Board 8 > Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1367

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'd probably side with Yoshi's Island just because it's Mario, but lower tier Mario games have taken Ls from lesser Nintendo series reps, so who knows!

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I would take Mario 1 just because it has a reason to be hurt by LFF in this poll. Yoshi's Island really stands out big time in a poll like this because it's the one game that's most unlike all of the other games here.
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What about Yoshi's Island vs. a remake of SMB1 starring Chris Pratt?

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Seanchan posted...

....Yoshi's Island vs DKC2....who wins...

Feels like a tough one. I feel like it should be DKC2 but I wouldn't feel confident.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/8550-

Well we did just have that poll. Which has very messy SFF of course.

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Yoshi's Island isn't too weak itself. It got around 30% against Chrono Trigger with Earthbound holding it back which is similar to what Castlevania: SotN got in the second round.

Of course, that was 2009 so things may be different now.

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If you're assuming Earthbound affected Yoshi's Island more than Chrono Trigger, it's not bad anyway

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For the heck of it, I remember Yoshi's Island finishing only two spots below Super Metroid in the lol 2009 x-stats. So maybe it's a secret powerhouse now!

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Seanchan posted...

....Yoshi's Island vs DKC2....who wins...

Feels like a tough one. I feel like it should be DKC2 but I wouldn't feel confident.

I would take Yoshi's Island because of the Mario > DK pecking order.

Not that I'd feel 100% confident.

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

For the heck of it, I remember Yoshi's Island finishing only two spots below Super Metroid in the lol 2009 x-stats. So maybe it's a secret powerhouse now!

I still can't understand how Super Metroid went 15 Rounds against Majora's Mask, unless there were some serious anti-GotD-Winner vibes going on.

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considering MM went 50/50 with LttP I doubt that's the case

Super Metroid benefited from the site getting smaller and older between 2009 and 2015

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LeonhartFour posted...

considering MM went 50/50 with LttP I doubt that's the case

Super Metroid benefited from the site getting smaller and older between 2009 and 2015

I suppose that's logical, but it's still baffling to see Super Metroid hanging with a Top 3 Zelda after LttP nearly tripled it back in 2004.

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Well, I still think LttP would probably lay the smack down on Super Metroid (although probably not a tripling these days, SFF is just not that intense anymore). That's just a bad matchup, like Ocarina of Time vs. Mario 64.

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Yeah, Super Metroid was a lot stronger in 2015. You don't go from 50/50 with Super Mario Kart to indirectly being as strong as Link to the Past without one.

As for why, either users who left really hated Super Metroid or speedrunning is very popular on GameFAQs.

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Well, I imagine stuff like ADGQ and the emergence of Metroidvania as a genre in general have probably helped give Super Metroid a second wind.

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Yeah, ADGQ was pretty big at that point. Makes you wonder how well Super Mario 64 would have held up.

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MM probably overperformed a bit against LttP too due to spillover from the Undertale rally the day before.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Well, I imagine stuff like ADGQ and the emergence of Metroidvania as a genre in general have probably helped give Super Metroid a second wind.

This sounds resonable. In 2004 you only had Metroids, SotN, and the GBA Vanias.

By 2015 you had a wide variety of Indies that owed their existence to Super Metroid.

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Yesterday's poll ended up with extremely similar results compared to the 2019 poll.
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plasmabeam posted...

I would take Yoshi's Island because of the Mario > DK pecking order.

Not that I'd feel 100% confident.

I think categorizing Yoshi's Island as a Mario game instead of a Yoshi game is a bit of a mistake, but Yoshi is still above DK on the pecking order.

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Another weird thing to think about the DKC/YI matchup is that when it comes to more recent entries, I would easily take Donkey Kong Country Returns/Tropical Freeze over any other Yoshi game. Assuming Yoshi's Story would be 2nd strongest behind YI, basically any DK game would trash it.

With that in mind, I'd probably go with DKC, simply because it had more of a cultural impact thanks to its prerendered graphics.

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Yoshi's Wooly World was a pretty good game as I recall. Second best Yoshi game to Yoshi's Island.

I would agree though that Wooly World (or god forbid Story) would be beaten fairly easily by DKC:R/Tropical Freeze.

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when this poll was held 10 years ago less than 20% said they had never played a GTA game before

should be interesting to see how the numbers have changed since

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I played GTA since then, so there should be a noticeable uptick from my vote.

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Would GTAIII actually fare better than its fellow PS2-era GTAs in a contest setting?

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No

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San Andreas should be the strongest PS2 GTA game.

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Eh? I would guess Vice City. Vercetti's the only protagonist to ever do something in these contests.

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I think San Andreas would beat every GTA game head to head.

Indirectly might be a different story for...reasons.

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In CJ's defense he had a terrible picture against Ness, plus we didn't even know how strong Ness was in 2005 (the year of the Nintendo boost) because he went up against Mario in round 2. With that said, I would take Vercetti over CJ back then and today.

Based on their contest performances the PS2 GTA trilogy are similar in strength, but head to head San Andreas is the clear favourite

I know it's a multi-way poll, but I think this shows the hierarchy well.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6498-of-the-top-10-best-selling-playstation-2-games-of-all-time

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I'd also take MGS2 over San Andreas despite it losing that poll.

These days, VC and SA are both so dated, both graphically and mechanically, that voters would probably vote based on the story and setting rather than quality of gameplay. With that in mind, I bet VC would win today.

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SA had so many improvements though. As long as its remembered as the best game it doesn't really matter if those improvements mean less now.

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Big Bob posted...

I'd also take MGS2 over San Andreas despite it losing that poll.

These days, VC and SA are both so dated, both graphically and mechanically, that voters would probably vote based on the story and setting rather than quality of gameplay. With that in mind, I bet VC would win today.

Isn't MGS2 kinda more highly-regarded now compared to back then?

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I would take MGS2 over them too, but I don't think the poll hurts one GTA more than another which is why I used it.

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LeonhartFour posted...

Well, I imagine stuff like ADGQ and the emergence of Metroidvania as a genre in general have probably helped give Super Metroid a second wind.

The SMZ3 randomizer certainly helped with that as well, on top of being by far the coolest ROMhack ever made

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LinkMarioSamus posted...

Isn't MGS2 kinda more highly-regarded now compared to back then?

Eh, MGS3 is the game that has aged well, not 2.

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They can both age well yknow

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pjbasis posted...

They can both age well yknow

I'm talking in terms of popularity

The talk about games not aging well in terms of how they play is often lazy because the things people point to are often problems people had with the game when it was new.

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No for a long time MGS2 was often looked down on, now significantly less so.

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I don't know if it was really looked down upon that much. It did very similarly to 3 in GotD, it's basically equal in critical reception and sales. I feel like it's just B8 being particularly sour on certain entries of a very popular series (like ff8)

I think the fandom clearly holds 3 up as the pinnacle, but that doesn't mean anything bad about 2.

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Nah, I think MGS2 did fine in 2015. It just went from being MGS3's peer in GotD to MGS3 being MGS1's peer in 2015.

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MGS2 was in no way MGS3's peer in GOTD. SOTC was clearly a different beast in later rounds that contest.

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SotC faced MGS3 one round after MGS2

There was probably a bandwagon effect that we can't measure, but they were probably closer then than they are now.

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Nah, it went 2 -> 4 -> 3

MGS3 also looked a good bit better than 2 in 2009.

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Huh, I thought it beat MGS4 first.

Regardless, the point is that MGS3 has grown in strength over time. MGS2 has not.

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Leonhart4 posted...

Nah, I think MGS2 did fine in 2015. It just went from being MGS3's peer in GotD to MGS3 being MGS1's peer in 2015.

Yeah but maybe that was just mgs1 moving down to it and mgs3 rising up. Or maybe that is what you were implying.

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Also I think 2 and 4 faced colossus at night and 3 got a day match If that means anything.

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It does, MGS3 faced SotC under bad conditions (day time, bandwagon) and still won.

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pjbasis posted...

Yeah but maybe that was just mgs1 moving down to it and mgs3 rising up. Or maybe that is what you were implying.

Well, I'm just talking within the series itself, yeah. MGS as a whole feels like it's weakened, but MGS3 has resisted that more than even MGS1 somehow.

Seriously, MGS3 beating MGS1 in 2015 is still wild.

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Also, I think it was the other way around. MGS2 and 4 were day matches and MGS3 was a night match because I recall people saying 3 only won because it was a night match and SotC couldn't take full advantage of its bandwagon.

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I didn't necessarily mean so much in terms of contest strength, more in terms of general reputation MGS2 doesn't get quite as much of a bad rap now as it did when the previously linked poll took place.

Might also be worth noting that MGS2 had a higher seed in BGE3 than it did in GOTD, despite the former contest being all-inclusive.

There's also nothing really wild about MGS3 beating 1. MGS3 has morphed into the series' fan favorite.

Most of the reason I felt SOTC caught a bandwagon against MGS3 is because that whole eightpack looks too high in the lol x-stats otherwise. Diablo II > Final Fantasy IX no thanks.

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