Round 4, in which we forget the sabbath

[Claytone]

Mega Man 9 will get my sole vote, no question. There are plenty of other good games in this bracket, but there are no other great games. I consider MM9 a real mastery of the Mega Man craft, and I love that it included plenty of content and challenges to keep me playing it long beyond the shelf-life of its NES predecessors. I think MM3 or MM2 might be better games, but MM9 was the one I spent the most time with because of said incentives. Lovely game.

[The Shoemaker]

Mega Man 9 will get my sole vote, no question. There are plenty of other good games in this bracket, but there are no other great games. I consider MM9 a real mastery of the Mega Man craft, and I love that it included plenty of content and challenges to keep me playing it long beyond the shelf-life of its NES predecessors. I think MM3 or MM2 might be better games, but MM9 was the one I spent the most time with because of said incentives. Lovely game.

I think MM9 was an all around great surprise. I don't think anyone expecting Capcom to make another retro MM that was as good as the originals. It was actually my first MM game, I remember I tried Concrete Man first and it took me about 100 tries to actually beat the level. By the end I had it memorized. Magma Man was always a bitch.

[Humphries90]

Have any of you played Azure Dreams before?

[Niahak]

Azure Dreams is interesting, fun, and relaxing... but I'd hesitate to vote for it simply because it becomes very grindy about 15 hours in (where you'll be searching for red/blue upgrade materials for your weapon and shield, while trying to level up monsters as you go). Up until that point it's a really fun roguelike with a pretty good amount of variety to it. The townspeople interactions keep things feeling fresh, but they also become less interesting when you hit that point (around floor 20 from what I remember).

I don't usually enjoy roguelikes, though, so that's definitely a point in Azure Dreams' favor. It helps that its gradual progression mechanics are much more forgiving than most.

[Forscyvus]

ALL TRASH

(aka I've barely played any of these)

[Kong Wen]

Mega Man 9, Metroid, and Super Mario 3D Land will advance to Round 5.