Contest Stats and Discussion - Part 1374

If the Top 2 advance from each poll:
Resident Evil 4
Metroid Prime Remastered
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Street Fighter 6
Baldur's Gate 3
Pikmin 4
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Spider-Man 2

All the Nintendo games instantly fold to TotK. So it would be Baldur's Gate 3 in second. Then either RE4 or SM2 for third.

TeamRocketElite posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/344556-star-trek-resurgence/data
Star Trek: Resurgence's Metacritic score was 71 and it made the Spring poll. Did the poll runner confuse it with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor somehow?

I forgot to check the games from yesterday's poll, so I wasn't aware of that. But yeah, that's easily the worst Metacritic score of this year's polls.

TeamRocketElite posted...

FF16 was supposed to be in yesterday's poll. So it actually got the boot for the Live A Live port.

FFXVI also got snubbed for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, which was a port of a 2010 game (in Japan) and a 2011 release outside of Japan.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/188258-system-shock/data
System Shock (also Spring) got a 78. So I'm not really sure the poll runner looked at Metacritic scores very much.

Or anything, really

This reminds me of whenever an obvious entrant would get snubbed in a contest bracket and the response would be "Not enough noms" or "Didn't meet the criteria" as if noms are some legally binding contract that must be upheld. If something would be more entertaining, put it in!

Edit: Like in 2015, the requirements seemed to be set up to exclude <i>League of Legends</i> from Best Game III as if the site's hands would have been tied otherwise or straight up excluding it was somehow illegal.

I feel like that's usually done against entries that aren't really that big of a omission. Like if it is Mario vs Sonic or SMB1 getting cut, people legitimately get upset.

FFXVI not being there is ridiculous

Hmm. Pikmin fell off after the Power Hour, and Baldur's Gate climbed. Was rethinking my stance on TotK 55-45 but these few meaningless percent have RENEWED my confidence.

I thought this might happen after realising that Dave the Diver came out at the very end of June. Well, it’s ridiculous, FFXVI should have been on that poll over Live A Live. I don’t think FF should automatically get a slot for being part of that franchise, but XVI clearly reviewed well enough. And I would say I liked it but didn’t love it. Also Jedi Survivor should have been in over Ghost Trick.

Anyway, as for this poll I can see Pikmin 4=Street Fighter VI, yeah. The thing is Pikmin 4 is the big breakout moment for the franchise in terms of mainstream recognition and being considered a GotY contender. Like Kirby and the Forgotten Land before it it’s a moment where a series that hadn’t done much suddenly starts to perform, or so it seems.

The Starfield result is disastrous, no two ways about it. Especially when you consider that it’s really the only proper Xbox representative on the poll. I don’t even think it’s to do with platform availability as plenty of people have a PC. It just really disappointed people.

So where would FFXVI have ended up? I can definitely see RE4 beating it. I guess the only other contender is Wonder.

Voted Starfield because it was the only poll option I've played so far. Did not expect it to be getting so thrashed

Leaving a mainline FF game out of a poll like this is unacceptable. If this is a sign of things to come maybe it's better we don't get another contest.

LightningStrikes posted...

So where would FFXVI have ended up? I can definitely see RE4 beating it. I guess the only other contender is Wonder.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/9234-at-the-halfway-mark-whats-your-pick-for-the-best-game-of

FF16 solidly beat RE4 in the halfway poll. I would still expect FF16 to beat RE4 today.

SMBW would never get a fair shot at FF16 due to TotK being around. Depending on tomorrow's result, I think FF16 might be stronger than SMBW as well.

KamikazePotato posted...

Hmm. Pikmin fell off after the Power Hour, and Baldur's Gate climbed. Was rethinking my stance on TotK 55-45 but these few meaningless percent have RENEWED my confidence.

Just wait until the kiddies wake up

shane15 posted...

Leaving a mainline FF game out of a poll like this is unacceptable. If this is a sign of things to come maybe it's better we don't get another contest.

Mainline FF games don’t get a free pass just for being mainline FF games. If there was another game with XIII/XV reception I don’t think it needs to turn up if it’s not a weak year otherwise. XVI is a snub because it reviewed much better not because it has “Final Fantasy” in the title. Contests have nominations anyway so it’s a different thing.

TeamRocketElite posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/9234-at-the-halfway-mark-whats-your-pick-for-the-best-game-of

FF16 solidly beat RE4 in the halfway poll. I would still expect FF16 to beat RE4 today.

SMBW would never get a fair shot at FF16 due to TotK being around. Depending on tomorrow's result, I think FF16 might be stronger than SMBW as well.

That poll was also right in the honeymoon period for XVI. No way it doesn’t get weaker given the way the narrative on that game has turned.

Whoever made these polls must have used an inaccurate list of game releases that they found on Fandom and just randomly picked games.

Eh, I still think XVI beats RE4. It didn't exactly look great in its own GotY poll.

LightningStrikes posted...

Mainline FF games don’t get a free pass just for being mainline FF games. If there was another game with XIII/XV reception I don’t think it needs to turn up if it’s not a weak year otherwise. XVI is a snub because it reviewed much better not because it has “Final Fantasy” in the title. Contests have nominations anyway so it’s a different thing.

I know why it got snubbed and i wasn't really saying it deserves to be there just because of the name. Honestly why even bother at all when Zelda wins everything. We're jumping through a bunch of hoops just to find out what % BG3 gets beat by.

FF16 was snuuuuuuubbed. It wasn't going to win GotY, but this is arguably the strongest snub we've seen for GotY in a long time. In the past decade, we have seen both FF15 and FF7R win GotY, and FF16 did well enough in the half-year-GotY-poll to justify a shot here.

Leonhart4 posted...

SBAllen would have never let this happen

What was the strongest snub under SB's administration anyway? First thought is Assassin's Creed from 2007. Snubbing FF16 here feels more egregious both in legacy-franchise power and individual-game reception.

Kingdom Hearts III got snubbed, but it also didn't have great review scores, so that's probably why that happened.

Leonhart4 posted...

Kingdom Hearts III got snubbed, but it also didn't have great review scores, so that's probably why that happened.

Good catch. Quick Metacritic comparison here:

KH3:
83 on reviews
79 on users

FF16:
87 on reviews
81 on users

This is unlikely to work, but hey, new administration: I'll make a feedback ticket and see if they'll add an extra poll for popular snubs like FF16 and Jedi Survivor, maybe any other notable snubs we're forgetting. Maybe if they take the top two from each poll and then the top one from this extra poll? I dunno, we'll see if they do anything with it.

Yeah that one was much more understandable because of the reviews, and it likely doesn’t make the final poll. Similarly reviews probably damned AC1. This is the worst snub I can recall.

Reviews clearly aren't what matters here when we're getting games with a 71 MC.

Can't wait to see what game gets snubbed tomorrow for a port.

Sent the ticket. Maybe they'll see it in time and feel compelled to act on it.

Also, I was revisiting the ticket I sent about contests earlier in the same day SB announced he was leaving (sent before he announced he left). I got this response back.

"Hello! At this time there are no plans for a new contest though we'd love to have one. We'll see what 2024 brings. :)
GameFAQs -- 12/12/2023"

Meaning I wouldn't bet on it

LightningStrikes posted...

If there was another game with XIII/XV reception I don’t think it needs to turn up if it’s not a weak year otherwise.

FF13/FF15 absolutely would have deserved to turn up in a poll series with games like Star Trek: Resurgence.

Also, based on the midway point poll, Hogwarts Legacy is another snub. Although a much smaller one compared to FF16 and Jedi Survivor kinda.

On the current polling, I think I'd take SF6 > Pikmin 4 and Diablo 4 > Sea of Stars...so I figure the level of competition for LoZ:TotK and BG3 they're each facing are similar.

This predicts a safe win for LoZ:TotK...but with SMW as well as possibly a combination of MPR/Pikmin 4/SMRPGR in the overall-GotY poll? BG3 might get pretty close when they first face off, even if the final-GotY wouldn't be as close.

I'm glad we have a ticket in, but I think it will go over better if we could give a full list of 8 snubs to run in a complete "extra games" poll.

So... what are the five biggest misses so far, after FF and Jedi and Hogwarts?

LusterSoldier posted...

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk made into a GotY poll with only a 75 Metacritic score, which is by far the worst Metacritic score in this year's GotY polls so far. Can't believe FFXVI got snubbed for a game like that.

For what it is worth, the Board 8 + friends GotY 2023 topic vouches for the game and says the critics got it wrong:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80660645/978076479

Maybe someone will vouch for Star Trek: Resurgence being a secret hit?

Ngamer posted...

I'm glad we have a ticket in, but I think it will go over better if we could give a full list of 8 snubs to run in a complete "extra games" poll.

Already on it. I mentioned...

Final Fantasy 16
Hogwarts Academy
Pizza Tower
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (DLC, not sure if it'd count)

...and also included a link here for their own ideas of what to include:

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/all/all/2023/metascore/?page=1

This was also in addition to sharing the half-year-GotY poll where FF16 already beat RE4 which won the Winter poll and tripled SF6/D4 which made it into the Spring poll.

I don't expect FF16 to get in off the mention of Hogwarts, right, but I tried to make it clear FF16 was a big snub and there is still a path for rectifying this problem.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/9422-

No Super Mario RPG in this poll.

That's too bad. The other games seem like they need help dealing with SMBW.

SMRPG is a snub but it's a less egregious snub. The remake didn't really light the world on fire.

It would have been nice to see how SMRPG does. But, I'm okay with letting SMBW flex a bit before running into the TotK buzzsaw.

Spidey comparison poll:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7462-best-of-2018-playstation-4

Although I think Spider 2 will be weaker than Spider 1.

Also no Lies of P, which would've gotten rocked but was really good so I wanted the chance to vote for it.

KamikazePotato posted...

Also no Lies of P, which would've gotten rocked but was really good so I wanted the chance to vote for it.

That would've been in the Fall poll.

I was actually thinking of listing Lies of P as a candidate. But, it's Metacritic score was only 80 so it didn't seem like a big snub. Although, I was surprised it was only 80 since I feel like the word of mouth about the game is really good.

3D Soulslikes (not made by From Software) have a bad reputation...for good reason. I only tried LoP due to friend recommendations. Plus, it was hard as balls and that's usually a negative for critics. I think a hypothetical sequel would review a bit better now that there's a positive association with it.

Yeah. The word of mouth I hear is generally along the lines of "this is the real deal" or "this one is actually really good".

I had a feeling the SMRPG remake would get the shaft.

It feels like a somewhat ransom selection. Not entirely of course, but to some degree. We could figure out when metacritic was being used, but not sure about this one.

For reference, the Metacritic scores for today's games:

92 - Super Mario Bros. Wonder
90 - Marvel's Spider-Man 2
89 - Alan Wake II
89 - Slay the Princess
88 - The Talos Principle 2
86 - Star Ocean: The Second Story R
84 - Forza Motorsport
78 - Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

Super Mario RPG had an 84 Metacritic score, so it had an uphill battle to make it into this poll because this was a fairly stacked poll when it came to the Metacritic scores.

Nice to see Star Ocean 2nd Story R do well. This game basically revived the franchise.

After submitting yesterday's ticket: 30 tickets were in queue.

After checking today's queue: 622 tickets.

There...may have been a thing that came up on the site that could get priority over my GotY-snubs ticket. FF16 is probably not going to get considered in time.

HaRRicH posted...

After submitting yesterday's ticket: 30 tickets were in queue.

After checking today's queue: 622 tickets.

There...may have been a thing that came up on the site that could get priority over my GotY-snubs ticket. FF16 is probably not going to get considered in time.

Wow 592 tickets about Super Mario RPG being smubbed!

And this is how SF2 lost

Wait, what happened? Give us the juicy site drama.

I don't have the juicy, spicy, or really any flavor of the drama -- I just saw lots of tickets that appeared on their ticket-counter.

I'm assuming we're having a system of the year poll before we get to the GotY finals, so we'll have to wait to see how many games make it.

Although we can guess what system gets left off.