Round 2 Bracket 9

[Nebuchanezzar]

Space Invaders (arcade)

V

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, The (Wii)

[General Jack D. Ripper]

Ooooooohhhh! Incredibly tough choice. Space Invaders is probably my favorite really old arcade game (with maybe Donkey Kong), but Twilight Princess was a great addition to the LOZ series. I flipped a coin, and voted LOZ.

[bovine_university]

This is a true battle of history, but I went with Space Invaders. Twilight Princess is a wonderful entry in just about the best gaming series out there, but Space Invaders was there in the very beginning. Sure it's not very sophisticated, challenging, or deep, but it was fun, and it started a whole lot for us all.

[Homerpalooza]

Space Invaders

["El Barto"]

Space Invaders

[Kiyosuki]

This is really tough because Twilight Princess is a great game. But you know, from the broad spectrum of things...specifically if a game is considered "one of the greatest of all time" as well as figuring influence and innovation I can't not vote for Space Invaders.

[H Thompson]

I don't quite see why it can be space invaders personally, yeah it was great and innovative for it's time, very influental, and can still be enjoyable if you go back to it, but is it really better than TP which has got so much more going for it.

I hate video game nostalgia, makes people irrational.

maybe it's just me that couldn't play Space Invaders for more than 25 minutes at a time.

[Channel Surfer]

I don't quite see why it can be space invaders personally, yeah it was great and innovative for it's time, very influental, and can still be enjoyable if you go back to it, but is it really better than TP which has got so much more going for it.

More or less agree. Space Invaders is well enough designed to be more than just a historic curiosity. But it is also fairly shallow, in that it's easy to learn and understand all it has to offer if you have the reflexes, and certainly repetitive - hence IMO not a whole lot of fun in large doses. That's not so say there aren't arcade games that have the depth to justify any timeless claim when compared to many contemporary games. Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man deserve it for instance given the sophistication of the mazes, the ghost AIs, the power pellets, and the general level of strategy required because of it all. Space Invaders just isn't one of those games, even if I do like it.

So yeah TP vote here, even if it is among the weaker entries in the series and outclassed by Okami in far too many ways.

[H Thompson]

So yeah TP vote here, even if it is among the weaker entries in the series and outclassed by Okami in far too many ways.

Oh really?

I might want to start a seperate topic on this matter later, If I can get a half-decent essay together that is?

[sacrelicious]

As a huge fan of video game nostalgia I want to tell you how easy it is for me to vote Twilight Princess. It's been awhile since I have truly been wowed by a game, and TP continues to wow me. It's in my top 3 of Zelda games (LoZ, Link to the Past, TP).

[Kiyosuki]

I don't quite see why it can be space invaders personally, yeah it was great and innovative for it's time, very influental, and can still be enjoyable if you go back to it, but is it really better than TP which has got so much more going for it.

I hate video game nostalgia, makes people irrational.

maybe it's just me that couldn't play Space Invaders for more than 25 minutes at a time.

Well its not irrational I thought about this. I try not to factor in nostalgia as much as possible. I do agree that sometimes nostalgia can cloud things and make it so a game gets too much credit just because its old, but not in this case.

Sometimes I go for personal bias, I'm only human. But usually I try to factor in the fact this is a "greatest game of all time" competition. Space Invaders wasn't just some random game that came out almost two decades ago that just happens to be remembered because its old, this game was a cultural phenomenon. Its easy to call it boring and repetitive now after almost two decades, but back when this was first released this game was mad innovative. This was actually the first time a video game ever gave someone "extra lives" instead of timing you, and its credited as one of the things that helped keep video gaming alive for a number of years in one of its most difficult moments before the explosion of home consoles like Atari, and then Nintendo cemented it.

I mean, an anonymous French muralist uses this game as his inspiration for random mosaics.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Space_invaders_avignon.jpg

Thats its influence. Not to mention the dozens of references to this game in popular culture, hell including Futurama and the Simpsons. This is a game with a legacy.

And beyond that, even if it is repetitive its still got a timeless quality to its gameplay. Its not a game meant to be played for insane amounts of time because thats just how games worked back then. But the idea is simple and easy, I can play it now and while I wouldn't be able to play it for more than a certain amount of time either...I've just been too spoiled, its still fun to play.

So its fine if someone votes for Twilight Princess, its a great game and I'm not going to slap someone's hand over it. But in this case for me personally, Space Invaders is definitely not a game to take lightly. The Zelda series has a lot under its wing but its definitely not just nostalgia that made me vote for this game. Its considering that video gaming as it is now is built on some foundations, and this game is one of those.

[Channel Surfer]

Sometimes I go for personal bias, I'm only human. But usually I try to factor in the fact this is a "greatest game of all time" competition. Space Invaders wasn't just some random game that came out almost two decades ago that just happens to be remembered because its old, this game was a cultural phenomenon. Its easy to call it boring and repetitive now after almost two decades, but back when this was first released this game was mad innovative. This was actually the first time a video game ever gave someone "extra lives" instead of timing you, and its credited as one of the things that helped keep video gaming alive for a number of years in one of its most difficult moments before the explosion of home consoles like Atari, and then Nintendo cemented it.

Just to be clear, I don't think this is in dispute. Hell it introduced the high score system and popularized fantasy/sci-fi settings in video games, its legacy is huge. I think this just goes back to that whole discussion about best vs. most important, and if honoring the classics too much (either for history, legacy, nostalgia, or something else) has a way of devaluing the real achievements and successes in the medium now, even if I know influence is just one of your many criteria. Basically, are we voting for the best/greatest games because of what we love about the medium now, or is it something else? My approach has been with the former.

[Kiyosuki]

Just to be clear, I don't think this is in dispute. Hell it introduced the high score system and popularized fantasy/sci-fi settings in video games, its legacy is huge. I think this just goes back to that whole discussion about best vs. most important, and if honoring the classics too much (either for history, legacy, nostalgia, or something else) has a way of devaluing the real achievements and successes in the medium now, even if I know influence is just one of your many criteria. Basically, are we voting for the best/greatest games because of what we love about the medium now, or is it something else? My approach has been with the former.

Well this is for me. Everyone else can do what they want. I was just backing up my reason. That its not just plain nostalgia.

[sacrelicious]

Just to add to the discussion, I think all the games at this level have to be good just to get this far. I think you should vote for the better game, whatever that means to you. That way whatever game wins has the distinction of more people here thought that game was better. Nothing more, nothing less. If space invaders loses this round it doesn't mean it's not classic; likewise if twilight princess loses it doesn't mean that it isn't a really great game. Personally, I explain why I chose the game I did to let others know my thoughts, and (sometimes) to try and get others to think likewise.

To sum up, everyone should just keep voting for the game they think is better, whatever their own personal criteria might be; the results of this poll/contest don't change what a game is or its place in history.

[Ryan]

Space Invaders

[sacrelicious]

Man that was a close one. Here I am at a mountain resort and the first opportunity to get online I check to see if Twilight Princess held on. Glad to see it won, it's my favorite game to come out in the last few years at least.