(1)Metal Gear Solid vs (3)Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 2015

Ulti's Analysis
Metal Gear Solid series fans have wanted this match for years, and finally getting it was awesome. We have argued about 1 vs 3 basically since the day 3 came out, and while I know one poll on GameFAQs won't stop us series fans from arguing, just seeing the match was amazing.

My own opinion, for those who care, is that MGS3 is the better game among the two, and while I think Solid Snake is a better character than Big Boss in the series (especially after playing 5, holy crap), MGS3 Big Boss is a much better character to me than MGS1 Solid Snake. MGS1 Snake is immature and unintelligent to me, especially in Twin Snakes wheer they tried turning him into fucking Neo from The Matrix. MGS3 also wins in gameplay, graphics, replayability, and how the story is told. It doesn't have the better story, but it does have better storytelling. There is a difference. The entire game up until The End being dry also bogs it down, plus the constant menu-hopping has been discussed ad infinitum.

MGS1 wins on story, music, pacing, nostalgia, and characters. By today's standards, MGS3 can be picked up and played right now, while the original Metal Gear Solid has aged like a fucking corpse. I acknowledge the game was great for its time, and while I hate the "aged badly" argument that people always bring up with Goldeneye, Metal Gear Solid is a game where I'll break character and use that argument. That game is unplayable now. Have you people who think 1 > 3 actually played MGS1 recently? I replayed the entire series to get hyped for 5. I promise you that while 3 has some problems, it's better than 1. It's close, but it is better.

So for me, the best possible poll result would be MGS3 winning close. And in a contest loaded with matches that gave me exactly what I wanted, MGS3 went out there and won close. This match was close enough to where MGS1 could be as respectable as possible in defeat, but far away enough to where the match was ever in doubt. Without the presence of a rally, MGS3 was never going to lose this match. This was about as constant a 52-48 as you'll get, and really this was a match with no true losers. It was a day to celebrate and discuss the legacy of Metal Gear Solid, and given how the entire series looked like garbage this contest after MGS5 dropped the ball, it was nice as a fan to just have a poll all to myself.

Series ranking: 2 > 4 > 5 > 3 > 1. 5 has a lot of problems, but having far and away the best gameplay in the series puts it over for me.

This match put a bow on the divisional finals. We only had three 1 vs 2 matchups out of a possible 8, which shows how unpredictable things were despite the good seeding, and the final 8 had a good variety to it. Melee, FF7, Undertale, Mario 64, Ocarina, LTTP, Mario RPG, and Metal Gear Solid 3 is a well-rounded bunch. 4 companies and 6 series were represented here, and every game that got this far very much deserved it. There was no Wind Waker. No Shadow of the Colossus. No Warcraft 3 or World of Warcraft. No Capcom, Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, or Microsoft. None of those dumb flash games like Clash of Clans or Candy Crush or Farmville that make billions of dollars (though I would support them rallying if they chose to). No Minecraft. No joke games, like Big Rigs or Cory in the House. There was really no bullshit at all, just 8 games that deserved to be here and can objectively be called the best game ever. It was great to see, getting here was a great ride, and the final week of the contest would be an absolute classic. Just everything one could hope for in a contest happened this season.