Round 2: Bracket 2/16 - TWO

[This Old Neon]

Round 2: Bracket 2/16 - TWO

You can vote for 1-2 games in this poll. Vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The #1 and #2 ranked games at the end of the week will move on to Round 3.

1985 - Gradius - Arcade/NES
1987 - Phantasy Star - SMS
1993 - Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - SNES
1997 - Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - PS1
2003 - Astro Boy: Omega Factor - GBA
2006 - Wii Sports - Wii
2007 - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - DS
2009 - Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies - DS
2010 - God of War III - PS3
2013 - The Walking Dead: Season 2 - PC

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

[Sharecrow]

Gradius and Phantasy Star for me, here. Both old old old games LOL. I loved Hotel Dusk quite a bit, but not as much as either of those two....

[SkyPikachu]

Wii sports is the only I've played. It's kind of underrated and was amazing for its time.

[VictorViper]

Gradius and Phantasy Star for me, hands down. Despite playing the crap out of Street Fighter II, and certainly despite its unquestionable impact and legacy, I never really liked it too much. I will say it's among the most (if not the most) deserving game to move on.

My handle should speak volumes about what I think of Gradius. It was a huge leap ahead for shooters at the time, had great music, varied stages and massive challenge. From a personal side, it was also the first shooter I beat in the arcade and the first I'd played where a narrative with an ending was even available (in shooters). The series remains a favourite of mine, despite largely being content with iteration over innovation. Landmark game, landmark series.

As one of those weirdos that had a Master System back in the NES' heyday, I had fun lording this game over my friends, who had been dying to get their hands on Dragon Warrior, and here I was with the first JRPG to hit western shores. It was a technical marvel, to boot, with complex first-person dungeon crawling riddled with traps and dead-ends. I spent a ton of time drawing out maps for the later, more devious layouts. It has great music that sticks with me to this day, and a far stronger narrative (sparse though it was) than FF or DW. A SF/Fantasy epic spanning three distinct planets? That still sounds awesome to me.

[Humphries90]

Have to go with Street Fighter 2. Not sure it was that version I played the most (there were so many!) but they're practically the same.

[Kong Wen]

Gradius and Phantasy Star squeezed out close wins to advance to Round 3!