The "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Project Grand Finals

[This Old Neon]

Welcome to the "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Project Grand Finals!

You can vote for 1 game in this bracket. Vote carefully—you can't change your vote after submitting it. The top game at the end of the voting period will officially replace Chrono Trigger as the "BEST GAME EVER!!!".

21 - Super Mario Bros. 3 - 1988 - NES
84 - Tetris - 1989 - GB

You are encouraged to discuss your choice and your reasons for selecting the game you did.

[The Shoemaker]

Super Mario Bros. 3 all the way.

[Kong Wen]

I voted for Tetris because it changes people's brains!!!

Hehe... seriously, though. Super Mario Bros. 3 is a damn fine platformer, to be sure. It's an iteration on Super Mario Bros.'s platforming formula, with a lot of new, original, and crazy elements that really make it something special. It was also the jumping-off point for a lot of Mario's later quality entries.

But there's nothing quite like Tetris. Sure, there are other block puzzlers, but they're all inextricably chained to Tetris the way modern genre fantasy is chained to Tolkien—everything is a direct response to it, either in inheritance (homage, adoption) or in efforts to distance and differentiate. "Check out my block puzzler, it's like Tetris with X!" "Check out my block puzzler, it's different from Tetris because of Y!"

Tetris has honed game design down so sharply that it's invisible. All that's left is pure play. The rules are simple, straight-forward, and so easy to understand that they become natural in a short time (so natural in fact that it's commonly reported that people begin to DREAM IN TETRIS after playing for a while). Just like a line piece, the concept of this game fits neatly inside the human mind! Somehow, with such simple (but not simplistic—the game is expertly crafted) design, the game also manages to be eminently playable, both over long sessions, and across many sessions over long periods of time. It challenges you to best your best times, and it also welcomes you into its relaxing trance-like patterns when you just want to relax.

It's a rare perfect game. You press the button to do the thing. Every audio and visual element is folded so neatly into it that it enhances the overall product without the slightest distraction from the action.

[Jordan]

I very nearly hit submit on Tetris but I don't know. This one's kind of hard. Oddly, I don't think I'd want to replay either game nowadays, even though I enjoyed both when I was younger.

[SkyPikachu]

Play smb3 already and loved it. Maybe not as much as world but it's more enjoyable then Tetris.

[VictorViper]

Mario 3 is an excellent game that has been iterated and expanded upon by countless other games, including within its own franchise.

Tetris is Tetris. As great today as it was in 1989. I understand why this is a tight race, but in my opinion, SMB shouldn't have a chance in hell.

[evildevil97]

There is no loser here. I voted for SMB3, as it is extremely close to me. However, Tetris is just as deserving. Either way, there will be a deserved winner this BGE.

[Kong Wen]

Only four hours left for people to cast their votes for the finals!

[SkyPikachu]

Yay SMB3 Won WOOO

[This Old Neon]

The winner of the main event, and the official "BEST GAME EVER!!!" is Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES, 1988).