Lurker > MetalmindStats

It looks like I won't be beating any more games this year, so I'll catch up on the last few I didn't post about:

Katamari Damacy REROLL (Switch)

It's odd to say this was about what I expected when I'm not even sure what my expectations were going in to my first Katamari game (though I've watched them before). Regardless, I'm left with a game I'm very glad I played through once and a series I have no real interest in ever returning to. I suppose that makes sense given how singular an experience Katamari is, though.

VVVVVV (PC - Steam)

What can I even say about VVVVVV as a game that hasn't already been covered? As for my experience with said game, it sure felt good to finally (restart and) finish it after six and a half years since my partial playthrough ended upon getting stuck in the first intermission. Also, now that I've collected the Doing Things the Hard Way trinket twice over, I can confidently contend that its difficulty is a tad overstated - I'd put each screen closer to the average Celeste B-side screen than the average C-side screen in that regard.

LIMBO (PC - Steam)

I think this had the worst case of style over substance of any game I've ever played, capped off by an ambiguous ending that seemed to expect investment the game never gave me a reason to have. I felt its puzzles in particular were frustrating when not inert, though my distinctly lacking puzzle-solving skills probably colored my perception there. That being said, it's at least a credit to Limbo's sense of style that I wouldn't even consider calling it bad.

Celeste > Dragon Quest XI > A Short Hike ~= Portal 2 > VVVVVVV ~= one night, hot springs ~= 999 > Katamari Damacy REROLL > Deiland > West of Loathing ~= LIMBO

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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.

one night, hot springs (PC - Steam)

Specifically the (minor spoilers) Erika End 2. That turned into something seriously cute and sweet while still feeling real, though naturally I let my decisional anxiety (is that a phrase? I don't know and I don't think I care) drag on for almost 4 hours total on a 30-minute route. I might have gone back in pursuit of additional endings if I hadn't made the mistake of looking up guides after reaching my first one.

Celeste > Dragon Quest XI > A Short Hike ~= Portal 2 > one night, hot springs ~= 999 > Deiland > West of Loathing

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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.

Raka_Putra posted...

Ah I've been busy with stuff last month. I'll try to finish the current chapter within a week from now and if nothing comes out, suppose I'm on hiatus.

I guess this is one final bump to confirm that this is dead for the foreseeable future, then. RIP.

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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.

live

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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.

Checking in for the first time in a while to say that I (still) love your write-ups!

Also, count me in among those interested in a B8 Minecraft server, so long as it's the Java version.

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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.

Rise

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care and people who do."

A Short Hike (PC - itch.io)

Dragon Quest XI ~= Celeste > Portal 2 ~= A Short Hike > 999 > Deiland > West of Loathing

More in the GotM topic soon.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Johnbobb posted...

all things considered, pretty good placement for only nominating one song!

Indeed! I was bracing for elimination from the moment Still Alive dropped. There's not a lot of villain songs I actually have experience with and so would want to nominate (also why I haven't commented much), so I was content with just the one (forgetting Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf, naturally).

Johnbobb posted...

Kinda sad "Goodbye my only friend" didn't get nominated for the Best Female Video Game Villain Quote contest.

To be honest, I mainly didn't want to spam Zen with GLaDOS noms even though I could have.

And yeah, I (unsurprisingly) agree with Ermine and Great Paul about Want You Gone vs. Still Alive.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

I had originally intended to play Sleeping Dogs on finding I had it in my Steam library, but that never happened.

Nominate A Short Hike.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Double:

Thor vs. Loki (Marvel)
yoblazer vs. Shin Megami Tensei

Nominate:

Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Knuckles the Echidna
Left Pong Paddle vs. Right Pong Paddle
Dracula vs. The Wolfman
Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader
Jackie Chan vs. Bruce Lee

And that completes my noms, just in time. I'll hope that Mickey vs. Bugs and Good vs. Evil place among the 2-nom rivalries that make the field even without my doubles.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

MetalmindStats posted...

Wheatley vs. GLaDOS
Madeline vs. Badeline (Celeste)
Ephraim Winslow vs. Thomas Wake (The Lighthouse)

I'll double these nominations of mine and leave the last two slots for someone who cares more about them.

Also, in retrospect, I guess I was wrong to worry about the risk of interest being too low to justify 128 rivalries or that count necessitating a lengthy vote-in process.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

What's your opinion on Night in the Woods, if you've played it?

Not that my own opinion is some great secret, I'm just curious to hear a (presumably) different perspective.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

I'm going to side with Low Fodder for Paul McCartney. John Lennon's likely the stronger of The Beatles' two primary songwriters here due to the extra mystique from his untimely death, and at any rate, I'm generally skeptical about the likelihood of voters considering unfictionalized real-life people equivalent to video game characters.

Mid Fodder does seem fair for Sharla, even if she's no fan favorite - being the only healing-focused Xenoblade party member presumably makes her rather valuable in battle, plus waifu appeal ought to make a difference when paired with other reasons for voters to care.

I'll also agree with Low Fodder for Jack, but it has nothing to do with what BioShock Infinite showed in GotD 2, which I strongly suspect was due to time not treating that game in particular kindly. On the other hand, the core of the original BioShock has aged gracefully; the problem is that Jack has never seemed to stick out whatsoever within the confines of his game.

Finally, I'll nominate Mai Shiranui for reranking. Her main claim to fame is having TJF for days, and she became quite the big name for it, but we're 20+ years removed from her prime and left with a pair of interconnected series GameFAQs hardly cares about. Blaze is the clear comparison here despite their somewhat different genres, and while Mai absolutely has more going for her, I don't buy the notion of it being enough to justify a two-tier gap.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Drop:

Comedy vs. Tragedy

Add:

Vanilla vs. Chocolate

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

I think Mid Fodder fits better for the Chosen Undead. Yes, their canon appearance isn't terribly recognizable, but they're still the protagonist of a game this site has really sparked to, and the Dark Souls fanbase feels more character-centric than comparable cases such as Skyrim to offset the Dragonborn's comparatively iconic look.

Likewise, I'm going to opt for Low Fodder for Bianca in a close decision, mainly to offset my bias. This is a tough case, because we have very little info on DQV's possible contest strength here. However, our best indicator in the DQV Hero's 2013 match doesn't look great - I'm not particularly inclined to credit barely beating Rinoa with Aerith in the match, nor barely avoiding a doubling from Aerith at FF7's nadir with Rinoa in the match. That makes sense, since we're talking about a game that didn't come out in English until 16 years after its release, and even then only in the form of limited print runs and random mobile ports.

I will agree with Low Fodder for Tarzan and Mid Fodder for Cynthia, though.

I'll also nominate Charmeleon (Pokmon) and Oddjob (GoldenEye 007) for ranking.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Celeste

...Right back to the same rut of habit and circumstance, I guess. This might wind up being truer than I realize sooner than I realize, though.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

GP7: Portal 2

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Whew, looks like I noticed this topic just in time! Too bad some of my absolute favorite video game intros are disqualified by the gameplay rule...

Civilization V: Brave New World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14WWgs-vX50

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoyYtqi5u54

Pokmon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (credit to Hbthebattle for the idea)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6avDGZrQRWg

Stardew Valley (through 2:42)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PunlIGPlRYA

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Happy Exdeathday!

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Jesse_Custer posted...

I thought of Mario vs Bowser, which is absolutely not my opinion of the greatest rivalry.

This, though I do like Mario vs. Bowser quite a bit as a rivalry.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

I'll agree with Axem's ratings for all four. Voters probably care about Moogles a fair bit more than Chocobos, which should be enough to compensate for the reduced mascot factor. Meanwhile, Blaze is clearly the standout character from her series for more reasons than one, and at least some voters will care about said series, but non-Sonic Sega is not generally a recipe for true relevance here.

I'll also nominate Edge, Goro, and Yosuke.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

The Professor Layton series is probably the best example of this for me, namely Unwound Future and Last Specter being the two I played and beat. I do remember picking up and subsequently beating Last Specter in the span of a few days right after finishing Unwound Future, because apparently I was really pleased with the latter as a teenager.

Also, Burnout 3 was one of my favorite games to watch my brother play as a kid, and now I wish I had actually played it.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

ZenOfThunder posted...

GP6: Portal 2

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Celeste

I didn't think of anything that's a true series in time, though I guess you could count Celeste for the PICO-8 to make it a series.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

I ...guess I'll agree with Axem's rankings for all three characters?

I really have no idea how to gauge where exactly Frankenstein stands between Low and Mid Fodder. On the one hand, Dracula was only a bit behind Alucard in 2013, but on the other, Dracula's also the series' recurring main antagonist. That suggests that Dracula wasn't drawing much strength from the name alone, but Frankenstein does feel like the type of character whose name is big enough to benefit from forced apathy votes. Combine that with Castlevania's recent resurgence, and I'm willing to be generous here.

I'm going to be honest, Paperboy feels spectacularly irrelevant and less-than-iconic even by GameFAQs' generous standards, and I'd probably go for LAW Fodder without forced apathy votes to reckon with. However, in the new contest meta, just having a decent playrate by 80s arcade standards is almost certainly enough to not be among the worst of the worst.

I'll also finally nominate all the notable unnominated new characters I've been sitting on for a while:

• Andy (Advance Wars)
• Astro Bot (Astro Bot: Rescue Mission)
• Bianca Whitaker (Dragon Quest V)
• Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
• Captain Planet (Captain Planet and the Planeteers)
• Carlos Oliveira (Resident Evil 3)
• Chosen Undead (Dark Souls)
• Cid Pollendina (Final Fantasy IV)
• Connor (Detroit: Become Human)
• Dana Scully (The X-Files Game)
• Edward Chris von Muir (Final Fantasy IV)
• Erik (Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age)
• Fox Mulder (The X-Files Game)
• Gestahl (Final Fantasy VI)
• Jack (BioShock)
• Jerry Mouse (Tom and Jerry games)
• Liberty Prime (Fallout 3)
• Lois Lane (Superman games)
• Miles Morales (Marvel games)
• Nurse Joy (Pokmon)
• Red Knight (Castle Crashers)
• Red Mage (Final Fantasy)
• Riki (Xenoblade Chronicles)
• Serena (Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age)
• Shadow Queen (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door)
• Sharla (Xenoblade Chronicles)
• Slowking (Pokmon)
• Splash Woman (Mega Man 9)
• Sylvando (Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age)
• Tarzan (Disneys Tarzan)
• Tom Cat (Tom and Jerry games)
• Trini Kwan/Yellow Ranger (Power Rangers)
• Umbreon (Pokmon)
• Vaporeon (Pokmon)
• Yshtola (Final Fantasy XIV)

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

I guess I'll agree with Axem. Imagine if Allen had actually allowed FFXIII to make GotD to give us a little more hard data on the potential of its non-main protagonist characters, though.

I'll also nominate Amicia de Rune for ranking, plus Blaze Fielding for reranking, on the basis of being from a series GameFAQs simply doesn't care about and likely hasn't even played. Only those few who still remember the series are likely to have had Blaze as a premier childhood/teenage crush.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Portal was my first thought that was an actual series.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

GP5: Portal 2

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Lightning Strikes posted...

Super Mario and DQ have been the main beneficiaries of the lost Zelda votes.

DQXI wasn't even out in the West when we last held this poll. If anything, I'm rather underwhelmed by DQ's improvement here after DQXI played such a major role in popularizing its series to people who previously never gave it a chance.

Mario's the only shift that seems notable to me here, because there's no obvious explanation for it. Even then, though, FF is still utterly clowning on Mario. Yes, I know Zelda's SFF is brutal, and all the LFF doesn't help Mario either, but I have to assume that a hypothetical Mario/FF series contest match next year is no sure win for the former.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Agree with Axem, even though I would pretty easily take Ghost Rider over Sweet Tooth.

I'll also nominate Cynthia for reranking. High Fodder's about the cap for a Gen. 4 Pokmon character in the first place, so our current ranking's already treading on thin ice. On top of that, try telling N how much good being the fan favorite human character from a post-nostalgia Pokmon game does here.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

GP4: Portal 2

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Not Dave posted...

ff6

even though I've barely played it

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

This was a cool video, thanks for sharing! I only had the most basic inkling of what gaming might have been like in Kuwait, so it was neat to find out much more.

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Dels posted...

i was joking >_> all of those things are totally different than real life, yes.

Oh, sorry. It was hard to read your tone and I was legitimately worried I had totally missed something big for reasons I'd rather not get into right here, right now, so my bad.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Dels posted...

no no, all of the things in celeste are only slightly more fictional than how real life mountains work. i meant what i said.

I don't know, maybe I've just forgotten which characteristics of Celeste Mountain are considered real as opposed to dreams or whatever within the lore. At the very least, I'm pretty sure the entire Mirror Temple is among the real elements, as a mountain-caused manifestation of Madeline's mind's characteristics. Combine that with the floating strawberries and Madeline's wild jumps and air dashes, all of which the Mirror Temple being real implies are also real, and it sure seems like Celeste Mountain as seen in the game is more than just a slightly fictionalized take on a real-life mountain. I fully admit I haven't yet played or even seen 8B, any of the C-sides, or more than a bit of Farewell, though, so maybe I'm just missing something from those.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

GP3: Portal 2

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Agree with Axem. I can concede that Jeff's a bigger name than Cookie even on GameFAQs, but the difference is that basically no one's even going to realize Jeff appeared in a video game, let alone think of him as worth voting for in a video game character contest. At least Cookie is actually a video game character, and maybe he'd get a few 'har har funny name/pic' votes too.

I'll also nominate Callie & Marie for reranking. They're the fan favorites of a series that's just not popular whatsoever here. I also don't see any reason for them to defy the fan favorite trend to be on the same level as said series' main playable character, especially not with Smash in mind.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Ocarina of Time

Well, I was at least disappointed by it, though I've never actually played Link to the Past.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Dels posted...

The Celeste answers are funny because afaik, Celeste's world is just "literally modern day Earth but with a slightly fictionalized version of a mountain in Canada"

Well, more than slightly fictionalized. I'd argue that makes it a pretty good place to live, regardless!

Anyways, the real reason I cited it first was because I went straight from my initial GotDotY vote to this topic. Or at least it felt that way; looking at the actual time increment, I must have been dwelling on said vote by means of related conversation and whatever else.

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Shadow of the Colossus

...Why the fuck did my mind go there first? I swear I'm not secretly an Ulti alt!

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

GP2: Celeste

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

AxemRedRanger posted...

whats happened that would make him worth anything?

COVID. I maybe (probably) overstated its effect before, but it certainly feels like Jackbox has become a go-to multiplayer option for the admittedly small board game-playing portion of GameFAQs, and I'd guess Cookie was very near the Low/LAW boundary beforehand.

I'll also second Moogle.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

I guess I'll contribute some more nominations:

Mario vs. Sonic The Hedgehog
Red vs. Blue (Pokemon)
USA vs USSR
Thor vs. Loki (Marvel)
Link vs. Cloud Strife
Coffee vs. Tea
Cats vs. Dogs
Hamilton vs. Burr
yoblazer vs. Shin Megami Tensei
UltimateralizerX vs. Blizzard
Mario vs. Crono
Tom Cat vs. Jerry Mouse
Mickey Mouse vs. Bugs Bunny
Wheatley vs. GLaDOS
Madeline vs. Badeline (Celeste)
Ephraim Winslow vs. Thomas Wake (The Lighthouse)
DC vs. Marvel
Good vs. Evil
Comedy vs. Tragedy

Also, don't forget to merge the nominations for the same rivalry listed in separate forms.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

half_silver28 posted...

I really don't know Jack

In the end, don't we all not know Jack?

Anyways, I'll agree with Low Fodder for Cookie, but barely. Realistically, I'd expect the Jackbox series to have a horribly low playrate outside of B8, and an even lower proportion of voters who would vote for the host of certain individual games, one who's unseen besides on the various title screens (or at least I think it's Cookie shown on them). I honestly believe he'd have been LAW Fodder this time last year, but external circumstances have probably given him and his series a noticeable leg up since then, even on a site which barely plays multiplayer games without huge brands.

I'll also agree with Mid Fodder for Mr. X and Low Fodder for Dimentio, whose game has aged gracefully among a subset of its players as opposed to the whole set it would need to produce a Mid Fodder or better original character.

As for Godzilla, I'm still going to side with Mid Fodder. I admit that he does look quite out of place among that rank, but I'd argue that's solely because of his outsized (har) pop-cultural prominence in general, much less by Mid Fodder standards. Otherwise, he has a more severe version of the Doctor Doom syndrome: plenty of exposure, but no reason for voters to actually care other than simple name/pic value. The recent movies sure didn't provide that, nor did a game that barely makes the top 100 in terms of total ratings among GameCube games and has an average rating below 7/10. The 1998 movie was a very big deal and came out at a perfect time, and it absolutely would have provided that if it was even ironically well-liked, but instead it was so bad Toho disowned its take on Godzilla. The Toho movies likely have good watchrates by foreign-language standards, but that's not saying much really. Ultimately, Jurassic Park was infinitely bigger for GameFAQs than anything Godzilla's ever been in, so I don't think it's too wild to say one giant lizard (even though T-rexes aren't truly lizards) is on a similar level to the other here.

I've been collecting a list of previously unnominated characters for a little while, but there's one I'm going to have to rush because we've somehow, someway completely and entirely missed it for over 390 days. That, of course, is the Chocobo, originally from Final Fantasy II. I know it's not a 'true' character, but what and how the heck?

I'll also third the B.O.W., Firebrand, Frankenstein, Ghost Rider, Nathan Spencer, and Tron Bonne nominations.

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Yes

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Yeah, John Wick's good, but I'm not sure he can match someone who can harmlessly stop a bullet with a single finger. I do wonder what type of offense The Beast has, though, as well as what his defensive feats versus melee attacks are.

For John Wick research, I'd recommend looking up clips on YouTube, mainly because I'm entirely too lazy to put in proper arguing effort, even for characters I know well >_>

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Celeste

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+10 Celeste
+9 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
+8 Portal 2
+7 Super Mario Galaxy 2
+6 Super Mario Odyssey
+5 Rayman Legends
+4 Mario Kart 8
+3 The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
+2 Super Mario 3D World
+1 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

GP1: Celeste

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

My predix, with bold for matches I'd expect to be within 55-45 or so:

Division 1

1) Playstation 2
9) Famicom Disk System
5) 3DS
4) Game Boy Advance
6) Saturn
3) Switch
7) Turbo-Grafx 16
2) Playstation 4

Division 2

1) Xbox 360
8) Intellivision
12) Game Gear
4) NES
6) Gamecube
3) Playstation 3
7) Playstation Vita
2) Wii

Division 3

1) PC/Mac - Chances are these two would be separate entities in a GameFAQs system contest, though.
9) MSX - lmao at the Ouya seeding this highly, barely below the Xbone. That being said, I'd expect joke votes to make this close.
5) Nintendo 64
4) Playstation Portable
6) Dreamcast
3) Android/iOS - The same thing I said about the PC/Mac applies here.
7) Master System
2) Playstation

Division 4

1) Gameboy
9) Game and Watch - ?????
5) Genesis
4) Xbox
6) Wii U
3) DS
10) Game Boy Color - Speaking of the Xbone, I take it the video you posted primarily/solely considers exclusives?
2) Super Nintendo

Division 1

1) Playstation 2
4) Game Boy Advance
3) Switch
2) Playstation 4

Division 2

1) Xbox 360
4) NES
6) Gamecube
2) Wii

Division 3

1) PC/Mac
5) Nintendo 64
6) Dreamcast
2) Playstation

Division 4

1) Gameboy
5) Genesis
3) DS
2) Super Nintendo

Division 1

1) Playstation 2
3) Switch

Division 2

4) NES
6) Gamecube

Division 3

5) Nintendo 64
2) Playstation

Division 4

1) Gameboy
2) Super Nintendo

Division 1

1) Playstation 2

Division 2

4) NES

Division 3

2) Playstation

Division 4

2) Super Nintendo

Semifinals

1) Playstation 2
2) Super Nintendo

Finals

2) Super Nintendo

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."

Madison: Low Fodder - She's probably the strongest Heavy Rain character, despite seemingly being the least important of its playable cast based on Exdeath's topic? At the very least, I'm pretty confident her apparent oversexualization isn't an outright negative here, and it might even be a positive.

Presea: Low Fodder - A much better Low Fodder, but the emotionless doll girl-who's-actually-an-adult with whacked out proportions because Japan better damn well lack the waifu factor Sheena has going for her. She also seems to be notably less important and well-remembered than the likes of Lloyd and Kratos. Veronica from DQXI is probably the closest comparison here (not saying they're identical characters by any means of course), and we voted her into Low Fodder all those days ago.

Arceus: Agree with Low Fodder.

Doctor Doom: Mid Fodder - Yes, he's a staple of the Marvel vs. Capcom series, and he has his share of 90s cartoon and other miscellaneous appearances, but he lacks that one bang-up role to cement his place in voters' minds and keep them caring. There's only so much an overly diffuse slate of broader media appearances plus B8's support to swing a couple hundred votes (when including the registered user bonus) versus any other Fantastic Four character can do here.

Also, this:

AxemRedRanger posted...

I dont see my stance on him changing but re-rank Jeff Probst.

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"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people who do."