Top 128: 16/16 - Bracket of Time

[This Old Neon]

Welcome to the "BEST GAME EVER!!!" Project Top 128 Brackets!

You can vote for 1-4 games in this bracket. Vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The top 4 games at the end of the week will advance to the Top 64.

16 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [3D] - 1998 - N64/3DS
17 - Super Smash Bros. Melee - 2001 - GCN
48 - The Last of Us - 2013 - PS3
49 - Wario Land II - 1998 - GB/GBC
80 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - 1991 - SNES
81 - EarthBound - 1994 - SNES
112 - Shadow of the Colossus - 2005 - PS2
113 - Metroid: Zero Mission - 2004 - GBA

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

[VictorViper]

Very sadly abstaining. Shadow of the Colossus remains shamefully unplayed.

[Sharecrow]

Very sadly abstaining. Shadow of the Colossus remains shamefully unplayed.

Fix that. It's beautiful and amazing.

[SkyPikachu]

Earthbound

Such a weird game. Something I think Pokémon should have added was the if you're strong enough to defeat the monster in one attack you don't have to battle them (just have an option in the menu)

[Humphries90]

The two Zelda game. Both mean so much to me. They've had a great impact on my life and they hold up almost perfectly today. I've made a video (yet to publish) about A Link to the Past, and I've written the script for an Ocarina of Time video too. That's how special they are to me. Good times. Good times.

Also Melee. How many hours I spent (totally alone) playing that game and loving every minute of it. It's been surpassed by Wii U these days but I've still got some great memories. I don't know how long I spent trying to get all the trophies.

[Kong Wen]

Remember what I said about lightning in a bottle over in the Ico thread? That was a little joke. Shadow of the Colossus. This is a gorgeous and unique experience, a statement, and it absolutely deserves to advance through at least one more round.

I also gave The Last of Us a vote for admirably tackling the whole zombie thing in an intriguing way. The game is cinematic, and the production values are excellent. Good zombie movies have done this for a while, and The Last of Us finally brings zombie video games there: it's about humans.

I also cast a vote for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which is probably the best overall game in the series if I'm not feeling nostalgic for the original.

[evildevil97]

EarthBound is amazing. One of the extremely few games I've ever played that truly deserves all the praise I've read about it.

[Claytone]

I will ride with Melee to the gates of hell. My favorite competitive game of all time, except for perhaps its mod counterpart Project M, which I also voted for. I feel like anyone that doesn't like this game doesn't understand its depth and hasn't seen enough high-level play. What a masterpiece. Shame Sakurai has intentionally distanced himself from this game because of how deep and difficult it was, which he felt flew in the face of everything he was trying to do with the series. If it had seen sequels by designers that appreciated what it did, later iterations of Smash could've fix Melee's few flaws and really created something special (Project M is a good effort in that regard but still falls short in a few ways, IMO).

Also, since it will exit in this round, I would like to just say that Wario Land II is really just an outstanding game. Interesting invincibility mechanic and puzzles, fun combat, deft use of a small screen. It's just a well-executed game from beginning to end. Would recommend it to anyone.

[Kong Wen]

(Project M is a good effort in that regard but still falls short in a few ways, IMO)

In what ways?

[Niahak]

Project M incorporated a lot of the new characters and so the balance isn't quite as tight as Melee, in my experience. It also seems to run slightly slower. I'd agree that Melee's better in general.

Never got into the wave-dashing deep end of Melee, but my friends did. It's fascinating to see in action.

Project M's still amazingly polished for a fan project, though.