Results[]
Monday, April 6, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
| Division | Division 6 |
|---|---|
| Match # | 44 |
| Match Date | Monday, April 06, 2020 |
| Oracle Expectations |
Super Meat Boy - 69.26% 57 for - 0 against |
| GameFAQs Prediction |
Super Meat Boy - 81.45% |
| User Votes |
Super Meat Boy - 6131 Slay the Spire - 2679 |
| Anonymous Votes |
Super Meat Boy - 4898 Slay the Spire - 2366 |
Some indie games looked okay this contest. Most did not. But what happens when the Board 8 guru nomination gets boosted up to the 4 seed line and causes an indie versus indie match? Well as luck would have it, these early 2010s pioneers of the independent revolution are well-known enough to score nearly 70% (!!) in a GameFAQs contest match. Super Meat Boy is often listed along with games like Braid and Minecraft as making indie games mainstream, and here is a good article about it: https://www.indiegamewebsite.com/2018/10/19/the-complete-history-of-indie-games/
Super Meat Boy was in some Game of the Year polls all the way back in January 2011, and character battle 2013 not withstanding it had to wait nine years to make a contest debut. And what a debut it was. I get that it was up against some roguelike card game trash, but a 70-30 blowout is a 70-30 blowout all the same. There aren't many examples of a game that deserved a win like this more than Super Meat Boy.
It was so massive, and Sonic Mania's win so disappointing, that imaginations ran wild about round 2. The hilarity of Super Meat Boy beating a main line Sonic title was just too good to pass up hyping, and who knows? Maybe Super Meat Boy could catch some insane rally and do crazy damage this year. That would have shut up the anti-fun brigade real quick, because no one actively hates Meat Boy.
Unfortunately, Sonic was many, many bridges too far.
Ctes's Analysis[]
Super Meat Boy received a high seed this contest because of being Advokaiser’s choice as the guru nomination, which put it in a easy first match with a little shot of making round 3 due to likely running into another overseeded game in round 2. Considering how Allen clearly preferred to represent as many games as possible, Advo could’ve aimed to get something different into the bracket because Super Meat Boy would’ve made it regardless but getting to be in a winnable position is also nice. I’m glad the guru nomination wasn’t something like Super Mario Maker 2 if the series cap actually existed, so it’s a good choice.
Slay the Spire was expected to among the absolute weakest of games in the bracket. It’s not known very well and it’s not the type of game we tend to like at all. Despite doubling it, Super Meat Boy didn’t look all too great here. Super Meat Boy still had hopes of getting to round 3 because Sonic Mania looked quite disappointing in the adjacent match, but this wasn’t a particularly good performance.
At this point, we were pretty confident that indie fear should be limited to the later half of the decade with only a few obvious exceptions like Shovel Knight, which has all the mainstream exposure it could’ve hoped for. Super Meat Boy is among the earliest of them, so it was only natural it wouldn’t be all too god. It didn’t release in a time where many had opened their eyes to indies, so this match was in line with that theory. Not that it disappointed much, it just didn’t look on par with some of the other indies we had seen in action.
Safer777's Analysis[]
So we have the Guru pick here and it won a match! Believe me that is a rare feat. SMB is one of these get good games. Strange how many are in this contest. People are hardcore it seems! STS I didn't knew it all and I saw a review for it by accident and man it is amazing! Yah a card game but not the 1vs1 and stuff like that. No you go to dungeons, make your deck, random battles, random loot, stuff like that. It is a sort game but you are meant to play it many games and get items/characters/loot/cards, all the good stuff.
So for the match. Well SMB won. STS is really good but since it is still new it doesn't really have a dedicated fanbase like the SMB game. So once again congrats to the Guru pick! Still once again strange that all these indie games got in. I guess the Admin wanted some varitey or something.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
Super Meat Boy was the Guru nomination, which it rode to a 4-seed. Meat Boy had been in the contest before, once solo and once in *sigh* Rivalry Rumble. The 2013 solo outing is nothing to speak of--he came in third to Mr. Game & Watch and Lee Everett from The Walking Dead--but the ability to not get doubled by a Final Fantasy hero/main villain pair, even if it was only Zidane/Kuja, is actually kind of impressive. Though it could just be the silly character design at work. Giving it a fellow indie game to beat was a nice gesture by Allen, since so many Guru noms just fall flat immediately. But would it be beloved enough to get past an established icon like Sonic the Hedgehog?
...My bracket certainly hopes so! (seriously what was I thinking)