The top 30 SNES games matchup: vote on the big 4 developers vs the top 30 rebels
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We just did a selective creation style group list for the top 30 SNES games NOT developed by Nintendo, Square, Capcom or Konami:
- Soul Blazer
- Shin Megami Tensei If...
- Super R-Type
- Mortal Kombat 2
- Brawl Brothers
- Lufia 2
- Dragon Quest V
- ActRaiser
- Harvest Moon
- Blackthorne
- NBA Jam
- Terranigma
- Shadowrun
- Super Star Wars
- Earthworm Jim 2
- Gemfire
- Lost Vikings
- Doom Troopers
- Umihara Kawase
- Pocky & Rocky
- Flashback
- Shin Megami Tensei
- EVO: The Search For Eden
- Joe & Mac
- Tales of Phantasia
- Skyblazer
- Actraiser 2
- Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage
- Illusion of Gaia
- The 7th Saga
Of course, this begs for a comparison with the top 30 SNES games that were developed by Nintendo, Square, Capcom, and Konami. I've taken the liberty of compiling a representative list using various sources:
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Chrono Trigger
- Super Metroid
- Final Fantasy VI
- Super Mario World
- Super Street Fighter II Turbo
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
- Super Mario Kart
- Star Fox
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
- Secret of Mana
- Mega Man X
- EarthBound
- Final Fantasy IV
- Tetris Attack
- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest
- Super Punch-Out!!
- F-Zero
- Super Castlevania IV
- Mario Paint
- Contra III: The Alien Wars
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
- Donkey Kong Country
- Mega Man X2
- Legend of the Mystical Ninja
- Sim City
- UN Squadron
- Kirby Super Star
- Zombies Ate My Neighbors
- Super Ghouls n' Ghosts
PART 1 - which list is better:
Is the second list better overall than the first? Yeah, probably. But win or lose, those 30 'rebel' games might put up a decent fight given the right chance, so let's do that. We're going to vote on 30 head to head matchups:
https://surveyjs.io/published?id=adb4922a-f912-4767-9758-f01b8d84b133
(Note: This is the first time I've used this voting website, let me know if something doesn't seem right. I believe you also need to use the honor system in regards to repeat surveys.)
If you've ever seen team matches in chess or certain 1v1 esports, then the concept is similar. Each "team" has 30 players, who compete in 30 head to head matches. Each win is worth 1 point, and the team with the most points is the "winner". Of course, we're the ones determining who wins each "match" through our votes for one game or the other. It will also be interesting to see how many total votes each team earns.
If you want your vote to be counted, please make a point of doing so in the coming days. I will hold off compiling the results for at least 3 days (until mid-day Sunday, Jan 7th).
As an aside, I thought about what the most fun and illuminating ways would be to vote on one list vs another, but since we are limited to what polling websites can offer this is the best structure I could come up with. An elimination tournament or some kind of ranked voting would be cool too, but I couldn't find websites to do that for us automatically.
PART 2 - everything else:
Not necessarily related to the above poll, you may post whatever freeform discussion you'd like:
- For starters, why not take two of these 60 games and stake out a spicy opinion of your own?
- What games should have made it in either list, or were you hoping would make it?
- Which games did the 'consesus' list that I compiled get wrong?
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Cool setup! A couple of those head-to-heads were tough ones for me and I definitely went with the rebels on a few occasions, though I leaned more towards the big 4 overall.
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Spicy opinion time: Soul Blazer > Link to the Past. It certainly didn't start out that way for me, but over time replaying Soul Blazer never ceases to please.
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I was hoping King Arthur's World would make it on to our top 30. It probably would have been my next pick, but I felt I properly should put other favorites ahead of it (despite those being generally more well known than KAW).
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For the top 30 Nintendo/Capcom/Square/Konami list, I would personally rank Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts much higher. I also feel Tetris Attack, DKC2 and F-Zero are rather weak contenders for the spots they occupy (again, according to personal preferences).
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Oh man, while there are definitely some Big Guns in there I would pick up and play way before the little guys (some I have beat multiple times), there are others that I would outright ignore. Very interesting match-ups.
In particular, Kirby and Link just hit the sweet spot for me. Tough competition for ANYTHING there.
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Here are the results of the survey after a good 4 days of voting:
total head-to-head wins:
Nintendo/Square/Capcom/Konami: 25
other developers: 5 (those lines are marked with a ">")total votes:
Nintendo/Square/Capcom/Konami: 139
other developers: 71The match up results
Soul Blazer -vs- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past votes: 4-3 Shin Megami Tensei If... -vs- Chrono Trigger votes: 2-5 Super R-Type -vs- Super Metroid votes: 6-1 Mortal Kombat 2 -vs- Final Fantasy VI votes: 0-7 Brawl Brothers -vs- Super Mario World votes: 6-1 > Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals -vs- Super Street Fighter II Turbo votes: 5-2 Dragon Quest V -vs- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island votes: 5-2 > ActRaiser -vs- Super Mario Kart votes: 5-2 > Harvest Moon -vs- Star Fox votes: 3-4 Blackthorne -vs- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars votes: 2-5 NBA Jam -vs- Secret of Mana votes: 5-2 Terranigma -vs- Mega Man X votes: 3-4 Shadowrun -vs- EarthBound votes: 5-2 Super Star Wars -vs- Final Fantasy IV votes: 0-7 Earthworm Jim 2 -vs- Tetris Attack votes: 6-1 Gemfire -vs- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest votes: 2-5 The Lost Vikings -vs- Super Punch-Out!! votes: 4-3 Doom Troopers -vs- F-Zero votes: 2-5 Umihara Kawase -vs- Super Castlevania IV votes: 5-2 > Pocky & Rocky -vs- Mario Paint votes: 5-2 Flashback -vs- Contra III: The Alien Wars votes: 6-1 Shin Megami Tensei -vs- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time votes: 2-5 EVO: The Search For Eden -vs- Donkey Kong Country votes: 4-3 Joe & Mac -vs- Mega Man X2 votes: 2-5 Tales of Phantasia -vs- The Legend of the Mystical Ninja votes: 4-3 Skyblazer -vs- Sim City votes: 3-4 Actraiser 2 -vs- UN Squadron votes: 4-3 Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage -vs- Kirby Super Star votes: 0-7 > Illusion of Gaia -vs- Zombies Ate My Neighbors votes: 2-5 The 7th Saga -vs- Super Ghouls n' Ghosts votes: 2-5
Personally, my preferred picks won 22 out of 30 of these matchups. The 0-7 sweeps weren't too surprising. As always in top SNES lists, i feel that The Lost Vikings doesn't get its proper due. But Pocky & Rocky broke through at least!