Qualifying Poll 10/10: Only Seven Games

[This Old Neon]

You can vote for 1-3 games in this poll. Vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The top 3 games at the end of the week will earn a spot in the Top 128.

1984 - Marble Madness - Arcade/NES
1987 - R-Type - Arcade/TG16
1997 - Fallout - PC
1997 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - PS1
2004 - Cave Story [+] - PC
2014 - Bayonetta 2 - Wii U
2014 - Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - PC

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

[Humphries90]

Haven't played them enough to vote for any here.

[Kong Wen]

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the traditional pinnacle of Castlevania exploration-action-RPG-platformers. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition is the modern wearer of that crown. Two easy votes for me in this poll.

[VictorViper]

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the traditional pinnacle of Castlevania exploration-action-RPG-platformers. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition is the modern wearer of that crown. Two easy votes for me in this poll.

Same here, with an R-Type on top.

[Claytone]

I'll vote for SotN and Fallout and continue to scratch my head at why Guac is quite as well received around here as it is.

[Kong Wen]

I'll vote for SotN and Fallout and continue to scratch my head at why Guac is quite as well received around here as it is.

Have you played through it? You didn't like it?

[Claytone]

I'll vote for SotN and Fallout and continue to scratch my head at why Guac is quite as well received around here as it is.

Have you played through it? You didn't like it?

Yeah, I beat it. I thought it was good fun, but that's about as far as my praise for it goes. Seeing the number of votes it pulls (and at least one post calling it a top 10 game all time????) is crazy to me, at least with respect to my subjective experience of the game. Just sort of a "good, not great" game to me.

[VictorViper]

It has a gorgeous art style, animation and soundtrack paired beautifully with its themes. It has a combat system worthy of expanding into a dedicated fighting game. It has an endearing (if simple) story filled with charming characters and villains. It's loaded with secrets and challenges, awesome abilities with varied applications and perfect controls to back it all up. It has Javier Jaguar.

I don't think it's too unusual that most folks would think it's a quality game and that's about it, but to me it's incredibly special and represents some of the most enjoyable gaming of my 36 years. Top ten for me, easily.

[Kong Wen]

It has a gorgeous art style, animation and soundtrack paired beautifully with its themes. It has a combat system worthy of expanding into a dedicated fighting game. It has an endearing (if simple) story filled with charming characters and villains. It's loaded with secrets and challenges, awesome abilities with varied applications and perfect controls to back it all up. It has Javier Jaguar.

I don't think it's too unusual that most folks would think it's a quality game and that's about it, but to me it's incredibly special and represents some of the most enjoyable gaming of my 36 years. Top ten for me, easily.

I doubt I would put it in my top ten, but it's definitely among the best in its class, for the reasons you specified. It's a fairly simple but airtight execution of the genre & its mechanics. It doesn't try to do too much (something I worried might happen with the expansion).

[Claytone]

It has a gorgeous art style, animation and soundtrack paired beautifully with its themes. It has a combat system worthy of expanding into a dedicated fighting game. It has an endearing (if simple) story filled with charming characters and villains. It's loaded with secrets and challenges, awesome abilities with varied applications and perfect controls to back it all up. It has Javier Jaguar.

I don't think it's too unusual that most folks would think it's a quality game and that's about it, but to me it's incredibly special and represents some of the most enjoyable gaming of my 36 years. Top ten for me, easily.

Mhmm. And I certainly don't begrudge it moving on! Just didn't quite click with me as much as the rest of you, I suppose. I know I have some games among my very favorites that others might not consider all that fantastic, so I can dig it.