Lurker > Big Bob

Persona 4 was weak back when it first came out. In Game of the Decade it barely beat Dead Rising. It's a solid midcarder now, and its strength probably transfers to P5 if that ever makes a contest, but I'd still take Brawl and MGS4 over it.

Hell, I'm not sure Fallout 3 holds up either, and we don't have a good read on it thanks to Undertale.
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K.
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Chrono Trigger vs FFVII in a "Best JRPG" contest.
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First thought: Aw yeah, a Sonic game that doesn't suck! It's been a while!

Second thought: ...It's barely beating an Uncharted spinoff.
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Joker, Aloy, and 2B are probably the only new characters this year that have the potential to win a match, though I hope Jack Baker makes a contest just so the board can be inundated with "Welcome to the family, son" memes.
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Final Fantasy VII
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The main character of Persona 5 is nicknamed Joker, and he's probably the most recognizable character of the bunch. Makoto's the fan favorite, but I'd take Joker to be the strongest.

I know Yakuza's never been in a contest in any form, but Yakuza 0 seems pretty well-received and the series has been around forever, so I think Kazama Kiryu could be a low midcarder. Aloy from Horizon: ZD could also potentially win a match.

And it's kind of funny to realize Doomguy's never been in a contest here.
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I've only changed controls in a handful of games, but I've seen way too many cutscenes that I would prefer to have skipped.
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Jecht was in villains, too. :P
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I liked the show from the beginning, but I'll say that Love Potion #9 is the first truly shining episode.
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Riviera: The Promised Land

Golden Sun and Fire Emblem get a lot of attention for being great GBA RPGs, but Riviera should be right up there. Great characters, great story, great gameplay, it's got it all. The boss battle theme is still stuck in my head after all these years.
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Fire Emblem's one game that'd probably break the rules, considering the first one to come stateside was the seventh in the series, and they just called it "Fire Emblem". SB would have to omit it entirely.
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The semantics of such a contest would be terrible. Red Dead Redemption is kind of a sequel to Red Dead Revolver, so would it automatically get disqualified? Is Super Mario Bros a sequel? Is Earthbound disqualified because it's a sequel to a game never released stateside?

Not to mention Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne would all be eligible because they're not technically related, even though they're all by the same devs with (mostly) the same mechanics.
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Just realized I didn't put Tales of Berseria or Fire Emblem Echoes in there. Oh well.
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Fuck it, First half of 2017 Bracket:

1) Breath of the Wild
8) What Remains of Edith Finch

4) Yakuza 0
5) Gravity Rush 2

3) Mass Effect Andromeda
6) Prey

2) Nier: Automata
7) Night in the Woods

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1) Persona 5
8) For Honor

4) Nioh
5) Yooka-Laylee

3) Horizon: Zero Dawn
6) Hollow Knight

2) Resident Evil 7
7) Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment
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87's the big outlier to the "average game strength" theory. It's clear it got a massive respect boost, because none of its games are particularly strong.

I'm still amazed that Earthbound of all things almost put it over 2001.
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Some 3D Zelda SFF going on here. Add Link's Awakening and ALBW and Link to the Past falls hard.
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I did, too!
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I'd still take 2001. Melee has been SFF'd by Pokemon and OoT before, and the second strongest Nintendo game in 2001 is what, Paper Mario? Golden Sun? I imagine that's affecting the outcome. Compare that to Super Metroid which nearly beat Majora's Mask last time, and probably holds up to SFF better than it used to.
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I support "Best Month of 1998".
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Didn't Link comeback by that much against Draven? But still lost?
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Eh, not the worst contest we had. There were no perfect brackets, a couple of upsets. Better than Rivals/Series/Characters 2004 at least.
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I'm guessing Kleenex wrote his analysis more than a day ago.
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Oh good, I can't wait to not watch this new series.
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The thing about rallies is that they either happen or they don't. There's no analysis involved, you either called it or you didn't. Like the people who counted on The Witcher III devs to rally for their game, but they weren't aware of the contest. It was a solid bet, but it just didn't happen. Same with the people who thought the Minecraft fanbase would carry it, though it had FFVII in round 2, so I doubt it would have been enough. I got lucky last contest when I predicted Melee rallies would carry it far (and I still think it could have beaten OoT), but I didn't think an Undertale rally was even a thing.

There's predicting trends, and then there's throwing up your hands and going "fuck, I don't know".
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What's more important is knowing what year OoT came out.
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Eh, I think I'd take Half-Life 2 in the "best shooter" for this site. Even if it doesn't have the nostalgia factor, it's widely respected and nearly beat Metroid Prime that one time, though it's definitely fallen. Bioshock also came to mind, though it's hard to gauge considering unrelated rallies nearly pushed it to beat MGS3.

2015 X-stats put HL2 ahead of Goldeneye, though only by a slim margin. If I recall, they were in the same division, too, so it's more accurate than most results. Then again, Undertale...
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Since the last time I asked someone went and did it, let's make a 2017 match pic for this round!

Breath of the Wild
Persona 5
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Nier: Automata
Resident Evil 7
Nioh
Hollow Knight
Yakuza 0

And here's some unreleased games that'd probably make the list if you want to swap any out:

Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Super Mario Odyssey
Splatoon 2

I bet 2017 could get like 30% on 1998.
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I'm back on the leaderboard? Wut?

Fuck you, 1987.
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Persona, arguably. Whether or not you like the story and characters is up to personal taste, but the gameplay and presentation is noticeably better with each game.
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Link
Snake
Cloud
Samus
Mario
Sephiroth
Mega Man
Sonic
Crono
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Every contest I overestimate RE4. It's one of my favorite games of all time, I can't help it!
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Getting this match wrong won't kill my bracket, but dammit I'm the closest I've ever been to #1 in one of these contests. I don't want to fall off the leaderboard here.
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Hmmmmmm
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Me.

But I have 87 winning the next match, so we'll see.
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Contest title boost, here we go!
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SSBM vs. Undertale.

I had Melee winning the contest! And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those darn fangirls!
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GameFAQs doesn't care about Rocket League, and MGS bombed in the last contest. Hell, it's debatable it cares about Undertale, since it got fourth in that Game of the Year poll. It's running mostly on Witcher III and Fallout 4.

I'm real nervous about next round since I have 2005 winning. I don't know how much of this site has actually played KoToR, since it was originally an Xbox exclusive and this site doesn't care for PC gaming much. I imagine a lot of its strength in the past comes from the Star Wars name and its reputation, especially post-Mass Effect (back in the day it lost to Vice City). I can't help but feel it'd be more vulnerable in a "Best Year" scenario. Wind Waker might be carrying that year by itself.

On the other hand, RE4's not what it used to be either. SotC has strength, but it's not a worldbeater.
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My first round will be perfect, too. Of course, this is an easy R1. Next round will be harder, starting with the very next match.
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I'm not voting for Fire Emblem Heroes before I've played RE7, Nier, or Horizon.
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I'd say the main reason 1998 is "underperforming" is that 1993 isn't turbofodder. Doom and Myst may not be big games on this site, but they ARE historically significant and people have heard of them.
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Horizon probably wouldn't be strong here, but it's still one of the biggest launches this year. It deserves to be on the list.
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I'm a little worried about 2013/2003, mainly because Wind Waker's the anchor for '03 and it's not super impressive. But while 2013 would win on most sites thanks to GTAV, it has no power here, basically turning the match into The Last of Us/Wind Waker. And WW wins that easily.

RE4's directly stronger than The Witcher III, so '05 has that on lockdown, barring rally nonsense.
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Resident Evil 7 would be good, too, I just felt Nier had a bigger impact. By the end of the year we'll have Red Dead and Mario Odyssey, too.
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I actually figure the Phantom Thief logo from P5 would be a good headliner:

https://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/megamitensei/images/2/28/Phantom_Thieves_Logo.png/revision/latest?cb=20170411171118
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1995 vs. 1987 - Big Bob
2001 vs. 2008 -

1997 vs. 2007 -
2000 vs. 1996 - spooky96

1991 vs. 2002 -
1994 vs. 2011 -
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It weirds me out that Panzer Dragoon of all things made the 1998 picture. Half-Life or Starcraft deserve that spot more.
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Aw yeah, leaderboard!
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I suck at photoshop. Someone make a 2017 match pic with Zelda, Persona, Horizon, and Nier for me.
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