. I still bet it's natural strength is stronger now than when Brawl beat it, though.

Melee was going to get 65/35'd like FFX did, which would mean...it's pretty much still where it was in 2004.

It would beat Brawl now, but that's more about Brawl than Melee.

LeonhartFour posted...

eh Brawl never did that and still beat it straight up in GotD

That was a much, much different Melee and Brawl was still "the brand new toy". It would get wrecked if we repeated that match. I said back then Melee would retain and grow its strength for a much longer period of time due to actually having staying power and Brawl pissing off the entire core fanbase. I've been proven right on this in spades. Granted there was some luck there because I had no idea Melee would become such an insane e-sport, but it still proves my point.

I half wish the rally had never happened, because Melee was absolutely going to do better than FFX did. That's a match we need to see again just to stop this dumb argument that never had any legs to begin with. FFX is absolutely never beating Melee 1 on 1 with or without rallying.

The one thing that makes me question is Melee = FFX is that it's weird considering Mega Man X and Kingdom Hearts II are practically equals. Then again, the Kingdom Hearts performances were arguably less impressive in 2015 than in 2009.

Okay, fine, maybe Melee would have gotten 36 or perhaps even 37%. But it was already getting crushed during its best time, so it was only going to get worse.

Haste_2 posted...

The one thing that makes me question is Melee = FFX is that it's weird considering Mega Man X and Kingdom Hearts II are practically equals. Then again, the Kingdom Hearts performances were arguably less impressive in 2015 than in 2009.

The weird thing is MMX's performance in 2009, honestly. KH1 and KH2 both did fine in 2015.

Leonhart4 posted...

Ultimate will definitely be stronger than Smash 4 just by being on a more popular console.

It'll probably never reach Brawl's peak, but that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Ultimate's major selling point is the fact it has every playable character, plus a bunch of newcomers as well. Under normal circumstances, this type of game would be considered kryptonite to all of the previous games in the series. The amount of playable characters, game modes, and content should theoretically invalidate the previous games because their content cannot compete against everything Ultimate is throwing at them. This places Ultimate in a very unique position within its own series because we've never really seen a game quite like this one before, with the amount of content it has relative to earlier games in the series.

However, Melee vs. Ultimate is not a normal match in any way. In a direct match, Melee will not roll over and die in the face of sheer amount of content Ultimate has. Melee's only advantage over Ultimate is the nostalgia factor, something that Ultimate will not have. This match will test the importance of nostalgia in a game's strength. I think Ultimate would be the stronger game if nostalgia was a non-factor for both games, but Melee having nostalgia is the only thing allowing it to be competitive against Ultimate in a direct match.

We will not get a chance to see this match-up for at least several years since they can't meet up in a GotD contest. Only a general Games Contest will be able to provide this match to us.

Melee would have gotten 38% or so.

Geno vs Akuma 2018 who wins

UltimaterializerX posted...

Melee would have gotten 38% or so.

With the way that Melee plummets after the first hour? Nope.

LusterSoldier posted...

We will not get a chance to see this match-up for at least several years since they can't meet up in a GotD contest. Only a general Games Contest will be able to provide this match to us.

and it's not like it would matter because the superiority/inferiority complex of Melee fans would immediately cause them to rally if it were in any way close

ZenOfThunder posted...

Geno vs Akuma 2018 who wins

I'd take Akuma in pretty much any year

I'd guess Geno would be stronger now than at any point since he's first appeared simply because of the votal decline but the gap between him and Akuma based on all appearances is way too big for me to think he can plausibly demographic shift his way out of the hole. I don't even really trust Akuma, Geno's just probably too weak.

Maybe he does have some strength that's been hidden all these year but if even Ness - the year that Ness lost to Big Daddy, mind - can SFF you into the dirt it can't be that much.

Does Geno even have a lot of appeal to those who lack childhood nostalgia for him? He seems kind of cool and shoots bullets and lasers and crap but he's not exactly Mr. Personality and pretty much stops being important for the rest of the game like 15 minutes after he joins. I don't think he's very photogenic either if you're not already familiar with him.

Akuma finished well ahead of Geno in a 4-way in 2007.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/2891-division-8-round-1-aeris-akuma-geno-squall

I mean I guess you could argue that he got SFF'd or something since Squall and Aerith were in the same poll, but I don't think it'd matter much. I suppose you could argue Akuma had the standout factor, but they've got 1-on-1 matches against Squall where Akuma comes out way ahead, too.

(seriously Allen be more original with your Squall matchups; he's faced Cloud, Snake, and Sora way too much, too)

LeonhartFour posted...

and it's not like it would matter because the superiority/inferiority complex of Melee fans would immediately cause them to rally if it were in any way close

I wouldn't expect Melee fans to be capable of rallying their game over Ultimate because at least Ultimate should turn out to be a very well-liked game. Generally speaking, it's difficult to rally in a same fanbase match-up. The only interseries match-up where Melee could be successfully rallied would be against Brawl now since it's the most hated Smash game in the series.

Brawl was already the most hated game in the series when it beat Melee.

Rallies don't care about the opponent. The people being asked to vote are doing so to help out the person who asked them to vote. They are more interested in the rallied entry winning then the entry they prefer. In any case, SSBM fans largely wouldn't have any issues supporting SSBM over SSBU anyways.

LeonhartFour posted...

Brawl was already the most hated game in the series when it beat Melee.

Some of that hate might have also resulted from Brawl being the face of the Wii during a time when the site was abandoning the Wii.

maybe like 1%

it was 50% "it's not the exact same game as Melee" and 49% tripping

Most hated AND most popular, evidently.

which is possible since the other Smash games aren't really hated that much

Melee's competitive scene has probably gotten even larger and more active in the last three years, so if we somehow get a game contest soon, I'd look at rallies as a serious possibility in any match where it needs them.

Does anyone know if the Smash reddit permits rally posts?

Oh, there's no question Melee will rally at any given opportunity, which is why I don't actually look forward to any future Games Contests (except for a GotD2, I guess).

at least with Character Battles rallies are mostly just guesswork

LeonhartFour posted...

which is why I don't actually look forward to any future Games Contests (except for a GotD2, I guess).

Undertale managed to get a whooping 6-seed in a Best. Game. Ever. format.

BUT, I have to admit that its fans may not be all over the place like back in the day, so I (personally) wouldn't worry about another massive rally for it. What I do expect is a decent strength given its performance encouraged many people (including me) to play it. Maybe somewhat around the level of... The Witcher 3.

Yeah, I wouldn't expect Undertale to actually repeat that performance.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6204-best-of-2015-game-of-the-year

Unrallied Undertale is nowhere near Witcher 3 in level.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6200-best-of-2015-pc

I disagree! What the final poll tells me is that unrallied Undertale has a lot of overlap with Nintendo, which makes sense.

I wouldn't take the individual console polls to mean that much because the performances are wildly inconsistent between platforms. Bloodborne stomped Witcher 3 in the PS4 poll, for instance.

(also Undertale having a lot of overlap with Nintendo doesn't make any sense)

Fallout 4 got more votes than the Nintendo entries combined and also strikes me as way more likely to overlap with Witcher 3 than Nintendo with Undertale due to both Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 being big-budget PS4/Xbone/PC open-world western RPGs.