Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1362

I wonder if the name Trials of Mana would hurt it

Advokaiser posted...

The 90s are not only the strongest decade in the site, but also the overall golden age of gaming. It deserves a contest of its own, imo. I'd sure as heck love to see actual CRASH BANDICOOT GAMES for once, as well as the entire Soul Blazer trilogy. Has Secret of Mana ever been in a contest before? Super Castlevania IV? Final Fantasy V? Rondo of Blood?

Having a "Game of the 20th Century" sounds like a cool idea, but I doubt it would be much different from what we had in 2004.

Having said that, if we actually did a 1990's contest, I think we can have 70's and 80's crammed into a separate contest (Pong vs. Donkey Kong, who ya got?). The only problem I see is the naming and the timing of each contest. Well... maybe not so much now that I think about it... We've already been a little atemporal in terms of decade contests, and we could work around a name like... Well, the word I thought of was "vintage", although I can't think of a good name. Eh, if Allen asked for ideas about Rivalry Rumble, it should be the least of worries.

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but as godly as the 90s are, most of the games that stray from the tried and true franchises are just fodder. For example the only Castlevania game this site cares about is SotN, mayyybe AoS as it's the one that's more similar in gameplay. Castlevania III, a highly respected game among fans, was in a contest and it got mauled; I doubt SCVIV would've fared much better. As much as Final Fantasy is liked here, 6-10 are the ones who belong in the cool boys club, with 4 and maybe 1 been allowed to be in the same room as long as they stay confined in a corner. Great games such as Contra: Hard Corps, or Alien Wars? They'd be fodder. Hell I don't recall the legendary original having much strength. Original Prince of Persia got blown up in a way that would make INSIDE chuckle. Genesis' flagship RPG is fodder. Full Throttle was seen as holding 1995 back when it got featured in the match pic. Sunset Striders, Blackthorne, Gunstar Heroes? Hmmm yeah right. Has a SHMUP even made it in a contest? I think I saw Gradius for 1986 in Years, which in turn got turbofodderized.

I was kinda serious when I proposed a game contest with just the site's top 6-9 franchises. Even in SFF battles we could get something interesting like Mega Man 2 Vs. MMX, or MMX2 Vs. MMX4.

But who wins in Castlevania 3 vs Contra? Prince of Persia vs Full Throttle?

Sure, they'd all get pulverized by any of the even minor games from the big franchises but I think there's still fun to be had from "fodder" vs "fodder" matchups. Because on some level, it's the the same s*** seeing "mid-carder" vs "mid-carder" matches when we all know they're going to be obliterated by Zelda, Mario, Smash, etc.

It's just a matter of designing the bracket right so you give the "little" games a chance to shine, at least for one day.

I'd like to see Angela or Riesz from ToM in a debatable match because of TJF.

Seanchan posted...

But who wins in Castlevania 3 vs Contra? Prince of Persia vs Full Throttle?

Sure, they'd all get pulverized by any of the even minor games from the big franchises but I think there's still fun to be had from "fodder" vs "fodder" matchups. Because on some level, it's the the same s*** seeing "mid-carder" vs "mid-carder" matches when we all know they're going to be obliterated by Zelda, Mario, Smash, etc.

It's just a matter of designing the bracket right so you give the "little" games a chance to shine, at least for one day.

There's two things I found from making my mock bracket a couple years ago for 90s games was the following. I could easily fill out a 64 game bracket without crossing the fodder line. Just using what's been in the previous contests, and what is obviously above the fodder line that hasn't been seen yet, there's enough depth for Round 2 and above to be almost exclusively heavy hitters.

The other thing is that I had probably the most fun dealing with the other half of the bracket. It was kind of exciting trying to figure out what lower end would end up nominated, and going through various sources such as games used in Years's match pics, and the data that is publicly made available on the Top FAQs. Yeah, there will be some hideous fodder that makes it through, but even the weakest games in the bracket are still someone's nostalgia trip, and I guarantee you it's no worse than the fodder for the contest we just had.

Seanchan posted...

But who wins in Castlevania 3 vs Contra? Prince of Persia vs Full Throttle?

For those matches to happen one of those games would have to be on the upper side of seeding, and how many times would that happen?

_SecretSquirrel posted...

Yeah, there will be some hideous fodder that makes it through, but even the weakest games in the bracket are still someone's nostalgia trip, and I guarantee you it's no worse than the fodder for the contest we just had.

It's cool when one of those games make the bracket, but it all cancels out when you know it's gonna get blown out. 90s fodder may be stronger than this year's fodder, but it would also be facing stronger competition, so the results end up been similar or worse. If one is surprised that a certain game made it through, even if it's a pleasant surprise, that just means it won't get past round 1, specially cause it most likely ended up with a low seed.

Smartphone got its first (two!) votes somewhere between those.

lordjers posted...

For those matches to happen one of those games would have to be on the upper side of seeding, and how many times would that happen?

Well, I mean there's a few ways:

• You could do it like with the NCAA Tourney's "First Four" where a bunch of bubble and very minor teams play in pseudo-preliminary games to make the "tournament proper". I think we already saw this done in the Years bracket.
• Mess with the division placement to get some that are overly stuffed with "fodder" versus another that's overly stuffed with midcarders. I mean, Allen already does that already when trying to avoid the Nintendo vs Nintendo final.

If you're interested in seeing what a Best Series Ever II bracket might look like, check out my mock bracket right here: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/78689641

This topic isn't full yet...

I feel like Best. System. Ever. will just be as poorly received as Years.

I'd personally gladly root for it, though.

I think systems would go over better than Years because people have nostalgia for console wars but I've never been a fan of it as a contest.

Not much could be as poorly received as Years.

System is better than Years because it's something people are actually passionate about.

You can't believe the level of apathy this board was like in Years. I think we didn't even have an Oracle.

Didn't help that after two consecutive contests of rallies, the general feeling was that contests were dead and Allen was giving us a terrible contest because that was the only left to protect us from rallies (thanks for trying though, Allen!)

Still, the bracket itself will probably not be much more interesting than Years. But we'll probably have our reddit whiners, our memes, etc, and that may make it somewhat better.

There is always an Oracle just like there's always a Guru.

The big problems with Years is that it assumed people actually associate games with the years that they came out, when in reality there's a good chance people will play a game long after they come out (especially in their younger years, where they are reliant on their relatives to buy their video games). It's part of the reason why assuming people would look down on P4G for being a Vita port was a bad idea, because Persona 4 was definitely a game that gained a bigger fanbase the longer it was out. For a lot of people, it was a banner game of the their 2010s, even if they played the PS2 version.

So, with people not really paying attention to what came out in what year for the most part, it really just was "vote for the four/eight games that scroll up on the front page."

Leonhart4 posted...

There is always an Oracle just like there's always a Guru.

Nope. Oracle site doesn't show Years.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Nope. Oracle site doesn't show Years.

It doesn't show 2013 either but it happened.

I'm pretty sure TRE had to track results elsewhere since the one who runs the site wasn't around.

what would the entrants look like for systems at this point?
Nes, snes, n64, GameCube, Wii, Wii U, switch
genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast
Ps 1/2/3/4
xbox, 360, One
Gb, gbc, gba, ds, 3ds
psp, vita

last 8 are going to be terrible. Uh. Uh.

Atari 2600
Virtual Boy
Master System
Game Geat
Sega CD
Turbografx-16
phillips CD-I
n-gage

...something like that.

console contest just sounds so boring

even a lot of the not completely s*** entrants just don’t elicit any sort of passion from me. Like I’ve spent hundreds of hours with my Xbone, but I can’t say i’d give a s*** if it won a match or not

less lame years contest is still pretty lame

Looking at the ranking of biggest selling systems worldwide on WIkipedia:

1- PS2
2- DS
3- GB/GBC
4- PS4
5- PS1
6- Wii
7- PS3
8- X360
9- GBA
10- PSP
11- 3DS
12- NES
13- Switch
14- SNES
15- XOne
16- Genesis/Mega Drive
17- N64
18- Atari 2600
19- Xbox
20- Gamecube
21- WiiU
22- Sega Game Gear
23- PSVita
24- Master System
25- TurboGrafx-16
26- Sega Saturn
27- Dreamcast
(SNES Classic Edition)
28- Sega Pico
29- WonderSwan
30- Color TV Game
31- Intellivision
32- N-Gage

That is close to your list.

Of course, you want to add PC, so no N-Gage (sorry, Jay Solano). You might want to split GB and GBC too, so bye Intellivision. And maybe you want to do that thing they said in the SHow and split PC in two eras, so no Color TV Game (whatever that is).

As for the others mentioned, CD-I is a few positions below and I'm pretty sure Sega CD and Virtual Boy were huge flops.

On a second thought, keep PC as a single entry (splitting it probably gets too confusing in practice) and bring N-Gage back so we can have a Jay Solano pic.

The N-Gage has rally potential.

How soon we forget OUYA

Virtual Boy being a massive flop is exactly why it’s guaranteed to get in assuming people nominate the consoles instead of Allen just taking the top 32 best selling. I figure the CD-I Zelda and Mario games getting memed so hard for awhile would get it a spot too.

AxemRedRanger posted...

Virtual Boy being a massive flop is exactly why it’s guaranteed to get in assuming people nominate the consoles instead of Allen just taking the top 32 best selling. I figure the CD-I Zelda and Mario games getting memed so hard for awhile would get it a spot too.

Hmm a CD-I Link pic sounds tempting.

Ok was looking for a reason to kick Sega Pico out, so bring CD-I in.

I still don't see why the Virtual Boy gets noms tho,. It never gets mentioned except to say how much it sucks.

The funny thing is Color TV Game was Nintendo's first foray into video games...and it was one of umpteen Pong consoles around in the '70s. That's why there's a "Pong" assist trophy in Smash.

1- PS2
2- DS
3- GB
3- GBC
4- PS4
5- PS1
6- Wii
7- PS3
8- X360
9- GBA
10- PSP
11- 3DS
12- NES
13- Switch
14- SNES
15- XOne
16- Genesis/Mega Drive
17- N64
18- Atari 2600
19- Xbox
20- Gamecube
21- WiiU
22- Sega Game Gear
23- PSVita
24- Master System
25- TurboGrafx-16
26- Sega Saturn
27- Dreamcast
29- WonderSwan
32- N-Gage
36- CD-I
PC

How about this

WarThaNemesis2 posted...

How soon we forget OUYA

not a moment too soon imhotbqh

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Hmm a CD-I Link pic sounds tempting.

Ok was looking for a reason to kick Sega Pico out, so bring CD-I in.

I still don't see why the Virtual Boy gets noms tho,. It never gets mentioned except to say how much it sucks.

That it’s an extremely bad console by the site’s favorite company is why it would get in. A not-completely trivial minority is gonna nominate terrible or meme consoles.

Like, if the field had 32 quality consoles then yeah, maybe Virtual Boy makes the top 32, maybe it doesn’t. but we don’t so it will!

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Hmm a CD-I Link pic sounds tempting.

Ok was looking for a reason to kick Sega Pico out, so bring CD-I in.

I still don't see why the Virtual Boy gets noms tho,. It never gets mentioned except to say how much it sucks.

virtual boy is funny. Basically no one here in the year 2020 is going to care about the Wonderswan or Intellivision enough to nominate it, but people might care enough about something being funny

honestly if we were doing the console contest we may as well just not have actual nominations. Make the bracket like 28 objectively chosen things (the top 28 sellers list looks like a solid basis) and then have four vote-ins spots for the random garbage and jokes.

virtual boy would get in because what in the everlasting heck is a sega pico

I don't feel like you need nominations for a console contest. You can do vote-ins for the last, what, 3 or 4, like Allen did for Years, but we know 80%+ of the stuff that would get in. This isn't a contest where you're going to have to worry about something big getting snubbed.

hylianknight3 posted...

virtual boy would get in because what in the everlasting heck is a sega pico

It was a console specifically targeted toward children in the early 90’s.
I think my parents got me one when I was like four, then soon after they got it I played an SNES somewhere and we realized it was way better and returned the Pico.

I'm sorry but if you include PC there's gonna be a giant elephant in the room when it loses to a particular console. And I don't care if it gets beaten by the SNES which I love, but a system spanning 40 years with noteworthy releases left and right just shouldn't lose.

And also if you include it we better get Commodore 64, Amiga, Spectrum, etc which add more variety than just Nintendo/Sony/MS/Sega, and Arcade while we're at it. Also at least slap in a Neo Geo for God sake.

What about phones? Probably include mobile gaming right?

ShatteredElysium posted...

What about phones? Probably include mobile gaming right?

Long live the N-Gage.

maybe? It’s such a broad thing to just say “mobile” is a system... like iOS and Android are different platforms so I guess either of them could be individual entrants?

MoogleKupo141 posted...

virtual boy is funny. Basically no one here in the year 2020 is going to care about the Wonderswan or Intellivision enough to nominate it, but people might care enough about something being funny

honestly if we were doing the console contest we may as well just not have actual nominations. Make the bracket like 28 objectively chosen things (the top 28 sellers list looks like a solid basis) and then have four vote-ins spots for the random garbage and jokes.

This sounds like a good idea to me. Years had vote-ins, after all.

What about Arcades? Presumably, this system contest will have its eligible entrants determined by platform listing on GameFAQs.

lordjers posted...

I'm sorry but if you include PC there's gonna be a giant elephant in the room when it loses to a particular console. And I don't care if it gets beaten by the SNES which I love, but a system spanning 40 years with noteworthy releases left and right just shouldn't lose.

And also if you include it we better get Commodore 64, Amiga, Spectrum, etc which add more variety than just Nintendo/Sony/MS/Sega, and Arcade while we're at it. Also at least slap in a Neo Geo for God sake.

The PC has the best shot at getting rallied, too. Has to get in on that alone.

All the more reason to keep the PC out

What about Pinball (as separate from Arcade)!

LeonhartFour posted...

I don't feel like you need nominations for a console contest. You can do vote-ins for the last, what, 3 or 4, like Allen did for Years, but we know 80%+ of the stuff that would get in. This isn't a contest where you're going to have to worry about something big getting snubbed.

I've already mentioned a few and I could go on. This contest would be way more interesting among the mid and fodder level anyway.

3DO vs. CD-i
Jaguar vs. 32X
Colecovision vs. Atari 7800
Turbographx-16 vs. Neo Geo

I can't imagine anyone caring who wins in any of those matches. That's why I've predominantly been against a system contest. Anything that Nintendo or Sony didn't make, no one will care about with a couple exceptions.

Jaguar vs. 32X

this would be the hardest ever match to predict because how can you predict the results of a match that gets 0 votes

I feel like we could do a game contest with 2048 entrants and still not see a single game from either of those systems

Leonhart4 posted...

I can't imagine anyone caring who wins in any of those matches. That's why I've predominantly been against a system contest. Anything that Nintendo or Sony didn't make, no one will care about with a couple exceptions.

Yeah, I really don't even want to have to pick between The Jaguar and The 3DO. At least with fodder matches, there's someone that cares about the entrants somewhere.

Yeah SNES vs. 3DO is more fun *rollseyes. Thanks for participating ye unfortunate entrant kthxbai.

I've been enjoying the 7800 so far.

Haven't played 3DO though =D

Pick a fodder console and play it!