March Genesis Madness: Final Four

[fox | 1,667]

The Final 4 Titans do battle



Voting ends Wendesday

@Reed Rothchild@RH@Gloves@Webhead123@sp1nz@MrWunderful@CT@a3quit4s
@skinnygrinny@PII@cj_robot@The Count@rdrunner@Aguy@AstralSoul@TDIRunner
@Dr. Morbis@JamesRobot@Sumez@Gaia Gensouki@G-type@LHCGreg@the_wizard_666
@T-Pac@AverageOliver98@nesmaster14@ikk@NostalgicMachine@Splain@GPX
@asmikace@Kguillemette

[a3quit4s | 4,102]

Streets of rage vs Sonic was the real final lol

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

The final four has some really good games in it.

25 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

Streets of rage vs Sonic was the real final lol

It would have been my final, but had a rough seeding. Premier platformer vs premier beat em up.  

[GPX | 1,370]

56 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

Streets of rage vs Sonic was the real final lol

I think it’s a reflection that more people’s played a Sonic game than a Streets of Rage. Particularly when a lot of the Sonic games were sold as console bundles. 

[NostalgicMachine | 236]

What a boring final lmao.

I hope GSH wins.

Edited March 31 by NostalgicMachine

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,075]

5 hours ago, NostalgicMachine said:

What a boring final lmao.

I hope GSH wins.

That's the problem with every best of list that is decided by majority vote. You will always see the usual suspects up there and it ends up being super boring. That's why I usually prefer more individual lists that sometimes have some surprising games on there.

[NostalgicMachine | 236]

2 hours ago, Gaia Gensouki said:

That's the problem with every best of list that is decided by majority vote. You will always see the usual suspects up there and it ends up being super boring. That's why I usually prefer more individual lists that sometimes have some surprising games on there.

Exactly. I try not to be cynical, but it's like every top whatever list ends up being the safest, most homogenized things possible.

Streets of Rage 2 all day!!! 

[koifish | 556]

On 3/31/2024 at 3:19 PM, Gaia Gensouki said:

That's the problem with every best of list that is decided by majority vote. You will always see the usual suspects up there and it ends up being super boring. That's why I usually prefer more individual lists that sometimes have some surprising games on there.

lol of course, who can forget GameFAQs character battles that inevitably put Zelda characters against Final Fantasy characters every time?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,533]

On 3/31/2024 at 6:57 PM, NostalgicMachine said:

Exactly. I try not to be cynical, but it's like every top whatever list ends up being the safest, most homogenized things possible.

 

[RH | 4,905]

On 3/31/2024 at 8:57 PM, NostalgicMachine said:

Exactly. I try not to be cynical, but it's like every top whatever list ends up being the safest, most homogenized things possible.

Streets of Rage 2 all day!!! 

I don't think it's because it's "safe", per se.  I don't vote  hoping to pick the one everyone else will pick so that my personal brackets look good, I vote for the games I like.

But the thing is that even around here with a bunch of well-seasoned gamers, there are many of us who are primarily familiar with the most-popular titles for the system.  I loved the Genesis as a kid but I didn't play many titles back then.  I've subsequently given several a try since then and the one I've gone back too the most sense being an adult is honestly Zero-Wing.  Of course I first discovered it when the "All Your Base" meme-craze hit in the late-90s but when I downloaded the ROM back then, I really enjoyed it and when I got into retro-gaming around 2016, it was a game I'd find to play and now that it's on the NSO, it's by far my most-played Genesis title.

I wanted Zero Wing to do a bit better but the fact is, many of you are shmup fans and others aren't so much.  That was a set back.  Then there are of you that are serious about your shmups and this doesn't compete with the top-shelf titles.  You all would want one of those to be king of the list, but you're also kind of in the minority against the whole.  The same is true for many of these other titles that I've only heard in passing and sense Genesis game play is generally a mid-priority of mine, games like Splatterhouse or Rocket Knight are probably never going to get played for more than 5 minutes.

So.... we all vote off of our experience and what we know is that we all loved Sonic 2.  I will say I am surprised, though.  Sonic 2 is great but IMHO, Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles are peak-Sonic so I would have though those games would have made it further.  That said, I don't feel we're voting a "safe" vote.  We're just voting what we know and enjoy vs. something we've heard of, but is new to us.

The only way to get around this is to require that "if you vote, you have to have put X hours in the game".  There are some  games I had zero-experience with and I had to YouTube search.  Those games just don't have a chance.  I don't have time to play them so my opinions are based on 10 seconds of game play.  30 seconds tops, if it catches my attention.

[Sumez | 2,959]

None of these games are in the MegaDrive's top 4 haha  

Contra is pretty good tho

 

I missed both the top 16 and top 8 votes since you posted and ended both of them during the easter holidays. This thing is moving too fast.

Edited April 3 by Sumez

[T-Pac | 7,550]

On 4/2/2024 at 5:53 AM, RH said:

But the thing is that even around here with a bunch of well-seasoned gamers, there are many of us who are primarily familiar with the most-popular titles for the system. 

So.... we all vote off of our experience and what we know is that we all loved Sonic 2. 

Exactly! Popular games are popular for a reason, and the broad familiarity that comes with that territory means they'll always be topping brackets like this.

Which may seem boring to people who are deep into a system's library - but it's a great quality cue for someone just diving in...
I mean, I started exploring the Genesis with "Top 10" lists, and recommendations for stuff like Shinobi III certainly didn't steer me wrong haha.

[T-Pac]