Round 6: The Stymphalian Birds

[This Old Neon]

Round 6: The Stymphalian Birds

You can vote for 1-5 games in this poll. Vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The top 5 games at the end of the week will move on to Round 7: The Top 128 Qualifiers.

1981 - Galaga - Arcade
1986 - The Legend of Zelda - NES
1992 - Star Parodier - TGCD
1997 - Soul Edge / Soul Blade - PS1
2004 - Half-Life 2 - PC
2004 - Metroid: Zero Mission - GBA
2008 - Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride - DS
2009 - Batman: Arkham Asylum - Multiplatform
2014 - Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - PC
2015 - Helldivers - PS3/PS4/Vita

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

[Jordan]

I can't stand Dragon Quest, so I really hope it doesn't advance. There's a lot of other classics on this list so hopefully it has some tough competition.

[Humphries90]

I like a lot of these games, but I'm only going to go for Asylum. What a surprising release this was. I didn't even look twice at it until my friend forced me to play through it. I hated comic book heroes, boring boring boring... Hang on, this is kinda of awesome. This is amazing! I loved the search for riddler clues hidden around the asylum (something I felt they messed up in the sequel), the combat was great. It was a tight nit story, well focused. This game shows that bigger doesn't always mean better. It's still the best game in the series.

[Spore]

Why's Half-Life 2 seeded this low anyway? Why is it losing in its bracket? Why did Episode 2 get dropped many brackets ago? Is Half-Life 1 somewhere up ahead?

[VictorViper]

Well, shit, I've gotta add Galaga and Guacamole! to my Helldivers vote. Helldivers is the game that made me forget about Left 4 Dead. It is mad, hilarious, intense and fun as hell. It is a perfect game, and far too few of us are playing it.

[Niahak]

Voted for DQ5.

I'm a JRPG nut and actually have multiple DQ slime memorabilia at my work desk, but DQ5 and 8 are really the only ones I like enough that I'd vote for them. It was Parish's DQ5 review that got me to play it in the first place, so I'm going to simply agree with him here as he writes much better than I do - it's a simple, heartfelt story about someone who is not the hero of prophecy.

[Kong Wen]

Why's Half-Life 2 seeded this low anyway? Why is it losing in its bracket? Why did Episode 2 get dropped many brackets ago? Is Half-Life 1 somewhere up ahead?

I don't know. I don't know! I don't know. Yes, it will be appearing in the Top 128 brackets!

Voted for DQ5. [...] it's a simple, heartfelt story about someone who is not the hero of prophecy.

It's a crushing, devastating game. I loved it.

Other than DQ5, I also voted for Guacamelee!, which I will continue to champion as an exemplar of the exploration-action-platforming-brawling genre. This is Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night with a fighting man at the helm, with gameplay tweaked to match. Some glorious set pieces, too.

Of course, I also voted for Arkham Asylum, which really surprised me with how good it was. I thought it would be a dumb GTA clone with Batman in it (which is what the sequels ended up being), but instead I got a cerebral 3D Super Metroid. This is probably what Metroid Prime felt like for people who could tolerate the GameCube. The only complaint I have about the game is that many of the boss fights feel somewhat samey, but 1. that would be ignoring the AMAZING Killer Croc sequence, and 2. boss fights aren't what this game is about anyway.

[Claytone]

Oh, damn. I meant to vote for HL2. Oh well!

Voted for Galaga, Zero Mission, and Arkham Asylum. Glad to finally see AA. It was a rare game whose quality really met the hype and anticipation I'd set for it. I still think it has about the best beat 'em up, action combat around.

[Kong Wen]

Oh, damn. I meant to vote for HL2. Oh well!

.... ....

[Spore]

Oh, damn. I meant to vote for HL2. Oh well!

https://youtu.be/voJmOYyI-T0?t=15