This Old Neon Forum

Round 2: Bracket 3/16 - THREE

You can vote for 1-2 games in this poll. Vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The #1 and #2 ranked games at the end of the week will move on to Round 3.

1980 - Pac-Man - Arcade
1981 - Donkey Kong - Arcade/A2600
1988 - Blaster Master - NES
1992 - Soldier Blade - TG16
1998 - Fallout 2 - PC
2006 - Final Fantasy XII - PS2
2007 - Super Paper Mario - Wii
2010 - Higurashi When They Cry - iOS
2011 - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - Wii
2013 - Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe - PC

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

Blaster Master, one of the best if not the best action / adventure game on the NES, and FFXII, a game I hope gets a remake for PS4 so I can play it again in HD.

This is an easy vote for Final Fantasy XII for me. It's one of my favourite entries in a genre I've always really enjoyed. The setting and atmosphere are based on the world of Ivalice from my favourite game of all time, Final Fantasy Tactics. The music fits the game's world and events perfectly. The characters are typically Final Fantasy—a mix of annoying kids and weird genre tropes, but the writers actually manage to mix things up quite well in this one. The protagonist is a starry-eyed kid with his head in the clouds, but he's not really the main character—he's wrapped up in events that are bigger than him, with people who are more important than him, and he's gradually somewhat stripped of his illusions about the world.

I also loved the battle system. The Gambit system allows you to "program" your party's AI to react to various situations. It actually becomes quite strategic and very fulfilling to develop airtight Gambits.

I tossed my second vote to Blaster Master. This is partly because I'm not 100% keen on supporting Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, which are certainly influential games but which I don't really think are all that engaging or good overall. But it's mainly because Blaster Master is such a fresh entry in a genre that was ripe for innovation. Plus, the game just looked fantastic on the NES. Quite a technical achievement.

Donkey Kong and Pac-man are classic gems none of the others stand out to me.

Pac-Man and Fallout 2 will receive my votes easily. Fallout 2 is probably my favorite WRPG, and Pac-Man is just iconic.

Fallout 2 is my real vote here, as I felt it built upon and refined everything I enjoyed about the original. Not much more to say, it's bloody fabulous.

Soldier Blade takes a bit of a throwaway honourable mention vote, not because of a lack of enthusiasm, but it's doomed against this competition. I only got around to playing this one via Virtual Console in 2011, but instantly ranked among my favourite shooters of all time. Excellent music and level progression, a recurring nemesis battle and sporting tough-but-forgiving gameplay that wants you to see the end. A glorious addition to the Star Soldier series and a cut above.

My assumption is that we'll see a tight battle between DK and Pac Man, so I can only hope that the iconic and totally-not-terrible Pac-Man can edge out the iconic and totally-terrible Donkey Kong. It should be noted that it'll take something truly monumental to keep me from giving Ms. Pac Man my vote when it inevitably appears elsewhere.

Crap, I didn't notice Higurashi in there.

Pac-man, can't say I've played it too much, but it's one of those games I could play at any time. It was so important for the gaming industry as well.

Pac-Man and Blaster Master have advanced to Round 3!