User:Ngamer

This is just a holding area for some stuff and things and junk. For the hot info, you want to check out Ngamer64.

Some Nice Things People Have Said
Rate The User - 4/11/2006

10. ~ Kyle Bowen 10. Cool guy if you talk to him in chat. ~XIII 10/10. ~TRE 10/10. ~yoblazer 10. ~Ulti 10/10 <3. ~Mumei NGamer is highly under appreciated. 10. ~FFD 10. ~Zylo 10/10. It's one of the few 10/10s I don't give because I necessarily like the guy personally, it's because he's done so much for Board 8. ~Applekidjosh 2 words: LOL x-stats. 10/10. ~th3l3fty 9.8/10. ~RPGGamer Don't know him well enough to rate, though lol x-stats rocks. ~Drakeryn 10/10. A legend even among the Board 8 legends... ~King Morgoth Easiest 10/10 ever! They don't call him Tenacious J for nothing! Or at all for that matter... ~QB 9.8. ~Mmage I can't believe people here are giving this guy such low scores. NGamer is an example of why I am nowhere near perfection. 10. ~swirldude I'm not really a fan of rating people, but I'll make an exception for NGamer. 10/10. ~Kaxon 10/10. ~Raytan Guru pioneer, stats topic archivist (I think), one of the leading contributors to the board in terms of contest thought and function, and the creator of the Ed Bellis Award for Excellence in the Field of Ed Bellis. What's not to like? ~Ed Bellis I would have given N a 9.5... probably wouldn't have pushed him over the top of you though tranny! ~EC 10/10 for scaring the shit out of me by uploading my picture to my wiki. ~ ChaosTony Final Rating: Ngamer64 [9.57 / 24 votes]

tranny's Top 100 Users - 8/25/2006 From: trannyscience | Posted: 8/25/2006 8:44:32 PM | Message Detail


 * 1) 65 - Ngamer64

one of the more important board 8ers. hosts lol x-stats, stats topic archives and a bunch of really neat board 8 stuff from back when. used to host the GameFAQs user database until someone tried to add the entire site at once and Ceej got mad. (or something like that.) N also runs the Guru contest, a fun little exercise where all the contest vets get owned by some kid no one's ever heard of twice a year.

N isn't too social on the boards, but does make good posts in the stats topic and helps out a lot on the board 8 wiki. he ran the legendary 2k3 games contest where Animal Crossing beat FF7 in the first round, too. I'd be interested to see another contest out of him, because I know the entire board would participate. everyone appreciates what he does for the place. --- xyzzy

Shadowdude Opens His Heart - 9/7/06 From: Shadowdude II | Posted: 9/7/2006 2:59:04 PM | Message Detail Ngamer64 -

I don't know how long you've been on Board 8, but it's probably a lot longer than I have. You were apparently some sort of legend among stats fools, but I guess you'll always be one of the "cult" figures on the board. The stats topic's glory days seem to be long gone, but you still have that devoted following.

As for yourself... you seem to be a pretty intelligent guy who likes to use a lot of exclamation points and whatnot. Your tastes are, as expected, rather Nintendo-centric, based off of what I've seen in NCAA contests. Not that I want to detract from your awesomeness. You never get mad, and you're even better than TRE at producing random files - specifically "CJayC speaks," which cracks me up.

But yeah, you are, in general, rather... distant. I don't have that much to say. --- Mr. President... It's been an honor.

The Top 50 Users of 2006 by Ed Bellis - 1/1/2007 From: Ed Bellis | Posted: 1/1/2007 5:25:37 PM | Message Detail 37. Ngamer64 Board 8's MVP.

Remember what I said about Ulti being one of the defining forces of the board? The same holds true even more so for Ngamer. Were I to go back in time and do this list for every year of Board 8's existence, Ngamer might be the only user practically guaranteed a spot on every single list. That's how much he's involved with so much stuff. This year in particular (because that's all we're really looking at), Ngamer was, as always, one of the driving forces behind some of the best stats-related projects, like the Guru Contest and the First Vote contest; his "lol x-stats" device on his site is one of the most frequently used and cited things when discussing all things stats-related. (I can't remember if it was created in 2005 or 2006, but it caught on in '06, so that's what counts!). He's always friendly and quick with rationale and logic - a very accessible user for newbs. N's just plain awesome. --- This was Ed Bellis. Rufus Shinra 18 took a shotgun to my bracket. Congrats, Guru champ!

Icehawk: NGamer also made the new website for the STD topics, which is really snazzy >_>.

Ed: Yeah, when N feels like doing non-stats stuff he's awesome too. He randomly added a ton of Wii friend codes to the B8 Wiki once.

Some Nice People Have Said Things
Board 8's Top 100 Users 2007

From: Ngamer64 | Posted: 3/21/2007 1:19:37 AM | Message Detail Let's see here...

10+: creativename My longtime Oracle partner and the man most responsible for making GameFAQs Contests what they are today. Popularizing the x-stats would be enough, but (having attempted to track updates every 15 minutes by hand throughout 2004... ouch) what I most appreciate is his invention of the automatic match updater. All the other great stats and facts available on gfcontests are just the icing on the cake.

9+: TRE The most deserving mod in history? I do believe so. I don't think I could count on both hands how many times TRE has bailed me out when I thought a topic/post/piece of data had been lost for all time. He keeps a mean archive, that for sure, but you'll never meet a nicer and more helpful user, and that's what really puts him over the top. That, and his First Vote awesomeness.

8+: King Morgoth When I think of the hours this guy has devoted to running the biggest and most successful Contest in B8 history, it boggles the mind. He's earned these 8 points and then some with his dedication to making the Oracle Challenge the supremely enjoyable heart of the Contest season that it is. And when he gets through all the updates he has planned for the Oracle website, it's going to truly be a wonder to behold.

7+: Kaxon Kax has done a great job working hand-in-hand with KM to keep the Oracle up and running over the past couple years, and work like that deserves to be rewarded. The OC is everything these Contests are about, and I think it's important that these two realize how appreciated their years of effort have really been. Oh, and he's nailed an FV or two.

6+: yoblazer Quite possibly my favorite Guru in terms of contributions to the Stats topic in-season, and a true Contest mastermind who always puts together a solid bracket. Always a threat to go all the way in the Guru Contest.

5+: Haste2 Always a worthwhile addition to Stats, puts up good showings in the Guru Contests year in and year out, and one of the very best when it comes to the Oracle. What's not to like? Nothing, that's what.

4+: HaRRicH Consistent stats contributions go a long way toward solidifying his position as one of the elite of the elite in the Ng book.

3+: Ulti They say 50% of everything is showing up, and no one has shown up more often than Ulti. His dual positions as King of the Gurus and co-King of the Guru Contests certainly doesn't hurt either.

2+: Heroic Mario His big upsets may not ever pan out, and I'd like to see him show the tenacity to see an Oracle through all the way one of these seasons, but his Stats postings are too delightful to overlook.

1+: Lagoona The Prediction Percentage Challenge may not be the Oracle, but it's another of the fun little highlights of any Contest season, and I'm going to reward his effort.

tranny makes no list, ever, and will continue to not do so until he signs for the Guru Contest! And sorry to AKJ and Ed Bellis and swirl... but keep up the good work and you'll be in next year!

Oh yeah, and add Easy and Lucy to the honorable mentions above. But not Icehawk!

--- thengamer.com/xstats = lol x-stats Still smarting from the beatdown Rufus applied in the Guru Contest!

Predictions
I made a barely newer -- and perhaps better -- games bracket than tran. From: HaRRicH | Posted: 5/4/2006 9:35:08 PM | Message Detail

--1-- 1-Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 8-Comix Zone 4-Call of Duty 2 5-Sonic Adventure 2: Battle 3-Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 6-Mortal Kombat 2 2-Final Fantasy X 7-Mischief Makers

--2-- 1-Resident Evil 4 8-Pong 4-Sonic & Knuckles 5-Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 3-Grand Theft Auto 3 6-Mario Kart 64 2-Super Metroid 7-Perfect Dark

--3-- 1-Chrono Trigger 8-Dr. Mario 4-God of War 5-Mario Kart: DS 3-Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 6-Super Mario Sunshine 2-Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker 7-Double Dragon

--4-- 1-Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 8-WWF No Mercy 4-Devil May Cry 5-Street Fighter 2 3-Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 6-Half-Life 2 2-Kingdom Hearts 2 7-F-Zero

--5-- 1-Final Fantasy 7 8-Phoenix Wright 4-Kirby Super Star 5-Tales of Symphonia 3-Soul Calibur 2 6-Star Fox 64 2-Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 7-Pac-Man

--6-- 1-Goldeneye 007 8-Metroid Prime 4-Final Fantasy 8 5-Legend of Zelda 3-Metal Gear Solid 6-World of Warcraft 2-Super Mario 64 7-Tekken 3

--7-- 1-Super Smash Bros. Melee 8-Earthworm Jim 4-Tetris 5-Mega Man 2 3-Super Mario World 6-Super Mario Bros. 1 2-Final Fantasy 3/6 7-Duck Hunt

--8-- 1-Super Mario Bros. 3 8-Animal Crossing 4-Final Fantasy 9 5-Final Fantasy Tactics 3-Starcraft 6-Diablo 2 2-Halo 2 7-Chrono Cross

Plenty of experimentation, given what little we know about the games in a contest setting. Lots of returners, lots of new games, and hopefully lots of good matches that are either never thought of or matches (rematches?) that people may want to see.

--- Miss my Four-Pack Of Fun? Go here: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gentopic.php?board=585007

From: Ngamer64 | Posted: 5/5/2006 12:23:31 AM | Message Detail

1-Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 5-Sonic Adventure 2: Battle 3-Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2-Final Fantasy X

1-Resident Evil 4 5-Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (ouch, tough) 6-Mario Kart 64 2-Super Metroid (PD deserves better! remember that the poll glitch killed its day vote against SotN, and it's behind GE being badly SFFed!)

1-Chrono Trigger 4-God of War (hmmmm) 3-Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (Sunshine deserves better than this SFFing) 2-Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

1-Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 5-Street Fighter 2 (SF easily - DMC needs a higher seed) 3-Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (nice match) 2-Kingdom Hearts 2

1-Final Fantasy 7 4-Kirby Super Star 6-Star Fox 64 (love it. taking Fox because there was something weird about that Soul Cal match) 2-Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

1-Goldeneye 007 (Prime deserves way better!) 4-Final Fantasy 8 (cool match) 3-Metal Gear Solid (WoW is going to do horribly in a Games Contest setting, just you wait and see) 2-Super Mario 64

1-Super Smash Bros. Melee (can't we do better than EJ?) 5-Mega Man 2 (very nice) 3-Super Mario World (would rather not see this SFF match) 2-Final Fantasy 3/6

1-Super Mario Bros. 3 (good to see AC make the field) 5-Final Fantasy Tactics (love this one) 3-Starcraft (Blizzard battle is tempting, but I'd rather see both games earn it) 2-Halo 2

1-Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 2-Final Fantasy X (somewhat interesting)

1-Resident Evil 4 (nice matchup) 6-Mario Kart 64 (I love this one)

1-Chrono Trigger 3-Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (should be awesome)

1-Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past 2-Kingdom Hearts 2 (fear I'm letting the hype get to me here...)

1-Final Fantasy 7 6-Star Fox 64 (MGS3 will be the weakest of the trilogy)

1-Goldeneye 007 (awesome matchup; too good for the second round?) 2-Super Mario 64 (with Ocarina out of the way, M64 will be a beast)

1-Super Smash Bros. Melee 2-Final Fantasy 3/6 (love it- World will have a real shot here, post-Boost)

1-Super Mario Bros. 3 3-Starcraft (Halo 2 will be weaker than Halo; take it to the bank)

1-Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (wish FFX could have had a more interesting path) 6-Mario Kart 64 (RE4 will come in way overhyped; keep in mind that the Top Ten Games poll came around at the perfect time, no way its popularity will still be at that peak) 1-Chrono Trigger (love it, because I think MM might be closer to OoT than you'd think) 1-Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (hype this) 1-Final Fantasy 7 (like that no top contender will be wasted here) 2-Super Mario 64 (fantastic matchup; I feel M64 was SFFed considerably harder against Ocarina) 1-Super Smash Bros. Melee (6's star has fallen, while Melee will be a beast) 1-Super Mario Bros. 3 (this is no Wind Waker)

1-Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (again, good to not have a big contender wasted) 1-Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (Link will run away with this rematch) 1-Final Fantasy 7 (better than wasting Melee or Mario 3 here) 1-Super Mario Bros. 3 (I think Mario makes a Samus out of Melee here... but could see it go either way)

1-Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (will be interesting to watch how the SFF swings) 1-Final Fantasy 7 (will improve on Melee's '04 showing, but still...)

1-Final Fantasy 7 (Ocarina might be able to make a game of it, though)

A solid bracket overall, though hindered by a few questionable decisions. 8.5/10.

--- "lol x-stats" - The Contest Simulator: http://thengamer.com/xstats Ngamer's Contest Archives: http://thengamer.com/gamefaqs/

Tranny's Post-2000 Games Bracket
4/7/07

1 - Zelda: Twilight Princess > 16 - Madden NFL 2007 Eh, the Mario series pretty much proved that there's no more need to see Madden in any form, but this is fair enough.

8 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney > 9 - Resistance: Fall of Man Ohhh, very tough. PW's popularity probably peaked right before the Gordon match last Summer so I would think I'd be predicting it to win anywhere, but against a PS3 title? I guess I'd have to risk it.

5 - God of War > 12 - Tales of Symphonia Good match, but RPGFAQs or not I think ToS's time to shine is over.

4 - Devil May Cry > 13 - Shadow of the Colossus Tough to see SotC pulling this off, but after DMC didn't exactly impress in the Series Contest I wouldn't count Shadow as "wasted" in this matchup either.

6 - Super Mario Sunshine > 11 - Final Fantasy X-2 Ouch, very difficult. I know X2 is hated on the board, but it sold well and seems popular enough overall to be a solid mid-carder. SMS wasn't exactly loved either, but it's MARIO, and it still sold pretty well and was fun. Guess I'd expect another Melee > FFX type finish here.

3 - Metal Gear Solid 2 > 14 - Ninja Gaiden With X-box hate having more or less dissolved, I'd have thought I could pick NG to win a match, but MGS2 is too tall a task. I'd say Ninja deserves a better seed than this, but let me see the rest of the bracket before deciding for sure.

7 - Pokemon Emerald > 10 - Grand Theft Auto 3 Wow. Just... wow. Warcraft > GTA would have nothing on this matchup. Very difficult decision, but I think the recent DS titles would give Pokemon just enough recency and exposure to squeak by here. Barely.

2 - Halo: Combat Evolved > 15 - Zelda: Minish Cap Hoho, another grand setup! ZeldaFAQs ZeldaFAQs, right? And what a fantastic opportunity for Link to make up for his embarrassing seeding upset at the hands of bottom-seeded SC three years back. But eh, with the 360 gaining steam I think Halo would have the backing to survive this.

1 - Super Smash Brothers Melee > 16 - Gran Turismo 3 Very good 16 seed choice. You certainly were correct about a lack of fodder- here we've got a lowest seed that just happens to be, I believe, the highest-selling title of the PS2's North American career?

9 - Soul Calibur 2 > 8 - Devil May Cry 3 Aww man, great stuff. SC3 being same old same old seemed to take some of the wind out of the series' sails, but SC2 sold very well/was multi-platform/had LINK, so it should be enough to win in a very tight battle.

5 - Sonic Adventure 2: Battle > 12 - Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin No idea here... CV impressed me a ton in the Series contest, but how are we supposed to know which of the 23 million handheld releases in the past 8 years was responsible for that?

13 - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door > 4 - Gears of War Gah. GAH. Gears sold like nuts and I've been talking all along about the 360 gaining some real Contest strength, but again it's MARIO. Street Fighter 2 found out the hard way that Mario + RPG = respectable Contest strength, so I'd continue backing that wagon in this one.

6 - Final Fantasy 12 > 11 - Kirby: Canvas Curse I know Kirby got excellent reviews, but does it really have the overall popularity an 11 seed deserves, given the strength of this field? I seem to recall it coming up short in those GotY polls a while back... but what do I know, maybe it could end up pulling a Kirby/Tidus on us here.

3 - Halo 2 > 14 - Disgaea: Hour of Darkness Ehhh, I've always felt that if you had Halo in a field of 64 there's really no need for H2, and vice versa. Even limiting yourself to 2000-on I think I'd stick with that idea, personally, but either way is fine. Dis getting in is cool, though I'd be fine with it as a 15 or 16.

7 - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes > 10 - Chrono Cross Wow, awesome setup of the kind-of-a-flop-but-some-still-like-them sequels. I'd take CT over Prime pretty easily of course, but I think the gap between CT and CC is large enough for Echoes to sneak through with a little room to spare.

2 - Kingdom Hearts > 15 - Warioware Inc: Mega Microgames Another good diverse fodder choice. KH matches never go like they're supposed to, so maybe Wario could keep it closer than expected.

1 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas > 16 - Star Ocean 3 Whoa, a #1 for SA, really? I know it has the sales to back it up but after the Ness/CJ and Warcraft/GTA fiascos, I'm far from sold on this series as a GameFAQs powerhouse. But I'll allow it, since I just noticed what an awesome matchup its going to create next round.

8 - Zelda: Majora's Mask > 9 - Fable First 8/9 or 7/10 I didn't really hesitate on, but who knows, I might be putting too much faith in ZeldaFAQs and Fable could actually make a game of it. Oblivion's solid showing in the GotYs showed that an Xbox RPG doesn't have to be a joke on this site anymore, so perhaps an upset isn't out of the realm of possibility.

5 - Final Fantasy 9 > 12 - Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Speak of the devil! What a murderous matchup... 7/8/10 I'd of course be backing without question, but 9 always gets talked about as the black sheep of the recent generation, while Obliv gets to combine the best of the 360 and PC and will be coming in off a few GotY awards from last year. But in the end, you just don't bet against FF on this site unless there's a Nintendo mid-carder or above on the other side.

4 - God of War 2 > 13 - Splinter Cell SC could have performed decently a few years back, but I very much doubt it could stand up to a much-loved several million seller like GoW2 today.

6 - Kingdom Hearts 2 > 11 - Mario Kart DS Ouch! I know MK failed to live up to the hype against Mega Man last Spring, but being considered the best Kart game yet by many has GOT to be worth more than an 11 seed. Right? Right?! Seems a bit of a waste to feed it to KH2 so early, but then again, maybe it can shock the world and make a game of it. Also, isn't KH2 stronger than a mere 6? I know it didn't rock the world in GotYs, but didn't we agree that was mostly the newer FF12 SFFing votes away?

3 - Metal Gear Solid 3 > 14 - Animal Crossing Ha, glad to see AC getting some representation, but 2003 was clearly its year to shine. I'm one of those who's still a long way from sold on MGS3 being in the same league as its original installment, but even I can't see it being challenged here.

7 - Paper Mario > 10 - Fire Emblem Aw, not fair. You can't take an upset-minded little Nintendo RPG that could and put it up against a more popular installment from the same genre from the same company featuring the world's most famous mascot in the title. It'll be eaten alive!

2 - Resident Evil 4 > 15 - Dragon Quest VIII Another good fodder choice. Still not entirely buying into RE4 being a powerhouse of 2 seed proportions like the Top 100 makes it seem, but heck, the Wiimake on an FPS-starved console could very easily launch it into this category. So overall, good choice.

1 - Final Fantasy 10 > 16 - Lumines Love this fodder! And what's this, a setup to create the FFX/Wind Waker slugfest we've all been waiting for since Spring 2004? Genius!

9 - Perfect Dark > 8 - Guitar Hero 2 Oh man... Oh MAN. What a beauty. With Goldeneye out of the picture those Rare FPS fans who rallied it into such an impressive Top Ten showing are going to be behind PD in full force, I've no doubt. But GH2 shocked the world against very tough competition in that GotY, and all these ports and sequels and takeoffs being announced show that there's no signs of it stopping. Such a cool idea to take the grandfather of the tourney (May '00) and set it against a game that could so easily slip by on recency. In the end though I've got to keep backing my favorite game.

5 -Half-Life 2 > 12 - Metroid Fusion I love HL2, and sorry but the flops from Super, Met1, and Met the series are too much to overlook, despite how well Samus did for herself last year. I realize you can fall back on the Nintendo SFF bandwagon in all three cases, but still, I think some general weakness was shown as well.

4 - Zelda: Wind Waker > 13 - Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 Bah, I'm all for diversity, but honestly don't see a need to include any kind of THPS beyond 2 in a tournament setting. It does serve to turn this into the 2/15 matchup it ought rightfully to be, however.

6 - New Super Mario Bros. > 11 - Star Wars: KOTOR Oh boy. The Stats topic wasn't impressed with New Mario but that hasn't stopped it from continuing to sell like hotcakes both in the US and over in Japan. KotoR is no chump, but the Nintendo fanbase ought to rally behind this series revival in great enough numbers to survive.

3 - GTA: Vice City > 14 - F-Zero GX Bah, hate to pick such a fantastic, challenging title to go down so early! But great as the reviews were, the sales never stood up, so I doubt the Nintendo name will be enough to rally it past GTA in this one, unlike we'll have seen in Pokemon/GTA3.

10 - World of Warcraft > 7 - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Again, I don't know which game the CV popularity is stemming from, but I DO know that I can count on several thousand WoW additional voters making their way to the site on this match day, and that should be more than enough to put it over the top.

2 - Metroid Prime > 15 - Xenosaga Episode I Another good bit of fodder. Prime looks weird as the 2 in this division given what we saw in Wind Waker/Prime directly, but I understand what you were setting up so I'll let it slide. Plus Prime had probably stood the test of time better overall, especially with TP overshadowing WW recently. Then again, might Prime have been overshadowed by Corruption by the time this match would actually take place? Hm...

1 - Zelda: Twilight Princess > 8 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney A perfect game to be placed in an unwinnable position. I'm sure its value would end up better against anything other than this Nintendo monster, but meh, small price to pay.

5 - God of War > 4 - Devil May Cry Wooo, what a doozy! Even though I'd still take Dante over Kratos in a direct matchup, I think GoW2's success in carrying over basically the same game will give the original enough coattail recency to pull this seeding upset. (I noticed GoW1 jumped up to 5th on the Top Ten FAQs in the days after 2 released, for instance.)

3 - Metal Gear Solid 2 > 6 - Super Mario Sunshine Bah! I realize MGS2 finishing ahead of the original was a PSX and Div128 overrate fluke, and I know how hot Nintendo and all things Mario have been lately, but... sorry, SMS is just too much of a wildcard, especially with it about to be overshadowed by a fantastic-looking Galaxy. The Day to Night vote swing would be a thing of beauty to see here, though.

2 - Halo: Combat Evolved > 7 - Pokemon Emerald Ah shoot, would liked to have put a solid run together for Pokemon. Halo's hugely impressive position in the Top Ten combined with the near-death of Xbox hate is too tall an order for the Little RPG That Could, I'm afraid.

1 - Super Smash Brothers Melee > 9 - Soul Calibur 2 No real chance of the upset, but again a pretty good game to have in this near-impossible spot. Plus it should help clear up some of that Division 128 weirdness... there's no way SC1 could have put up that kind of value without StarCraft being so wacky. Right?

13 - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door > 5 - Sonic Adventure 2: Battle Hm... not really a murderous 4 pack, as I see either Paper Mario or Gears being able to take down the other half without too much trouble. This Mario/Sonic setup makes for an interesting proposition though; will everything from the Blue Blur be crushed as badly as Sonic 2 was whenever these two meet?

6 - Final Fantasy 12 > 3 - Halo 2 Ugh, ugh, ugh. Was FF12's performance on TP really as disappointing as it appeared at first glance, or is Twilight actually the Ocarnia-level beast that many have made it out to be? I'd take the risk and give the new FF the benefit of the doubt, if only because it should pay off huge when the Halo-casual brackets crash and burn once again.

2 - Kingdom Hearts > 7 - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Couple months back it seemed everyone agreed how much of an improvement KH2 was over the original... then it had to crash and burn in the GotYs. I'd ride the Nintendo wave in a heartbeat if there were Prime, but I'll have to play it safe with Echoes.

8 - Zelda: Majora's Mask > 1 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas I can hear the cries of ZeldaFAQs already! But with Ocarina removed from the competition, all MM needs is a small portion of that enormous fanbase to rally behind itself. Put Mario on the other side and it might not happen, but against a game as hated in many circles as SA? Yeah, Nintendo will rise to the challenge there.

5 - Final Fantasy 9 > 4 - God of War 2 Bah, I just don't know. Run it this week and I think I'd back War, but give it a few months to cool down and I guess I'd continue hitching my wagon to the Final Fantasy brandname. I think.

6 - Kingdom Hearts 2 > 3 - Metal Gear Solid 3 Probably the hardest choice yet. Yes, we all saw Snake own Sora into the ground a couple years back, but how much of that was the picture? He certainly came back looking like a champ against Mega Man last year, and everyone else who showed up in KH2 looked very good as well. Square/MGS SFF is so weird that I guess I'd roll the dice and hope for the upset in this one.

2 - Resident Evil 4 > 7 - Paper Mario Ported or not, I still see RE4 acting like a Nintendo title, and a Nintendo title going up against MARIO ought to spell an ugly SFFing. But sorry, PM is too old to deal with the RE4 recency, especially with the Wii re-release now on the way. Wii Wii-release? Wii Wii-Wiiwiise? Help, somebody stop me!

1 - Final Fantasy 10 > 9 - Perfect Dark Yeah, not even _I_ am going to buy into this one. And I'm the guy who got Jo into two Contests! PD's a classic, but no 128er except Melee has stood the test of time as well as FFX, so it'll roll on through. Bet PD puts up a better fight than predicted though.

4 - Zelda: Wind Waker > 5 -Half-Life 2 Love HL2 as I said, but its out of its league. Even given a boost over HL1, Melee/HL ought to predict this result fairly accurately IMO.

3 - GTA: Vice City > 6 - New Super Mario Bros. Grrr, hate to have to do this, but a handheld has yet to prove that Game Boy anything can stand up against popular console offerings. Yeah, we've seen the GBA and DS influence results, as in Nintendo's '05 comeback and CV's exciting surprise wins, but that's not enough for me. You get Kart DS to tip the scales in the Mega Man series matchup, and I think I'd have gone the other way here.

2 - Metroid Prime > 10 - World of Warcraft Oh boy... talk about putting Metroid's reputation as a choke artist to the test. The games did bad, Samus got blown up in '05 and very nearly stunned in '06, and now the series might suffer one of the biggest seeding upsets ever. The spammers and ralliers gave up when they saw Mario on the other side of the PotD last year, but I don't see Samus striking the same fear in their hearts. Put this on a Tuesday and we might be in for one of the all-time classics.

After a fantastic second round, we get breather in almost half the Sweet 16. That's just fine though; it's simply the nature of the beast, setting up these heavy hitters for their epic clashes at the end of the line.

1 - Zelda: Twilight Princess > 5 - God of War Just making it here should be a huge thrill for GoW fans, and they should also be pleased that there's probably nothing better for the X-stat health of a Sony exclusive than to be able to rally everyone together against Nintendo's flagship title.

3 - Metal Gear Solid 2 > 2 - Halo: Combat Evolved Oh golly! The smart choice here would be to walk the chalk with Halo, since it's far from a sure bet that MGS will even be able to survive Mario and make it this far. I'm afraid I've just seen Halo and its characters fail in spectacular fashion too many times to put Elite Eight-level faith in it though, so I'll have to back a title that I'm far from sold on.

1 - Super Smash Brothers Melee > 13 - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Ouch, we've got the ugliest SFFing of the tournament right thuur! The Series proved that Mario can NSFF Metroid all it wants but it still doesn't have anything on Melee... turn that into a second-tier Mario title, from the same console, and I think we're looking at the next Ocarina/Mario 64.

6 - Final Fantasy 12 > 2 - Kingdom Hearts Wait a dang minute; we've seen this one already! Sure, the title of the poll read "Playstation 2 Game of the Year," and there was a 2 on the back of the last title, but I'm not seeing any reason for the end result to differ. I'll let that slide though, since it's far from a lock that either of these games will actually end up here, let alone both of them.

8 - Zelda: Majora's Mask > 5 - Final Fantasy 9 Awesome stuff. Which is the bigger step down, Ocarina to MM or FF7 to FF9? I'd probably say the FF drop is steeper, and then you have to factor in that OoT has surely made up ground in that rematch if it were held this Summer, and here's the result. But honestly, MM could be anywhere on the board... Such a cool 8 seed.

2 - Resident Evil 4 > 6 - Kingdom Hearts 2 No problems here! Still not buying RE4 as a world-beater, but selling a million on the PS2 should give it more than enough of a Sony-edge to top Square's big seller.

4 - Zelda: Wind Waker > 1 - Final Fantasy 10 Oh my! Didn't I just get through saying FFX had aged better? Yes, but on the other hand I said in 2004 that WW would be able to squeeze through Div128 no matter what came through on the other end, be it FFX or Melee, and I stand by my belief that only StarCraft (cheating) kept it from happening. You can chalk this 2007 pick up to picking with your heart and not your head.

2 - Metroid Prime > 3 - GTA: Vice City Vice was topped by SA and will soon be double-topped by the fourth installment, whereas Prime as aged nearly as well as Melee and FFX, it seems to me. As long as it can survive a late WoW charge, I don't see Prime having much trouble making it through to the Elite Eight.

What's this- 5 of the Elite Eight are GameCube titles? What a console!

1 - Zelda: Twilight Princess > 3 - Metal Gear Solid 2 Well, uh... it should be able to keep it closer than the MGS series managed against Zelda, so I guess thats a point in its favor. I guess you could repeat my earlier point about big name Sony liking to go out against the best Nintendo has to offer as well. Beyond that, not too much to say about this one.

1 - Super Smash Brothers Melee > 6 - Final Fantasy 12 This should be cool both for comparing this direct matchup against the one we saw with FFX, and for matching up that result against what we saw in that TP/FF12 GotY. Could be a pretty interesting indicator for that clash of the Titans that will be TP/Melee.

8 - Zelda: Majora's Mask > 2 - Resident Evil 4 Oh boy, chalk this one up a toss-up. I think it's perfectly possible, maybe even probable that RE4 is the stronger game indirectly. But when you look like a Nintendo title to the voters, there's nothing in the world worse than trying to stare down Link Himself... the guy just doesn't blink. Sure, Mario 3 pulled it off, but RE4 is no Mario 3. Not yet, anyways.

4 - Zelda: Wind Waker > 2 - Metroid Prime Closer than 2004 for sure, and if Corruption even halfway lives up to the hype I could very easily see Prime taking an early lead here through coattail effect, but the Zelda day vote should be enough to pull through in a very narrow victory.

And thus 2004's "all-Zelda Final Four" becomes a reality three years down the road! Well, almost.

1 - Zelda: Twilight Princess > 1 - Super Smash Brothers Melee I was originally planning to scold you for not making this the Championship, but looking at the big picture now I see that it was the right decision. This is going to be every bit as epic as billed, and the Eastern final is almost a lock to be a classic as well, no matter who ends up being there. FFX/Majora, RE4/Prime, RE4/FFX... yeah, that's going to be pretty fantastic regardless. Getting back to the matter at hand, I think Snake boosting straight through the roof on SSB hype alone (almost) proves that Melee is one of the driving forces behind this site... as if SSB/Mario didn't make that clear enough. But kind of like that Mario match, Link going dual-console in such a grand fashion and with so much recency should be just enough to sneak by the SSB juggernaut. And I do mean just.

8 - Zelda: Majora's Mask > 4 - Zelda: Wind Waker Yikes! If either get here it's going to be because of fans seeing them as the next-best-thing now that Ocarina's out of the picture. So which is the next-better thing? Guess I'd go with MM, though I'd do so with 0 confidence. WW just strikes me as too much overshadowed by the success of TP. Plus, when you know that match pic is going to display Link in full Ocarina-based N64 engine glory standing next to his Celda personality, who'd side with the guy who cost him the crown in 2003? Not me, that's who!

Championship

1 - Zelda: Twilight Princess > 8 - Zelda: Majora's Mask The SFF, it stings! Well, maybe I speak too soon... I'm of the opinion that a TP/OoT tilt could be put on without either side caving in to the other, so with MM acting as the Ocarina surrogate, perhaps something similar could take place here. Regardless, an uninteresting Final is a small price to pay for all the joy an 8 seed's bracket-busting run into the final two would afford me. Especially if I were one of the handful to predict it! ---

Overall, I give this bracket my best grade yet: a straight A. I tip my hat to you, good sir.

Tranny's Pre-2000 Game Bracket
4/13/07

1 - Chrono Trigger > 16 - Nights Into Dreams I'd have said no need to repeat fodder we've known has 0 strength since '04, but then I remembered the sequel coming out for the Wii pretty soon. Maybe they'll try to get the original to the VC as well... so yeah, plenty of good new expose makes this a solid 16 seed.

9 - Kirby Super Star > 8 - Pac-Man After the way Yoshi made him look like an absolute joke, I'm putting 0 faith in Pac-anything standing up to Nintendo. And you'd think Kirby would be one of those characters who'd be 100x more popular as a character than any of his games, but I was surprised to see the series hold up as well as it did against Metroid, so there could be some ok strength here after all.

5 - Super Mario Bros. > 12 - Mortal Kombat 2 I don't mind Mario 1 being so low, since there's plenty of Mario to put ahead of it, but after Subby's excellent showing last Summer I certainly feel that the best MK deserves better than a first round outing by this juggernaut.

4 - Castlevania: SOTN > 13 - Quake Would certainly take the upset on plenty of other sites, but SotN held up well against the much-loved Goldeneye, so can't see it losing to any PC shooter without the initials HL.

3 - Mario Kart 64 > 14 - F-Zero Eh, really only need one F-Zero from this earlier generation in the Contest, and that should be F-Zero X. Maybe it's still coming? In any case, Nintendo racer SFF will doom this match into one of the biggest blowouts of the season.

6 - Starfox 64 > 11 - Contra Huzz, can't wait to see SF64 in action! It has a reputation as such an internet fad, but I think the excitement about its recent VC release that its well loved for the gameplay as well. Wow, sets up a very cool match for next round. Uh... poor Contra, but 11 feels about right and I doubt it's making for much of a match against anyone.

7 - Doom > 10 - Castlevania Yikes! If there was some kind of fair way to make people only consider the game itself, I'd take Doom in a heartbeat over this largely improved-upon NES original. But just like with "Final Fantasy" or "Super Mario Bros.", its going to perform more like this is a Series Contest, which makes this more difficult. But hey, if Doom can top Earthbound during that RPG-heavy '03/early '04 era, why can't it do the same to CV?

2 - Zelda: Link to the Past > 15 - Dragon Warrior Again, here's DW getting to act like its a full series. But that's fine, since it'll need all the help it can get in this slaughterfest.

1 - Super Mario Bros. 3 > 16 - Gran Turismo If there's one spot you needed to come up with non-Nintendo fodder, this was it, so kudos for recognizing that. Again its a case where GT gets to turn this into a Series contest, so maybe it'll end up performing about as well as GT3 manages in that other 16 spot.

9 - Duck Hunt > 8 - Vagrant Story Whoa, what a culture clash. Technically VS is listed as released in May of '00, but I agree with your decision to put it here instead, as it feels totally out of place with all those Div128 titles. Run this matchup in '02 or '03 and I'm backing Square without a second thought, but it seems to me that post-Nintendo boost/sitewide vote total increase, people have pretty much forgotten that Square used to have big hits not named Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts. Plus DH is due to be released on the VC any day now, and its already sold a couple million copies of its "spiritual sequel" (a shooting gallery game that's the best part of Wii Play). So I see the NES classic sneaking a win here.

12 - Donkey Kong Country > 5 - Half-Life Ah. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! So many weak and largely forgotten titles taking up space in this bracket, and you have to go and set games with such fantastic potential against each other in round one? I'm assuming that DKC2 is in the bracket and with the higher of the seeds, which makes sense as its certainly the better game, but I honestly don't think it's the stronger of the two titles. 2 improved on everything 1 did, but the original is still the game with the reputation of "saving the SNES," still the one remembered for the jaw-dropping graphics, still the one that Nintendo wanted rushed on to the VC first. Now, I do still agree with HL being the favorite, but I think it'll have taken a fall since that Prime result thanks to HL2 stealing its thunder, which should be just enough for the upset to happen. Overall this is a great setup... for a Round Two match!

4 - Mega Man X > 13 - Tekken 3 Blah. Things were different back in '01/'02, but in the modern era if you're a fighter not named SSB or SF2 or to a lesser extent SC/MK, no one remembers you. MMX is a slam dunk and well-seeded here... I assume MM3 is on the way later as well?

3 - SMW > 14 - Shining Force 3 Good enough fodder, but I was hoping to see that Mario 64 battle I was talking about. *sniff*

6 - Final Fantasy 8 > 11 - Earthbound Awww... I know its been determined these constant Ness surprises are almost all SSB, but I still think EB is a strange enough title to have a little upset potential with the right placement. 11 seed seems about right, but FF8 looks vastly underrated as the 6. I realize it had to be done to set the stage for a very cool potential 8/6 clash, but that being the case I wish we had a more overrated 11 in here to match.

7 - Sonic 2 > 10 - Tetris Tetris eventually got everywhere, but I think in the public's mind it's still a "Nintendo game," as they probably were first exposed to it on the Gameboy or NES. Tetris DS isn't doing anything to dispell that conception, I might add. So I'm glad you found a spot where it can avoid the NSFF out of the gate. Still taking Sonic without too much trouble, though.

2 - Final Fantasy 6 > 15 - Suikoden 2 Oh no! All this talk about struggling to keep Nintendo's best from smashing its lower tier, then we have to feed a perfectly respectable lower seed to a fellow Playstation RPG? Now, I know its not as bad as it seems since FF3 pulls in some Nintendo vote for its SNES debut and GBA remake, but still, I think when FF6 comes up most people still associate it with FF7 and 8 and 9.

1 - Final Fantasy 7 > 16 - Bonk's Adventure Can't fault you for unoriginal fodder! CAN fault you for the horrific second round match I just realized you put together!

8 - Mega Man 3 > 9 - Parasite Eve Ugggggh. No one remembers Parasite Eve! We gave Aya Brea 32 chances to get back into the Contest last year and she missed them all... to people like Princess Daisy and Amy Rose, for Pete's sake. It's a fine addition to the field of 64, I'll give you that, but 9 is much too high for PE in the year 2007. MM on the other hand gets way underseeded, and severly punished in the second round. More on this next round.

5 - Street Fighter 2 > 12 - Secret of Mana Ah, pretty cool for the first round. Mana's got a following, but even with the combined power of Nintendo and Square SF2 proved that it would not go down easily back in '04, and I think its legendary status combined with the highly successful recent ports to both Xbox Live and the Virtual Console have assured that it won't have slipped much since then. Plus we saw how well it held up in the Series contest... take away just a little bit of RE4's steam, and that would have been a nice little run for SF there.

4 - Super Metroid > 13 - Super Mario RPG Oh man! My initial reaction was to scold you for pitting games with such strong potential against one another early, but the more I think about this setup the more I like it. Mario 3 didn't just flatten Metroid, that game was demolished, and that's been par for course in Metroid/Samus' whole history. So what happens when you take Mario, mix with Square and RPG elements, and serve it up on the same console? Goodness knows... I'll settle for Super Met in a close one, but could easily envision an upset on the order of Mario/Sam '05 here as well.

3 - Super Mario 64 > 14 - Crash Bandicoot Boooo to Crash, but if it has to get in I'm glad he will experience the thrashing of a lifetime against his former rival- the mascot who HAS stood the test of time. Good "last laugh" setup here.

6 - Goldeneye 007 > 11 - Diablo What the wha- Diablo AND D2 are in this bracket? Don't see the need for one if you've got the other, and 2 is clearly the superior option, so this is a bit confusing. Either of them should have some decent firepower though, so GE won't be firing out of the gate like the monster it should (and will) be.

10 - Zelda: Link's Awakening > 7 - Resident Evil 2 Bah... Tough to say. I think I might go with the original RE in this place, since it could do more with the Series vote and would have the more recent REmake to fall back on as well. It's just so hard to peg where RE's popularity lies, outside, of course, of RE4. That's why I'd go with the safe bet and peg the Zelda name to be enough to carry it through for the narrow win.

2 - Metal Gear Solid > 15 - Gunstar Heroes Very good choice for a 15 seed, especially with the VC release doing so well. The setup this makes in a few rounds is nothing short of delightful... but I better save that for later.

1 - Zelda: Ocarina Of Time> 16 - Golden Axe Good little 16, and it does have the VC to fall back on. Don' t know that its sold a ton of copies, but the publicity is at least there.

8 - Metroid > 9 - TMNT: The Arcade Game Ohhh, one of the best mid-carder matchups I've seen. TMNT has nostalgia in droves, a successful re-release on Xbox Live, and the NES original (not the Arcade game yet but still) out on the VC. Metroid, meanwhile, looked pathetic in '04, but it's still debatable how much of that we need to chalk to up Mario 3. I'll side with the safe Nintendo bet on this one, but it's a solid upset pick IMO.

5 - Pokemon Red > 12 - Soul Calibur Glad to see SC made the cut. Yeah, you could make a case for leading much of the day against KH being tons more impressive than never being in the match against Xenogears, but come now. If you got Red/Yellow/Blue in there against Xenogears in the Summer of 2007, would anyone really take Xeno for the repeat? Really? I sure wouldn't; the site has done a complete 180 on Pokemon in the past 3 years, as its win over Super Paper Mario last week further displayed. So I'd back the handheld here, with a fair bit of confidence.

4 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles > 13 - Final Fantasy I... you... it... Jeez. This is cool, and I like the seeding for it quite a bit. We're talking a heavy Series vote for the games that are only an inch away from the most popular on the site. Common sense says that FF1 is so old and so underplayed that it couldn't possibly compete with one of the best, and best-selling, platformers released. But history says, "erm... didn't you see how well it held up against Mario 3"? If I could be assured FF gets an 8 Bit Theater lineup for the pic, featuring classic Fighter and Black Mage sprites looking large and in charge, I'd have to go with this upset. As is though, think I'd stay safe with Sonic.

3 - Starcraft > 14 - Diddy Kong Racing Oh my, much respect for SC. Well, if there's one game that has maintained its popularity in the past 3 years, without the help of any sequels/remakes/ports/virtual console re-releases, it would have to be SC, so that makes sense. And now I see the matchup that this high seed creates for next round; delightful! But DKR? Alright, the DS remake gives it a little bit of leverage, but really, we've already got MK64 and F-Zero X (I'll forgive your omission of that letter) represented in this tourney, is there really a need for another N64 racer?

6 - Super Smash Bros > 11 - Xenogears Hm... might almost be worth it to move Xenogears around and let it have that Pokemon rematch I mentioned earlier. It's certainly a stronger title than the '04 stats give it credit for, thanks to the FF7 beatdown, and the Saga series should have kept the name fresh enough for it to not slide TOO far. Granted, I think any PSX RPG will have slipped since 3 years ago, but still, X deserves a more competitive first round matchup IMO.

7 - The Legend of Zelda > 10 - Super Mario Kart Arg! I've always maintained that 64 is the king of the Karts when it comes to popularity, and I stand by that claim, but 10 still feels a touch low for SMK. Well, the 10 is fine, but I hate to see it looking Link in the eye across the bracket. In my mind Zelda 1 is the most beatable of the series (well, not weaker than AoL, but I put 1 behind both WW and MM) just because of its age, so it beatable by a Nintendo title from a lower-tier series, but only if that game has a strong advantage in recency. Make this MK64 and I think it's new enough to have the young fans and pull the upset. SMK... sorry, one generation isn't enough of an advantage to topple the Zelda monster.

2 - Final Fantasy Tactics > 15 - Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! Whoa, what the devil? I agree that you've got to keep the heavy hitters out of OoT/FF7's path, but FFT as a 2 just blows my mind. I appreciate the matchup problem this introduces next round, but still, a heck of a stretch. Anyways, good to see your streak of interesting fodder continues right into the last match of the round.

1 - Chrono Trigger > 9 - Kirby Super Star Not a winnable match, but KSS should be able to do well for itself thanks to avoiding the Nintendo SFF that would surely have killed it in any N top-tier setup.

5 - Super Mario Bros. > 4 - Castlevania: SOTN I know it held up well on GE, did great in the Top 100, and has a very popular Xbox Live re-release going now, but... it's Mario! As I've mentioned many a time now, I think original games act as more of a Series vote. And since Super Mario Bros. wins with 76.75% of the vote!, I think there's enough margin for error there to creep by in this one.

3 - Mario Kart 64 > 6 - StarFox 64 People are talking like this is a slam dunk for MK, but honestly I think it's far from in the bag. Double Dash and DS both being so successful may have taken the wind out of 64's sails somewhat, whereas every StarFox since 64 has flopped so hard that they just keep making SF64 look more and more amazing. In the end I think the fun times in multiplayer will be enough to get Kart by in a narrow victory here, but yeah, don't see an SFFing coming into play by any means.

2 - Zelda: Link to the Past > 7 - Doom Doom is enough of a classic to have stayed right on the money the past three years, which should make this result useful to compare against the pounding FF6 gave it back then. I'm thinking a considerably larger pounding is in order this time around.

1 - Super Mario Bros. 3 > 9 - Duck Hunt Painful, yes, but it will still be cool to compare this against the bloody beatdown Zelda 1 applied to DK back in the day. I'm predicting that DH holds up much better against this stronger competition, despite the notable disadvantage of sharing a cartridge with the series its up against. If that isn't a reason for SFF, I don't know what is! Which is going to be hugely embarrassing for DK by comparison, but hey, that's nothing new for the guy.

4 - Mega Man X > 12 - Donkey Kong Country Very cool matchup here no matter if its DKC or HL that ends up advancing. HL, and I might have to go with the upset... but MM should be able to pull just enough SNES fanbase factor to sneak away with the victory here. I have tons of respect for DKC, but thinking this over gives me flashbacks to that brutal beating Mega applied to Yoshi a couple years back, and I see no reason why he wouldn't do pretty much the same against DK the character. The other thing to keep in mind is how the Series proved that MM's going to act like MM regardless of if there's an "X" behind it, which bolsters my faith a little.

6 - Final Fantasy 8 > 3 - SMW Ugh, UGH. I realize there's been a major site shift since then, but I still can't get over how easily (60%) CT dispatched Mario World back in '04. I'm also hugely impressed by CJay's announcement that FF8 would not only have gotten into the Contest, but earned a great seed as well, if not for his decision to only allow one game from a series per era. If you absolutely had to know who I'd take in a 2007 matchup I think I'd say SMW, but with the seeding working out the way it does I'd take my chances and back the seeding upset in this 50/50 affair, just to create a little distance between myself and the casuals. Should be an epic.

2 - Final Fantasy 6 > 7 - Sonic 2 Run this pre-GBA remake and... alright, just kidding, I'd never have given Sonic 2 a chance here. Should end up looking better than it did after that same-era rivalry pasting Mario applied last time around though.

1 - Final Fantasy 7 > 8 - Mega Man 3 Let's see, Series result between these two was... 74% to FF. Add in a little Nintendo growth this past year and maybe MM can keep this one around 70 but yeah, not much to see here otherwise. I maintain that this game has way too much upside to be fed to one of the pre-2000 Monsters already in round 2... I mean Metroid 1/Duck Hunt/Kirby/Turtles, those are all great games to put in debatable R1s and then not be bothered by their inevitable failure at the next step, but MM3 is at least two tiers above that lot.

4 - Super Metroid > 5 - Street Fighter 2 I agree this needs to change just because Mario RPG would only increase its win percent if it made it through, but assuming Metroid survives this should still be interesting enough. Between Ryu and the Series results I think we've got a pretty clear idea of where SF stands on this site strength-wise, so this should be a great barometer for just how far back the games themselves are from Samus the character. I sure wouldn't pick an upset here, but it's worth keeping in mind that, throwing SFF out the window, SF2 beats Super Met with 55% back in '04...

6 - Goldeneye 007 > 3 - Super Mario 64 I know, I know, I've been preaching "it's MARIO!" all along, but I think GE is the rare exception to that train of thought. Points of interest: The other side could argue that 64's been introduced to a new audience on both the DS (where it sold huge) and the VC, whereas GE will never make it back thanks to complications with Rare ownership. And that's a fair point, but... sorry, another case where the seeding difference combined with the casual faith in Mario makes this too good an upset to pass up.
 * GE outperformed M64 against Ocarina directly, and by a full 3%.
 * Nom-wise, GE earned the 3 seed while Mario only pulled a 7, despite not having to compete against any other Mario release in that era (PD had to split votes with Perfect Dark)
 * M64 finished a somewhat disappointing 13th in The List, to GE's very impressive 7th. That isn't really fair though, since Mario 1/3/World/World 2/RPG were all sucking away its votes.

2 - Metal Gear Solid> 10 - Zelda: Link's Awakening Yeah yeah, we all saw MGS get pounded in the BSE, but surely its #1 tier has enough to top Zelda's #7. Right? RIGHT? Someone might try to make a case for "but Samus > Snake so easily proves that Brawl has left MGS pulling the Nintendo vote, so it'll always collapse against Big Nintendo!" but I only see that coming into play against a newer title that the Melee crowd would have been more exposed to. Say a Wind Waker or TP, for instance.

1 - Zelda: Ocarina Of Time > 8 - Metroid Ouch! If there's one thing we should have learned by now its that you have to protect Metroid from Zelda and Mario if you don't want to sit through some of the ugliest beatings this side of Link/Ganon. Shoot Samus over to FF7 where it can at least go out with an honorable death, then continue the swap by getting MM3 to a place where it can stretch its legs. Uh... don't bring it in here though, that would be almost as big a disaster.

4 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles > 5 - Pokemon Red Hmmm. Mewtwo will give us a better idea, but at the moment I've got a ton of respect for Pokemon, and R/Y/B should certainly be the strongest of the bunch. Even so, Sonic at his best will likely prove too difficult a challenge for the handheld. Very cool upset chance, but Sonic holding up so well against SSB, which in turn amazed me against Mario, which in turn nearly shocked the world in the FF7 tussle is enough to sell me on 2D Sonic.

6 - Super Smash Bros > 3 - StarCraft So, so cool. I agree that SSB has decent strength on its own, but will reach near Super-Seven level on the basis of being a huge Melee leach. (I further agree that about 25% of its voters won't even realize that this isn't Melee.) SC probably hasn't lost any strength in the past 3 years, as it continues to get massive play both by regulars on b.net and professionally... so why take the upset? First because there's been such a dramatic shift to Nintendo and the SSB series has been one of the driving forces (look what a Brawl trailer alone did for Snake. a trailer!), second because CJay has made it harder to cheat, and third because yet again we're looking at a very possible, very sexy upset pick, and its too good to pass up. HOWEVER, give me a bracket that places this match at a midnight Friday night start time, ending late Saturday night, and b.net's ability to sit home on a weeknight, bored in a chat room waiting for the next game to start will be enough for me to lean the other way.

7 - The Legend of Zelda > 2 - Final Fantasy Tactics I agree with the others saying this is a cool match, but really the seeds ought to be reversed. I know Zelda 1 is old and all, but rewarding a loss to a (later FF7-smashed) MGS with a 2 is just wacky. Anyways, I take this "upset" for SURE is the seeds remain like they do, because even with the Zelda name in place I think casuals are going to place more of their faith in the seeds. Swap the seeds, and... eh, still have to believe LoZ pull this out. Should be a very good battle however; I could see this as one of those where FFT pulls out to one of those Chrono Trigger-style early leads before Z comes back with a vengeance once the sun rises.

1 - Chrono Trigger > 5 - Super Mario Bros. The cool thing about this one will be how amazed people who haven't been paying too much attention since '04 are going to be by how close Mario 1 comes to matching Mario 3's performance 3 years back. The rest of us will have remembered how the Nintendo shift turned "Crono > Mario in a laugher!" in '04 into "Mario > Crono in a laugher!" only 300 days later. The sad thing about this result is that Mario doing so well will take all the air out of what ought to have been a true epic in the CT/LttP rematch. Still, I'm very glad you went ahead and set it up, because it'll be good to see no matter what happens.

2 - Zelda: Link to the Past > 3 Mario Kart 64 Bah, yeah, an SFFing in store here. I'm fine with that though; MK64 will have proven itself and had a very solid run by that point, so no shame in crumbling to 4th strongest game on the site. I could easily see SF64 outperforming Kart in this matchup, just because it distances itself from that whole "party game" scene that I'd imagine Zelda eats alive... like I said before, everyone likes Kart, but its surely doomed the minute it meets something plenty of people love.

1 - Super Mario Bros. 3 > 4 - Mega Man X We've been waiting a long time to see Mario vs Mega Man. We know he can crush Yoshi, but we know he folds like a deck of cards against Link... where in that range does Mario fall? The Series certainly gave up no ground against Kart, and in fact won the SFF portion of the battle if anything. No chance for an upset here of course, but still, I think I'd take MMX for a better showing than most would credit it for.

2 - Final Fantasy 6 > 6 - Final Fantasy 8 Booooo... would have been such a difficult decision a year ago. How much of Squall's post-KH boost is from newer players going back and actually picking up FF8, rather than just recognizing the character? How much does Kefka and the rest of the cast constantly bombing out in spectacular fashion reflect on the game itself? Does the downfall of all things CT in the past couple years spell a similar fate for FF3? But yeah, in a post-GBA world, the older game should have just enough of an edge to squeeze by. Seeds as they are though, this is one of the coolest upset picks of the tourney.

1 - Final Fantasy 7 > 4 - Super Metroid All the more reason to feed Met 1 to FF7 in the round prior! I'll repeat what I said last time about protecting Metroid and allowing it an honorable death, and here you go ahead and do a wonderful job of it. Some people might say that Samus being a monster and Super Met being SFFed 3 years back makes it a huge wildcard that doesn't deserve an unwinnable position, but I look around and say heck, wildcard or not there's no way SM beats any of the winners this round. So kudos to you, sir. Kudos.

6 - Goldeneye 007 > 2 - Metal Gear Solid We've been chomping at the bit for this one for well over three years now, and for good reason! So cool that a kind of rivalry has developed between these two over the years, despite GE not being able to participate in any Character Battle, and it's high time this debate was settled. I see Goldeneye falling behind early and looking over and out before putting together one of the biggest day vote comebacks we've ever witness, except this time fueled by massive casual nostalgia as opposed to Halo's recency and outside linking. That ought to be just enough for GE to pull out the sweet sweet upset, and to put this in the history books as one of the funnest ever in the process.

1 - Zelda: Ocarina Of Time > 4 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles Uhh, well, we'll need a breather from the day before, right? The generation of separation may help this 2D Sonic to not be smashed apart as easily as we saw against Mario World, but still, this will not be pretty. But good for Sonic for earning the spot here no matter how it turns out.

6 - Super Smash Bros > 7 - The Legend of Zelda The great thing about the crazy FFT seeding is that it puts even more emphasis on that awesome SC/SSB tilt, since whichever comes out on top is sure to take this one as well. Now, Zelda's going to act like a Series, and SSB can leach all it wants but it still won't be Melee, so this might end up decently close. If Smash had caved in against Mario its very possible I'd have followed suit and caved in to the Zelda brand name in this one, but it didn't and so I get to pick with my head.

2 - Zelda: Link to the Past > 1 - Chrono Trigger As I just said, it's a rematch that needed to happen... I only wish there was something, anything positive to say about CT post-2004. (The List doesn't count; 4th place while being SFFed by OoT all month long is dang impressive.) Give it that much, much needed Virtual Console re-release in the months leading up to this battle and I think we might be treated to the clash of the Titans we deserve. Otherwise Zelda's just got too much going in its favor to not take the seeding upset here, especially after seeing what happened in Crono/Sonic as soon as the sun rose.

1 - Super Mario Bros. 3 > 2 - Final Fantasy 6 This goes back to the problem I mentioned in Stats a couple months back. FF6 on the GBA is great, but where can additional Nintendo backing really bring this game? Can it vault any of the Nintendo heavyweights in the Super Seven? No way. Will it stop it from being Square-SFFed to death by FF7 or CT? Certainly not. But tranny solved that problem about as well as possible by letting the game prove its merit against FF8, so really, nothing to complain about in this loss to Mario's Finest.

1 - Final Fantasy 7 > 6 - Goldeneye 007 Love GE, but don't mind it being in an unwinnable position this late in the game. Again, you allowed it a chance at the good run, and by this point Bond will have taken full advantage of it. Plus having the system's top seller all-time facing off against the standout title of Sony's first era should ignite that healthy N64/PSX rivalry and lead to a good showing on both accounts once the dust settles in this one.

1 - Zelda: Ocarina Of Time > 6 - Super Smash Bros Well... I'm curious to see if the fighter does a better job of not withering under Link's glare than Mario 64 managed three years back. I've got a hunch that it will... that being said, holding up decently against Mario and not falling on your face against the very peak of Linkness is a different animal altogether.

2 - Zelda: Link to the Past > 1 - Super Mario Bros. 3 Shame that moving the Big Two to the same side of the bracket doesn't create a really cool Final Four battle on the other side, like it did in post-2000. Hm... yeah, even though I bet Mario 3 could do a good job of avoiding NSFF, I'm having a very tough time coming up with a way it could get over the hump and seriously challenge for the upset here. And given that, don't you think we might as well flip the Divisions back around? As in, pull FF7's up there in place of Mario's. True, this would force us to suffer through Mario 3 getting smacked a good bit by Ocarina, but FF7 v LttP should be really cool. Not that I buy into "ZeldaFAQs ZeldaFAQs!" to the extent that it could actually pull off the upset, but as long as the Zelda faithful rally behind it enough to keep things interesting, we'd be setting the table wonderfully for that OoT Championship. Remember how cool it was to see Mario nearly going toe to toe with FF for much of the day, because it left our mouths watering for the potential Zelda upset the following day? Same idea here, but it'd be even better, because I very much doubt that either OoT or FF7 does 51% or better on each other if you hold that rematch today.

1 - Zelda: Ocarina Of Time > 1 - Final Fantasy 7 The greatest match of all time? It could very well be! Which would make it a shame to keep out of the Championship, as mentioned above. I think the BSE Final predicts the voting trends here fairly well; this time around it would just be a matter of coming at the end of a much more exciting tournament throughout, and having the percentages closer than throughout the day, probably with more than a few lead changes. In the end I just have more faith in the Nintendo faithful when it comes to getting out there and drawing in the votes, so I can't see their flagship title going down in a nailbiter, especially in such a high profile circumstance.

Championship

1 - Zelda: Ocarina Of Time > 2 - Zelda: Link to the Past Oh my, the other thing I forgot to mention is that FF7/LttP would be a heck of an anticlimatic ending, sure, but there's a 50/50 chance that the Final would be a true disaster, as seen here. I realize there are many vocal LttP supporters, and maybe it fights off the SFF better than I'd expect, but still... I think we deserve better.

So there you have it! Very good work again tranny... a well-constructed bracket, but a couple snubs and more than a couple questionable alignment/setup decisions hold it back from reaching the bar you set so high last time. To be fair though, even a perfect bracket wouldn't have seemed fresh and original compared to that wildcard filled post-2000. That's why I'm giving you a break and still awarding this bracket one of my highest marks so far: a B+.

Hold Me Closer
From: Haste_2 | Posted: 3/22/2007 10:57:37 PM | Message Detail I say we should have a 128-game bracket... and have two matches per day for Round 1, and maybe Round 2, as well. Whenever you entered the site or refreshed it would randomly pick one of the matches. The casual visitors would randomly vote in one of the matches and move on, while the more diligent contest participants would refresh until they voted in both matches.

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From: Ngamer64 | Posted: 3/22/2007 11:56:06 PM | Message Detail That's an okay enough idea, Haste, but I'd hate to see good first/second round matches earning only 60k votes. I think what we should do instead is to have two Polls, one right on top of the other. HOWEVER, every time you visit the page one would randomly be picked as the top poll, and might switch on a refresh. That way both polls ought to be noticed, and in equal numbers. (I can already hear complaints of "StarCraft only didn't finish that comeback because b.neters coming to the site only noticed the Devil May Cry/Perfect Dark match on top!")

Also, the vote results page ought to read "Vote accepted. Now vote in StarCraft vs Kingdom Hearts 2."

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From: HaRRicH | Posted: 3/23/2007 12:12:29 AM | Message Detail The one thing that I would see happen with Haste's idea is that the contest-faithfuls will have a bit more of a say-so in the match-ups. I wouldn't mind so much, but as if this year isn't going to be crazy enough...

...I do like Ngamer's idea though. ---

From: Haste_2 | Posted: 3/23/2007 12:16:30 AM | Message Detail Yes, Ngamer's idea is better... let's petition to Ceej for that next time the game contest nominations roll around.