LogFAQs > #951039720

Best Game of 2003
https://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?1&tid=356935

Ran: March 2010
Overall top seed: The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker
1 seeds: Wind Waker, Pokemon RSE, Star Wars: KOTOR, Viewtiful Joe
Final Four: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Disgaea, KOTOR, Beyond Good and Evil
Ultimate Loser: .hack//Outbreak Part 3
Championship: Prince of Persia defeated Knights of the Old Republic 18-13

The GameCube finally got its perennial Zelda title that year and it won the overall seed for 2003. It wouldn't be long, however, before things started getting awry in the bracket.

Slight correction from my 2009 writeup first off: The original Call of Duty won as an #8 seed here, and THAT would be CoD's final win to date. Anyway, the top seeds played like disappointments for the most part. Let's discuss the one that did make the semifinals first. KOTOR was a GotY across many sources in 2003 and for good reason: it was arguably the first Star Wars game that was a masterpiece, and it was an RPG? So many players were down for that. KOTOR's only close match in its region was an 11-8 win over Soulcalibur II in round 3. Otherwise, it made laughing stocks out of Tony Hawk's Underground, SSX 3, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.

And now for the rest of the #1 seeds. Pokemon RSE failed to live up to its tournament-winning predecessor, losing in round 3 to a #5 seeded Jak II. Jak and Daxter peaked at the Elite Eight that year, losing a respective 12-9 to #3 seeded Disgaea; if I had actually ran this contest in 2003, Disgaea might have won the whole damn thing based on how much it was loved back then. Viewtiful Joe barely snatched the last #1 seed from Beyond Good and Evil, and it showed as Jade and crew edged Joe by a single vote in the Elite Eight to steal the last final four spot. Finally, The Wind Waker became the first overall top seed to miss the semifinals, losing 14-10 to #3 seeded Prince of Persia.

Yep, that's right; Wind Waker didn't even get the chance to play #2 seeded Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando; the highly praised sequel was stunned by #7 seed Dark Cloud 2 in the second round (which also would have been seeded higher if this contest ran six years earlier). No crazy upsets in the first round, as the lowest seed to advance was a #10, but at the very least, Jak and Dark Cloud's sequels made some noise for at least a round or two. Also on a very rare note, Madden NFL 2004 got a rare win for a sports game, beating True Crime by a single vote before getting shut down by Viewtiful Joe in round 2.

So for the second time in tournament history, none of the games involved were a Nintendo exclusive; sure, the Prince and Jade could both be found on the Gamecube, but those games were multiplatform. Knights of the Old Republic barely got by Beyond Good and Evil 13-11, while Prince of Persia scored a close 24-18 win over Disgaea. Finally, the Prince built up a small lead over Star Wars and kept it long enough to secure a slightly lower total than usual win.

2003 stands out for quite a few reasons, most notably the fact that a huge Gamecube exclusive (a Zelda one at that) gets beaten by Prince of Persia. On that note, I'll say two things:
1) I don't think that happens today
2) I'm glad I didn't run it today. Sands of Time, while not my 2003 GotY, is a damn fine title

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Formerly known as Raven 2
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