(8)Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow/Green vs (3)Super Mario 64 2015

Ulti's Analysis
"Death By Rally"

Allen was nice enough to give us 4 simultaneous bonus polls after this contest, and while none of the matches were particularly good, bonus polls is always better than no bonus polls.

The third bonus poll was pretty neat, even though it was still a blowout, and was the only one that finished closer than 60-40. Allen took two games that Undertale rallied past and put them in a poll together, and him being cool enough to pick Pokemon vs Mario 64 meant that we got a pretty decent indicator of the whole Mario 3 vs Mario World vs Mario 64 hierarchy.

If you take this bonus poll literally, the order is probably Mario World > Mario 3 > Mario 64. Mario 3 did better against Pokemon pre-rally than Mario 64 did in this match, and we have direct evidence of Mario World being stronger than Mario 3: http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/3506-contest-semifinal-smw-smb-3-ff7-zelda-lttp

FF7 was by itself in that match, so it was no factor for the comparison. In that match, Mario World finished higher than 3 even with Link to the Past in the poll. And LTTP has far more overlap with World than 3, so in reality it would have hurt World more. World won anyway.

Until I see further evidence, I'm going with World > 3 > 64. This match also proved me hilariously wrong about believing in 3 > Pokemon one final time. Not only would Pokemon have annihilated the Mario games, but there isn't a doubt in my mind it would have won this contest had Undertale and Melee not rallied their balls off. Assuming a non-Undertale contest path, you get Pokemon beating Tetris, Mario 3, Sonic 2, Mario World, then Mario 64.

Chrono Trigger probably wins against Melee with no rally, I won't argue that. But Chrono Trigger vs Pokemon is a debate worth having and a match I'd love to see, but I legitimately don't see how Chrono Trigger wins that. Undertale and Melee not getting bandwagoned doesn't mean nothing would, and in a semifinal of CT vs Pokemon and Ocarina vs SMRPG, Pokemon is the rally bait. I really think it would have beaten Chrono Trigger and won the contest, but we have no way of knowing. It did give Undertale its toughest test outside Melee though, which I think counts for a lot. I see no reason Pokemon couldn't repeat that rally in a contest semifinal against a game that always chokes.

When and if we get another games contest, CT vs RBYG is absolutely a match that needs to happen.