Results[]

Friday, April 17, 2020
Ulti's Analysis[]
Division | Division 6 |
---|---|
Match # | 86 |
Match Date | Friday, April 17, 2020 |
Oracle Expectations |
Sonic Mania - 52.18% 40 for - 15 against |
GameFAQs Prediction |
Sonic Mania - 48.80% |
User Votes |
Sonic Mania - 6003 Super Meat Boy - 3179 |
Anonymous Votes |
Sonic Mania - 5009 Super Meat Boy - 2863 |
Random bit of trivia -- this was the 8000th poll in GameFAQs history. Not really contest trivia, but hey.
This was one of the most surprising blowouts of the entire contest, and if anyone disagrees with that, just look at the oracle consensus -- Sonic Mania with 52%. Given how good Super Meat Boy looked in round one in beating the absolute tar out of Slay the Spire, how indies were overhyped in this contest, and that Sonic looked like dog shit against Ys 8: Sanctimonious Subtitle, it made sense to hype up Super Meat Boy and think this match would be close. It's also fun rooting for the guru nomination to do well, as we tend to do each contest.
When the poll started and it was clear Sonic Mania was going to beat the holy hell out of Meat Boy in this contest, a lot of people went searching for answers. It was even a big topic on The Show, with Nick giving my favorite explanation on the panel. I'm paraphrasing here, but he said Super Meat Boy is the type of game with enough respect to beat up anything without name recognition, but anything with name recognition will destroy it.
Okay, makes sense. I think that applies to most of the well-respected indie titles, but Nick is on point. I'm going to go one step further however and call this an SFF match. To understand why, you have to understand all the garbage the Sonic fanbase dealt with between Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast and Sonic Mania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog#Sales
Wikipedia doesn't even list it all, either. No mention of the terrible spinoffs, like Sonic and the Black Knight. I didn't like Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, but I can't hate on anyone who did. Even if you liked that game, you went 17 years between good games in the Sonic series. For me, it was 20 years. I can't really understate how trashy that series got, guys. You saw it all happen. Just.... Sonic as a werewolf. Sonic 2006. Sonic Heroes. Shadow's entire character. It went on and on and on.
On top of that, the Sonic fanbase isn't known as the worst fanbase in gaming, but it's very close. It's infested with perverts, incels, furries, weirdos, and just outright losers. A few of these people are even on Board 8, though I won't name any of them as they don't deserve recognition. They're few and far between, but they're here. Trust me. If you want a hint, pay attention to anyone who likes both the Sonic series and the Pokemon series. Odds are you've stumbled across one of these freak shows.
So imagine being me, or one of the millions of people like me that grew up in the 90s. Most people on this site grew up in the 90s, so this won't be hard to imagine for most of you. You're just a regular dude who loved sports, hanging out with friends, playing video games, and the other usual stuff. You see Sonic, one of your favorite characters as a kid, reduced to being a shell of himself. I mean come on, a werewolf. I mean come on, people. Finally you just bail, because it's clear this series is gone.
But you still like platformers, right? How does one scratch that itch when the Sonic series is dead and gaming is mostly 3D? With indie games and handhelds, of course. Games like Super Meat Boy, Braid, VVVVVV, a litany of Castlevanias on the DS, and so on. This love continues to the present day, too. Don't think Board 8 or this contest hyped up Celeste or Hollow Knight for no reason, or even games that didn't make it like Salt and Sanctuary or Dust: An Elysian Tail.
Then, from almost out of nowhere in 2018, manna from heaven descended upon the earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdSVcgmeOSY
"Hold up, is that Green Hill Zone? Holy crap is that the old school sprites? Is that the final boss from Sonic 2??? What in the world??"
Of course Sonic Mania SFFd Super Meat Boy into the ground. I'd be shocked if the two games had less than 80% overlap. This was such a huge proud papa moment for me personally, regardless of what happened next round.
By the way, the other main reason I consider this an SFF match is because there are several games that finished above Meat Boy in the stats that I don't think would beat it in a contest match. That's pretty much the SFF hallmark.
Ctes's Analysis[]
This match is one of the most hilarious of the entire contest. It was expected to be close and it then Sonic Mania makes a real attempt at the doubling. Such results happen in round 1, especially in a contest where most of the field is new, but in round 2 it’s a lot rarer. Sonic Mania looked pretty bad against Ys VIII in round 1. It only remained the favorite in this match because we expected Slay the Spire to be among the weakest games in the bracket and Super Meat Boy didn’t look very impressive killing it. Sonic Mania was a bigger favorite before the contest begun that after round 1 though.
The match ended up being a matter of who sucked less. No one had any faith in Ys VIII, so it seemed quite believable that Sonic Mania was just bad because everything Sonic being bad these days sounded believable. It isn’t exactly good, but not at all as bad as we thought for a moment. Then we had Super Meat Boy not destroying Slay the Spire as anything was supposed to. Games like VVVVVV and Binding of Isaac looks very bad after round 1, and those are indie games from around the same time as Super Meat Boy. This allowed Sonic Mania to remain the favorite despite the silly round 1 performance.
Then the match was over in a matter of seconds and two other matches today actually looked better for a very brief while. Everyone supporters Super Meat Boy looked so bad, but it really didn’t seem like a bad upset pick at the time. The oracle consensus is more than 14% away from the result. The closest pick is more than 2% away and the second closest more than 4%. What a shocker this was.
It really became apparent how much we’ve begun to appreciate smaller RPGs. Ys, Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler. Some of those have a big developer behind them, but the point still stands. On top of that we’ve seen Dragon Quest and Persona looking better than ever with Xenoblade looking to be very good as well. Perhaps a time has come where we’re looking at different RPGs, small ones too, because we’re a bunch of people growing up with Final Fantasy, which is trash today. It’s a shame Ys didn’t draw Super Meat Boy in round 1 for one of the most hilarious results of the contest, but we still got to have this insane overperformance due to how misled we were.
Safer777's Analysis[]
So this match was a suprise for everyone. I mean the Crew was split here too plus they all expected the winner to be around 53. But man SM dominated here. Almost a doubling! I was suprised too, I thought SMB would win since nobody cares for Sonic games anymore. Sure people know Sonic because of Smash but Sonic games? Almost all of them suck in the last decades. But from what people told me SM is actually a good Sonic game which I guess makes sense since well it is the only game that got in the bracket! So why we all thought that SM sucks in the contest? Because it couldn't even double an YS game which an obscure series even though there are like 10 of these games!
So for the match. Well SM dominated. Why? Because Slay the Spire which Super Meat Boy beat easily has to be in the bottom 5 here. So yeah that weak. And SMB even though it is a fairly known indie series seems to be really weak too. Yeah there is a sequel now. Okay it is not out yet, but it will come out soon. After 10 years! So seems that we are wrong and SM is somewhat decent and SMB is damn weak. Hey at least as a Guru pick it won a match! Also seems that YS series isn't completely fodder.
Tsunami's Analysis[]
So apparently Sonic's worth something again? This was a great showing, and a lot of people saw it coming; while the prediction percentage was under 50%, it's close enough to be a clear plurality. It seems like a lot of the disappointments of the past decade figured it out at the end. Ah, well, at least the Guru Nomination made it to Round 2.