This Old Neon Forum

Round 2: Bracket 2/16 - TWO

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.

1985 - Gradius - Arcade/NES
1987 - Phantasy Star - SMS
1993 - Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - SNES
1997 - Klonoa: Door to Phantomile - PS1
2003 - Astro Boy: Omega Factor - GBA
2006 - Wii Sports - Wii
2007 - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - DS
2009 - Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies - DS
2010 - God of War III - PS3
2013 - The Walking Dead: Season 2 - PC

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

Gradius and Phantasy Star for me, here. Both old old old games LOL. I loved Hotel Dusk quite a bit, but not as much as either of those two....

Wii sports is the only I've played. It's kind of underrated and was amazing for its time.

Gradius and Phantasy Star for me, hands down. Despite playing the crap out of Street Fighter II, and certainly despite its unquestionable impact and legacy, I never really liked it too much. I will say it's among the most (if not the most) deserving game to move on.

My handle should speak volumes about what I think of Gradius. It was a huge leap ahead for shooters at the time, had great music, varied stages and massive challenge. From a personal side, it was also the first shooter I beat in the arcade and the first I'd played where a narrative with an ending was even available (in shooters). The series remains a favourite of mine, despite largely being content with iteration over innovation. Landmark game, landmark series.

As one of those weirdos that had a Master System back in the NES' heyday, I had fun lording this game over my friends, who had been dying to get their hands on Dragon Warrior, and here I was with the first JRPG to hit western shores. It was a technical marvel, to boot, with complex first-person dungeon crawling riddled with traps and dead-ends. I spent a ton of time drawing out maps for the later, more devious layouts. It has great music that sticks with me to this day, and a far stronger narrative (sparse though it was) than FF or DW. A SF/Fantasy epic spanning three distinct planets? That still sounds awesome to me.

Have to go with Street Fighter 2. Not sure it was that version I played the most (there were so many!) but they're practically the same.

Gradius and Phantasy Star squeezed out close wins to advance to Round 3!