# Best Year in Gaming (2017) _Board 8 wiki -- CC BY-SA 3.0. Contest overview plus 35 match writeups, in match order. Converted from MediaWiki to Markdown; navigation, image embeds and footnotes stripped. See ATTRIBUTION.md._ --- ## Best Year in Gaming _source: Best Year in Gaming (revid 83766)_ ## Ulti's Pre-Contest Analysis When this contest was announced, most people were skeptical. Allen mentioned before 'nominations' went up (we'll get into that doozy later) that this contest was specifically made to prevent rallying and brigading. Some people were excited about this, most weren't, and we've now seen throughout the contest the people who weren't excited about this were largely proven right. To the point. The contest was about the best year in video games, and the only exciting time we had on the board during such a contest were everyone's retrospective topics about what video games meant for their own lives. transience made an incredible such topic, but he wasn't alone on this. I've largely saved mine for the PCA, but putting mine in here is about the only fun I'll have in writing this thing this time around. This was probably the worst actual contest we've ever had, and even if people disagree due to a couple upsets later on in the contest itself, no one will argue that the first few rounds were just atrocious. So if you're reading this on the wiki, yeah the first round is my own retrospective on video games. Sue me. Another way this got off on a bad foot was Allen asking for blurbs for each year, then not using any of them, thus wasting all of our time. There was no nomination process. No real pre-bracket period where everyone argued due to how predictable everything was. No picsmithing until super late. No idea of how pictures would even work. Nothing. Guru topics and oracle topics went up super late. Vote totals would end up at an all-time low. None of the pre-contest buzz was there at all. The only pre-contest stuff we had were some wild card matches, but all those did would clue us in to how bad everything was about to get. If I could sum up this contest quickly, it would be "no one cared", though it did largely come with the benefit that those of us who prefer unpredictability and rallies were proven right beyond all shadows of all doubts. If you look at a contest as bad as this one and think outside rallies are bad for contest health, you are not very smart. The Undertale/Melee match from last time was more exciting than this entire contest combined, which is sad. ## Ulti's Post-Contest Analysis A lot has been said about how and why this contest sucked, so I don't need to rehash it all. I give Allen credit for an original idea, but the execution was terrible and the communication was worse. He asked for blurbs that he eventually scrapped. No systems were ever put into match pictures. There were bizarre match pic choices that directly cost some entrants matches. The vote totals were the worst ever and the majority of the matches were record blowouts. Allen has made a couple incredible contests, but also a couple of real stinkers. This was the mother of all stinkers. It was legitimately a chore to get through this PCA, and I don't want it to feel like a chore. This is my favorite hobby on Board 8. I'd like to keep it that way. Anyway, let's do the usual traditions, wrap this up, and never ever unwrap it ever again. Contest Ranking: Fall 2015 (Games) Fall 2010 (GotD) Spring 2004 (Games) Summer 2002 (Characters) Summer 2013 (Characters) Winter 2010 (Characters) Summer 2003 (Characters) Summer 2005 (Characters) Fall 2009 (Games 4-way) Summer 2007 (4-way Characters) Summer 2006 (Female Bracket) Spring 2006 (Series) Summer 2008 (Characters 4-way) Summer 2004 (Characters) Spring 2005 (Villains) Fall 2011 (2v2 Characters) Spring 2017 (Years) This was our worst contest ever. By far. Not even debatable. We need to stick to characters or games, with one side contest for systems. Years was just a bad idea. No one cared. Last, but not least... The Ultimate Loser™! 1990! 1998 \> 2001 \> 1997 \> 1996 \> 2000 \> 1990. Thanks as always and see you next time! ## 1985 Console - Super Mario Bros - Duck Hunt - Ice Climber - Wrecking Crew - Excitebike (Arcade in same year) Computer - Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? - Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar - Tales of the Unknown, Volume I: The Bard's Tale - King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne - The Oregon Trail (Apple II) Arcade - Ghosts 'n Goblins \[1986 NES\] - Gradius \[1986 NES\] - Gauntlet - Paperboy - Space Harrier ## 1986 Computer - Tetris (DOS/PC) \[1989 NES/Game Boy\] - The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight - King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human - Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum - Space Quest I Arcade - Life Force \[1988 NES\] - Bubble Bobble \[1988 NES\] - Out Run - Rygar - Wonder Boy - Ikari Warriors \[1987 NES\] ## 1987 Console - The Legend of Zelda - Metroid - Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! - Mega Man - Castlevania - Kid Icarus - Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Note: GameFAQs currently lists its NA release inaccurately as 1986) Computer - Maniac Mansion \[1990 NES\] - Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna - Nethack - Leisure Suit Larry Arcade - Shinobi - Street Fighter - R-Type - Double Dragon \[1988 NES\] - Bionic Commando \[1988 NES\] - 1943 \[1988 NES\] - Contra \[1988 NES\] ## 1988 Console - Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - Metal Gear (NES) - Super Mario Bros. 2 - Ninja Gaiden (NES) - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - Phantasy Star - RC Pro Am - Blaster Master Computer - Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom - Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny - The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate - King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella - Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World - Wasteland Arcade - Ghouls n' Ghosts \[1989 Genesis\] - Altered Beast \[1989 Genesis\] - Double Dragon II: The Revenge \[1990 NES\] - Super Contra \[1990 NES\] ## 1989 Console - Mega Man 2 - DuckTales - Dragon Warrior - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) - Golden Axe (Arcade in same year) - The Revenge of Shinobi - The Guardian Legend - Bomberman (NES) Computer - SimCity - Prince of Persia - Dragon Wars - King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! - Populous Portable - Super Mario Land Arcade - Zero Wing - Final Fight \[1991 SNES\] - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles \[1990 NES\] ## 1990 Console - Final Fantasy - Super Mario Bros. 3 - Mega Man 3 - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos - Batman: The Video Game - Disney's Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers - Dr. Mario (Game Boy in same year) - Dragon Warrior II - Phantasy Star II - River City Ransom - Crystalis - StarTropics Computer - The Secret of Monkey Island (16-color/256-color) \[1992 CDROM\] - Commander Keen - Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge - Ultima VI: The False Prophet - Wing Commander Arcade - Shadow Dancer \[1991 Genesis\] ## 1991 Console - Final Fantasy II (aka FF4) - Super Mario World - Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis) - F-Zero - Super Castlevania IV - Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts - ActRaiser - Tecmo Super Bowl (NES) - Battletoads (NES) - Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom - Streets of Rage - Phantasy Star III Computer - Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Sid Meier's Civilization - Lemmings - Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra - Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi Portable - Metroid II: Return of Samus - Final Fantasy Adventure - Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters Arcade - The Simpsons (Arcade) - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time \[1992 SNES\] - Street Fighter II \[1992 SNES\] ## 1992 Console - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Super Mario Kart - Contra III: The Alien Wars - Soul Blazer - Dragon Warrior III - Dragon Warrior IV - Mario Paint - Mega Man 4 - Mega Man 5 - Streets of Rage II - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project Computer - Wolfenstein 3D - Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant - Ultima VII: The Black Gate - King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow - Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen - Alone in the Dark - Dune II Portable - Kirby's Dream Land - Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins Arcade - Mortal Kombat (Arcade) \[1993 SNES/Genesis\] ## 1993 Console - Sonic the Hedgehog CD - Gunstar Heroes - Star Fox - Shining Force - Secret of Mana - Kirby's Adventure - Lufia & the Foress of Doom - Lunar: The Silver Star - Zombies Ate My Neighbors - Ecco the Dolphin - Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master - Disney's Aladdin \[Genesis\] - Disney's Aladdin \[SNES\] Computer - Doom - Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle - The 7th Guest - Myst - Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle - Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen Portable - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening Arcade - NBA Jam \[1994 SNES/Genesis\] - Mortal Kombat II \[1994 SNES/Genesis\] - Super Street Fighter II \[1994 SNES/Genesis\] - Virtua Fighter (1995 Saturn) ## 1994 Console - Final Fantasy III (aka FF6) - Super Metroid - Donkey Kong Country - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 + Sonic & Knuckles - Mega Man X - Earthworm Jim - Super Punch-Out!! - Illusion of Gaia - Breath of Fire - Mega Man 6 - Shining Force II - Contra: Hard Corps - Castlevania: Bloodlines - Ecco: The Tides of Time - Streets of Rage III Computer - Doom II: Hell on Earth - Marathon - WarCraft - X-Com: UFO Defense - Descent - System Shock - Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger - The Elder Scrolls: Arena Portable - Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - Donkey Kong (Game Boy) Arcade - Killer Instinct \[1995 SNES\] - Tekken \[1995 PS1\] - NBA Jam Tournament Edition \[1995 SNES/Genesis\] - Virtua Cop \[1995 Saturn\] - Daytona USA \[1995 Saturn\] - Darkstalkers \[1996 PS1\] ## 1995 Console - Chrono Trigger - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Phantasy Star IV (Note: GameFAQs currently lists its NA release inaccurately as 1994) - Lunar: Eternal Blue (Note: GameFAQs currently lists its NA release inaccurately as 1994) - EarthBound - Breath of Fire II - Earthworm Jim 2 - Mega Man 7 - Mega Man X2 - Vectorman - Comix Zone - Panzer Dragoon - Rayman - Secret of Evermore - Twisted Metal - Mortal Kombat 3 (Arcade the same year) - Street Fighter Alpha (Arcade the same year) - Virtua Fighter 2 (Arcade the same year) Computer - Command & Conquer - WarCraft 2 - MechWarrior 2 - Marathon 2 - Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest - Full Throttle Portable - Kirby's Dream Land 2 Arcade - Tekken 2 (Arcade) \[1996 PS1\] ## 1996 Console - Super Mario 64 - Super Mario RPG - Resident Evil - Tomb Raider (Computer the same year) - Crash Bandicoot - Kirby Super Star - Mega Man X3 - Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! - Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - Suikoden - Panzer Dragoon II Zwei - Dragon Force - Nights into Dreams - Tetris Attack (Game Boy the same year) - Street Fighter Alpha 2 (Arcade the same year) - Twisted Metal 2 - Guardian Heroes Computer - Descent II - Duke Nukem 3D - Commander & Conquer: Red Alert - Quake - Diablo - Civilization II - Heroes of Might and Magic II - Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall Arcade - Time Crisis (Arcade) \[1997 PS1\] - Metal Slug \[1997 PS1\] - Dead or Alive \[1998 PS1\] ## 1997 - Final Fantasy VII - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - GoldenEye 007 - Mario Kart 64 - Star Fox 64 - Diddy Kong Racing - Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back - Mega Man 8 - Mega Man X4 - Kirby's Dream Land 3 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (Computer the same year) - Tomb Raider II (Computer the same year) - Blast Corps - PaRappa the Rapper - Harvest Moon Computer - The Curse of Monkey's Island - Fallout - Quake 2 - Age of Empires Arcade - Street Fighter III - Tekken 3 \[1998 PS1\] ## 1998 Console - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Metal Gear Solid - Final Fantasy Tactics - Spyro the Dragon - Resident Evil 2 - Crash Bandicoot: Warped - Panzer Dragoon Saga - Xenogears - Parasite Eve - Banjo-Kazooie - Breath of Fire III - Gran Turismo - F-Zero X - Mega Man Legends - Yoshi's Story - Mission: Impossible (N64) - Shining Force III Computer - Grim Fandango - Grand Theft Auto - Baldur's Gate - Fallout 2 - Half-Life - StarCraft - Unreal - Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven - Thief: The Dark Project Portable - Wario Land II - Pokémon Red and Blue Arcade - Soulcalibur \[1999 Dreamcast\] - Time Crisis II \[2001 PS2\] - Gauntlet Legends \[1999 N64\] - Metal Slug 2 - Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes \[1999 Dreamcast\] - Street Fighter Alpha 3 \[1999 PS1\] ## 1999 Console - Super Smash Bros. - Final Fantasy VIII - Silent Hill - Mario Party - Sonic Adventure - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater - Donkey Kong 64 - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage - Resident Evil 3 - Crash Team Racing - Grand Theft Auto II (Computer in same year) - Mario Golf (64) - Star Ocean: The Second Story - Suikoden II - Rayman 2: The Great Escape (Computer in same year) - Gran Turismo 2 - Pokémon Snap - Grandia - Harvest Moon 64 Computer - System Shock 2 - Quake 3 - Age of Empires II - Unreal Tournament - Planescape: Torment - Counter-Strike - RollerCoaster Tycoon - Everquest - Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor - Heroes of Might and Magic III - Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Arcade - Crazy Taxi \[2000 Dreamcast\] - Dance Dance Revolution \[2001 PS1\] - Dead or Alive 2 \[2000 Dreamcast\] ## 2000 Console - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Final Fantasy IX - Perfect Dark - Chrono Cross - Vagrant Story - The Legend of Dragoon - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (Computer in same year) - Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - Spyro: Year of the Dragon - Breath of Fire IV - Pokémon Stadium - Shenmue - Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Arcade in same year) - Jet Grind Radio - Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber - Vagrant Story - Legend of Mana - Skies of Arcadia - Banjo-Tooie - Resident Evil Code: Veronica - WWF No Mercy - Digimon World - Mario Party 2 - Mario Tennis (64) - Timesplitters - Grandia II - Harvest Moon: Back To Nature Computer - Deus Ex - Diablo II - Escape from Monkey Island - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn - Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 - Thief II: The Metal Age - The Sims Portable - Wario Land 3 - Pokémon Gold and Silver Arcade - Gauntlet Dark Legacy \[2001 PS2\] ## 2001 Console - Final Fantasy X - Super Smash Bros. Melee - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Halo: Combat Evolved - Grand Theft Auto III - Silent Hill 2 - Paper Mario (64) - Devil May Cry - Sonic Adventure 2 - Ico - Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy - Conker's Bad Fur Day - Mega Man X5 - Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec - Luigi's Mansion - Dragon Warrior VII - Pikmin - Mario Party 3 - Pokémon Stadium 2 - Shadow Hearts - Digimon World 2 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - Phantasy Star Online - Dead or Alive 3 - Max Payne (Computer in same year) Computer - RuneScape - Wizardry 8 - Civilization III Portable - Advance Wars - Wario Land 4 - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons - The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages - Golden Sun - Mario Kart: Super Circuit ## 2002 Console - Kingdom Hearts - Metroid Prime - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - Super Mario Sunshine - Animal Crossing - Suikoden III - Timesplitters 2 - Fatal Frame - Resident Evil 0 - Digimon World 3 - Dragon Ball Z: Budokai - Ratchet & Clank - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Eternal Darkness - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Computer in same year) - Shenmue II Computer - Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos - Battlefield 1942 - Heroes of Might and Magic IV Portable - Metroid Fusion - Sonic Advance - Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance Arcade - Soulcalibur II \[2003 Gamecube/PS2/Xbox\] ## 2003 Console - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Computer in same year) - Mario Kart: Double Dash - Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - Beyond Good & Evil (Computer in same year) - F-Zero GX - Kirby Air Ride - Viewtiful Joe - Jak II - Silent Hill 3 - Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc - Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly - Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Xenosaga Episode I - Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Computer in same year) - Final Fantasy X-2 - Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (Computer in same year) Computer - Call of Duty - Defense of the Ancients/DOTA - Command & Conquer: Generals Portable - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - Sonic Advance 2 - Golden Sun: The Lost Age - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! - Fire Emblem \[GBA\] - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire - Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising ## 2004 Console - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Halo 2 - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Pikmin 2 - Shadow Hearts: Covenant - Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 - Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal - Tales of Symphonia - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords - Jak 3 - Katamari Damacy - Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow (Computer in same year) - Doom 3 (Computer in same year) - Burnout 3: Takedown - Star Ocean: Till the End of Time - Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (Computer in same year) - Fable - Star Wars: Battlefront (Computer in same year) - Mario Power Tennis Computer - World of Warcraft - Half-Life 2 - Unreal Tournament 2004 - The Sims 2 - Far Cry Portable - Metroid: Zero Mission - Sonic Advance 3 - Sonic Battle ## 2005 Console - Resident Evil 4 - God of War - Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening - Shadow of the Colossus - Dragon Quest VIII - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Computer in same year) - Psychonauts (Computer in same year) - Guitar Hero - Star Wars: Battlefront II (Computer in same year) - Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (Computer in same year) - Star Fox: Assault - Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Xenosaga Episode II - Timesplitters Future Perfect - Gran Turismo 4 - Call of Duty 2 (Computer in same year) - We Love Katamari Computer - Civilization IV Portable - Sonic Rush - Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Animal Crossing: Wild World - Mario Kart DS - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time - Advance Wars: Dual Strike - Kirby: Canvas Curse - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap ## 2006 Console - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Kingdom Hearts II - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Computer in same year) - Final Fantasy XII - Suikoden V - Xenosaga Episode III - Tales of Legendia - Tales of the Abyss - Wii Sports - Guitar Hero II - Gears of War - Okami - Dead Rising - Bully - Call of Duty 3 Portable - Elite Beat Agents - Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - New Super Mario Bros. - Kirby Squeak Squad - Magnetica - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team ## 2007 Console - Super Mario Galaxy - Portal (Computer in same year) - Team Fortress 2 (Computer in same year) - BioShock (Computer in same year) - Halo 3 - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Computer in same year) - Assassin's Creed - Mass Effect - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 - God of War II - Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 - Rock Band - Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Computer in same year) Computer - Crysis Portable - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations - Pokémon Diamond and Pearl - The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 ## 2008 Console - Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Fallout 3 (Computer in same year) - Grand Theft Auto IV (Computer in same year) - Mario Kart Wii - Dead Space (Computer in same year) - Tales of Vesperia - LittleBigPlanet - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 - Left 4 Dead (Computer in same year) - Gears of War 2 - Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360) - Mega Man 9 - Valkyria Chronicles - No More Heroes - Rock Band 2 - Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (Computer in same year) Portable - The World Ends with You - Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - Advance Wars: Days of Ruin - Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift ## 2009 Console - Assassin's Creed II - Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Batman: Arkham Asylum (Computer in same year) - Dragon Age: Origins (Computer in same year) - Resident Evil 5 (Computer in same year) - Demon's Souls - Borderlands (Computer in same year) - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Computer in same year) - Left 4 Dead 2 (Computer in same year) - Infamous - Punch-Out!! (Wii) - New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Street Fighter IV (Computer in same year) Computer - League of Legends - Plants vs. Zombies - Farmville - Minecraft - The Sims 3 Portable - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - Angry Birds - Dissidia Final Fantasy - The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days ## 2010 Console - Mass Effect 2 (Computer in same year) - Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Fallout New Vegas (Computer in same year) - Nier - Red Dead Redemption - Halo: Reach - God of War III - Final Fantasy XIII - Sonic Colors - Donkey Kong Country Returns - BioShock 2 (Computer in same year) - Mega Man 10 - Heavy Rain - Bayonetta - Gran Turismo 5 Computer - Civilization V - Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Portable - Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies - Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth - Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey - Pokemon HeartGold/Soul Silver - Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - Ys Seven ## 2011 Console - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Computer in same year) - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - Batman: Arkham City (Computer in same year) - Portal 2 (Computer in same year) - Dark Souls - Sonic Generations - Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds - Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Computer in same year) - Rayman Origins - Gears of War 3 - Mortal Kombat Computer - The Binding of Isaac Portable - Pokémon Black and White - Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy - Super Mario 3D Land - Mario Kart 7 - Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Radiant Historia ## 2012 Console - Mass Effect 3 (Computer in same year) - Borderlands 2 (Computer in same year) - Journey - The Walking Dead: Telltale Series (Computer in same year) - Assassin's Creed III (Computer in same year) - Final Fantasy XIII-2 - Far Cry 3 (Computer in same year) - Spec Ops: The Line (Computer in same year) - X-Com: Enemy Unknown (Computer in same year) - Dragon's Dogma - Xenoblade Chronicles - Dishonored (Computer in same year) - Persona 4 Arena - Tales of Graces f - New Super Mario Bros. U - Max Payne 3 (Computer in same year) Computer - Diablo III - Hotline Miami Portable - Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 - Kid Icarus Uprising - Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy - New Super Mario Bros. 2 - Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 ## 2013 Console - The Last of Us - BioShock Infinite (Computer in same year) - Grand Theft Auto V - Tomb Raider (PS3/360, Computer in same year) - Super Mario 3D World - Tales of Xillia - Rayman Legends (Computer in same year) - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Gran Turismo 6 Computer - Dota 2 Portable - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Dual Destinies - Pokémon X and Y - Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Fire Emblem Awakening - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - Mario & Luigi: Dream Team - Shin Megami Tensei 4 ## 2014 Console - Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U - Dark Souls II (Computer in same year) - Dragon Age: Inquisition (Computer in same year) - Bayonetta 2 - Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII - Destiny - Mario Kart 8 - South Park: The Stick of Truth (Computer in same year) - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Tales of Xillia 2 - Persona 4 Arena Ultimax - The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Computer in same year) - Game of Thrones Telltale (Computer in same year) - Shovel Knight (Computer and Portable in same year) Computer - Hearthstone (Portable in same year) - Five Nights at Freddy's Portable - Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire - Kirby Triple Deluxe - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call - Bravely Default - Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth  - Fantasy Life ## 2015 Console - Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Computer in same year) - Fallout 4 (Computer in same year) - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Computer in same year) - Super Mario Maker - Bloodborne - Splatoon - Life Is Strange (Computer in same year) - Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - Xenoblade Chronicles X - Rocket League (Computer in same year) - Rise of the Tomb Raider Computer - Undertale Portable - Final Fantasy Record Keeper - Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls ## 2016 Console - Final Fantasy XV - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Dark Souls III (Computer in same year) - DOOM (Computer in same year) - The Last Guardian - Overwatch (Computer in same year) - Street Fighter V (Computer in same year) - Battlefield 1 (Computer in same year) Portable - Pokémon Go - Pokémon Sun and Moon - Fire Emblem Fates - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Spirit of Justice - Zero Time Dilemma - Super Mario Run - Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse --- ## 1979 vs 2009 _source: 1979 vs 2009 (revid 81299)_ ## Results **Wildcard Round** Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis 15760 votes in a contest match is laughably bad, but just about every match would be like this. Day one was a good indicator, to say the least. Allen's idea of vote-ins were these pre-contest style of match where four matches would happen two a day. This is actually a cool idea that needs to stick around instead of the old vote-ins where we get something like 10 options to a poll. I dig it. I could get into 1979's 1978 votes being atrocious to historical levels, but we had so many such examples in this contest that I could never cover them all. I am going to make a small comparison once though: Tanner got 4492 votes in that match, and 5.7% of the vote. It was our go-to point for contest futility for years. Fast forward to now, and we get matches where the loser gets 2978 with 19% of the vote. 2004 Tanner could probably finish in the top 10 of the x-stats in the Spring 2017 Contest. So bad. Regarding 1979 as a gaming year, only guys like neon, transience, or other extremely old people could speak to actually "bring there". We've all played Asteroids and Galaxian at some point, but is anyone complaining about them being blown out? No? Good. Moving on. --- ## 1983 vs 1989 _source: 1983 vs 1989 (revid 81301)_ ## Results **Wildcard Round** Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis The other wild card match on day one was this one, and it was equally predictable as the first. The only notable thing here about the actual match is that it was one of only six matches in the wild cards or round one where the winner scored under seventy percent. This contest was blowout city even past that, but still. What I want to know is who on earth are the people that voted for 1983? If you voted as a joke, great. I get it. But if you actually think 1983 was a better year than 1989, you're insane. Atari being stupid in the early 80s almost made it so we had no video games at all, and E.T. in 1983 specifically was the lynchpin for it. Gaming in America was all but dead after that debacle, and if it wasn't for Japan being intelligent with their business practices, gaming would have died. I was born in 1983 so I'm not old enough to have been there, but gamers in my family used to tell stories about Atari almost killing things. I grew up hearing about it. Granted E.T. isn't quite as bad as something like Warcraft 3, Hearthstone, or Shadow of the Colossus, but still. Although in an ironic way, I guess some people actually do hope for another crash and revere 1983's influence in that regard. --- ## 1981 vs 2006 _source: 1981 vs 2006 (revid 81300)_ ## Results **Wildcard Round** Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis 2006 even being in a wild card match at all was a complete joke, and I'll get into its lineup more next round when I do a full retrospective, but as for these wild card matches there was zero reason for 2006 to be here. Thankfully this was over in seconds and we were able to just forget about this nonsense immediately. I will point out that if you're a fan of arcade games, 1981 was a really good year. We've all played Donkey Kong and I imagine most of us know about the stories with people getting perfect scores in that game. If not, look into it. It's fascinating stuff. There was also Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga, which are iconic video games that stand up to games made even today in 2017. Even Ultima, which I'm not a fan of, got the ball rolling for RPGs, which is the favorite genre on this site. It also gave us (eventually) one of the funniest video game review videos ever made: --- ## 1978 vs 2005 _source: 1978 vs 2005 (revid 81298)_ ## Results **Wildcard Round** Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis The last of these wild card matches was also the biggest blowout, and in a way it's a shame. I really do like the idea of scored 1v1 play-ins that we pick in a bracket, but in a contest this poor people might forget how neat this was. We just need a better selection of what actually gets put into the play-ins next time is all. 2006 and 2005 both had zero reason to be in play-in polls, and for 1978 to get so thoroughly demolished like this says a lot. It makes me wonder why Allen didn't just use the most recent 32 years in a 1v1 bracket instead of doing the weird play-in thing with years before 1985. And believe it or not, this would not be our biggest blowout of the contest! Normally I pull up the blowout list, but that's worth doing when a contest has a rare blowout or two like this one. In this contest's first round it was practically every match giving us this. 1978 honestly deserved better, because every gamer alive has played some version of Space Invaders or Breakout, the latter of which eventually got repackaged as Arkanoid. To this day, I credit Breakout/Arkanoid with being so good at geometry. Come to think of it, a lot of video games have helped us with real world stuff at some point, even if some people might think it's lame to admit such things. --- ## 1995 vs 1986 _source: 1995 vs 1986 (revid 81310)_ ## Results **Round One** Thursday, May 4th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis Our first match of the contest was also the biggest blowout of the contest, so this is where the annual list of biggest blowouts will go. We also got a few clues about this contest that would have been great to know ahead of time. For the first time ever, our match pictures would scroll and be multi-game pictures with a sprite up top, which is a fantastic idea but was wasted on a contest like this. We also didn't get to picsmith until round 3, and every picture from round 1 got reused. Lastly, and somehow I didn't even notice this until the contest began, but only American releases for games were considered. This turned a disjointed contest into something pretty arbitrary. The Legend of Zelda came out in 1986, but by the standards of this contest it's a 1987 game. We also figured out that vote totals would be very, very, very low. Depressingly low, even. It's sad to think how even bad matches used to get 130,000 votes, and now we sit here not even getting 17,000 in an opening match. I know people don't care about arbitrary things like years, but still. The only game from 1986 I can really comment on is Bubble Bobble, which is better than about 80% of games you could name in this bracket. I maintain the actual years should have been used over the American releases, but hey. Not that 1986 deserved to win this, but go play Bubble Bobble if you haven't. 1995 is a different animal entirely. Video games helped get me through a very rough childhood (and beyond), and 1995 just has so many games that I'm in love with. My favorite might honestly be Yoshi's Island, which is the most unique game in the entire Mario series. I fell in love with that game when hanging out with cousins as a kid, and learning how to get a 100 in every level is one of my proudest gaming accomplishments. I loved the game enough to actually write a guide for it on this site: EarthBound is another game I just adore. After years of Lucid Faia asking me to play that game, I finally took the plunge. And maaaaaaaan was I not disappointed at all. There is an indescribable charm about that game, and while it's known for quirky humor it gets deathly serious and exceptionally emotional later on. The final sequence of that game is something that rivals any other game ever made, and it's why my 500th post of choice was "Play EarthBound" for years and years. The gameplay is top notch, too. To date, it's one of the only RPGs I've played where you automatically win if the enemies are too weak. Heroes of Might and Magic sort of does this, but you only get half the experience. EarthBound just lets you have all of it. Too good. Earthworm Jim 2 is one of those rare sequels where I was massively hyped, and wasn't disappointed at all. I'm still old enough to remember renting video games from independent movies stores and Blockbuster, and I would rent that game every week until finally beating it. As good as 1 was, 2 was better in every way and there aren't many sequels you can say that about. That series is the perfect mix of humor, 2D platforming, gameplay, and shoot-em-up. Blending genres that well is often a complete disaster (Knights in the Nightmare), but when it works well, it's magic. I couldn't believe Lunar 2 came out in 1995 when researching this, but.... yeah. Wow. 1 is definitely the better game, but 2 is still really damn good. Naming the main character "Hiro" is lame as anything and the voice acting is atrocious, but the plot and gameplay are top notch. There's just something special about RPG systems that go beyond attack-attack-attack-cure. My best friend actually owned both of these for the Playstation 1 unopened, and cracked them just to let me play them even knowing how much they were worth. I have the best friends on earth, and for that reason Lunars 1 and 2 are very sentimental for me. Then Dragon's Song happened and it became a huge meme in our little circle. It's difficult to comment in various similar games in massive series like Street Fighter, Mega Man, Mortal Kombat, or Kirby, but I've played most of those games to come out in 1995. Loved them all. A random underrated standout that people here might not have played is Vectorman, which is a really neat platforming shooter for the Sega Genesis. You play as a futuristic green robot and shoot things, which is way more fun than it sounds. You get upgrades, shoot stuff, and you 2D platform. It's basically a more serious Earthworm Jim, but with robots. Play it. Last but not least is Chrono Trigger. Man. I actually remember when this game came out as a kid and cost 80 dollars, which was insane for a Super Nintendo game and I said fuck that. It's actually part of the reason I went with Sega as a kid. I saw the prices of some of the games and went with the cheaper option. It wasn't until adulthood where I realized the SNES was the far better system. Then eventually the Summer 2002 Contest happened and I'm like, okay who the hell is this guy? So I played Chrono Trigger, but the Playstation 1 version. It was INCREDIBLE, and I didn't even notice lag. Eventually I played the other versions, and ultimately the DS port. Chrono Trigger deserves all of the hype it gets, and to this day I still love Magus. I'd say more, but everything good that can be said about that game has already been said. The best review you'll read of it was written by this guy: --- ## 1985 vs 1987 _source: 1985 vs 1987 (revid 81302)_ ## Results **Round One** Thursday, May 4th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis 1987 winning in a blowout was no surprise, since anyone that's paid any attention knows Zelda SFFs Mario into the ground in these contests and this match was effectively Mario 1 vs Zelda 1. I wanted 1987 to win, but '85 has a really special place in my heart. I still remember being given a Nintendo for Christmas as a kid, and my entire family playing the heck out of Mario 1. I used to love watching my aunt do speed runs of that game, and to this day I can't beat Mario 1 faster than she can. We do a cool little thing for Christmas each year where we have dueling Nintendos and see who can beat the game quicker, and she always wins. The fastest I've ever been able to do it was 10 seconds behind her, and one day maybe I'll get there. Shout out to Duck Hunt and Oregon Trail, too. Who hasn't sat in class in elementary school playing Oregon Trail and shooting buffalo and squirrels all day? That said, getting a Nintendo is much different than playing arguably the best game ever made on it. The Legend of Zelda for me is the pinnacle of video game design, even today. I wouldn't rank it super high on a personal list or anything, but it might objectively be the best video game ever made. Not to review plug too much, but I'm really proud of this one: Zelda 1 is another game my family and I would play together a lot, and it was just different finding every secret back before things like internets and strategy guides existed. The instruction manual told you where the first 4 levels were, and past that you were on your own. It was an incredible game experience, and I'm told my love for Zelda 1 means I'll love Breath of the Wild. We'll see, but I'm looking forward to trying it out! Zelda 1 isn't alone that year, either. I played Metroid 1 not too long ago, and enjoyed it even though it was totally archaic. A Metroid where you could only shoot straight? The fuck? Punch-Out, the first Mega Man, and the first Castlevania are also all incredible games that I have fond memories of for one reason or another. I love Mega Man enough to have written a guide for it, and I've loved Castlevania since day one. Apparently so do the guys that made Bloodborne, since Logarius is basically a Death fight. Made tons of friends playing Punch-Out as a kid, and I wasn't actually able to beat the game until I was an adult. It's one of those games that's super simple on the surface, but man is it actually hard to play. --- ## 2001 vs 2014 _source: 2001 vs 2014 (revid 81325)_ ## Results **Round One** Friday, May 5th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis For me, 2014 thoroughly deserved to get demolished in this contest. I like the new Smash Bros and Dark Souls 2, don't get me wrong, but that's basically all I've played from that year that I enjoy. I may have missed some games, but hey. Most importantly, Hearthstone came out that year. Hearthstone is on the level of Shadow of the Colossus or Warcraft 3 with me; bottom of the barrel garbage that shouldn't ever win anything. I could honestly make the case for Hearthstone's RNG making it the worst video game ever made, but Warcraft 3's RPG item system shoehorned into an RTS is so difficult On top of that, look at how damn stacked 2001 is. I could never cram all my love for these 2001 games into a single PCA writeup, but I can shorten it up a bit for the sake of proving a point. Look at this list, and this is just stuff I've personally played and enjoyed: -the Gamecube -the Playstation 2 -Final Fantasy X -Super Smash Bros. Melee -Metal Gear Solid 2 -Silent Hill 2 -Devil May Cry -Jak and Daxter -Conker's Bad Fur Day -Luigi's Mansion -Advance Wars -Castlevania: Circle of the Moon -Oracle of Ages -Oracle of Seasons -Golden Sun -Pikmin That doesn't count Halo. I don't like Halo at all, but tons of people do. I don't care about Mario Party games or Mario Kart games or Runescape, but millions of people do. I don't care about the Xbox, but tens of millions of people do. We're comparing a year like 2001 to fuckin Hearthstone and it's shitty RNG? Give me a break. Fuck you and get your shit wrecked, 2014. There are a few games here I need to give some personal love to, starting with Melee. We all have a Melee story, and mine is pretty simple. I loved Smash 64, and anywhere I went there was a huge circle of Smash fans that loved the hell out of Melee. Any college I attended, any town I visited, any friend I made, we all loved Melee and played the hell out of it. I never became a mega pro, but I always enjoyed using Wedding Dress Peach and shitting all over mega pro strategies. Wavedashing? Take 50 damage. Air garbage? Get DJC'd and Smash Turnip'd. I always got wrecked by Sheik and Marth, but so did everyone else. Melee is probably the one game on this web site we all grew up with, which makes the occasional random anti-Melee idiot you see that much dumber. There might not be another video game that's fostered such an insane sense of friendship and community among gamers than Super Smash Bros. Melee, which is why we all hated Brawl so much for being so terrible. None of us wanted Brawl to be bad. It just was. Final Fantasy X might be the last true blue grade-A legend title in the Final Fantasy series. 12 is good. 13 is good. 15 is great. Kingdom Hearts games are...... yeah. But none are LEGENDS like Final Fantasy X was, and the crazy thing is I didn't like the game all that much until learning Yuna's truth, going to Home, and getting through Bevelle. Then it hit me that this happy go lucky video game with the beach boy blonde guy on the cover was not a happy story at all. Final Fantasy X is one of the darkest games I'll ever play, with an incredibly unique stat system to boot. There sphere grid is amazing, haters be damned. And Blitzball is a solid \#2 or \#3 mini game in that series. The order is Blitzball, Triple Triad, and FF9's chocobo treasure hunts in some order. Then there's Metal Gear Solid 2, which honest to goodness was a game that made me really think twice about how government actually operates. At this point most people don't doubt things like new world orders and deep states, but for Kojima to discuss these things back in 2001 when no one knew about them was incredibly risky. Best plot of any game in this series by far, and probably the best gameplay to boot. I didn't mind playing as Raiden, because the decision to see Snake from someone else's eyes was an incredibly ballsy design choice. A lot of video games try to put the player in as an avatar. None achieve it better than Metal Gear Solid 2 does. I eventually beat this game on extreme, which is a favorite gaming accomplishment of mine. Fighting the plane on extreme is nuts, but fighting 50 Ray units was fucking out of control. I still can't believe I pulled that off. For some quick hitters, I like Devil May Cry but fixed camera angles are trash. Advance Wars is incredibly charming, and the entire series is incredible. Hopefully we get a new one soon. Jak and Conker both have some decent games. And the hidden star from this year is easily Silent Hill 2. If you're a fan of psych thriller horror instead of jump scares like me, you \*MUST\* play Silent Hill 2. It's not negotiable. --- ## 2008 vs 2009 _source: 2008 vs 2009 (revid 81329)_ ## Results **Round One** Friday, May 5th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis I'll save the Brawl rant for round 2, but we all knew going into this match that 2008's lineup would be strictly stronger than 2009's. The only games from 2009 I've even played are Demon's Souls, Resident Evil 5, Street Fighter 4, League of Legends, Dissidia, Angry Birds, New Mario, Kingdom Hearts 358/2, and maybe a game or two I missed somewhere. Most of those games are complete trash, and would never be enough to beat a year with Brawl, MGS4, and Fallout 3 in it. MGS4 was the original reason I bought a Playstation 3, and it has a ton of sentimental value for me since I used my grandmother's inheritance for it. By the late 2000s I was rich and didn't really need an inheritance to buy a gaming system, but sentimental stuff is still there. MGS4 ended up an incredible experience, too. The people who hate on that game are insane. We've spent a decade getting attached to this character, and we finally got to see his story through. It was tough to watch. I can't believe the latest Advance Wars came out 9 years ago. What's up with that series? Days of Ruin was incredible, and yet somehow that was our most recent AW game. I don't get it. Best music in the series by far, and the change of scenery was sorely needed. Battleships and Dusters were too good, but so what? All these games have a unit or two that's too good. That's the point. Can't forget about Tales of Vesperia when talking about 2008. To date, that game is still the only Xbox exclusive, ever, that's been worth a damn. Every other good game on that system ended up on another platform, which I told people on day one would happen. The damn thing was made by Microsoft, of course the good games would all be on PC. What did these people expect? Yet another thing I was ahead of the curve on. I've played a few Tales games, and Vesperia is my favorite one so far. Yuri Lowell is one of the best JRPG leads I've seen, and his voice acting is top notch. Past that, these two years being together gives us a good reason to look at all the trash and laugh at it. Crisis Core, Left 4 Dead, Brawl, Mario Kart, GTA4, LittleBigPlanet, another Gears of War, another Rock Band, The World Ends With You, another bad FFT game, that terrible Apollo Justice game, Infamous, that terrible Punch-Out remake, Spirit Tracks, and the games I mentioned earlier. Probably more I'm totally forgetting. Also, I haven't played a Persona game yet but I'm praying the games aren't as annoying as the fanbase is. If they're even CLOSE to being as bad as those fans, then the games are bottom of the barrel. I'm reserving judgment on that one until actually playing the games so we'll see. --- ## 1997 vs 1999 _source: 1997 vs 1999 (revid 81315)_ ## Results **Round One** Saturday, May 6th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis I was in high school from 1997 through 2001, so my fondest gaming memories might be within those two years. It makes sense for 1997 to score the mega blowout here, but 1999 got a raw deal. Smash 64 came out that year, and this was really the game that got my friends to hang out more than anything else. I still remember being over my best friend's house jamming video games, and our buddy brings over this weird game we'd never heard of. We start playing it, and we were all hooked immediately. We'd never played something this fun, this unique before, and we were all completely terrible at it. I was especially terrible, because my favorite character at the time was Link. When I first started playing Smash 64, I picked a character that can't jump for shit and would literally walk off the level and die more often than not. Given how day one went, it's a wonder I became the best player in my circle. Final Fantasy 8 can't be forgotten, either. I still remember FF7 hype, and to this day I don't get why people hated 8 so much. I love 8, and loved it right from day one. All the weird stuff they added really hit it off with me, and to this day I enjoy it whenever I replay the game. Unfortunately, FF8 and Smash 64 is about all 1999 has. Past that is a bunch of niche stuff that few people care about. I've played some stuff here and there, but nothing I would be insanely passionate about. 1997 just has a lot more than just two games to get excited about, which is why it won this match. I'm still a huge Final Fantasy 7 fan, and I'm completely unapologetic about this. I think the haters are basically idiots. I've said all the good things I can about FF7 over the years, so we move on. Symphony of the Night is one of those games I played because of these contests. In the 2002 and 2003 contests, Alucard made the second round twice. I got fooled in 2002 and actually picked him to make round 3 in 2003, and finally told myself I had to play his game. When I did, it was a real holy shit moment. It was honest to goodness the first Metroid game I'd ever played, and man did I get hooked on that formula. Never played a Metroid, never played a Metroidvania. Symphony of the Night was my first, and it was fantastic. To this day, there's nothing like the feeling of dual Crissaegrims completely dumpstering that entire game. Can't forget Goldeneye, either. Holy shit, what a damn amazing game that was. Is there anyone on this site that hasn't jammed out all hours of the night with friends playing Goldeneye multiplayer? My circle's rules were License to Kill. Only. Ever. I played so much License to Kill that I could probably feel comfortable in a tournament if such things existed. Especially pistols in the bunker. I wouldn't even know what to do with a health bar at this point, because I'm so used to playing with OHKOs. Can't forget how great the single player was, either! Unlocking all those cheats for a 007 file, especially that damn Facility level, is an incredible thing to do. Holy shit, I'm looking at this list and Star Fox 64 came out that year too. I was decent at that game, but my friend was a literal pro. If he was into streaming, he'd probably set records in it. As much as I loved playing that game, watching my friend Joe play it was an unforgettable experience. He mastered every trick there was, and playing multiplayer with him was completely pointless. I got wrecked even if he was on foot and I had an arwing. I have to give some love to Mega Man 8 here. Yes the voice acting blows and the game is a joke, but it created so many inside jokes for my pals that I have a special love for it. We sat around calling each other WAHWEE for months thanks to Dr. Light being such a fucking loser in that game. Thanks, Mega Man 8. Oh yeah, and this video comes from a game released in 1997: --- ## 2007 vs 2012 _source: 2007 vs 2012 (revid 81328)_ ## Results **Round One** Saturday, May 6th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis I know 2012 won't finish last in the LOL x-stats, but I'd be hard pressed to find many gaming years worse than 2012. I'm looking at this list of games and it's just rehash city. I loved Mass Effect 3 and Journey, and everything else is either garbage or I haven't played it yet. Speaking of garbage, fuck Diablo 3. I was so hyped for that game and it was bona fide, grade A, complete fucking trash of the highest accord. A real money auction house, bad item drops, a shitty rune/class system, and people STILL defending Blizzard. If that entire company went out of business tomorrow it would be the greatest thing in gaming history and I'm being completely serious. 2007 isn't that much better, but I can at least see why people like some of these games. Super Mario Galaxy gives me motion sickness and it's garbage that we need to use the stupid Wiimote to play it, but I get why people enjoy it. It's a solid game. Team Fortress 2, same deal. FPS battle arenas aren't my thing, but I get why people enjoy Team Fortress 2. Solid game that shits all over Overwatch in every way. And on and on. Lots of games I think are "okay", but I get why they get some love. I can't give you people Phantom Hourglass, Halo 3, Call of Duty, Rock Band, or Assassin's Creed though. Pure trash, especially Phantom Hourglass's 27350 visits to the Ocean Palace. How the hell did that shit get greenlit? And yeah I said it. Rock Band fucking blows. Deus Ex embarrassing that trash series was one of the best contest results we'll ever have. As for what I love, it's a tragedy that Portal didn't come out 5-10 years later. It would have caught an Undertale wave and won a contest here. Easily. That game dominated the gaming meme category for a solid year. Mass Effect 1, which is a game people hate on for some stupid-ass reason, is also great. People bitch about the side quests and open worlds being bad, even though all of them are optional. Hell geniuses, you don't even have to play those. God of War 2 and BioShock are up there for best intros in all of gaming, but BioShock ends up being the better game overall. Barely. God of War 2 is a fantastic action game, but BioShock is a legend, and proof that the best storytelling is subtle. Atmospheric. Indirect. The Soulsborne series has mastered this. Are you a man, or are you a slave? Obey. And then there's Radiant Dawn. Good old Fire Emblem. Path of Radiance is the better game, but this one had the potential to be the best game in the series. If it had just stuck with one team or done the multiple playthrough thing like Fates did, it would have been \#1. But with the constant switching, I can't do it. Still an amazing game and possibly my favorite game from that year, though. --- ## 2000 vs 1990 _source: 2000 vs 1990 (revid 81320)_ ## Results **Round One** Sunday, May 7th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis I originally picked 1990 in my bracket because I figured the strongest game would make the biggest difference in a contest like this -- though one could argue Mario 3 isn't the strongest game represented in this match at this point. Majora's Mask might have something to say about that. But then Allen showed us how pictures would work about an hour before lockdown, and I didn't get home in time to change my pick to 2000, since it was painfully obvious 2000 was winning once the format came out. This lack of communication was beyond unacceptable, and this sort of thing happened all contest long. It's bad enough to have a bad contest, but bad communication on the format is worse. Come match time, I was in no way surprised 1990 got demolished. This was basically Mario 3 and Final Fantasy 1 versus the world, and by now we knew depth was going to matter given the rotating pictures and such. My love of Mario 3 should be pretty well known by now. It's my favorite Mario game, and one of my favorite games ever. Take everything I said about Zelda 1 a few writeups ago and repeat it for Mario 3. I have an insane sentimental attachment to that game that I will never get rid of. I have a similar attachment to Final Fantasy, which I used to watch my aunt play. It was the first game in that series I played, but I was a kid and couldn't figure it out. I didn't actually beat it until a few years ago. Past that, shout out to Mega Man 3, Ninja Gaiden 2, Castlevania 3, Batman, Chip n Dale, Dr. Mario, Dragon Warrior 2, and River City Ransom. The NES was on fire in 1990. And because it deserves its own paragraph, fuck yeah Crystalis. Incredible, incredible video game. Think Zelda, but faster with a bunch of different elemental swords. All that said, 2000 is the much better year top to bottom. There are way too many games here I love to give full writeups to them all, but here's the list: -Majora's Mask -Final Fantasy 9 -Perfect Dark -Chrono Cross -Marvel vs Capcom 2 -Code Veronica -Mario Tennis 64 -Deus Ex -Diablo 2 I could write for hours and hours about these games alone, but I can't. Got stuff to do. You get blurbs instead. Chrono Cross was the first game my wife and I played together, so I'll always love it in its own special way. Disregard my review, I need to rewrite it from scratch. Majora's Mask was the first Christmas present I got after my mom died, and I still have the gold holo cartridge. It's one of the games I want to get buried with, because I'm so attached to it. If my N64 or that game ever stops working, I'm going to get really upset. Perfect Dark and Final Fantasy 9 I lump together because I skipped a ton of class in high school senior year to play those two games. I got straight As anyway, so it didn't matter. Then there's Diablo 2, which I've been playing off and on since release day. I'm finally "done" with the game since I built a Last Wish and found a Zod rune and Stone of Jordan legit, beat Uber Tristram and SoJ Diablo without help, and built a full Tal Rasha Sorceress. Some things are just untouchable, and my Diablo 2 memories are untouchable. Props to 2000 for winning this match. I love 1990, don't get me wrong, but 2000 really deserved this. --- ## 1996 vs 1989 _source: 1996 vs 1989 (revid 81313)_ ## Results **Round One** Sunday, May 7th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis I get that most of this contest was predictable, but man was 1989 going to be weak. This year was basically Mega Man 2 and nothing else, though I will give tons of love to Dragon Warrior 1 and The Guardian Legend all day long. One of the best things in this entire contest was Allen putting that game into a match picture, and if you guys haven't played that game you really missed out. Think space-faring futuristic Zelda 1 crossed with an overhead shooter. It sounds weird, but it's an incredible video game. Play it. 1996 was honestly a very thin year by 1990s standards, but the good games it has are really good. The obvious ones here are Mario 64 and Super Mario RPG. Virtually everything good that can be said about those games has already been said, but Mario RPG has a special place in my heart. I met two of my best friends in middle school through that game, and it happened to be the game I was playing when my mom came home and told our family she was terminally ill. It was the summer after eighth grade. I'll never forget it. To this day, I still think of Mario RPG as the last normal thing I was doing before my family was ripped apart. I still feel weird playing it, though obviously that isn't a video game's fault. Most people will find this paragraph a bit weird, but I don't care. Diablo 1 deserves some love somewhere in here. There are a lot of things about that game where people could honestly call it the best game in the series, and its influence was insane. I'm still convinced From Software modeled the chalice dungeons after that game. So yeah. Sorry if this PCA is a bit personal at times, but I've always meant to do something like this and I figured this PCA was as good a place as any. Having a lot of this in print to live on gives me a good sense of peace about things. --- ## 1991 vs 1988 _source: 1991 vs 1988 (revid 81303)_ ## Results **Round One** Monday, May 8th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis What a weird match. We all knew 1988 would be weak, but any year highlighted by any main line Zelda title getting 12% is hilarious. I'm looking at this 1988 list and all I'm seeing are Zelda 2, Castlevania 2, Mario 2, Metal Gear, and Ninja Gaiden. So it was the year of awkward sequels and awkward new IPs. I actually really like Zelda 2 and Mario 2, but I get why most people wouldn't. When you look at 1991, it's good, but it's not "75% better than 1988" kind of good. Outside of Super Mario World, which is definitely a great game, there's a lot of mid-tier strength here. Final Fantasy 2, Sonic 1, F-Zero, Castlevania 4, Tecmo Super Bowl, Battletoads, Ninja Gaiden 3, The Simpsons, Metroid 2, and Street Fighter 2 are all games I've played and enjoyed, but pretty much all of them feel like mid to low mid tier contest strength. I get that depth matters and Zelda 2 is weak, but it sucks seeing it get blown out so hard. That game is criminally underrated and deserves better. I don't have a ton of personal anecdotes here, because we probably all have the same story about a lot of these games. "Loved Simpsons in the arcades", "Loved Street Fighter 2 in the arcades", "How the fuck did they get on the moon in FF4, anyway?", and so forth. The one cool thing here though is my best friend had the world speed run record in Castlevania 4 for like an hour once. He spent months getting it just right, then someone comes along and busts him up immediately. He quit speed running after that. --- ## 2002 vs 2010 _source: 2002 vs 2010 (revid 81326)_ ## Results **Round One** Monday, May 8th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis Warcraft 3 winning any match in any capacity with any stipulation is a disgrace. Worst video game ever made, from the worst company ever in gaming, with the worst mechanics and glitches I've ever seen. I couldn't intentionally make a worse video game. And on top of that you have Suikoden 3, Mario Sunshine, Vice City, Animal Crossing, Resident Evil 0, and Heroes of Might and Magic 4? Fuck that. I get we have Kingdom Hearts and Metroid Prime in this year, but that doesn't counteract this mound of fucking garbage. I also get that 2010 isn't much better, but even then, it has Mass Effect 2. It's got Nier. It's got God of War 3, Final Fantasy 13, Mario Galaxy 2, BioShock 2, Bayonetta, and a few other decent games. Sure there's a lot of trash past that, but 2010's trash is a lot better than 2002's trash, because 2002's trash has Warcraft 3 in it. Just kill me. Terrible match and terrible result in a terrible contest. Glad this garbage was over, but don't think this counts as Warcraft 3 winning a match. Fuck that. --- ## 1994 vs 2004 _source: 1994 vs 2004 (revid 81308)_ ## Results **Round One** Tuesday, May 9th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis This was our first match where the casuals got burned, because for whatever reason they picked 2004 to win this match. Upon further inspection, it makes a lot of sense. 2004 is the World of Warcraft year, and that game always gets overrated by casuals in these contests. Add in San Andreas, Halo 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3, and you have a year primed to be overrated by casual voters. We even had a few complaint topics during this match, and it was our first match where the winner got below 60 percent. That's how bad this contest was; we were all excited something was closer than 60-40. Now as you guys know by now, I'm pretty much the anti-casual stereotype of a gamer. I hate trash like Halo, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and especially World of Warcraft. It's a shame the good games from 2004 had to get dragged down in 2004's muck, but collateral damage is necessary for a sacrifice because screw all that casual trash winning a match. I love you Tales of Symphonia, but no. Ditto for MGS3, Metroid Prime 2, Up Your Arsenal, Jak 3, Katamari Damacy, and Zero Mission. I'll get around to Half-Life 2 one day. When comparing these two years, 1994 is untouchable. The match picture was a good start, but not close to enough to show everything. Sonic 3 is great, and yes I was one of those kids that couldn't figure out the casino. Fuck that place. Never played a Donkey Kong Country, but one day I'll get around to it. Mega Man X is frankly self explanatory. It's probably the best game in that entire franchise, and there's something special about MMX's powers versus the original's. He's just way more special, and the easter eggs in that game are so great. I didn't actually play a Metroid game until after the 2004 contest, and I honestly hated Super Metroid the first time I played it. I couldn't get the hang of wall jumping at all. I did play it through a second time immediately, and that's when I really fell in love with it. The two big standouts for me in this year are Earthworm Jim and Final Fantasy 6. Earthworm Jim is a pretty self explanatory game; 2D platformer shoot-em-up with tons of humor. It's actually pretty similar to the dry humor of Portal or Ratchet and Clank. FF6 is the highlight of the year for me, and it's also the first Final Fantasy game I actually beat. I met a TON of friends in high school through this game, and it directly led from me being a Sega Genesis sports fan to a more hardcore JRPG type gamer. I think I made the right choice, because casual gaming went to shit not long after I made the switch, while hardcore gaming is as good as it's ever been. --- ## 2011 vs 2006 _source: 2011 vs 2006 (revid 81330)_ ## Results **Round One** Tuesday, May 9th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis Oh hey, a match that was actually a match for an hour. I picked 2006 in this match, but I was rooting hard for 2011. At this point, it's basically a guarantee I get any match involving Kingdom Hearts wrong, so 2011 winning this was no surprise. I figured Twilight Princess and KH2 would be enough, because I didn't really think year depth would matter. Then the match started, and even though the match was close it looked like 2006 was going to run away with things. It jumped up by 50 ten minutes in, and this contest offered no suggestion that matches would actually be good. So when 2011 turned things around and kept things at a stalemate for a little while, I was very pleasantly surprised. It started pulling away at 1:30 am, but I didn't call things over until the morning vote. Kingdom Hearts has come back way too many times in these things to ever count it out, but 2011 safely won the morning vote and ran away with things. Thank god. Maybe one day I'll actually get a stupid debatable KH match correct! Objectively speaking, 2011 is by far the better gaming year. Dark Souls and Skyrim by themselves cement that, as both are in the ten best video games ever made. Then you add in Portal 2 and Radiant Historia and it's not even close. Some would even add in the Mortal Kombat remake, Skyward Sword, Pokemon Black/White, and Marvel vs Capcom 3 as well, even though those games are all complete shit. But still, we have freaking Dark Souls, Skyrim, and Portal 2. That's a hell of a lot better than mediocre Twilight Princess and the dumb trash you have to do in Kingdom Hearts 2. Speaking of, go look at 2006. Twilight Princess is decent, but it's mostly trash until you hit the Arbiter Grounds. Kingdom Hearts 2 is decent, but has SO MUCH lame garbage in it. Final Fantasy 12 is decent, but the plot is total disjointed crap. Then you have the Wii and Playstation 3 coming out that year; the Wii was and still is one of the dumbest scams people have ever fallen for, and the PS3 had one of the worst console launches in recent memory. The year was also very weak outside of the so-called "heavy hitters", too. I haven't played Okami, so I can't comment there, and games like Portrait of Ruin, Guitar Hero 2, and Wii Sports aren't carrying 2006. The objectively better year won, which is nice to see. --- ## 1998 vs 1993 _source: 1998 vs 1993 (revid 81318)_ ## Results **Round One** Wednesday, May 10th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis I'm saving the 1998 retrospective for the final, sorry guys. It wouldn't do this beast of a year justice to waste all my love in round one. We all knew 1998 was winning this contest, and it definitely performed like the contest favorite in its opening match. 1993 could probably annihilate any year outside the 1990-2001 range, but it got stuck against 1998 in its first match and was made to look like an absolute jobber. Granted, 1993 is kind of an oddball year. Star Fox is just "decent". Same for Gunstar Heroes, Shining Force, Secret of Mana, Kirby's Adventure, Ecco, and a few arcade games. When you think of 1993, there's the awkward feeling that the year is best represented by Lunar 1 and Link's Awakening, and Link's Awakening ended up getting absorbed by 1998 later in the contest because LOL. Lunar 1 for me is the pinnacle of that series. My best friend cracked a sealed PS1 copy to let me play it, and man did I fall in love. Those characters and that combat and that plot was just so charming. Lunar 2 was good, but it just didn't feel quite the same. Link's Awakening speaks for itself. Best handheld Zelda by a mile until Link Between Worlds came out, and I still think Awakening is better than Worlds. Worlds was a Link to the Past clone, albeit a good one. Link's Awakening deviated from the norm and struck gold anyway, which is not easy for such a formulaic series. I might replay it and actually buy the bow legit this time instead of being called Thief for the entire game :D --- ## 1992 vs 2016 _source: 1992 vs 2016 (revid 81306)_ ## Results **Round One** Wednesday, May 10th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis There was a lot of pre-contest chatter about 2016 pulling off a rally and potentially being our dark horse this contest, but you know how rallies get shut down? You put them in an impossible match early on in a contest. We've seen rallies fail more often than they've succeeded, and I feel like 2016 is a good example. It might have caught a rally with better bracket placement, but in this contest it was immediately up against the Link to the Past year. Good freaking luck bro, and as we saw 2016 got absolutely demolished. This is the trick to it. Draven doesn't win if he's against Link in round one, but he caught his momentum the right way. Same for Undertale getting Mass Effect 3 in round one and Fallout 3 in round two. Same for Missingno getting Sephiroth in a night match, Melee fans being every bit as insane as Starcraft fans, Mario being a better cheater than Crono, and L-Block getting the perfect sequence of events. Rallies are almost 100% bracket placement and luck, and do not ruin our contests in any way. 2016 getting dumpstered here is a great example. There are other games in 2016 besides Overwatch, which is actually a complete garbage game due to Blizzard making it. Trash company making yet another trash video game. Street Fighter 5 had a bitched launch which really soured me on enjoying the game, but that's Crapcom's DLC practices for you. I've stopped falling for it, but a buddy bought me SF5 and all the DLC for it so whatever. Pokemon Go was a shitty fad that lasted all of a week, and thank god the fad ended before this match. That's actually a rally I would have hated, even though I would have justified it with "Pokemon Red/Blue are the ones actually winning so fuck you". Haven't played Dark Souls 3 yet. The highlights of the year for me are Final Fantasy 15 and Fire Emblem Fates. I could go on HUGE rants about how much I love those four games, but I wrote very long reviews for all of them. Just read those instead. As for 1992, it has MOTHER FUCKING LINK TO THE PAST. THE BEST ZELDA GAME. Do I really need to explain myself here? Oh and it also has the best Sonic game (2), TWO Mega Man games, and TWO Dragon Warriors. This match was the best possible result. --- ## 2013 vs 2003 _source: 2013 vs 2003 (revid 81331)_ ## Results **Round One** Thursday, May 11th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis This was actually a highly debated match pre-contest, and given the 50% prediction percentage I can see why. These are two very similar years when you look at them side by side, but the difference for me was one of them has a main line Zelda title. I loathe Wind Waker, but when it comes to contest strength Zelda loves to lay down the LAW (Link Always Wins). 2013 only had Link Between Worlds to match, but I know the Zelda fan base. If you put a console title next to a handheld title, almost all the console titles beat the handhelds for whatever reason. I don't get why, but it's how they think. Despite things finishing within the 60-40 barrier, this was never really a match. 2003 won very easily, which is one of the few debatable calls in this contest I actually got right. Final Fantasy X-2 was simply not shitty enough to drag 2003 down into the danger zone, though I was hoping for 2003 to collapse. Fuck The Wind Waker, fuck Final Fantasy X-2, fuck Mario Kart Double Dash, fuck Xenosaga, fuck Dota, fuck WarioWare, FUCK Final Fantasy Tactics Advance... and fuck everybody, now that I think of it. Full George Carlin style. Advance Wars 2 is okay and I liked a few other games, but most of 2003 can burn. 2013 has Fire Emblem Awakening, Bioshock Infinite, and Link Between Worlds. In a perfect world, 2013 would have won, but hey at least I picked the right year in my bracket with the right logic! --- ## 2015 vs 2005 _source: 2015 vs 2005 (revid 81332)_ ## Results **Round One** Thursday, May 11th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis 2015 was another entrant where people worried about rallies due to Undertale, but this was from people not knowing how rallies actually work. Undertale is now in the Portal slot. It'll make contests, but it's in the permanent 13-15 seed range and probably won't ever win a match again. And that's fine. We had our fun. 2015 was predictably demolished, which is a damn shame. Witcher 3 won something like 3275 game of the year awards, Fallout 4 is in there, Xenoblade Chronicles X is in there, Metal Gear Solid 5 is in there, and most importantly, MOTHER FUCKING BLOODBORNE is in there. Bloodborne is the closest thing we have to a perfect video game in the modern era. I'll save my full rant for the review, but it's pretty damn good and you are sorely missing out if you haven't played it yet. Any real gamer needs to. That said, 2005 is just better. We'll forget Shadow of the Colossus exists and just look at everything else. When the debates were happening for this match, I took one look and went "Resident Evil 4 can carry 2005 all by itself, even if it's in a weakened state". Lo and behold, here we are. Resident Evil 4 carrying fools and taking names. Still the best game in that series, even if it did kinda sorta ruin that series. Devil May Cry 3 is arguably the best single player action game ever made, even today. Soulsborne is technically multiplayer, so we'll cheat there. God of War is in 2005, which is such a damn fantastic series. I love how angry Kratos is and how he just murders everything in front of him. Can't wait for him to murder all of the Roman gods, too. Guitar Hero 1 sucks, but I loved it anyway. Man, and this year even has We Love Katamari, Fire Emblem 8, Phoenix Wright 1, MOTHER FUCKING ADVANCE WARS DUAL STRIKE (best game in the series, bitches), and oh yeah, the best of all the Fire Emblems. Path of Radiance. Ike's story is the best story told in that entire series, and FE9 has the gameplay to match. I still replay 9/10 once a year, and it never gets old. It's the perfect video game, and anyone who likes SRPGs needs to play it at some point. All that said, I did my best to make round one interesting for you guys but holy shit did this contest suck. Even with the one good match we had, this was the worst round one we've ever had and I doubt we'll ever do worse. We had what, 4 matches within 60-40 and most were triplings or worse? Jeez man. At least this was one of those 32 entrant deals instead of some 64 entrant contest. Can you even imagine a 1v1 64 entrant contest as bad as this one? --- ## 1995 vs 1987 _source: 1995 vs 1987 (revid 81311)_ ## Results **Round Two** Friday, May 12th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis The match pictures were repeated in round two instead of letting picsmiths so nuts, which is such lazy contest design. But that aside, this is exactly when we knew 1995 was completely screwed against 2001. 1995 was never in any real danger of losing this match, but it wasn't able to put 1987 away until the morning vote. This was basically an overnight stall once the board vote wore off, which is totally unacceptable for a contest entrant in 1995's position. You're the \#1 overall seed and coming off of Chrono Trigger looking like the strongest game on the site, and you follow it up with this? Get outta here. 1987 is great and all, but it's basically Zelda 1, Metroid 1, and Mega Man 1 against Chrono Trigger and a bunch of other heavy hitters. 52% in this match with the match itself being in doubt for a few hours is shameful. Picture fuckery can only be blamed so much for this. How much difference would better pictures have made? Probably not that much. 1995 was totally screwed long before the big duel and everyone knew it. --- ## 2001 vs 2008 _source: 2001 vs 2008 (revid 81324)_ ## Results **Round Two** Friday, May 12th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis You know a contest is bad when we get matches like this in round two. Round one having a ton of blowouts is bad enough, but then you get something like this where a year like 2008 has a ton of pretty strong games in it and gets thoroughly demolished anyway. Quick reminder that 2008 got 72% in its own round one match, and then it turns around and its opponent gets 68%. This contest was blowout city, and I don't have a lot of interesting ways to talk about it. The real shame here is in a games contest, it would be hard for a lot of these 2008 games to only get 31.6% in a match. But a year contest where we're getting under 17,000 votes per match? Oh yeah. The hyped 1995/2001 duel was over before it started, too. No way was the weakened state of 1995 going to take down the SSBM/FFX unholy alliance. Add in all the other great games from 2001, and I went into that match thinking 1995 would be lucky to break 45%. --- ## 1997 vs 2007 _source: 1997 vs 2007 (revid 81316)_ ## Results **Round Two** Saturday, May 13th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis When this match happened, we all thought it was a championship quality performance from 1997 and that it could potentially give 1998 a decent fight in the final. 2007 is a year stacked with high midcarder type games, like BioShock and Super Mario Galaxy, and for 1997 to get 71% on it was crazy. Little we know at the time that 2007 was just hot garbage and 1997 was en route to the typical choke job that Final Fantasy 7 always gives us in contests. I'd like to point out that 2007 got 76.5% in its own round one match, which made all the blowouts in round two super weird. I know we'll never have another contest like this one (thank god), but there is no way the LOL x-stats from this thing are going to make any sense when you have stuff like "76.5% in round one, then 29% in round two" going on. With each new contest, the transitive property means less and less even when rallying isn't going on. I'd love to credit 90s power for this, but the 90s were not invincible in this contest. Low vote totals just gives you a lot of dumb results. --- ## 2000 vs 1996 _source: 2000 vs 1996 (revid 81321)_ ## Results **Round Two** Saturday, May 13th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis This was the first of four or five matches where people blamed the picture for the result, and frankly people really have a point here. I've avoided talking about the picture nonsense until now since it hasn't mattered, but when we finally started getting good matches in this contest, almost all of them were ruined by picture fuckery. Black Turtle or Yoblazer should be our contest winner, and instead they got screwed by Allen's insane picture policy in this contest. Every contest, Yoblazer makes an incredible upset pick that pays off. In this contest, this was the match. People kind of assumed 1996 would win this match easily; Yoblazer saw it differently, like he's done so many times in the past. And if you replace Deus Ex with Pokemon GSC in 2000's match picture, he would have been right. In a contest like this where no one really cares about years, pictures make a huge difference. Luster brought up 1995 as the ultimate example, but let's not kid ourselves. 1995 is not a strong year. 2000 is a strong year, but it wasn't given its best chance to prove it. 1996 however was given Mario 64, Mario RPG, Resident Evil, and Crash Bandicoot. That's the best possible picture 1996 could get, outside of maybe replacing Crash with Diablo 1. All that said, there was still the actual match, and most people didn't know going in that it would be so close. Pictures weren't blamed until we were into the match, but it became obvious quickly what was going on. 2000 actually won the board vote despite being the underdog in the match, but 1996 was able to recover by the freeze. Alright, sure. It happens. But then an odd thing happened on the way to the forum, and '96 was never actually able to build up a lead overnight. It stayed virtually deadlocked with '96 having a slight lead all night long, with 2000 finally evening things up as we were heading into the morning vote. It stayed tied all the way until 8 AM EST, and at this point the Pokemon/Zelda tag team day vote should have taken over and just steamrolled the Mario/Mario RPG combo. Except Pokemon wasn't in the freaking match picture. It didn't take long for 1996 to win the day vote and start pulling away, and even though it would only win by 424 votes, the match wasn't really that close once the morning vote hit. There was no threat whatsoever that 2000 would win this match, and when people realized this was likely entirely due to Pokemon not being in the 2000 match picture, they got really upset. Hell I'm upset just writing about this and I had 1996 winning. I like being right, but I like fairness a lot more than that and this was in no way a fair fight. It's like my Warriors winning the NBA finals in 2015 with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving injured. Sure we technically won the title, but did we really? It wasn't a fair fight. That's where this match leaves us, and this would not be the first time where we could legitimately blame a match picture for costing an entrant a match. It leaves a bitter taste when the few good matches in a terrible contest are tainted by picture fuckery. 2000 got screwed. --- ## 1991 vs 2002 _source: 1991 vs 2002 (revid 81305)_ ## Results **Round Two** Sunday, May 14th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis As someone who picked 91 \> 94 as an upset special, its weakness in this match just blew me away. I figured the 90s would just wreck everything outside the 90s, so when this match started in the 63-37 range followed by 1991 bleeding percentage all day it was a Carl Lewis UH OH moment. I know 2002 isn't fodder by any stretch, but all contest long we've seen round 1 entrants go from huge round 1 performances to getting wrecked in round 2. 1991 struggling here was bad news, and was basically the warning bell that it had no chance next round without tons of SNES pictures. That being said, 1991 is basically the Super Mario World year. How many games from 2002 would break 45% on Super Mario World? Maybe Metroid Prime and Kingdom Hearts? This contest threw the transitive property and the LOL x-stats all out of whack, which is fine by me given the x-stats influence on these contests has been trash, but man. We really need to never have a contest like this again. Games, characters, and the occasional gimmick is fine. This just wasn't one such gimmick. No one cares about years and no one plays a game they love and goes "YEAH THAT GAME IS FROM 2015 SO 2015 IS THE BEST GAMING YEAR EVER!". I picked 2015 as my random example here because I just got the Bloodborne platinum. I love Bloodborne and couldn't give less than a shit about 2015 the year. What a silly contest idea. --- ## 1994 vs 2011 _source: 1994 vs 2011 (revid 81309)_ ## Results **Round Two** Sunday, May 14th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis I have no idea how the prediction percentage for this match was so low, given this was always going to be a cleanup match for 1994 en route to a deep contest run. I guess 2011 has some heavy hitter casual bait games in it like Skyrim, but if anyone's paid any attention to contests all these years, there was no way this match would be anything other than a huge blowout. Maybe 2011 could have won two matches elsewhere in the bracket, but you can only play who's on your schedule. This was also a much better performance for 1994 than 1991 had in the match prior, so the debate surrounding that duel was basically over here in round 2 before it ever got started. I wish I had more exciting things to say here, but when I'm not talking about specific games I like in each year like I did in round one this contest is even more dull to look at than it was before. At least 2011 has Skyrim and Dark Souls giving a decently respectable performance with their 38% instead of getting completely annihilated, I guess. Moving on. --- ## 1998 vs 1992 _source: 1998 vs 1992 (revid 81317)_ ## Results **Round Two** Monday, May 15th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis Remember in round one when 1992 got 73% and we were all excited about how well it did? Well 1998 gave no fucks and went out there to prove it was championship material. 73% is impressive in any match, but go on Ngamer's site or check around the Board 8 wiki and look into Link to the Past's contest history some time. That game has scored some epic blowouts in these contests, and it even broke 40% on Ocarina of Time last contest. Didn't mean jack this time around. The most impressive match of round 2 by a mile was 1998 in this match, and this proved beyond all shadows of all doubts that 1998 was winning this contest barring a major rally. Given no one cared about this contest, a major rally wasn't coming. The only question is what would face 1998 in the final and whether or not it would avoid getting completely embarrassed. We'll get more into that when the time comes, but I hope in the future when this contest is long forgotten people are able to appreciate how insane this performance was. This wasn't 73% against some jobber; 1992 is the Link to the Past year and it got thoroughly demolished. 1998 was not dicking around in this contest, and it also proved how much depth truly mattered in this thing. I didn't think it would be a major factor and hoo boy I could not have been more wrong. --- ## 2003 vs 2005 _source: 2003 vs 2005 (revid 81327)_ ## Results **Round Two** Monday, May 15th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis Rounding out round two in this godforsaken contest was a match that some people were actually worried about. This match was basically Wind Waker and a bunch of trash against Resident Evil 4 and a bunch of midcarders. Even though a match finishing within 60-40 was a rarity in this contest, 2003 would still end up winning with ease in a classic Ulti-style destruction. When in doubt, go with a popular main line Zelda title. 2003's reward was 1998 after the beating it had just laid on Link to the Past's year, so the over-under for 2003 in the upcoming round 3 match was 27.15%. When one can say such things about a round 3 match, you have a terrible contest. We actually would end up having a few decent matches from here on out, but virtually all of them gave us the added benefit of built-in picture dickery, which we'll get to. To recap, to this point of an entire contest, the only highlights were 1998's blowouts (which weren't all that impressive given blowouts of the past) and a match between 2000 and 1996 where Pokemon not making the match picture perhaps decided the entire matchup. We care about games. Not years. I hope anyone wasting their time and reading this on the wiki in the future understands I am not alone in my somber mood here. The entire site hated this contest. --- ## 1995 vs 2001 _source: 1995 vs 2001 (revid 81312)_ ## Results **Round Three** Tuesday, May 16th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis (Not linking to match pictures from here on out because they're in a weird order on creative's site and I'm lazy. I will say that I was very happy with multiple rotating pictures for each entrant, which gives more people a shot at getting a picture accepted.) We all saw this match coming given how these two performed leading up to the match itself, but hats off to 1995 for putting up one hell of a fight before finally getting run over. The logic coming in was easy. Chrono Trigger was wrecking face in 2015 before rallies happened, to the tune of 65% on Final Fantasy X and getting ready to get 60% on Melee. So why couldn't Chrono Trigger (1995) beat the FFX/Melee unholy alliance (2001)? Seemed easy, but we learned in this contest that things like year depth and match pictures would be the biggest factors in this contest. For 30 minutes, this match was shaping up to be a classic. 1995 barely won the board vote, then the two years stayed tied for 30 straight minutes. Some people thought 1995 would run away with things, but it would not turn out that way. 2001 started pulling away a little after the 30 minute update, and before long it was clear this match was over. We can't blame anything here other than 2001's strength and 1995's slight weakness, because this was a completely fair fight the whole way through. No picture fuckery or anything. Just a fair fight that 2001 won. We all figured 2001's run was over at this point given 1995's weakness throughout the entire contest, but it would turn out there was one last surprise in store this year. --- ## 1997 vs 1996 _source: 1997 vs 1996 (revid 81314)_ ## Results **Round Three** Wednesday, May 17th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis 1997 continued its dominance in this contest with an absolute demolishing of 1996, in a match that was barely worth watching. 1996 actually won the board vote before bleeding all day, and frankly it was lucky to prevent '97 from breaking 70% in this match. I know 1996 is a weak year comparatively, but anything from the 1990s only scoring 31% in a match this late in a contest was a real eye-opener. This wasn't quite on par with 1998 getting 73% on 1992, but it was close. This more or less cemented our final being a 1997/1998 duel, which is why the coming semifinal match between 2001 and 1997 was such a massive surprise. There was almost nothing in this contest suggesting that match would even be close, let alone a 2001 win. '97 looked almost as dominant as '98 in all of its matches, and during this match there were even people complaining about yet another FF7 vs Ocarina of Time final and that Allen wasn't fooling anyone. I know this was a boring contest, but 69% in the final eight is no joke. It gets harder and harder to get blowouts the later you get in a contest, so this was a very good performance by 1997. Too bad it didn't matter at all. --- ## 1991 vs 1994 _source: 1991 vs 1994 (revid 81304)_ ## Results **Round Three** Thursday, May 18th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis My odds of winning this contest were literally zero by the time this match happened, but I'm doing a mini rant about this match anyway. Everyone on Board 8 has a match where they got annoyed by picture fuckery, and this one was mine. Leading up to this contest, system release dates were made into a big deal. Allen asked for them in the blurbs he never used, Allen himself listed them in the year info pages, and a ton of us factored system release dates in our bracket picks. We all assumed systems would be allowed in match pictures, especially given Allen literally asked for them on the picsmith form. Know how many match pictures in this contest featured a system? Zero. Not a one. You cannot call this contest "Best Year In Gaming" and leave out the one thing people actually care about with years, which is system releases. No one gives a shit what year their favorite game came out, but they absolutely know what year their favorite system came out. So for systems to not be included in match pictures in this contest was a fucking joke, especially for a year like 1991. The Super Nintendo is this site's favorite system by a mile, and I'm not pulling that factoid out of thin air. Run a poll search on "Super Nintendo" on GameFAQs some time. Totally unacceptable for the Super Nintendo not to be in this match picture. Totally unacceptable for the Playstation not to be in the 1995/2001 match picture (I don't think 1995 would have won either way given three systems should have been in the 2001 match pic, but the fact that we even have to talk about this is a disgrace). Totally unacceptable for systems to be forgotten. Period. 1991 won the board vote, then got run over. 1994 may have won this match anyway, but we shouldn't even be having this debate. You put systems in the match pictures for a contest like this. The end. Pretty much every close match in this contest had an excuse attached because of this no-system garbage, and I promise you I'm not alone in being upset about it. Why even ask for systems on the picsmith form? Dumb. --- ## 1998 vs 2003 _source: 1998 vs 2003 (revid 81319)_ ## Results **Round Three** Friday, May 19th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis Remember how I said the over-under for 2003 was 27.15% due to the round two results? WHOOPS. We already knew there was literally no possible way 1998 was losing this contest without an insane rally, but this really cemented it home. I actually looked this up since I should do some research for this PCa at some point, and only one other match in the final eight ever finished above 80-20 like this. It was Zelda \> Metroid in the series contest: 1998 came really close to breaking that record, but not quite. 84.7% stands as the record this late in a contest, which is an insane number when you really think about it. It means something has to be strong enough to get into the final eight, and then turn around and get SFFd into the ground by something Zelda. When you think about it, that's basically what this match was. 2003 got here, then got annihilated by what was basically Ocarina of Time. I was mad about Wind Waker's year getting this far, but then it got the second lowest score of any contest entrant this late and it was somewhat worth it to see Wind Waker get this embarrassed. Good riddance and sit the hell down, you piece of trash. Men are talking. --- ## 2001 vs 1997 _source: 2001 vs 1997 (revid 81322)_ ## Results **Round Four** Saturday, May 20th, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis It's going to be long forgotten if it isn't already, but this upset was one of the most inexplicable upsets we've ever had. There was no indication this was coming. Zero. 1997's results in this contest, in order: 77.25%, 70.98%, 69.15%, 48.26%, and two of those blowouts were against other years in the 90s. Most of us were just hoping 2001 made a game of it, and some openly asked for picture sabotage in 2001's favor, but 2001 actually winning? Hell naw. Then the match started, and 2001 won the board vote. Alright, sure, Melee-related things always win the board votes. But then after a two hour struggle where 2001 maintained a 100 vote lead, it started climbing ever so slowly until it hit 200 overnight. From here it was all about who would take the day vote, and.... 2001 took the morning vote and day vote both. Somehow. The final vote margin may have been 620 votes, but the match wasn't really that close. If the day trend lasted for the entire match, 2001 could have won this thing by 1000 or more, and 1997 never made any real threat to actually win this match. Given the buildup to this thing making it look like 1997 had a decent chance of winning the contest outright, this one blew me away. I was happy about it, don't get me wrong, but it still blew me away. We don't have many examples of dominant, potential contest winning entrants getting upset out of no where with no rally like this. We may not have any, come to think of it. Cloud losing to Mario in 2002 wasn't really an upset. Neither was Crono losing to Mario in 2003 or Ocarina of Time losing to FF7 in 2004. Who do we even put in the slot of "potential contest winner losing out of no where before the final"? Mario in 2003? Maybe Melee or FFX in the Game of the Decade contest? I'm drawing a blank here. This might be the most unexpected non-rally upset we've ever had, and no one will care because no one cared about this contest. If anyone sees this on the wiki in the future, by all means make a note and add it to the end of this in italics. Thanks. This match actually gave us hope in 2001 pulling a second miracle upset in a row and actually winning this contest -- you know, giving us some excitement this year. Then the next match happened, and.... yeah. --- ## 1994 vs 1998 _source: 1994 vs 1998 (revid 85563)_ ## Results **Round Four** Sunday, May 21st, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis Squirrel asked what the closest prediction percentage to 50% was we've ever had in a contest. This right here is your answer. 50.05% is the closest for now. It's one of those weird things I actually keep track of. This was also in a semifinal match, which shows you how predictable this contest was. Anagram asked what the biggest semifinals blowout was. It was Zelda \> Metal Gear in the series contest: 73.74% in a non-SFF contest semifinal is a record I'm confident never gets broken, because getting to a semifinal and then being weak enough to get 26.26% in a match is insane. Our best chance was last year when Mario RPG went against Ocarina of Time, but Mario RPG got 32.62% in that match. Even here, 1998 only got 66.35%. 1994, despite only getting 33.65%, held its own against the all-time semifinal futility records. And it deserved to. Games like Final Fantasy 6, Sonic 3, Super Metroid, and Earthworm Jim don't deserve to set futility records. And on that note, this godforsaken POS contest only had one match left in it. Good riddance. --- ## 2001 vs 1998 _source: 2001 vs 1998 (revid 81323)_ ## Results **Championship** Monday, May 22nd, 2017 ## Ulti's Analysis Hey, a match in this contest finally cleared 20,000 votes! It took until the final, but hey! All hope for 2001 pulling a miracle ended in literally five seconds, and it wasn't much longer until we realized we were about to get our biggest final blowout of all time. I believe the record before this was Link \> Mario in the 2002 contest, where Link got 62.53%. 1998 completely blew that record away, and 2001 was lucky to not get doubled. 66.19% in a contest final is a record we may never see fall, because contest finals are usually close by definition no matter who is in them. Not this year. 1998 was just too strong and was too deep of a year gaming-wise. The only actual excitement for me was finally getting Final Fantasy Tactics Leviathan into a match picture. I played politics and pulled rank to do it, but I don't care. I've wanted that match picture for 14 years and finally got to see it. I'm good. Speaking of, I've avoided doing a 1998 retrospective until the final, because a year like 1998 deserves a retrospective in a writeup that people will actually read in the future. This may be the only wiki article on this contest anyone actually looks at. I love the 2001 games, but 1998 absolutely deserves to set the contest final blowout record. Let's start with the obvious. Final Fantasy Tactics came from 1998, and it's the best game ever made. I actually cheesed out for getting Leviathan into a match picture, and by now I doubt I need to give some long writeup about loving the game. I put thousands of hours into it for a reason, and I can finally say Final Fantasy Tactics won a contest. On top of that, there are so many great games that so many great users can say finally won a contest. FFD can say Resident Evil 2 won a contest. futuresuperstar can say Metal Gear Solid finally won a contest. My best friend in real life can say Xenogears finally won a contest. The anti-rally whackos can finally say Ocarina of Time won a contest (Link not winning in 6 years must feel like a lifetime for those people!). CJayC can say Grim Fandango finally won a contest. Sir Chris and Team Rocket Elite can finally say Pokemon won a damn contest, and I'm sorry but that one is well past overdue and it's good to see that drought end. I don't care if it's on a technicality. Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow/Green finally won, bros! LordOfDabu and the other Starcraft fans finally got their get-back for 2004. Starcraft finally won a contest! Then you have all these other games and characters that get all this love that never get to go deep in these contests. Games like Half-Life, Spyro, Einhander, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Banjo-Kazooie, Breath of Fire 3, Fallout 2, Half-Life, Thief, Baldur's Gate, Unreal, Turok 2, F-Zero GX, Suikoden 2, Star Ocean 2, Soul Calibur, and tons of other examples. I know this contest sucked and I'm as happy as anyone to be past it, but I did want to take a few moments to really give 1998 some credit here. It really did deserve this dominant contest run, because it's unquestionably the best gaming year we'll ever see. This contest blew, but it went out on a high note despite giving us our biggest finals blowout ever. Hats off, 1998. You deserve it.