NOW YOU'RE POLLING WITH POWER. SUPER POWER. Console Poll, vol. 2 - 4th Generation RESULTS

nah it's just that later today I'll need to run some errands so it'll get a little clustery

^also this game is for "city kids of all ages" lol

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45 - Revenge of Shinobi - 66 points / 2 Votes

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42 - Super Street Fighter II + Turbo - 67 points / 3 Votes

i didn't play Harvest Moon til emu days. which, given its VERY late release on the SNES (1997 in north america!), isn't actually such a long gap - maybe two or three years! anyway, i gave it a vote as i remember sinking a surprising amount of time into what was really a fairly pointless time-waster. the aesthetic is very soothing, and as many, many facebook-era games have discovered, there is a really addictive satisfaction in watching your little farm gradually grow more, and more, and more productive.

in that sense it's really descended from, idk, simcity or something like that. few pre-digital experiences scratch exactly this same itch. maybe like collecting baseball cards or something. when i began, this binder was all empty plastic sleeves, but now, look! and tomorrow, more! more! model train sets and things like that also involve boundless imagination of what will soon be filling out the landscape, though there you're engaged much more creatively in what will happen. anyway it's an important genre, for better or worse, and at least this one makes it all kind of cute and sweet. glancing at wikipedia it seems there was a lot of the game i never really saw - "after an earthquake or lightning strike, for example, the player can meet the "Harvest Sprites" who live in tunnels under the farm." wow!

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42 - Flashback - 67 points / 3 Votes

for harvest moon fans, stardew valley just got a new update this week.

played super street fighter ii a bit in the arcades - basically just enough to check out the new characters, really. it was a full two years past the first game's release and while it was a classic the whole thing was wearing a little thin for me. never played any of the later ones more than once, though i was glad they kept the cartoon 2D style alive. had there been one of that style on the N64 i would have been super interested (and frankly i bet it would have helped that system a lot but that's hindsight).

tried to play flashback during the voting for this poll and could barely get past the first screen. maybe i was missing something but the control scheme seemed REALLY sluggish and non-intuitive.

ah the memories brought back by that shinobi box art make me wish i'd voted for it. i don't think i ever got very far though - was it very difficult or was i just very bad?

and v nice re flashback though again i don't think i ever got past that 'death tower' stage. i am probably just very bad

like c'mon guys prince of persia already solved the basic mechanics of this genre years ago, just do that. it felt like all the bad no-name platformers for the NES where you're like, man, couldn't they just reverse-engineer the control/movement from super mario bros.?

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42 - Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium - 67 points / 3 Votes

iirc yes flashback's controls are quite rough, a lot of emphasis on being pixel perfect for things that seem like they should be simple

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41 - Breath of Fire - 69 points / 3 Votes

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40 - Streets of Rage II - 70 points / 3 Votes

NOW YOU'RE PLAYING WITH FIRE. SUPER FIRE.

damn that blurb is violent

love the back of the BoF box. one dinky screenshot, set inside what was already by then a fairly old-fashioned-looking TV, then a semi-liefeldian drawing of like a lion man. amazing it sold any copies at all.

as for SoR2 yeah wow, what a blurb. also i don't remember fighting baseball bat guys with DON'T WALK signs for heads, but that would have certainly made for a fun game.

http://i.imgur.com/1r0g39r.jpg
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38 - SimCity - 70 points / 4 Votes

Amazing game. I think people are still trying to find a foolproof no-cheat way to get to 999,999 population.

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38 - Gunstar Heroes - 70 points / 4 Votes

i guess i never read the sim city box because i remember being amazed and horrified when bowser turned up to destroy my precious city

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37 - NBA Jam Tournament Edition - 77 points / 5 Votes

ah the memories brought back by that shinobi box art make me wish i'd voted for it. i don't think i ever got very far though - was it very difficult or was i just very bad?

it's tough, definitely requires some memorization. there is an infinite shirukens cheat that is a big help. you go to the menu, dial down the number to 00, and wait 10-15 seconds until it changes to an infinity symbol. this is extra helpful bc of the spinning attack you can do if you attack after double jumping, you throw a half dozen in a semi-circle, which is a really good strategy particularly for bosses.

Revenge of Shinobi really is something else. the music of course is insanely cool. the levels are really crazy. i have a soft spot for the sort of impossible techno-fortresses these games specialize in from time to time. there is a great and very challenging level where you are running alongside a highway and have to jump on and off of it (only red cars hit you). while you are doing this there are nuns that walk into frame, throw off their habits to reveal they are ninjas, and attack you. so so cool.

last but not least are the many IP-infringing bosses in this game, from Spider-Man to The Terminator. this game is schoolyard rumors come to life. at one point you face off against Godzilla.

Phantasy Star IV was really well done imo and i prefer it to any other 16-bit RPG outside of FFVI. really love the more anime style of it all, robot with cat ears and all.

Gunstar Heroes is just non-stop WTF but it can get extremely challenging. i remember getting stuck on the dice rolling level and just feeling like i was in hell. great two-player game! reason enough to check out anything else Treasure ever made.

Gonna post a couple more and then go out to take care of errands, the second half will be like an hour or two later

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36 - Super Mario All-Stars - 78 points / 3 Votes

^obviously unimaginably classic but it didn't feel right to be voting for a compilation of previous generation games (nicely touched up tho they may be)

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35 - Rock n Roll Racing - 79 points / 4 Votes

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34 - Crusader of Centy (aka Soleil) - 80 points / 2 First-place votes / 2 Votes

^Had to double-check this one... two first-place votes, zero other votes. some people love this! and some people like me had never heard of it!

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33 - Langrisser II - 81 points / 3 Votes

hmm

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/langrisser/langrisser2-md.jpg

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32 - Earthworm Jim - 86 points / 6 Votes

Ok break time! To be continued in a couple of hours.

i'm sorry i didn't vote in this! my few attempts at a ballot were pretty pathetic and i didn't wanna do what i did in the NES poll and vote for a bunch of PC games whose ports i hadn't played. kept telling myself i'd brush up via emus but never did :(

just wanna say contra 3 is a great co-op experience and has a surprising variety of levels, some of which (crawling around in zelda-style single-plane movement clinging to the superstructure of a skyscraper?) i almost feel like i must have made up

def wanna hear from the crusader of centy crew

thought at first that was orig street fighter 2 at 42 and was like wtf even i know that's wrong

harvest moon
- only played this in the emulator days. i think i remember considering renting it but the idea of a farming simulator just seemed awful. turns out the game is very, very addicting, and it made my top 10. it still holds up, too! the ps4 release of stardew valley is the most anticipated release of the season for me, i can't wait.

super street fighter II
- which new character was your favorite: dee jay, cammy, t. hawk, or fei-long?? i'm guessing none of them were, which is why this was a somewhat disappointing release for me at the time despite it refining what were already excellent mechanics. i guess a lot of people consider SSFIITurbo to be the definitive street fighter of the era (like people who are really into competitive fighting games and can pull off enormous combos at will, i mean) because of that, but i was more of a Top 20 Player on my Block kind of kid, so i was happy just sticking with regular ol' turbo.

flashback
- the controls were awful, but at the time i remember thinking they were really realistic, both in terms of animation and the feeling of real weight and momentum. mario had a great feeling of weight/momentum as well, but it was much more videogamey and floaty (and AWESOME). flashback felt like you were put in the shoes of a dude with below-average athleticism, thrown into a bizarre situation. despite renting it a few times, i never got very far at all. i suck at adventure puzzle games in general though so ymmv.

breath of fire
- i really need to play this. or was it a sequel that everyone loves? i'll wait til the final rundown to make a decision, but i've never played any of them.

simcity2000
- so classic. and surprisingly playable for a console port! bonus contemporaneous PC gamer review scan: http://dl.pcgamer.com/pcgarchive/SimCity2000.jpg

NBA Jam T.E.
- i feel like i spent many, many hours with this game, but it didn't really leave any lasting effect on me other than knowing all the announcer slogans by heart. it was fun! was it a dream?

super mario allstars
- like merseydeux said, this is obviously an amazing collection, and they did add important useful things (like being able to save), but i didn't feel right voting for NES-era games. i really need to go back and beat all the lost levels, i'm not sure i ever did!

rock n roll racing
- i haven't played this! it's definitely on my list. paranoid! highway star! born to be wild (my first ever memory as a human being)! bad to the bone...god i fucking hate that song. i'll give it a shot!

earthworm jim
- this game (and the sequel) was immensely enjoyable when it was released, but like battletoads, i just suck way too bad it these days. i miss my young adult motor skills, they were great there for a while.

actionbutton review really making secret of evermore sound like some sort of grail

what the hell is Crusader of Centy

Rock'n'Roll Racing is THE shit. Let the carnage begin!

sim city would be a way better game if you could play as mayor mike haggar

Man I fucking hated Super Mario All-Stars. It was like if they took all the Beatles albums and remixed them with cheesy 80s production.

I'm bback for a few mins! Five more now, ten more later tonight!

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31 - Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow - 87 points / 4 Votes

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30 - Sonic & Knuckles (and Sonic 3 + Knuckles) - 87 points / 1 First-place vote / 4 Votes

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29 - Castlevania: Rondo of Blood - 94 points / 1 First-place vote / 3 Votes

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28 - Mega Man X - 99 points / 8 Votes

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27 - Pilotwings - 100 points / 4 Votes

super street fighter II
- which new character was your favorite: dee jay, cammy, t. hawk, or fei-long?? i'm guessing none of them were, which is why this was a somewhat disappointing release for me at the time despite it refining what were already excellent mechanics. i guess a lot of people consider SSFIITurbo to be the definitive street fighter of the era

yes the mew characters were disappointing. i had the PC release of Super Street Fighter II Turbo (god i love that long ridiculous name) and it was easily one of the best arcade to PC ports ever.

Rondo of Blood - what can you say? from those german-language anime cutscenes in the intro, you know you are in for a treat. featuring glorious 16-bit CD synth arrangements of the always baroque and flashy Castlevania music style. feels more than ever like prog rock. gameplay is incredible, love the hold-the-whip-button-and-you-are-moonwalking mechanic. level design is very cool and very classic. i always thought Super Castlevania IV was too muddy and dis-proportioned compared to the older games but this feels like a proper sequel to Castlevania 3 (or Simon's Quest, given that it re-creates a town from it on fire in the first level). Maria is a cool character too. what other games can you throw an attack cat at a skeleton? the double jump is a lot of fun too. i don't mind the added anime flavor, it kind of goes with the music and the art design, bringing the Castlevania series from straight gothic horror closer to dark fantasy.

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26 - Legend of the Mystical Ninja - 101 points / 4 Votes

recently i saw my uncle, who i hadn't seen in a really long time, and out of nowhere at dinner he said "what was that old game you used to play all the time? all you would do is skydive and refuse to deploy the parachute, and laugh and laugh as you crashed into the ground." eventually, after beating pilotwings about 100 times (it was a launch title, i think, and one of two SNES games i had for several months), that's what it became to me. just a ridiculous stuntgame, trying to make perfect human-shaped silhouette holes in the landscape in particular spots after a 5,000 foot descent.

very underrated part of pilotwings was the rocket launcher mission (?!?!?!) you had to do after proving your mettle in recreational sports (?!?!?!). "now that you have mastered the hang glider, you are ready to murder dozens of people with this rocket launcher. good luck!"