This Old Neon Forum

Round 5: Rudolph's Bracket

You can vote for 1-4 games in this poll. Vote carefully—you can't change your votes after submitting them. The top 4 games at the end of the week will move on to Round 6.

1991 - Turrican II: The Final Fight - Amiga/C64
1993 - Secret of Mana - SNES
1996 - Pokémon [Blue/Red] Version - GB
2001 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - GCN/PS2/XB
2002 - Suikoden III - PS2
2003 - Tales of Symphonia - GCN
2008 - The Last Remnant - X360/PC
2008 - Mega Man 9 - Multiplatform
2010 - Super Street Fighter IV - Multiplatform
2012 - The Walking Dead - PC/X360

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

Strongly considering only voting for Secret of Mana in this bracket, because it blows the competition away so thoroughly. This is, simply put, one of my all-time favourite games. I played through it multiple times with my brother when it originally came out. The co-op is glorious, and was unprecedented in this kind of game at the time. The music is an amazing mix of cheerful and melancholy. The bright graphics and colorful sprites have a ton of character. Love this game.

Repeat votes for SSFIV and MM9. Nothing else for me in here.

Suikoden III is such an enjoyable RPG. I love the multiple paths and how they wind together. Plus this game has a special place in my heart, as it's the first game I played getting out of a depressive slump where I couldn't enjoy video games for almost a year or more.

Gotta catch 'em aaaaalllll Pokemon!

Sadly never played Suikoden III as it was never released in Europe.

*shakes fist*

Pokemon Red/Blue = no brainer.

THPS3 = not the best one but still fun so I decided to vote for it.

Secret of Mana = Didn't vote for it as I've never played it but one day will get around to playing it.

I enjoy Suikoden III more each time I play it, which is something that doesn't hold true for many games. I might actually like it better than the first...

Its atmosphere, the great character-building (that leads to a core cast of over 20 characters, all told, all of which are fairly well developed), the hidden things you only notice on multiple playthroughs (and some you might not even see without unlocking secret recruit-all-characters content), and the lack of any really touchy character recruitment requirements all make it a great entry in my favorite game series.

I should have nominated it, but I can at least make up for it with my vote.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was a defining game of my youth and still one of my favorites of all time. It's a game with which I am more familiar than nearly any other (Mario 64 is the only other game for me where the ratio of game content to time spent is more ludicrously skewed towards the latter, since it was my first good console game). Its controls are tight, it's sound design is solid, and it continued the trend (at the time) of Tony Hawk games vastly improving over the previous game in the series, which had already been held in high regard. One of the most important games in the world to me.

And, of course, I adore Mega Man 9.

Super Street Fighter IV, Secret of Mana, Mega Man 9, and Pokemon Blue/Red will advance to the next round!