LogFAQs > #939291153

The 12 Games that Made Bracket (And How Long They Lasted):
-Bravely Default (Round 1)
-Danganronpa 2 (Round 1)
-Shovel Knight (Round 3)
-Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze (Round 1)
-Dragon Age Inquisition (Round 1)
-South Park Stick of Truth (Round 1)
-Destiny (Round 1)
-Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (Round 1)
-The Talos Principle (Round 1)
-Mario Kart 8 (Round 3)
-Hearthstone (Round 1)
-Bayonetta 2 (Round 1)

Notable Snubs:
-Super Smash Bros for 3DS/Wii U
-Alien: Isolation
-Wolfenstein: The New Order
-Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor
-The Evil Within
-Professor Layton VS Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
-Outlast
-P.T. (yes really)

Headliners: Shovel Knight, Mario Kart 8

Busts: Dragon Age Inquisition, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Snub Analysis:

Look at that banner, look at the field, look at EVERYTHING that preceded this sentence, and tell me you dont already think this is the weakest year of the decade. I should just post the Final Rating and skip this year but I wont. Cause Im dedicated. And bored.

Speaking of things that I am, am I crazy, or is my list of snubs better than a lot of the games that actually made it in? Am I silly to think that Shadow of Mordor and Alien Isolation would have done better than Hearthstone? Or Wolfenstein and the Evil Within better than The Talos Principle and Danganronpa? This year reminds me how poorly represented horror as a genre was this contest, because alongside Alien and TEW, Outlast was a flagship horror game of the decade, and heavily influential for how that genre evolved. P.T. sounds like a gag pick, but honestly, it was like a fckin hour long and probably has more goodwill on this site than Destiny does. Not gonna bang the Phoenix Wright drum too much, but like, come on. None?

Of course, this all pales in comparison to probably the biggest snub for a series that didnt hit the cap, Smash 4. Since Brawl, weve never gotten the most recent Smash game and its immediate predecessor in a single contest before, and its pretty clear we never will. Dont you wanna KNOW? Know whether these games really do lose as much strength as we think they do? Much like Skyward Sword, Smash 4 haunted the Stats topic all contest long, with constant speculation how well it might have done. Does the Smash name help it coast, or does Ultimates release immediately fodderize it? Doesnt help it was stuck on the Wii U, meaning people could not WAIT to ditch it and grab it on the system they actually own. Well probably never see it in a contest again, so those answers will forever go unanswered.

Bust Analysis:

Not ONLY is this years field rife with fodder, it suffered from the single highest amount of Round 1 upsets. Its not like we were asking much here; these games were supposed to cop a win before marching to their slaughter in Round 2. But apparently these demands were deemed unreasonable, because we couldnt even get that much from.

Binding of Isaac is probably the least disappointing, because ok, its an indie game that stopped being relevant years ago, and wasnt good in 2015 either. It still has cult appeal, and was even one of the Switchs launch titles; it was one of the few things people could play in those early couple of months. I suppose you could thank Nioh 2s release shortly before the contest began for this upset, though Nioh as a samurai Souls clone series got punkd the second Sekiro was announced and FROM just went ahead and served up the genuine article (and just to get a jump on the inevitable comment about this, yes I know Sekiro doesnt play completely like Dark Soul) .

Dragon Age, meanwhile, was the consensus 2014 GotY according to GotYBlogs. Thats a big, chunky AAA title with brand recognition, matched up against another dinky little indie game. Unfortunately for Dragon Age, three factors foiled its victory. One, Biowares stock has completely and utterly tanked since its release; Mass Effect Andromeda and Anthem werent even that long ago. Two, remember how I said Witcher helped initiate a paradigm shift against Skyrim and Bethesda? It arguably hurt DA:I even more than that; Inquisition was one of the only open world RPGs available for more than a year after the PS4 and Xbone launched, and I personally believed it garnered so many GotY based on that alone. It looked pretty and had an impressive scope compared to the previous generations games, so it managed to get by at a time where people were desperate to be impressed. Then Witcher comes out a few months later and blows everyones minds; Inquisition went from being THE game to get if you wanted a PS4 WRPG to an afterthought almost immediately. Third, and most importantly, Ori wasnt actually a dinky little indie game, but one with a relatively robust name brand; and like Nioh, it had just received a sequel, one that Microsoft banged on about at every single E3 for like three years it feels. Doh, the fickle whims of fate once again conspire against 2014s lineup!

But what about the match that was actually actively debated pre-contest? Ill be 100% honest with you: I never once thought Tropical Freeze was gonna win this match. I assume the reason people were so confident in it was because of the Switch release, but come on. That shit was SIXTY dollars, and unlike, say, MK8 Deluxe or Hyrule Warriors, it didnt come with a bunch of DLC or added content. More importantly, ZeldaMarioSmashAndSometimesMetroidAndPokemonFAQs is real, NintendoFAQs is not. Are you from one of those series? No? Well are you at least from the 90s? Still no? Then GameFAQs doesnt actually care about your Nintendo ass. Xenoblade gets to apply the JRPG buff here, skyrocketing its relevance on this site. Devil May Cry is hit or miss, but DMCV was easily the best received one since DMC3, which has looked OK in the past. The eventual 57-43 result was one that showcased a match that didnt look like itd ever been debatable. Your zoomer New Funky Mode blurb meme pales in comparison to the boomer Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series blurb meme.

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