This Old Neon Forum

Welcome to the #BGE2020 Elimination Round of 32!

Each game is seeded based on its performance in the two opening rounds of pools. Every game in the Upper Bracket has defeated multiple other games in 1-on-1 polls to get to this point. These are still the best of the best.

Polls are updated weekly, typically on Monday. Check back throughout the week to make sure you don't miss a vote!

HOW TO VOTE

This is easy. You only get one vote per poll. The game with the most votes wins. In the event of a tie, the higher seed advances, so don't get complacent!

Castlevania III is a solid game that introduced branching paths and multiple characters, neither of which seem particularly essential for the Classicvania side. All told, I have always considered this to be the weaker, not as tight follow-up to the perfect original. It's hard to improve on perfection, and this didn't.

Dark Souls improves on Demon's Souls quite a bit, which is impressive. Demon's Souls is the important grandpa, but Dark Souls is the one that has basically shaped half of all subsequent action games. Thoughtful, methodical combat. Fantastic level design that actually physically makes sense mapped out in a 3D world, with shortcuts and stages that loop back on themselves. Honestly, gameplay aside, the fact that much of the DS world is connected and can be visualized by the player, opening up any number of sequence-breaking opportunities as long as you have the courage to fight or evade the obstacles that you know will be in your way is the true highlight of the game's impact, and one of the things its many imitators haven't been able to figure out.

Very easy vote for Dark Souls here.

Castlevania III is my favorite Castlevania game. It’s got much more depth than the original (more to see and more to do), is much tougher than Simon’s Quest (which I also adore), and had used the NES hardware adroitly to accomplish a gorgeous and beautiful sounding game. My sister and I played the heck out of it.

Dark Souls didn’t click with me in part because of my inability to progress meaningfully. I beat Demon’s Souls and have beaten a bunch of other challenging and/or demanding games. But the fact that I can’t get anywhere in Dark Souls puts me off somewhat. I know it’s possible, but I never really felt like it was worth the time investment to accomplish it…. I respect the game and the sub genre it helped create, but it’s not for me apparently.