It’s been a long road, but we have weeded 32 games down to 2, and it’s a fight to the death to find out who will be the winner of Leveling Down’s Video Game March Madness 2010! Hit the jump to see the last two standing (although I suppose you could just look at the above image), and let’s take a look at how the Final Four shook out in two results that were as close as humanly possible. For some reason, the polls didn’t close at 6 PM so the results are as of 6 PM. And voting is now open, so vote for the CHAMPION!
Final Four Results
(3) Starcraft defeats (1) BioShock (50-50, tiebreak)
Starcraft isn’t as powerful as it used to be I guess. I thought this would be a walk, but BioShock continued to prove its popularity and this poll came down to a dead tie. Unfortunately for Andrew Ryan, registered users voted for Starcraft at a 2:1 ratio, so Starcraft took the matchup via tiebreaker. Even though Starcraft emerged from the RTS region, I think it should be noted that Starcraft had an excellent story in its own right, and I think could have stood toe to toe with (though probably not beaten) BioShock on that merit alone. Add in the gameplay, and Starcraft is a worthy participant in the championship game.
(8) Rock Band 2 defeats (3) Goldeneye (50-50, tiebreak)
Another tiebreaker, but this one went to Rock Band 2 in a 5:1 ratio of registered users voting. Rock Band 2 has been on quite a ride – I still can’t believe I forgot to include it in the original group. But hey, power of the people! It looks like people enjoy sitting on their couches with plastic instruments as opposed to sitting with N64 controllers in their hands. I was hoping to see a Starcraft/Goldeneye old school matchup in the finals, but it looks like it wasn’t meant to be.
Championship Analysis and Prediction
Starcraft: The Old School Favorite
Who it beat to get here:
Round 1: Halo Wars (61-39)
Sweet 16: Final Fantasy Tactics (58-42)
Elite 8: Civilization IV (55-45)
Final Four: Bioshock (50-50, tiebreak)
What does Starcraft have going for it? It’s only the defining real time strategy game. It defeated the best console RTS out there, the best tactical RPG out there, and the best turn based strategy game out there. Starcraft introduced 3 races and remains to this day one of the most balanced real time strategy games out there. Starcraft is my favorite for the championship and I’m pulling for it to win! How can you turn down Tassadar?
Rock Band 2: The Crowd Pleaser
Who it beat to get here:
Round 1: Super Mario 64 (52-48)
Sweet 16: NHL 94′ (71-29)
Elite 8: Street Fighter IV (58-42)
Final Four: Goldeneye (50-50, tiebreak)
Rock Band 2 is truly the people’s choice. Even non-gamers know what Rock Band 2 is, and I’m sure many have played it as well. It is the ultimate party game, especially for people who love music (and really who doesn’t?) Its enjoyable gameplay, party play, and of course, the ability to pretend you are a real rocker have propelled Rock Band 2 to the championship game. Will it be enough? Will millions of fans beat out millions of zerglings? It is up to you, the Leveling Down reader, to decide. VOTE!
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unless there’s a tv channel in south korea playing rock band 2 games 24/7, the winner is pretty clear…..
i dunno…starcraft barely beat bioshock to get in, and there’s a sizeable crew of music game fans at Leveling Down so…this may be closer than i suspect. some people may be too young to have played starcraft!
do scrubs still play starcraft? i imagine all the custom mods moved on to war3, which had more features. you’d really only enjoy starcraft now if you had some appreciation of the underlying game theory. and if you didn’t suck. it’s hard to enjoy a game when other people absolutely destroy you.
well that’s if you compare starcraft to rockband 2 now. 12 (!) years ago, starcraft had much more mass appeal, though maybe not “the whole family can join in” type of appeal rockband has.
in terms of longevity, starcraft seems like the obvious choice, but rockband does seem to have a timeless appeal to it, like karaoke.
it’s a tough question, it’s like asking which is better, playing sports or going karaoke-ing.
i find it hard to separate all the band/guitar games from one another. They’re all the same to me, but with different songs. Meanwhile, there are many things that separate Starcraft from its competitors. I feel that it is still relevant as a game simply because SC 2 isn’t out.
While there may be some that are too young to know SC, there are also those who don’t know what RTS is beyond Halo Wars….