Top 64: 4/16 - Chrono Bracket II

[Kong Wen]

Super Mario Bros. and Tetris have advanced to the Top 32, eliminating the official "BEST GAME EVER!!!" It's all up in the air, now!

[Pluvius]

>A puzzle game that gets boring after 10 minutes and an ancient platformer that has been superceded countless times beats the best game on the SNES

Fucking shameful, Nintendo fanboys.

Rob

[SkyPikachu]

Got to agree with rob. Having not played SMB until mid to late 2000 it's really nothing special apart from starting a good series.

Tetris is well fun for 5 minutes then you're bored.

[Sharecrow]

Got to agree with rob. Having not played SMB until mid to late 2000 it's really nothing special apart from starting a good series.

Tetris is well fun for 5 minutes then you're bored.

Wow 5 minutes? Or 10???? It's as close to immediately for me as my brain's neurons can fire off the signals to me of my displeasure. I suspect the votes it got were from fondness or just consideration of general genre contributions (after all, Critter Crunch is much better not to mention dozens if not hundreds of other games). I suspect the voters aren't regularly playing it and don't miss it.

As I said before SMB has been outdone so thoroughly and repeatedly, both within its IP and outside it, so many times it belongs in a time capsule, not on anyone's 'Best' list. My two cents...

[Kong Wen]

Wow 5 minutes? Or 10???? It's as close to immediately for me as my brain's neurons can fire off the signals to me of my displeasure. I suspect the votes it got were from fondness or just consideration of general genre contributions (after all, Critter Crunch is much better not to mention dozens if not hundreds of other games). I suspect the voters aren't regularly playing it and don't miss it.

How long a game holds one's attention is not the only criterion for BGE voting, of course. I would certainly still vote for Tetris in a Top 32 or Top 16 scenario depending on what games it's in competition against (e.g. not against Chrono Trigger), because it is perfect. It's tight & trim, one honed concept impeccably packed. It's the ur-block-puzzler, and madly successful to boot. Certainly a worthy entry. (The Critter Crunch comparison is subjective.)

[Sharecrow]

Wow 5 minutes? Or 10???? It's as close to immediately for me as my brain's neurons can fire off the signals to me of my displeasure. I suspect the votes it got were from fondness or just consideration of general genre contributions (after all, Critter Crunch is much better not to mention dozens if not hundreds of other games). I suspect the voters aren't regularly playing it and don't miss it.

How long a game holds one's attention is not the only criterion for BGE voting, of course. I would certainly still vote for Tetris in a Top 32 or Top 16 scenario depending on what games it's in competition against (e.g. not against Chrono Trigger), because it is perfect. It's tight & trim, one honed concept impeccably packed. It's the ur-block-puzzler, and madly successful to boot. Certainly a worthy entry. (The Critter Crunch comparison is subjective.)

Of course it's subjective, but I strongly feel that way. I wish I understood the appeal of Tetris because I'm clearly missing something. It never appealed to me - not even at first. Snooze fest

And I think one's willingness (or lack of willingness) to actually play a game is a stronger indicator of how good it is rather than posts and votes. Usually. I get that this is designed to allow folks to ignore that indicator and I've done it myself, but I couldn't resist pointing it out as it relates to this puzzle fossil.

[Kong Wen]

And I think one's willingness (or lack of willingness) to actually play a game is a stronger indicator of how good it is rather than posts and votes.

The problem with that idea is, which "one"'s? I'm happy to pick up Tetris at almost any time and sink an hour or so into it. Therefore it's a great game. BGE closed, we have a winner. Nah. Posts and votes do a great job of revealing the landscape of opinions on a particular game. It's interesting to hear that people find it boring (though not altogether surprising—after all, there are people around here voting for Banjo and Pokémon games, so boring must have some cachet), and even more interesting that the first words of dissent about this particular example are just starting to come out in the Top 32.

[SkyPikachu]

Banjo Kazooie and the old Pokemon aren't boring and they have more than 1 thing going for them unlike Tetris.

I can't explore a world like I can in Pokemon and banjo. I can't find secrets. There's no story behind it and it's only a single screen (2 if you count the main menu). It lacks depth that basic games have these days. Like Mario kart 8 for example it has different tracks, power ups, different characters. I'm not saying Mario kart 8 is better but it has more there that I can play it over and over again and it doesn't feel boring and the same where as Tetris does.

[Kong Wen]

Banjo Kazooie and the old Pokemon aren't boring and they have more than 1 thing going for them unlike Tetris.

Whoooooosh.

That's my point. One person is going to find some games boring, and other are going to find others boring. Willingness to spend time playing a game is only one consideration for whether a game is BGE-worthy or not. For some, it might be quite low on the list. I've only played Team Fortress II for a few hours—nothing compared to the thousands that its die-hard adherents have sunken in—but I've still been voting it through because other positives outweigh the fact that I can only play a couple matches at a time. For others like Sharecrow, it may be a consideration that ranks highly on their overall evaluation of the game. I can only spend a couple minutes looking at the Mona Lisa before I've had my fill, even though it's a masterpiece. Like Brothers.

I can't explore a world like I can in Pokemon and banjo. I can't find secrets. There's no story behind it and it's only a single screen (2 if you count the main menu). It lacks depth that basic games have these days. Like Mario kart 8 for example it has different tracks, power ups, different characters. I'm not saying Mario kart 8 is better but it has more there that I can play it over and over again and it doesn't feel boring and the same where as Tetris does.

A lot of this is exactly why I think Tetris is so good. It doesn't need a lot of tacked-on extras. It has one core mechanic, one consolidated design philosophy that is executed flawlessly. There's nothing extraneous, nothing weighing it down. It's the essence of a "game" in one entertaining package. Every element of the game only serves to enhance it. It doesn't need secrets, a story, or power-ups—those things would dilute the game, make it worse.

[The Shoemaker]

Banjo Kazooie and the old Pokemon aren't boring and they have more than 1 thing going for them unlike Tetris.

I can't explore a world like I can in Pokemon and banjo. I can't find secrets. There's no story behind it and it's only a single screen (2 if you count the main menu). It lacks depth that basic games have these days. Like Mario kart 8 for example it has different tracks, power ups, different characters. I'm not saying Mario kart 8 is better but it has more there that I can play it over and over again and it doesn't feel boring and the same where as Tetris does.

It's tough comparing a puzzle game to a 3D platformer, RPG and racer. I can enjoy a bite sized experience just as much as a full scale adventure. The gameplay experiences are designed to be played at different times.

Tetris is one of those games that has held the test of time; it feels exactly the same as it did back when it came out. Personally I wouldn't vote for it to be in the top 32, but I can understand a lot of people voting for it because they remember how much they enjoyed it.