Top 128: 12/16 - Final Bracket IV

[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.

12 - Final Fantasy IV - 1991 - SNES
21 - Super Mario Bros. 3 - 1988 - NES
44 - Sleeping Dogs - 2012 - Multiplatform
53 - Bubble Bobble - 1986 - NES/SMS
76 - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - 1995 - SNES
85 - Destiny of an Emperor - 1989 - NES
108 - The Legend of Zelda - 1986 - NES
117 - Batman: Arkham Asylum - 2009 - Multiplatform

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

[Niahak]

On the fence on FFIV. I have pretty strong nostalgia for it, but I'm not sure it stands on its own independent of that nostalgia. 6 is more interesting and more innovative.

DOAE on the other hand will always get my vote. Enemy recruitment before it was really a thing, well written/translated story, snappy gameplay which continually adds little wrinkles...

Some of the other classics here probably deserve consideration too; certainly Zelda and Mario 3 were pretty groundbreaking.

[Kong Wen]

DOAE on the other hand will always get my vote. Enemy recruitment before it was really a thing, well written/translated story, snappy gameplay which continually adds little wrinkles...

Not to mention some of the best music on the NES.

I also thought the "magic" system was incredibly well-implemented. The way your tactician determines which "spells" you have access to, and then the intelligence of your commanders in the field determining how successful they are, is a brilliant way of translating grand troop battle strategy into a traditional RPG engine.

[Niahak]

Not to mention some of the best music on the NES.

I also thought the "magic" system was incredibly well-implemented. The way your tactician determines which "spells" you have access to, and then the intelligence of your commanders in the field determining how successful they are, is a brilliant way of translating grand troop battle strategy into a traditional RPG engine.

Yeah, it's a wonderful package. I do wish they had localized the names, so you don't have to test each of them to see what they do. The decision about whether to include non-levelers is a fun trade-off that's always interesting.

Wish it did have an option to let your tactician into the battle, but then... if they die, you don't get any more "magic".

[VictorViper]

There is something really off putting about Bubble Bobble earning my sole vote at this stage. But there you go.

[EDIT] Whoops, thank goodness I posted before voting. Managed to gloss over SMB3, a definite contender.

[Sharecrow]

There is something really off putting about Bubble Bobble earning my sole vote at this stage. But there you go.

I felt the same way

[SkyPikachu]

DKC2

MOVE ASIDE BEST GAME EVER COMING THROUGH MUSIC PERFECT GRAPHICS LOOK DECENT ENOUGH EVEN FOR TODAY CONTROLS SMOOTH GAMEPLAY PERFECT EVERYTHING PERFECRT DID I MENTION THE MUSIC IS AMAZING!!!

[Humphries90]

Super Mario Bros 3. Don't really need to say too much.

Arkham Asylum. Already said enough.

[Kong Wen]

Super Mario Bros. 3 is good, and I'm sure it'll be fine. I see the missus has already thrown in her lot. There are too many other games that deserve my votes here, though.

First among them is Destiny of an Emperor. One of the best RPGs I've ever played. The music is insanely good. Capcom at its NES best. Like Niahak and I have been discussing in this thread, the game also innovates well, somehow twisting the genre enough to actually suit the concept of a bunch of generals engaging in large-scale troop combat to the traditional RPG model very well. Troop count is HP. Tactics are magic spells. You'll usually run into boss fights when you try to enter new cities/castles. You buy rations as well as items and equipment for your generals. Brilliant. Oh, and that music:



Final Fantasy IV is not the strongest entry in the series, but it's among my favourites. I love the cast and the storyline in particular. I think the plotting is generally better than FFVI even if the story itself isn't. I also really like two things they did with the party system. First, traditional class archetypes are attached to specific characters. Despite being a big job system fan, I felt like anchoring the characters in their classes really helped define them. Second, the story forced party configurations. Characters would come and go. This would force you to adapt to your current party makeup for different sections of the game, which allowed them to keep the challenges interesting and engaging.

Batman: Arkham Asylum gets a vote for reasons I've talked about before. It's a great Metroid game. The setting is cool and the pacing is perfect.

The Legend of Zelda, the original master work, gets a vote from me because it's so open and free. This game perfectly captured my imagination, since it basically mirrored my own childhood play: going outside and just wandering, finding interesting things to do, discovering treasures, and letting the adventure unfold. Mapping that back into a video game was amazing. Mechanically, the game also continues to impress me. The controls are nice and smooth and responsive! Link moves around the map really well, something that other games around this time had trouble with. Fighting is fun!

[Jordan]

FINALLY

Donkey Kong Country 2

The best DK game by far. I kept hoping I'd see it in earlier voting rounds, but instead saw a bunch of inferior DK games which I often could not bring myself to vote for.

DK2 definitely deserves prime(ate?) consideration though. It's a wonderful platformer, and the addition of Dixie Kong added a lot.