GameFAQs Contests
Best Game Ever 2 Contest Analysis Crew (Part Two)
I'll
admit that Zack performed very well last season, but come now, he had
that bracket handed to him on a silver platter. Where else did New
Square impress enough to signal anything like a site shift having taken
place? I certainly don't see it in Vincent still coming up 4% short of
Samus despite Ganon being in the poll, or Vincent only getting 25% in
the next round (where he and Crono combined could only match Pikachu
and Samus). ...oh wait, Squall and Sora pounding the brains out of Yoshi and Fox, I guess that was a pretty good showing for New Square. --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
you have to remember, a lot of these guys are running off one game while Nintendo icons have scores of them. --- xyzzy http://img.imgcake.com//chewing.jpg |
Eh,
the shift wasn't really toward New Square; it was away from Nintendo. I
do think that FFVII looked rather unimpressive (for FFVII standards)
last year. --- Link he come to town to win the Gamefaqs Contests. |
Wow,
I'm not surprised by KH winning easily (though I picked a close fight
between it and Prime), but I am surprised that Kingdom Hearts is
beating Prime and Paper Mario combined. So, day vote comeback for Prime? Prime vs. Super Metroid? --- http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif |
And looking at this match, I think I'm going to have to completely redo my GTAIII/Halo/Diablo II/KOTOR write-up! Well, is this more GTA impressing, Prime bombing, or both? --- http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif |
Can't believe three people took Prime > KH but none took KH > Vice City. I should've just went with KH > Vice City knowing no one in the crew would. Alas. --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! |
First total Crew embarrassment of the contest! (I think) Man, Crew try to be less HORRIBLE. --- I would've went with KH>MP |
Oh god I have to write something for tomorrow's match. Uh...this will be "fun". --- Kleenex...at work! |
Ugh
ugh ugh. Between this and that sad showing by SC the other day,
Warcraft > GTA continues to make less sense by the minute. --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
I
took Kingdom Hearts > GTA. KH and VC aren't that much worse than
Metroid Prime, but I can't take MP losing in the first round very
lightly! |
First total Crew embarrassment of the contest! (I think) Nah, this isn't the first match where no one in the Crew gets any points. I think there were quite a few in the first couple of divisions. --- http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif |
Hmmm... a quick look and it seems that I was the only analyst that thought VC would advance, I haven't found BT's though. Weird --- Board 8 BOP: http://www.freewebs.com/charmander6000/BGE2%20BOP.xls BGE2 - Today's Match: KH > GTA: VC Points: 61/84 |
First this result, and now the boards are all ruined. What a sad say day for GameFAQs! --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
Division 6: Round 1 - Match 23 – Diablo II: Lord of Destruction vs. Grand Theft Auto III vs. Halo: Combat Evolved vs. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Moltar’s Analysis Diablo II 2004 Results: N/A Will it follow in Starcraft’s “disappointing” footsteps? GTA3 2004 Results: N/A Unlike GTA4, people didn’t turn on this shortly after release Halo 2004 Results: Lost in Round 1 against Starcraft It’s like Halo 3 minus the Game Fuel! KOTOR 2004 Results: Lost in Round 1 against GTA: Vice City great game zone Whew, two days in a row with matches were we have three contenders shooting for the top 2 slots. Wish we could’ve had some more matches instead of the ‘weak games battling for second’ at the start. The game not in contention here is Star Wars: KOTOR. We’ve already seen it lose to Vice City 5 years ago, and it has had no reason to increase since then. Plus it’s gotta compete with Halo for Xbox votes and…that won’t go too well. Speaking of Vice City, we’re looking at it right now, and it’s doing okay. It’s getting a bit too much credit as while it’s beating Prime, it’s also getting killed by KH. Transferring that to GTA3, it’s going to need to do better than that if it wants to advance here. I wouldn’t be shocked to see it in second, but I think the other games have better chances to advance than it. D2 vs. Halo for first is interesting. On one hand, Diablo 2 isn’t looking as hot after the egg that Starcraft laid. Still, there’s a good chance it is stronger here. An example for that is the fact that Diablo is a decent midcarder in these contests, and I would think that only means good things for a game from the actual series. Another is that it’s a RPG, which the GameFAQs audience tends to gravitate more towards. On the other hand, Halo is…Halo. You may consider DK a choker, but Halo always finds some way to turn a sure thing into something wacky. It has had near-losses to opponents it should have beaten easily and over-performances on opponents stronger than it. It has lost matches it had no business losing and won matches it had no business winning. 2004 vs. Starcraft was one of the biggest upsets we’ve seen on this site. Luckily for the series, Halo hate isn’t as strong as it was back then. Plus, this format helps Chief, as there is a solid Xbox fanbase on GameFAQs that will support him. I have Halo winning here because...well you can’t really say anything against it yet. I guess like MP > KH, I didn’t know which had the advantage, so I just went with my favorite. I think D2 takes second, but GTA3 is looking better to place after today. If any game is going to “do the bomb” here, it’s D2, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for now. Moltar’s Bracket Says: Halo > Diablo II Moltar’s Prediction is: Halo: 33% - Diablo II: 27% - GTA3: 26% - KOTOR: 14% Heroic Mario’s Analysis This might be my least favorite match so far, but also one of the most unpredictable. I have no idea what to even think about this one still. Any one of these games could come in first or come in last and I wouldn't be surprised. You've got Diablo II after StarCraft's disappointing showing, GTAIII after VC's win over Metroid, Halo which never does what you want it to, and a Xbox RPG that was big back in 2003 but has probably faded from most people's minds since. What a mess. In my bracket, I went with Diablo II > Halo, but I'm not even sure Diablo places anymore. Most PC games have failed to do much of anything, even ones that couldn't have asked for a better draw (Half-Life, specificially). But with this sort of competition, if Diablo does end up being better than StarCraft it could take first no problem. |
Halo
on the other hand is always tough to get a good grasp on. Without any
Halo game to give the series hype and relevance, it's almost always
unimpressive. Halo 3's poor showing back in the GotY 2007 poll doesn't
do much to make me believe it's gotten any better either, despite the
increased presence of the 360. Still, if there's anything here that has
a big enough name to get by, it's Halo. So here's what I've got -- I'm going with Halo in first place entirely on the basis that we've seen it before and it didn't do terribly. Sure, SC back in 2k4 wasn't the beast it looked like, but losing out to rallying isn't that bad. We've at least seen it and know what's it's capable of. For second, I'm gonna go with GTAIII after Vice City's performance against Metroid. Probably not the best idea, but like with Halo, it's got the name to get by, and also probably the playership. Diablo's the wildcard that could be anywhere from first to last, but I'll stick with Halo and GTA here. let's see how wrong this is ! Halo -- 29% Grand Theft Auto III -- 28% Diablo II -- 25% Knights of the Old Republic -- 18% Bracket: Halo > GTA3 Favorites: uhh pass Lopen’s Analysis Hey, okay so remember when I was saying “don't doubt GTA”? How the GotY polls should be respected because these ARE the games and those ARE the games? Well, this is why I was saying that. This is a debatable match in which I think GTA3 has been sorely overlooked. Now, after that egg Starcraft laid, I have a feeling a lot more people will be backing GTA3 here. And they should. Diablo, unlike Starcraft (or GTA for that matter), has never really had any good poll showings going into this match. GTA3, being the original game of the GTA revolution, should get some classix cred here. Halo might take some of its “casual support”, but being the only PS2 game in this poll will carry it far. Much further than say... being the only PC game as people love to say. Far enough that I actually consider it a small threat for first... I mean, I do think KotoR will hurt Halo significantly, because of the limited ownership numbers of the original Xbox I think console SFF matters in this case, but it shouldn't be enough to allow either of the other two contenders to advance in 1st. Halo should love this format enough to be a beast, just like Master Chief does (I laugh at all of you who claim it was all Halo 3!), and it's primed to tear through the bracket, starting tonight. Lopen's prediction: Halo – 33.07% GTA3 – 31.27% Diablo II – 23.32% You wish you were Knights of the Round then you might have a chance – 12.34% Transience’s Analysis Holy Prime bomb. I'm not sure today's result says much for GTA -- or Kingdom Hearts, for that matter -- but it definitely says something about Metroid Prime. Niiiiiiiice bomb. Tomorrow's match is the only one this contest that I have literally zero idea what is going to happen. I have a hell of a time even hazarding a guess. Time to ramble! I guess we can start with GTA3 - people are perceiving Vice City to be doing well today, but I don't see it - it's still getting 60/40'd by Kingdom Hearts. That's not very impressive, not from a game that got 46% on SSBM. That's not to say that 3 can't advance here though. I think it's about equal to Vice City, maybe a little bit weaker. Diablo 2 has been kind of written off because of Starcraft's "bomb".. but again, Starcraft getting 60/40'd by FF8, which is probably better than being 60-40'd by Kingdom Hearts. Diablo also strikes me as being more GameFAQs-friendly than Starcraft: it's got RPG elements and seems a bit more relevant to the site. It did just as well as Starcraft on The List and is probably in the top 5 for the most FAQ hits ever. To this day it's still in the top 25. That's crazy. |
Then
there's Halo. Shooters have looked uniformly bad this year so far:
Doom, Half-Life, and now Metroid Prime. (No, I don't care if you call
it a FPA or whatever.) Halo also absolutely bombed in the 2007 GOTY,
getting beat down by COD4. Halo's got the added problem of KOTOR, the
only real Xbox game of note besides Halo, being in the same poll. All
this said, it's still easily the best-known game in the poll and it's
probably the strongest Halo game thanks to being the first. We haven't
seen Halo yet, so it's tough to completely write it off. Master Chief's
performance last year was a bomb for sure, but I'm not sure if we can
equate Master Chief to Halo; there's lots of people that care about the
game and not about the Chief, even moreso than other games. What am I going to do? Hell if I know. transience's prediction: Halo - 32% Diablo II: Lord of Destruction - 28% Grand Theft Auto III - 26% Knights of the Old Republic - 14% Leon’s Analysis Diablo II: Lord of Destruction: Halo/Diablo II almost seems like another Halo/StarCraft match. The only question is if Diablo II can pull off the win. I’m going to say no, and here’s why. Halo was very hated back in 2004 when StarCraft beat it, and that’s no longer the case. I’m not sure Diablo II is as strong as StarCraft anyway, and if it’s anything like its companion, it’ll need some rallying/cheating to win. I like Diablo II to advance here, just not in first place. Grand Theft Auto III: Five years ago, this is a winnable match for Grand Theft Auto III. I don’t even know how popular this version is compared to Vice City or San Andreas, but I can’t imagine it’d be too much stronger, if at all. After all, Vercetti has only looked worse and worse as time has gone by. This fourpack is kinda weird in a way and somewhat up in the air since all four contenders have something to prove and have yet to prove it. Vice City’s good showing against Metroid Prime is a good sign for Grand Theft Auto III here and gives it some hope, but I know I’d take Halo over Prime, and I’ll take Vice City over GTA III until proven otherwise. It’s got a better shot than I originally thought it did. I think first place is probably out of the question, but if Diablo II bombs as hard as StarCraft did, look for this game to move in. Halo: Combat Evolved: Hey, The List says Halo is more popular than Final Fantasy VI, and after seeing FFVI’s rather lackluster performance, who you got?! Seriously though, I think Halo takes first place without too much trouble. The anti-Xbox stigma is long gone (and did my spell check just autocorrect Xbox? Yes, it did! Darn you Microsoft), so that won’t be a factor here. Plus, the format negates anti-voting’s effects significantly anyway. I question the strength of the sequels, but I think the original Halo should still be strong. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: This game scored 40% on Vice City in a match that ran for 48 hours and still only got 90,000 votes (That was during the site redesign, for those who weren’t here at that time). While that 40% on Vice City is pretty impressive, I’d be kinda surprised if it could advance here. I don’t think the Star Wars name brand is worth THAT much here, and the first Games Contest proved that. Still, this fourpack is wide open, so anything’s possible. KOTOR just doesn’t seem to have a good reason to advance though, to me. Leonhart’s Vote: Halo, since it’s the only one of these I’ve played! Leonhart’s Prediction: Diablo II – 26.02% Grand Theft Auto III – 24.94% Halo – 31.01% Knights of the Old Republic – 17.03% |
Ed Bellis’s Analysis Diablo II. I always kinda wondered if Diablo II was stronger than Starcraft, and with the egg the latter laid against FF8, I guess it probably is! I have D2 taking first place here against Halo in my bracket, but I’m gonna go against that thanks to previous trends. Like they matter at all. I swear, this contest just makes up new rules as it goes… Grand Theft Auto III. Even after Vice City did pretty well, I still refuse to bet on Grand Theft Auto; I’ve been burned too many times in the past. I have no idea what to make of this entrant – it would make sense to have GTA3 be the weakest of the four games. Halo. Presumably the strongest of the Halo trilogy, Halo’s strength has likely gone up since 2004 thanks to increased popularity and the format preventing “anti-votes.” I expect it to get first here. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I doubt this will amount to much. Prediction: yeeeeeahhh Diablo II: Lord of Destruction with 28.55% Grand Theft Auto III with 26.09% Halo with 32.90% Knights of the Old Republic with 12.46% Guest’s Analysis - KleenexTissue50 We're getting to the point in Round 1 where everyone's bracket's going to take a beating. In two days we've got eight matches with games that no one's seen in a contest setting before, and the tail end of this division is going to be a bit of a precursor to that. Yesterday showed us that Metroid games, in all likelihood, suck. Also, GTA games might not be as bad as we thought. Which make this match almost a complete tossup. Pre-contest, Diablo 2 had some HYPE HYPE HYPE because of BLIZZARDFEAR, but after StarCraft bombed a few days ago, it's hard to imagine this game being any kind of scary entity. Then, of course, we've got two potential jobbers in Halo and GTA3. The only thing I'm feeling pretty good about here is KotOR not placing, but that could happen too. Who the hell knows. In my bracket, I have Diablo 2 > Halo here. I felt moderately comfortable with that initially. I even have D2 going through to round 3. But after StarCraft's lackluster performance, I'm not feeling so great about it anymore. Vice City did well yesterday, but I don't think GTA3 is going to be as strong or stronger than it. So really I'm just going around in circles here. This match will likely come down to which game stinks up the joint less. For the sake of hip upset picks and sticking with my bracket, I'm going to stay on Diablo 2 > Halo here. Halo and GTA are both casual bait, so that might hinder them and let Diablo slip in, ever so slightly. I've just got a feeling that Diablo's going to be more impressive than StarCraft this year. Look for D2 to take a big lead over night, Halo to wipe that lead out during the day, then have D2 steal the match in a photo-finish...uh...finish. Yeah, let's go with that. Kleenex's Prediction Diablo II: Lord of Destruction - 31.12% Grand Theft Auto III - 25.38% Halo - 31.08% Knights of the Old Republic - 12.42% Crew Consensus: Halo > D2 is the majority, with Halo > GTA3 and D2 > Halo also being represented. |
So GTAIII > KotOR then --- Moltar Status: ahh, there you are Match 22 - Bracket: MP > KH - Vote: MP (62/84) |
I still can't believe the results so far. Is the under 12 vote skewing the results? |
It's
a good thing Lopen didn't mention GAME FUEL in his write-up. He should
save the GAME FUEL mentions until the Halo 3 match, which is what was
used to promote Halo 3. --- Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~ Popular at school, but still not as cool as FastFalcon05, Guru Champ! |
Seems nobody has faith in Knights of the Old Republic. Man, another good game horribly shafted, and ending up with some stuff that's not that much worse in my mind. |
thanks for that, Luster. --- xyzzy |
It's
more the case that I feel the need to sling GAME FUEL propaganda when I
feel the audience needs convincing. With very few doubting Halo will
place I figured I'd let it ripen a bit. --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! |
Ngamer's Rebellious Writeup What an absolutely disgusting result. I'll talk about it in greater detail later, but now I'm going to hurry on to tonight's match so I don't miss too much of the early voting! This seemed like a fairly easy poll to predict not so long ago, but after the wild events of the last 5 days anyone who tells you they have ANY kind of confidence in ANY of the possible results here is a bald faced liar! (Or perhaps an honest lunatic.) Quick hitters: * I'm seeing pretty high Halo picks for this one over in the Oracle, but I'm not buying it. This is a terrible draw for Halo; its against one of the two or so alternative Xbox games that people actually care about, and on top of that casual/frat boy split between itself GTA3 is going to hurt it plenty. Now granted we said the same thing about Master Chief and Vercetti and couple years back, but that was Steroid MC- I think the '08 version would have been held back more like we expected. * Because of the forementioned overlap I also don't think GTA3 runs away with anything here, not even after today's very impressive showing for VC. Although it IS the only PS2 option, and with how crazy hot that system has been all week... yeah, it's going to look very good and improve on VC's percentage, but the trouble is... * I don't think there's anyway Diablo loses to GTA in a close match. And since Halo will be weakening it a little and people actually care about KotoR somewhat, there probably won't be enough percentage to go around for GTA to blow past DII with ease, which could take us back to a Warcraft/GTA situation. Also, despite all the calls of FLOP, SC did still manage over 28% of the vote- Diablo doesn't even need to do that in order to pull out a second place here. So with that in mind I'm taking a 0.000000% confidence pick of: Halo - 30.91% Diablo II: Lord of Destruction - 26.76% Grand Theft Auto III - 26.72% Knights of the Old Republic - 15.61% ...wait a minute, did I just pick Diabo > GTA not three hours after stating that Warcraft > GTA was making less and less sense every minute? What was I THINING? --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
Wait wait wait... and now all 4 games are almost tied? But with GTA in LAST? But with KotOR in SECOND?! *faints* --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
Haha,
this is just too good... 45 minutes after kicking myself for clinging
to my bracket and picking Diablo to advance, I'm now kicking myself for
not having it advance in FIRST. Sure KotOR is going to hinder Halo less
once the Day rolls around, but I can't see any way for it to complete
the comeback, not with the lead battle.net is going to give DII
overnight (combined with the boost they'll give it in the final hour if
need be). The great thing about this is that next round there won't be any other Xbox/shooter/casual favorite to hold Halo back, so no matter how badly Diablo ends up beating it up in this one it could still very well turn itself back into the favorite to advance behind Melee. Who knew polls would be this interesting once you detached Nintendo and Square? (I know, I know, it's only interesting because all 4 of these games are much weaker than what we've been seeing recently, but STILL.) --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
shoulda stuck with my bracket here. ah well, it happens. what a crazy match. these games are weak as hell. --- xyzzy http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7033/trannyanalysis.png |
Final Fantasy X 45.92% 56614 Metal Gear Solid 2 27.84% 34324 Silent Hill 2 9.03% 11131 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind 17.21% 21217 TOTAL VOTES 123286 What Happened - FFX beats MGS2 as expected. Morrowind does pretty well here though. Why it Happened - FFX did about as expected, but MGS2 ends up looking a bit bad here. Not really sure why (FF/MGS SFF oh geez). Morrowind does the opposite and ends up looking good in defeat. Gogo Xbox/PC voters? Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 24.48% 30825 Kingdom Hearts 38.95% 49035 Metroid Prime 22.5% 28330 Paper Mario 14.07% 17712 TOTAL VOTES 125902 Matches Completely Correct - 12 Matches Partially Correct - 10 Matches Completely Wrong - 0 What Happened - Kingdom Heartsssssss has no problem whipping this fourpack. Vice City shows it still has something left and beats out Prime for second. Why it Happened - Paper Mario obviously cost Prime the win, but um...I guess Prime was pretty weak (which Half-Life hinted at a few days ago). VC doesn't look great here either considering how badly KH beat it down. What Will Happen - FFX/MGS2/KH/VC - does FFX hurt KH enough to allow MGS2 or VC advance? Crew Prediction Challenge - Everyone gets points and no one gets points. Tran - 14 HM - 14 Guest - 13 Moltar - 11 Ed - 10 Leon - 10 Lopen - 9 Crew Accuracy Challenge - HM gets the point for FFX, Chaotic gets the point for MGS2, Moltar gets the point for TES, and Moltar and Ed get points for SH2. Tran gets the point for KH, HM gets the point for Prime, Ed gets the point for VC, and Leon gets the point for PM Moltar - 23 HM - 20 Tran - 16 Leon - 11 Lopen - 10 Guest (Luster, Zylo (3), HaRR, Kleenex, Soul, TRT, KP, Chaotic) - 10 Ed - 10 --- Moltar Status: ahh, there you are Match 23 - Bracket: Halo > D2 - Vote: KotOR (63/88) |
Just
for the record since I guess it wasn't obvious, Zamza is my alt,
Moltar. I don't care that much about the points thing, I'm just
clarifying that I didn't actually welch on any of the write-ups. It
makes me look bad...! (Also, give me the point !!) --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! |
I figured it was but I didn't want to count it unless I was 100% sure (or got a confession!!). I'll add it in tomorrow. --- Moltar Status: ahh, there you are Match 23 - Bracket: Halo > D2 - Vote: KotOR (63/88) |
Don't believe that insane fool. He only wishes he was part of my grandeur. --- I'm the most important member of GAMEFAQs, and they didn't even reserve an account for me!?!? |
I am a genius. --- Kleenex...at work! |
Paper Mario obviously cost Prime the win I wouldn't say that it's obvious. Prime did bad enough on its own. And holy KOTOR underestimation. --- http://www.court-records.net/animation/phoenix-superobjection.gif |
Bracket: Halo > GTA3 Really? --- Kleenex...at work! |
If
you read his write-up you'd know HM just doesn't know how to use his
own little post write-up tags to convey any new information. --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! |
As if I'd actually read the writeups of this so-called "analysis crew"! --- Kleenex...at work! |
Is Halo making a serious run at losing to KotOR? Seriously? Good heavens, and I thought Sub-Zero was embarrassing! --- The Guru ROCKS, son! http://thengamer.com/guru/ (thengamer.com/xstats & board8.wikia.com aren't awful either) |
hahaha have Diablo II > Halo because i voted with my head over my heart. but stoked on KotOR beating out halo --- Wander The Way |
Division 6: Round 1 - Match 24 – Disgaea: Hour of Darkness vs. Fire Emblem vs. Super Smash Bros. Melee vs. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker Moltar’s Analysis Disgaea 2004 Results: N/A Nope Fire Emblem 2004 Results: Lost in Round 1 against Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance Nope SSBM 2004 Results: Won in Round 1 against Metal Gear Solid 2 Won in Round 2 against Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Won in Round 3 against Final Fantasy X Won in Round 4 against Starcraft Lost in Round 5 against Final Fantasy VII Yep Zelda: Wind Waker 2004 Results: Won in Round 1 against Skies of Arcadia Won in Round 2 against Metroid Prime Lost in Round 3 against Starcraft Yep Before I start this, I just want to say ‘oh god lopen’. Anyway Melee vs. Wind Waker is a match I was hoping to see back in 2004 until Carriers got in the way. I had Melee winning that match, and 5 years later, that is not different. Melee should have no trouble pounding Wind Waker into the ground. Can’t forget Fire Emblem and Disgaea. FE gets double-Nintendo pounded (hot) and Disgaea… well it’s going to get games that are flat-out way stronger than it pounded. Boring match, next, etc. Moltar’s Bracket Says: SSBM > Wind Waker Moltar’s Prediction is: SSBM: 50% - Wind Waker: 30% - Disgaea: 11% - Fire Emblem: 9% Heroic Mario’s Analysis Today's match should be pretty boring, but it'll be far more interesting than yesterday's, if only because we're getting to see two games that matter here. So far, every game out of Division 128 has been disappointing, with the exception of Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts. StarCraft failed to do anything, Soul Calibur was a huge bust, Metroid Prime lost to VC, and Halo barely managed to scrap by KOTOR. Not a good sign if you're Melee or Wind Waker. Fortunately for them, the competition today means they have nothing to worry about. This all comes down to how badly Melee beats Wind Waker. People always wanted to see this match back in 2k4, but I'm not sure the result then and now would be any different. It's probably not a good idea to base TWW on Majora's Mask, but I think it'll be closer to it than, say, Twilight Princess. I think Melee's gonna beat Wind Waker pretty good, but not overly dominant. A 10% difference or so sounds about right to me. Smash Bros. Melee -- 42% Wind Waker -- 31% Fire Emblem -- 16% Disgaea -- 10% Lopen’s Analysis How long has it been since we've seen a Patented Lopen Upset Special™? Well, spoilers, we're going to see one TONIGHT. What's that you say? A Zelda game couldn't POSSIBLY lose to either of these obscure strategy RPGss? I think you sir, are mistaken. Let's just look at this situation here... leave all your stats at the door and think about this as a fan for a second. What Gamecube owner in their right mind possibly prefers The Wind Waker to Super Smash Brothers Melee? Anyone? Anyone? Now, now, okay... you say “well what if they haven't played Mel””-- are you flippin kidding me? One of the most beloved Gamecube games versus one of the most ridiculed Gamecube games. Zelda name be damned this is going to be an utter beatdown. This is the worst matchup The Windwaker could've received this side of Ocarina of Time. It's going to be absolutely ugly. The Windwaker's performance in the Game of the Century Poll, where it only drew 4% against weaker Nintendo entries, getting tripled+ by games that should be weaker and have less reasons to SFF than Melee, should tell you it's not in a good position here. |
Although...
looking at the opposition... this might be a bit tricky, even with the
worst SFF pairing. Disgaea and Fire Emblem? Really? Well, I still think
they'll be able to eke out a victory here, as fodderific as they are
and potential overlaps they have being accounted for... the strategy
RPG fanbase on the site should be just big enough for the win. So then, the question is, which strategy game do I pick for second place here? I've never really bought the idea of any disproportionate SFF of Fire Emblem by Super Smash Brothers... or at least, any of its votes that matter. I mean really... OMG MARTH'S GAME or OMG IKE'S GONNA SMASH THESE GUYS WITH HIS TRUCK will only get you so far. So with that in mind, I'm betting on Fire Emblem, the series with a game that has looked a bit less foddery. But I wouldn't be too surprised if it went the other way, or even if it went in favor of Zelda, for that matter. This should be a close one. Lopen's Prediction: Super Smash Brothers Melee – 55.32% Fire Emblem – 16.04% Disgaea: Hour of Darkness – 14.41% Windbreaker – 14.23% Transience’s Analysis It's really difficult to say anything substantive on this next match. How badly does Melee hurt Wind Waker? How can you even gauge this? And it's not like these other games can take advantage of this. Fire Emblem's grown greatly since 2004, but it's in a horrible position here - two other Nintendo games and then another SRPG with a similar cult fanbase. Disgaea's still going to be weak. So since no one can really do anything impressive here, it's up to Melee to go to town. If it beats Wind Waker down -- these are the two big Cube games, after all -- then it could put up huge numbers. We're probably going to be comparing SSBM/WW to RBY/MM, so Melee's gonna need to approach RBY's percentage here to look good. Then again, Wind Waker's probably a good bit stronger than Majora's Mask, so... transience's prediction: Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - 7% Fire Emblem - 16% Super Smash Bros. Melee - 50% Zelda: Wind Waker - 27% Leon’s Analysis Disgaea: Hour of Darkness: Hey, three Nintendo games and Disgaea! Could the Sore Thumb Factor and the triple LFF combine for a Disgaea upset? Not a chance! The game’s just not popular enough, obviously. It should get third place here since Fire Emblem’s probably going to get SFF’d into the ground, but that’s the most it’ll get. By the way, Devil May Cry should be here instead even though it’d suffer the same fate! Fire Emblem: Okay, this game got doubled by Final Fantasy Tactics Advance in the first Games Contest, and we pushed for it to get in to replace Golden Sun…why exactly? I understand that Fire Emblem has gotten stronger since 2004, but still, it’s going to get SFF’d by Melee and Wind Waker. They’d both perform about the same in this position, so it doesn’t really matter. I suppose it could get third place if it avoids SFF, but I can’t imagine the number of Nintendo fans who prefer this game to Melee and Wind Waker being very high. Super Smash Bros. Melee: The game that won perhaps the toughest division in contest history is back for some more. Melee/Wind Waker has been debated by some people around these parts, but I think the obvious advantage goes to SSBM. I suppose people have faith in the Zelda name to pull it through, but after the way Majora’s Mask got obliterated by Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow, that reasoning goes by the wayside. We have seen a lot of backlash against Brawl after how disappointing it was, but does it affect Melee in any way? It’s possible, but I think Melee should win here. |
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker:
After seeing Majora’s Mask bomb, I really don’t know what to think of
The Wind Waker. I suppose it did prove that it has a good amount of
strength back in 2004, but it was rather…underwhelming for a Zelda
game. It couldn’t SFF Prime, and it was too close to StarCraft for
comfort. Still, it was third place by a wide margin in the Favorite
Zelda Game poll (though still well behind Link to the Past), so it does
have a contingent that favors it, despite the hate it got back in the
day. I’ve heard people like Ulti say that SSBM would slaughter Wind
Waker here, and while I can’t say I agree, after seeing what R/B/Y did
to Majora’s Mask, I won’t be surprised if it does. Leonhart’s Vote: Gimme some Melee here! Leonhart’s Prediction: Disgaea – 13.01% Fire Emblem – 6.43% Super Smash Bros. Melee – 44.44% The Wind Waker – 36.12% Ed Bellis’s Analysis Two fodderiffic games and two Gamecube hitz. LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THA FACTZZZ Disgaea. How Laharl and co. keep getting into contests is beyond me, considering how he’s never won a match and never will, and his game is no exception. It might be able to pull off third if Fire Emblem gets suitably SFFed by the two flagship Nintendo titles in the way, but I doubt even that. Fire Emblem. Nintendo’s favorite strategy-based series (suck it Advance Wars), FE was added into the bracket over, of all things, Golden Sun, which would have done even worse. It might have a prayer were it not facing THA GAMECUBE JUGGERNAUTS Super Smash Bros. Melee. Gets first with ease here. If Vice City can still meet and surpass expectations after having been “obsoleted” by sequels, then Brawl’s existence likely won’t hurt Melee’s chances. It wouldn’t surprise me to see it fall off a tad, but I’d still take it over WW. Zelda: The Wind Waker. Gets second with ease here. If anything, Wind Waker’s probably fallen off in popularity since 2004, when it was more recent. It could probably handle Majora’s Mask, but I’d consider taking Link’s Awakening over it. Prediction: i am running out of things to put here Disgaea: Hour of Darkness with 9.45% Fire Emblem with 15.66% Super Smash Bros. Melee with 45.07% Zelda: Wind Waker with 29.82% Guest’s Analysis - BDawg Well, I've actually played all four of these games so I guess this passes as expert analysis. This is pretty much a tale of two matches. For strategy RPGs it is the worst of times, for Gamecube heavyweights, the best of times (one more so than the other). So, I'll start with the undercard. |
Disgaea v. Fire Emblem: These are two fine strategy RPGs who are doomed to battle for scraps in a duel for third place. Head to head I would favor Fire Emblem easily (hey having Smash exposure never hurts) but this is a handicap match. The aforementioned Smash Bros. is here and then add some Celda in there to mess things up even more. Lahurl looked like trash last year but not really any worse than usual. Really, it's now or never for Disgaea take your shot at a tied down FE and tell your "hardcore" fan base to show up. Wind Waker vs. Smash Bros. Melee: Ok, now here's the real match. Well, unfortunately it will probably be even less entertaining than the previous one. In the dark ages these two seemed pretty close indirectly, but hey look it's extrapolation through STARCRAFT. I wanted so badly to make this a close match but then Pokemon showed up and kicked Majora's Mask in the teeth. Is Wind Waker stronger than MM? Maaaybe...barely? But it doesn't matter the point is it has been proven than mid tier Zelda CAN be crushed by other Nintendo if enough force is applied. Well, SB: Melee has that power. It's possible Brawl hype has been converted straight into Melee nostalgia if people were really that dissatisfied with Brawl. Who knows if that plays out with the general voting populace. If nothing else Smash has Pokeballs! Vote: Fire Emblem (Somebody has to.) If Wind Waker or one of the S-RPGs puts up a fight these numbers are junk but surely Smash can outdo the 'chu. Smash Bros. Melee : 51.3% LoZ: Wind Waker: 29.6% Disgaea: 10.4% Fire Emblem: 8.7% Crew Consensus: Melee > WW…except for Lopen…Upset special time? |
haha, did I just see what I think I saw --- xyzzy |
@Lopen:
Most "Best GCN Games" lists have Wind Waker ahead of SSBM. Here are
some that I've seen, though I'm not going to tell the website. 1. Resident Evil 4 2. Wind Waker 3. Metroid Prime 4. SSBM 1. Metroid Prime 2. Twilight Princess 3. Wind Waker 4. SSBM 5. Resident Evil 4 1. Metroid Prime 2. Resident Evil 4 3. SSBM 4. Wind Waker 1. Resident Evil 4 2. Wind Waker 3. SSBM 4. Metroid Prime 1. Resident Evil 4 2. Metroid Prime 3. Wind Waker 4. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 5. SSBM |
Way too much respect for Wind Breaker in here. Come on, man, especially after the egg Starcraft laid? This is gonna be some "booyah crew" oh yes who dares defy the revolution. --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! |
