Round 1: K is for Kong, Donkey Kong

[This Old Neon]

Round 1: K is for Kong, Donkey Kong

You can vote for 0-8 games in this poll. Pick as many or as few as you like, but vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The #1 ranked game at the end of the week will move on to Round 2.

1988 - Dragon Warrior III - NES
1995 - Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness - PC
1996 - Diablo - PC
1999 - Front Mission 3 - PS1
2001 - The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages - GBC
2004 - River City Ransom EX - GBA
2005 - Mario Kart DS - DS
2010 - Nimbus - PC
2015 - JumpJet Rex - PC

You are encouraged to discuss your choices and your reasons for selecting the games you did.

[Kong Wen]

Dragon Warrior III is one of the best early RPGs at a time when they were really starting to hit their stride and get quite creative and complex on consoles. I remember when I first got to [spoiler!!!] and it knocked my socks off. Great game.

I also have to toss a vote at Warcraft II for being the only RTS game I can tolerate. It's actually a really nice "simple" RTS from before the days when they started getting over-the-top with high-speed, high-intensity competitive stuff. Warcraft II scenarios felt like a chunk of a world that you could just live in, develop your area, hone your strategic focus, and then expand and advance as you gradually encounter challenges. When I moved on to StarCraft and Warcraft III, I felt it was too much about winning with your initial opening gambits—too much intensity too soon.

[Turai]

Warcraft 2 along with Red Alert was my childhood.
Nuff said.

[Humphries90]

Mario Kart DS. One of the best Mario Kart games, had great online fun with this one.

[VictorViper]

Warcraft II was the beginning and end of my RTS gaming. I still have a soft spot for the (inferior) original, but War2, along with Doom 2 stole countless hours from me and brought me into modern online play.

[Kong Wen]

Now I feel bad for not having cast a vote for Front Mission 3 and River City Ransom DX (the latter because I fear the excellent NES entry didn't even make it into this contest at all).

[Forscyvus]

Mario Kart DS is probably the clear winner here, but...

There are other people who appreciate/have heard of Nimbus???

[Spore]

There are other people who appreciate/have heard of Nimbus???

This is the kind of post that makes nominating 160 games worth it.

[Kong Wen]

Mario Kart DS wins this poll and advances into round 2.