Lurker > Kamekguy

I don't have enough stock behind 'em to defend DK64 and Banjo-Tooie, but I do find their technical optimization absolutely hilarious. The fact that they compensate for the N64's native lag so greatly that they balance the games around it is pretty outstanding. For instance, there's the race in Fungi Forest with the rabbit in DK64 - in order to make it actually close, the rabbit is sped up to be nearly impossible to defeat natively, but when played on N64, is a relatively fair challenge. However, when it was ported forward to Wii U without that native lag, the rabbit reverted to regular levels and became nearly impossible unless you cancel the race while in mid-race, then restart the race whilst already inside of Lanky Kong's speed-up barrel, thus eliminating a several-second animation.

Tooie also had a similar issue where the intro is perfectly synced up to its music on N64, but due to the speedup of the Xbox 360 version, the intro cutscene is terribly desynced with its music and just gets progressively worse. I think that's worthy of SOME level of technical commendation... just not quite at the level of PD and Conker actually pulling off a lot of what they're going for.

Live-A-Live
Donkey Kong Country
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors
Mega Man X
Policenauts
Super Punch-Out!!
Demon's Crest
Final Fantasy VI
Cruis'n USA
Killer Instinct

Conker's Bad Fur Day

Perfect Dark crumbles under the ambition of its own systems with its framerate at times. Conker doesn't care about framerate because his gameplay's already a clumsy mess. Plus the facial animations alone are leagues above even what a lot of early Gamecube was offering.

Wii Sports
Mario Kart Wii
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Carnival Games

Saw the freaking Carnival Games box art way too many times when discussing Wii shovelware that actually sold (unlike, say, Ninjabread Man) in every essay and article on the console to not mention it. Twilight Princess spending most of its life as a Gamecube game shunts it down a peg, as does Galaxy taking a year to come out and having to live in the SMASH DOJO timeline.

Donkey Kong Country 2

Yoshi's Island proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good.

Mega Man X2

Donkey Kong Country 2
Panel de Pon

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)
Time Crisis (Arcade)
Oregon Trail II (PC)
Panel de Pon (SNES)

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Earthworm Jim 2 (SNES, Genesis)
Twisted Metal (PlayStation)
Mega Man X2 (SNES)

Clock Tower (SNES)

Putt Putt Saves the Zoo (PC)
Clock Tower (SNES)
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (PC)
Mega Man 7 (SNES)

Ezio Auditore
Ra's Al Ghul
The Bride (Kill Bill)
The Imposter (Among Us)

Lots of generally good options between them, Mike Ehrmantraut, Spy TF2, Agent 47, Deathstroke, etc.

Chrono Trigger (SNES)
WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game (Arcade, Genesis, SNES, PS1)
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (PC)
Tekken 2 (Arcade)

Actually tragic that Snatcher and DQ6 have to run face-first into brick walls in Round 2. Hoping Warcraft II manages to score the upset on the worst Kirby platformer!

Oregon Trail II (PC)
Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES)
Mario's Picross (Game Boy)
Panel de Pon (SNES)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)
Virtua Cop 2 (Arcade)
Phantasy Star IV (Genesis)
Discworld (PlayStation, PC)

Darkseed 2 (PC)
Street Fighter Alpha (Arcade)
Panzer Dragoon (Saturn)
Mega Man X2 (SNES)

As much as Kirby's Adventure doesn't deserve it on the whole, that one room of Butter Building where it manages to give a scrolling effect at about 3:00 below is probably my favorite individual setpiece on the console:

https://youtu.be/CjyI2OrlD0U

Otherwise I feel like Punch-Out and Joy Mech Fight are the games that best trick the NES into working to run games that they otherwise shouldn't. Both are incredibly fluid, have massive sprite sizes, and actually manage to play well (arguably better than a lot of the 16-bit offerings released in the same era in JMF's case).

You Don't Know Jack (PC)
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (PC)
Kirby's Dream Course (SNES)
Mega Man 7 (SNES)

Rough draws for VB Wario Land and Gex, but their competition is just way too good.

Earthbound (SNES)
Putt Putt Saves the Zoo (PC)
Kirby's Avalanche (SNES)
Clock Tower (SNES)

OVERTIME
Warcraft II
Dragon Quest VI

There is true joy in my heart that Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo can win a match in any sort of contest.

Bowser
Sephiroth
Dr. Eggman
SHODAN

I feel like that gets the full web of villains in their most defining forms - big scary monster/dragon, JRPG-centric final boss, the mad scientist archetype who's more a minion spawner than anything, and the overwhelming, psychologically taxing presence. I do feel Ganon is just a bit redundant with Bowser there, and in anything else he could be credited for like a puppetmaster or overwhelming force of evil, he's outstripped by someone else who could be on here. SHODAN or GLaDOS is a solid toss-up, though.

Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (PC)
Kirby's Dream Land 2 (GB)
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (SNES)
Tekken 2 (Arcade)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Mega Man X2
Mega Man 7
Putt-Putt Saves The Zoo
Discworld
Dragon Quest VI
Snatcher
Panel de Pon

King Ghidorah's Left Head
King Ghidorah's Middle Head
King Ghidorah's Right Head
Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty)

Like... I dunno how else you're supposed to do it.

Marvel Vs Konami

Man that roster is gonna be incredible and it's gonna play like ass.