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

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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

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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!"

lol yes, good to have a game that let our young selves act out gruesome suicidal ideations.

iirc the rocket launcher mission was in an assault helicopter? v fashionable in that gulf war pt. 1 era

top 25 begin now!

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25 - Another World/Out Of This World - 101 points / 1 First-place vote / 4 Votes

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24 - NBA Jam - 113 points / 5 Votes

Looks like a classic victim of vote-splitting. Only one person put both games on their ballot, and I think it would've made top 10-15 combined.

Btw we are about to enter some serious stone-cold classic territory.

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23 - Donkey Kong Country 2 - 115 points / 5 Votes

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22 - Super Mario Land - 118 points / 5 Votes

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21 - Super Castlevania IV - 121 points / 5 Votes

wtf just #21 this is an outrage

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20 - Sonic The Hedgehog - 128 points / 7 Votes

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19 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - 129 points / 7 Votes

i used to love super mario rpg

only game i actually replayed a few times

normally the box art is so much more inspiring than the game but that dynamic seems flipped on gunstar heroes.

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18 - ToeJam & Earl - 136 points / 6 Votes

Speaking on uninspiring box art...

(that was in ref to TJ & Earl)

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17 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 161 points / 9 Votes