Lurker > charmander6000

Congrats cheese05

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/140179186?t=3h18m0s
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

Yeah, Fall 2004 was an excellent time for gaming, even on GameFAQs though it has aged a bit.

It's still one of stronger years post-90s. 2000 and 2001 obviously defeat it while 2006 and 2008 will be the favourite, but it can handle its own.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

Was everyone that off in 1987/1985 because I was over 13% off.

Hopefully 2009 rises a few percentage points.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

1997 - lol PaRappa, but it got its three games
1999 - Super Smash Bros. has sadly been forgotten
2007 - Best picture possible
2012 - Missing Mass Effect 3, though honestly this is a weak year.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

The ? mark on the corner likely helps for those who are confused.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

Well looks like my oracle pick for 2008 may be salvaged. 2001 needs to stop falling now.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

2008 is currently expected to get 99.86% against 1973
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

2009 jumped 3%
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

transience posted...

2014. 1986 is super bad.

but 1995 was also handicapped.

Well Smash 4 is also in the poll, arguably SFF'd, but still there.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

2014 (minus Smash 4) vs. 1986

Who wins?
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

I also noticed that 1986's picture was changed, before Ultima IV was the last game and now it was Alex Kidd.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

Unsurprisingly 2009 has a terrible board vote
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2001 and 2008
Current Bracket Score: 6/6

Despite the board hyping this match 4/5 gurus went with 1987, my guess is 53%.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

Nice start, but sadly by 1987 pick was well off.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

Match VIII – Round 1 – 2008 vs. 2009

Notable Releases – Adjusted X-Stats (Year)

2008
Games
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – 28.26% (2015)
Fallout 3 – 34.01% (2015)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl – 42.24% (2010)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 – 25.16% (2015)

Platforms
None

2009
Games
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves – 18.90% (2015)
Minecraft – 16.82% (2015)
Street Fighter IV – 25.82% (2010)
Batman: Arkham Asylum – 31.73% (2010)

Platforms
None

Analysis

2009 had a decent performance in the wildcard round though just because you destroyed fodder doesn’t mean you are strong. You could spin this to be a good performance by keeping 1978 and 1979’s performance in the vote-ins constant which would lead to 2009 getting 43.21% against 2005. Of course using the vote-in, likely filled with SFF may not be the best idea and regardless I’d probably take 2008 over 2005 in a close match.

I consider 2008 to be the last great year of gaming for GameFAQs. Sure there may have been a few games that GameFAQs liked since then, but no year since then has been able to put together a group this large of GameFAQs approved games. The biggest wildcard for the year will be Brawl’s strength. The game missed out in 2015 likely due to fans jumping ship to Smash 4, but that doesn’t mean people have forgotten about the game. I’d probably take Melee over Brawl in a rematch, but I don’t see the game dropping significantly in strength.

Even in a worst case scenario I don’t see 2008 losing to 2009. It’s a shame 2008 was given such a predictable path. The year could have caused a lot of discussion considering what happened to their top games in 2015 (Brawl missed out, MGS4 is clearly weaker now and Fallout 3 was fed to Undertale).

charmander6000’s Bracket: 2008 > 2009

charmander6000’s Prediction: 2008 wins, 65.85% - 34.15%
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

Match VII – Round 1 – 2001 vs. 2014

Notable Releases – Adjusted X-Stats (Year)

2001
Games
Halo: Combat Evolved – 19.43% (2015)
Final Fantasy X – 35.94% (2015)
Super Smash Bros. Melee – 38.28% (2015)
Grand Theft Auto III – 31.97% (2010)

Platforms
Game Boy Advance
Gamecube
Xbox

2014
Games
Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U – 30.96% (2015)
Destiny – 12.76% (2015)
Dark Souls II
Bayonetta 2 – 17.72% (2015)

Platforms
None

Analysis

How did 3/4 of the years containing a Super Smash Bros. game ended up in the same four-pack? This is probably the worst case scenario match for 2014. The year is pretty much Smash 4 and not much else. The adjusted x-stats values speak for themselves though maybe Shovel Knight would have been a nice option.

According to the gurus 2001 is the favourite to make the final. While it doesn’t have the strongest game it does have strong games from different bases. Whether it makes the final is yet to be seen, though the performance from 1987 does inspire me to believe that diversity will matter greatly here.

If Melee could pull off some SFF against Smash 4 we could see 2001 easily break 80% and even if it doesn’t it should be well into the 70s. Unlike Brawl Smash 4 does bring in fans from the competitive side and while they do love the game I feel they will disproportionally favour Melee if it comes down to it. Smash 4 did get a bit lucky and is placed higher in the picture rotation order than Melee so maybe Smash fans will vote before noticing Melee though I doubt it will be a huge factor.

charmander6000’s Bracket: 2001 > 2014

charmander6000’s Prediction: 2001 wins, 81.34% - 18.66%
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

Round 1

2001 - 81.34%
2008 - 65.85%
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

Vote totals are a bit better today, I think we're heading for around 17k.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

LeonhartFour posted...

Does TP cause 2006 to SFF 2011 or does SS cause 2011 to LFF 2006?

what a weird contest

Well LFF will be there, but I think TP will hurt SS so badly that LFF will be a small factor.

For example in 2008 Mario did better against Mega Man X with Luigi in the poll relative to Zelda because he was able to SFF Luigi more.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/3279-division-2-round-2-mario-zelda-mega-man-x-mudkip
https://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/3293-division-2-final-l-snake-luigi-mario-mega-man-x

Also I think Oblivion will hold better against Skyrim than SS against TP.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

CaptainOfCrush posted...

charmander6000 posted...

Would 2011 getting Skyward Sword make things better or worse for 2006?

Better, it's still probably the #2 game from that year (either that or Dark Souls). No year wants to go into this with ZERO Nintendo representation in its match pic.

EDIT: Sorry, you're asking about its effect on 2006, not 2011. In that case - worse.

If 2011 gets Skyrim, Zelda, and Souls in its rotation, I probably consider it the favorite.

Well my line of thinking is that Twilight Princess would SFF Skyward Sword so hard that something like Batman: Arkham CIty or Portal 2 would bring in more votes.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

I'd still take 2006 over 2011.

Would 2011 getting Skyward Sword make things better or worse for 2006?
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

1987 was when the NES got all of its awesome games outside of Mario.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

I assume he didn't want to use the Smash icon.

Shovel Knight would have been nice to see.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/byg/r1/2001.jpg
https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/byg/r1/2014.jpg

https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/byg/r1/2008.jpg
https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/images/byg/r1/2009.jpg


Well at least Smash 4 is listed ahead of Melee
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

TheRock1525 posted...

Huh, I thought Ulti was opposed to the original bill. My mistake, then.

IIRC he was, though he did like some parts of it.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

I feel Brawl will have retain most of its strength despite not making the 2015 contest, but even if it dropped as badly as MGS4 2008 should win, 2009 is that weak.

Edit: Though technically it may be our closest match so far...
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

1991 is more than just Super Mario World. It has FFIV, Sonic 1, Street Fighter II, though I’m happy that I went with 1994.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

SBAllen seems to be going for a diverse set up so we could also see

PC - Max Payne, Civilization III
GBA - Golden Sun, Advance Wars
N64 - Paper Mario, Conker's Bad Fur Day
Dreamcast - Sonic Adventure 2, Phantasy Star Online

Playstation 2 has many other options as already noted.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

Melee, FFX and Halo are guaranteed (well FFX is 80-90% given all the PS2 games), GTA3 and Silent Hill 2 are listed in the notable games list while MGS2 and Sonic Adventure 2 are other possible choices
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

Interesting that despite being the favourite to reach the finals 98 > 91, 01 > 97 isn't the most common final four.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

If consoles were to have an effect I feel Nintendo systems will get the smallest boost. If you loved the SNES you were probably going to vote for Super Mario World already.

On the other end the Playstations should get the largest boost since their launch year was terrible.

However, I feel console launches will take a backseat to years with games from that console as we are seeing here. 1991 won't get a boost against 1994 or 1995 against 1997.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

In round 1 people thought Ratchet and Clank: UYA was weaker relative to 2010. It wasn't until the second round that people thought Chrono Trigger was stronger.

Based on our expectation (which is based on no evidence) 1995 is doing as expected so whatever expectation you had pre-contest remains.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

Was that 1986 picture made during the GameSpot character battle?
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

90% barrier has been broken.

Why did I lower my prediction after seeing the picture?
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

*votes*

Awww yeah 1987.

I'd sooner call this SFF than 1987 being a secret powerhouse. I also hope this means people are taking the whole year into account, like maybe SMB is your favourite game out of the bunch, but with Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania and Mega Man all on the other side you have to agree it was the better year.

As for next round, if 1995 can get some Nintendo support I feel it'll be safe.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 1995 and 1987
Current Bracket Score: 4/4

LeonhartFour posted...

ME1 looked a lot stronger in 2015 than it did in 2009, but that's probably just general exposure to the series expanding since then.

I'm confused with this statement.

So you're agreeing ME2 helped make ME stronger, right?
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

transience posted...

3? that's a totally different case!

More like 2 boosted the original, see Mass Effect between 2009 and 2010.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

transience posted...

it sounds good in theory, but when's the last time a released game made a tangible difference on another game? ever?

Mass Effect?
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

Match VI – Round 1 – 1985 vs. 1987

Notable Releases – Adjusted X-Stats (Year)

1985
Games
Excitebike
Super Mario Bros. – 32.09% (2009)
Space Harrier
Duck Hunt – 8.38% (2009)

Platforms
Amiga
NES

1987
Games
Metroid – 14.59% (2009)
The Legend of Zelda – 31.28% (2009)
Castlevania
Mega Man

Platforms
None

Analysis

This is the first match that got a lot of discussion during the bracket making period. This is our first example of a single strong game going up against a more diverse field and whether people will take gaming history into account while voting.

Among the games in this match Super Mario Bros. is seen as the strongest, but after that 1985 doesn’t exactly have much to offer. 1987 meanwhile was the beginning of many well-known series including The Legend of Zelda which didn’t exactly lose by much to Super Mario Bros. In fact if you add the votes from The Legend of Zelda and Metroid in that match they would have finished ahead of Super Mario Bros. Throw in Castlevania and Mega Man which will get votes due to name recognition and it is hard to argue for 1985 by simply adding up the strengths of the games.

One of the most common arguments for 1985 was people would vote for it due to the release of the NES. Sadly it does not look like consoles will be mentioned in this round, but even if it had I’m not sure it would have made a large difference in this particular match. First, a lot of people that would vote for the NES would already vote for Super Mario Bros. and second with so many great NES games in 1987 why would anyone vote for the console when you could vote for the game?

Another argument for 1985 is that it was historically important and I agree, but I’m not sure how much it would help the year. If 1985 does end up winning this match I feel this would be a major reason why, though if it does I’m not sure if that would change the complexion of the bracket, not too many years are remembered for their importance in history.

For my bracket’s sake I feel this won’t be close. Diversity will be very important in this contest. Even the picture doesn’t give 1985 an advantage other than exposing the voter to Super Mario Bros. under the 1985.

charmander6000’s Bracket: 1987 > 1985

charmander6000’s Prediction: 1987 wins, 60.93% - 39.07%
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

Match V – Round 1 – 1995 vs. 1986

Notable Releases – Adjusted X-Stats (Year)

1995
Games
Full Throttle
Chrono Trigger – 52.12% (2015)
Rayman
Panzer Dragoon

Platforms
Playstation
Sega Saturn
Virtual Boy

1986
Games
Balloon Fight
Bubble Bobble
OutRun
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Platforms
Atari 7800
Sega Master System

Analysis

This is the first match of the main bracket and this could potentially be the largest blowout of the contest. Chrono Trigger is arguably the site’s strongest game, if not it is very close. After that there’s a bit of a drop off where the year is dominated by middle tier Nintendo games; Donkey Kong Country 2, Earthbound and Yoshi’s Island though none of them made the first round picture. One of the larger debates is whether years with a very strong game would dominate years with a weaker, but diverse set of games. 1995 is squarely in the former camp.

Of course that won’t matter much in this match. With Tetris being classified as a 1989 game despite making its North American debut in 1986 the year has a great argument of being the weakest among the 1985-2016 years and a decent chance of being the weakest overall. The year is one of two to not have a game featured in a GameFAQs contest and unlike 1983 there isn’t a game that would finish anywhere near the fodder line.

While I haven’t placed much stock into console releases I feel 1995 can gain the most with the release of the Playstation. While Nintendo consoles tend to have great launches the same can’t be said about the Playstation where its most notable release was probably Twisted Metal. Again it doesn’t matter in this match, but it could in the future. I expect 1995 to win big, but without its Nintendo games it may underperform relative to expectations.

charmander6000’s Bracket: 1995 > 1986

charmander6000’s Prediction: 1995 wins, 87.36% - 12.64%
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

Round 1

1995 - 87.36%
1987 - 60.93%
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

I'm glad the question mark is there, it at least give something for people to click on.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

SBAllen wants to have all the major systems represented so Panzer Dragoon Saga is almost guaranteed in.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

Pretty much the only outlier is 1979 and Asteroids was third in that picture
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

To be fair this was barely advertised, even on the front page it was a small thumbnail instead of the usual banner.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

While it won't matter here 1995 got screwed, no Nintendo games is something it wants to avoid in later rounds.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2

transience posted...

you think? with Mega Man box art and CDI Link?

It got its four best games, Mega Man box art was expected, Link is a bit unfortunate, but that's what he looked like.
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Best Year in Gaming - Today's Winners: 2006 and 2005
Current Bracket Score: 2/2