Lurker > MetalmindStats

Congrats, Bolo (and Alanna)!

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
she/her or they/them | never knows what to say

+3 Leah (Stardew Valley)
+2 Crono (Chrono Trigger)
+1 Missile (Ghost Trick)
-1 Master Chief (Halo)
-2 Starkiller (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed)
-3 Edelgard (Fire Emblem)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Claire (A Short Hike)
+2 GlaDOS (Portal)
+1 Heather Mason (Silent Hill 3)
-1 Kate Marsh (Life is Strange)
-2 Balthier Bunansa (Final Fantasy XII)
-3 Yu Narukami (Persona 4)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Madeline (Celeste)
+2 Meta Knight (Kirby)
+1 Claire Redfield (Resident Evil)
-1 Jennifer (Rule of Rose)
-2 Freddy (Five Nights at Freddy's)
-3 Reinhardt (Overwatch)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

andylt posted...

Also wow the Mega Man crew really pulled it back later on huh.

Very different from their sitewide contest trends!

Evillordexdeath posted...

I was surprised Ellie did so poorly considering that Joel survived his round. That does suggest that she might have got some negative votes from people who specifically dislike the second game.

Ellie's group was also far tougher than Joel's, to be fair - and Joel only finished 5 points above elimination anyways. I personally would have given Ellie a neutral vote if TLoUII didn't exist, not that it matters much. Maybe I shouldn't be saying that since I haven't played TLoUII, but hey!

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Cave Johnson (Portal 2)
+2 Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong)
+1 Pac-Man (Pac-Man)
-1 Jecht (Final Fantasy X)
-2 Shantae (Shantae: Pirate's Curse)
-3 Talion (Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Samus Aran (Metroid)
+2 Mega Man (Mega Man)
+1 Count Bleck (Super Paper Mario)
-1 Sub-Zero (Mortal Kombat)
-2 Ellie (The Last of Us)
-3 Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia)

Stacked division, even though I don't exactly love any of these characters.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Luigi (Super Mario Bros.)
+2 Yoshi (Super Mario World)
+1 Cuphead (Cuphead)
-1 Yoshimitsu (Tekken/Soul Calibur)
-2 Trilby (Five Days a Stranger)
-3 Boyfriend (Friday Night Funkin')

There's not three characters I have strong opinions on in today's set, either, but I do want to support this contest.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Veronica (Dragon Quest XI)
+2 Kirby (Kirby)
+1 Bentley (Sly Cooper)
-1 Papyrus (Undertale)
-2 Corvo Attano (Dishonored)
-3 Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Assassin's Creed)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Sylvando (Dragon Quest XI)
+2 Solid Snake (Metal Gear)
+1 Knuckles the Echidna (Sonic the Hedgehog)
-1 Bad Girl (No More Heroes)
-2 Bartz (Final Fantasy V)
-3 Dr. Neo Cortex (Crash Bandicoot)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Estelle Bright (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky)
+2 Ryu (Street Fighter)
+1 Porky Minch (Earthbound)
-1 Irvine Kinneas (Final Fantasy VIII)
-2 Racuni the Fire Harg (Summoners War)
-3 Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

EVE (WALL-E)
Harvey Dent/Two-Face (The Dark Knight)
Joker (The Dark Knight)
Luke Triton (Professor Layton)
Nick Fury (MCU)
Professor Layton (Professor Layton)
Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet)
Tony Stark (MCU)
WALL-E (WALL-E)
Wii Fit Trainer (Wii Fit)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 The King of All Cosmos (Katamari Damacy)
+2 Wario (Super Mario Bros.)
+1 Link (The Legend of Zelda)
-1 Joel (The Last of Us)
-2 Samanosuke (Onimusha)
-3 The Prince (Prince of Persia)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

colliding posted...

I'm okay with most of these being left out. I don't think the point is to mimic the actual contest as much as possible.

I do generally agree with this, and many of these characters attest to B8's taste differences from GameFAQs as a whole more than anything. There's still several gaping snubs in a few broad categories even considering that, though:

• B8 favorites (especially the AA characters and Makoto Niijima)
• Big-deal characters in broader video gaming spheres with (Ganondorf, Pikachu) or without (Lara Croft, the Doom Slayer) series B8 cares much about
• Characters with devoted fanbases that didn't show up this time (especially Amaterasu, Lightning, and Waluigi)
• Counterparts to included characters (mainly Ratchet, Sans, Scorpion, and Tails)

And then there's Kefka, who overlaps with each of those first three categories. It should make for an interesting contest, at any rate, and a nice follow-up to Celeste and especially Rayman Legends being two of the three GotDotY finalists.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 King Dedede (Kirby)
+2 Falco Lombardi (Star Fox)
+1 Alucard (Castlevania)
-1 Sam Fisher (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell)
-2 Claude (Fire Emblem 3 Houses)
-3 Sarah Kerrigan (Starcraft)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

It's probably a bit late for this, but have a list of notable snubs (as selected by yours truly) to attest to the impact of a small nominator pool anyways:

• Albert Wesker, Chris Redfield
• Amaterasu
• Banjo, Kazooie
• Big Daddy
• Bomberman
• Captain Falcon
• CATS
• Cecil Harvey (and FFIV in general), Kefka (...how?), Lightning, Terra Branford, Vincent Valentine
• Charizard, Jigglypuff, Pikachu, Red
• Chun-Li, Ken Masters, M. Bison
• Dick Gumshoe, Maya Fey
• Diddy Kong, King K. Rool
• Dr. Wily, Mega Man X
• Dracula, Simon Belmont
• Fox McCloud, Wolf O'Donnell
• Ganondorf
• Geno, Princess Peach, Rosalina, Waluigi
• Isaac
• KOS-MOS
• Kratos Aurion, Yuri Lowell
• L-Block
• Lara Croft
• Liquid Snake
• Neku Sakuraba
• Ness
• Persona non-MC party members in general (except Ryuji Sakamoto)
• Ratchet (missed a field Jak and Sly made even though his series is still alive and about to get a new game)
• Rayman (after Rayman Legends' heroics last Zazi UotY-style contest)
• Ridley
• Rockstar and Telltale in their entireties (not surprising, but still)
• Ryu Hayabusa
• Sans
• Scorpion
• Shovel Knight
• Tails
• The Doom Slayer
• Vyse

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

9.5

Not outright perfect, but I haven't heard of let alone played a game that better integrates its story and gameplay. Same thing goes for avoiding ludonarrative dissonance, though that perhaps has something to do with my own skill level.

Oh, and:
Axl_Rose_85 posted...

It is all about the gameplay dude.

If anything, I think that's what makes Celeste's story so good. It's a little more prominent than in most platformers and comes from an atypically human place, yet it still very firmly connects to and serves to amplify the experience of actually playing the game. That it's deliberately not ham-fistedly shoving Shakespeare into a precision platformer is exactly the point IMO.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Mario (Super Mario Bros.)
+2 Blue (Pokemon)
+1 The Goose (Untitled Goose Game)
-1 Naked Snake/Big Boss (Metal Gear)
-2 Heihachi Mishima (Tekken)
-3 Snow Villiers (Final Fantasy XIII)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Vote Form:
+3 Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)
+2 Theo (Celeste)
+1 Princess Zelda (The Legend of Zelda)
-1 Vector the Crocodile (Sonic the Hedgehog)
-2 Kyle Hyde (Hotel Dusk: Room 215)
-3 Jak (Jak and Daxter)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

+3 Bowser (Super Mario Bros.)
+2 Mewtwo (Pokemon)
+1 Ike (Fire Emblem)
-1 James Sunderland (Silent Hill 2)
-2 Pyramid Head (Silent Hill 2)
-3 Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII)

In what will no doubt be a running theme, I had to decide between characters I don't know to minus, so sorry to their fans.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

I have a somewhat different perspective, but one that I believe is popular among the Civ fanbase. Civ 6 released as a much fuller game than Civ 5, but the latter's expansions really completed it, whereas the former's were more just standard, middling new content.

Personally, while I do like both games quite a bit, I'd much rather return to Civ 5 at this point - not that I've played much of either in the past couple years.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Thank you for running this series for so long! I definitely would have made some different choices if we were doing all the topics over today, especially near the beginning, but I suppose that's part of the fun.

I'm not really sure what my favorite song is, but Farewell is one of the candidates for all that it means to me - thus why I'm kind of sad Jesse missed the topic. My most obscure consideration is probably:

Tears for Fears - The Conflict

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Underleveled posted...

Honestly, just the fact that I'm terrible at them in general. Considering how much I play, I should not be nearly as bad as I am. It's pretty pathetic. Just like everything I do.

This, and also the part where I hardly even have the motivation to play games in the first place anymore.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Lena Raine - Farewell

Johnbobb posted...

Thanks for helping keep this series going for 200 straight topics!

And thank you in turn for hosting this series for so long!

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Oh, hello again. I don't really have any questions for you, but I'm glad you're at least enduring and rebounding on some level. I suppose that's not too different from how I'd describe myself right now, since you're asking.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

I think it's also worth reading the original announcement: https://www.tellmewhygame.com/pride-month-2021/

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Johnbobb posted...

tbh I think just the openness of the topic threw people off

For me, said openness kind of transcended into completely the opposite direction, where it felt like only a select few nominations truly fit. Today sort of has the same problem for me, actually, but there's one song I want to second and one I enjoy that I feel fits even the narrowest criteria:

jcgamer107 posted...

Jonathan Coulton/Ellen McClain - Want You Gone

Elton John - Your Song

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Tears for Fears - Head Over Heels
Tears for Fears - Me and My Big Ideas

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Anagram posted...

Are theaters making enough money to allow that?

Probably not, since you Anagram'd this topic by billing the ten highest-grossing film franchises in North America alone as the ten highest-grossing film franchises ever.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

ZeroSignal620 posted...

Prince - Raspberry Beret

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong)
Ike (Fire Emblem)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Shit on me pls

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Hamilton - Guns and Ships
Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack

I thought for sure someone would support In the End yesterday, so that's my bad.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Sting - If I Ever Lose My Faith in You
The Police - Can't Stand Losing You

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Mih-fah-kwahs.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Since Every Breath You Take is already comfortably in regardless:

Heathers: The Musical - Yo Girl
Rob Cantor - Shia LaBeouf

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Dragon Quest

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

I'll replace When We Dance with Slide.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Hamilton - Satisfied
Sting - When We Dance

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

MZero posted...

Congrats! I hope you can find sustained success with it

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Two different definitions of nothing:
CasanovaZelos posted...

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U

Oasis - Champagne Supernova

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

MZero posted...

I can't remember the last time I had an m&m.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

XIII_rocks posted...

Quiplash (are we really counting this)

Well, it has been released as an individual game on its own! (Even if that's not the version most of us have likely played.)

A Short Hike
Borderlands 2
Celeste
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
EarthBound
Fallout: New Vegas or FTL: Faster Than Light
GRIS
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Ikenfell
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Katamari Damacy
LIMBO (lol)
Minecraft
Night in the Woods
Organ Trail: Director's Cut or one night, hot springs
Portal 2
Quiplash or Q*Bert
Race the Sun
Stardew Valley
Terraria
Undertale
VVVVVV
WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$!
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Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (purely by default)

No promises I actually care about all or even necessarily most of these games. I also didn't count games with titles starting with 'the' anywhere, not that doing so would have changed much.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Jesse_Custer posted...

The Beatles - Something

Naked Eyes - Always Something There to Remind Me

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Kentucky Route Zero
Trails FC (close enough to count imo)
Portal 2
Yoshi's Island (here rather than 2 because the Advance version is the one I played)
Dragon Quest IV
Civilization V
Civilization VI
Mario Kart 7
Mario Kart 8
Dragon Quest IX (neck-and-neck with 999, but the former feels truer to this topic's spirit)

That's as long a continuous list as I can make, and even then, many of these are games I haven't played enough and/or don't care about much.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Glad to see this series back and hope things get better for you.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

ChainLTTP posted...

lol how did someone rank fitter happier #1?

Sorry. At least you won't have to see my comments preserved on the wiki page.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Angus Delaney (Night in the Woods)
Bea Santello (Night in the Woods)
Blue (Pokemon)
Bowser (Super Mario Bros.)
Cave Johnson (Portal 2)
Claire (A Short Hike)
Dog (Kentucky Route Zero)
Estelle Bright (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky)
Giovanni (Pokemon)
GLaDOS (Portal)
Gregg Lee (Night in the Woods)
Hero (Dragon Quest V)
Joshua Bright (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky)
Kirby (Kirby)
Leah (Stardew Valley)
Luigi (Super Mario Bros.)
Madeline (Celeste)
Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)
Mario (Super Mario Bros.)
Mewtwo (Pokemon)
Pac-Man (Pac-Man)
Serena (Dragon Quest XI)
Sylvando (Dragon Quest XI)
The King of All Cosmos (Katamari Damacy)
Theo (Celeste)
Veronica (Dragon Quest XI)
Wheatley (Portal 2)
Yoshi (Super Mario World)

Perhaps I shouldn't use this many nominations at once...

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

Jesse_Custer posted...

I highly doubt Joshua Tree would have gotten more participation.

I probably would have ranked Joshua Tree, for what little that's worth. Having that one song (Where the Streets Have No Name) I'm already quite fond of makes a big difference, not to mention a sound that's generally more to my taste. Anyways, my standard three full listen-throughs in, never having heard any of these songs before:

1. Fitter Happier
2. Exit Music (For a Film)
3. Paranoid Android
4. No Surprises
5. Let Down
6. Subterranean Homesick Alien
7. Karma Police
8. Climbing Up the Walls
9. Airbag
10. Electioneering
11. Lucky
12. The Tourist

Believe it or not, I do actually like OK Computer - it's just not quite my type of music and probably a bit beyond the level on which I tend to engage with the medium. It's certainly an unusually inventive 90s alt-rock concept piece, focused yet divergent at once, with enough depth (lyrically and sonically alike) to help me grasp why it's become such a critical and music-nerd touchstone. And of course the sense of anomie and ennui, of things being perfectly normal and yet horribly off all at once, encapsulated within speaks to me - now in particular.

This will probably be the last week I participate in for a while now that my life's finally looking to get busy.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.

LeonhartFour posted...

But Link doesn't routinely score as big of blowouts as he used to. That's really where you see the difference. 2002-2010 Link wrecked everyone except Cloud and Seph. Look at his numbers post-2010, and they're not as impressive at the top end. I guess the best example is Ganondorf since we've got two isolated matches in those eras. 2004 Link made Ganondorf look worse than CATS. 2018 Link can't even hit 80% (which is still impressive as heck, just not AS impressive as he used to be)

Are we sure this has nothing to do with SFF in general having diminished over the years as GameFAQs became more and more insular? That's just a theory on my part, given that 2018's elites didn't get any SFF matches against midcarders or fodder, but it would seem to make sense on the heels of 2010 and 2013. It's too bad Link never got to face someone neutral but weakish like Scorpion or Jill Valentine in 2018.

I'd also argue that 2010 Link is pretty clearly sub-peak, with two, maybe three SFF matches obscuring the antivotes that dragged him down elsewhere.

KamikazePotato posted...

Side note: I was considering making a topic about which contest entrants (games and characters) have fallen the most in their tenure, but didn't bother because the answer is Sephiroth.

That's not really a fair comparison considering Mario also seems to have improved overall in that time, besides a very fluky 2002 match. Going from 56% to 41% on a relatively comparable Mario is still ugly, and clearly the worst among elites, but not quite as bad.

Anyways, independent of rallies, I'll second greatone's pick of Tommy Vercetti for that title:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/1360-south-division-semifinal-tommy-vercetti-vs-mega-man

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5169-character-battle-ix-division-3-round-1-wheatley-vs-crash-vs

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."
Hylian hits dizzying heights others daren't aim for. He's the Celeste of Board 8 users.