Round 3: The Newfoundland and Labrador Bracket

[This Old Neon]

Round 3: The Newfoundland and Labrador Bracket

You can vote for 1-3 games in this poll. Vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The #1, #2, and #3 ranked games at the end of the week will move on to Round 4.

1981 - Galaga - Arcade
1985 - Gradius - Arcade/NES
1987 - Final Fantasy - NES
1993 - [Maniac Mansion II:] Day of the Tentacle - PC
1997 - Blast Corps - N64
2003 - Pokémon Colosseum - GCN
2006 - Mother 3 - GBA
2010 - Amnesia: The Dark Descent - PC
2010 - Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii
2012 - Persona 4 Arena - Multiplatform

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

[Humphries90]

May abstain in this one or vote for Final Fantasy. I enjoyed Pokemon Colosseum, but best game ever? I don't think so.

[Jordan]

My favorite region of Canada by default...has a bunch of games which I either didn't play or don't really care too much about. I gave Galaga a token vote anyways since I had a lot of nostalgia for that game. Oddly, I'm not really into shmups but enjoyed them when I was a kid.

[evildevil97]

Mother 3 is the only video game to ever make me cry.

[Kong Wen]

I only voted for Final Fantasy and Day of the Tentacle here. I considered voting for one of the early shmups, but although I have good memories with them, I didn't think they'd be on par with these two picks, so I'll let them fend for themselves and may come back to them if they make it to a later round.

[Sharecrow]

Gradius got my only vote here. FF was fun but kind of empty as far as story goes. Or at least it wasn't as fun to me as its contemporaries (Dragon Warrior and Phantasy Star). Gradius is an outstanding shooter with great customization, reasonable yet fair difficulty, and memorable and varied levels.

[VictorViper]

Triple vote! Gradius and DotT for reasons stated earlier, and the mighty GALAGA.

I'm disappointed to see it lagging here. It is the queen of all the fixed shooters. It made meaningful changes to the established formula, had a really great risk/reward option in the captured/recovered ship power-up, and incorporated several scoring mechanics that ensured its success and longevity. There is good reason this game is alongside Pac Man as the cabinets you're most likely to see in the back of a random pub or bowling alley. This is one of a few games you don't ever really stop playing.

Galaga is an absolute monster of a game and a true Best Game Ever, votes be damned. Incredible then, incredible now, incredible forever.

[The Shoemaker]

I never got into the original NA FF much, too old for me.

I did like Kirby's Epic Yarn though, just an adorable game. Level design was very smart, and the lack of a death penalty was a great idea too.

[TheGreatNads]

It is the queen of all the fixed shooters. It made meaningful changes to the established formula, had a really great risk/reward option in the captured/recovered ship power-up, and incorporated several scoring mechanics that ensured its success and longevity.

I would also add that the simple, zig-zagging patterns of the enemies on screen(also the fact they come in and out at different points of the screen, rather than just from the top) was an important advancement from the Space Invaders approach where enemies moved in a straight line. Not that Galaga was the first game to do this, even Galaxian did the same stuff, but Galaga was a real standout in this regard. Not only did it make shooting enemies more fun, but I feel like a lot of later games probably took direct influence.

When I play many 90s vertical scrolling shooters actually, which have a lot of emphasis on shooting moving targets as opposed to dodging them(like in bullet hell games), they actually remind me of playing Galaga. In particular games by Nihon Bussan, like Terra Cresta for example, have enemy movement patterns that remind me of Galaga. But many games from that era would fit, like the Star Soldier series or Recca or whatever. I feel like the thrill of lining up and shooting moving enemies is lost in most shooters nowadays, where enemies don't do a whole lot besides be bullet sponges or chain fodder. But in fixed shooters and in many vertical shooters it's a big element. Pink Sweets is an example of a sort-of recent game that does have moving enemies patterns like that, but of course Pink Sweets is atypical, what with the guy behind Battle Garegga being responsible for it and all.

I would also say that, while I voted for Galaga here because it's great, Galaga '88(called Galaga 90 on the Turbografx-16), is even better. Totally worth playing if you like Galaga.

[Pluvius]

I would also add that the simple, zig-zagging patterns of the enemies on screen(also the fact they come in and out at different points of the screen, rather than just from the top) was an important advancement from the Space Invaders approach where enemies moved in a straight line. Not that Galaga was the first game to do this, even Galaxian did the same stuff, but Galaga was a real standout in this regard. Not only did it make shooting enemies more fun, but I feel like a lot of later games probably took direct influence.

I'd definitely say that there was a direct progression of Space Invaders > Galaxian > Galaga > Xevious among early shmups.

Did anyone nominate Xevious? That always seemed a lot more popular in Japan than here.

Rob