Topic: Game of the Decade -- Vote After Listening to RFN 183!

[Rize]

1.  Metroid Prime
2.  Resident Evil 4
10.  The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
30.  Super Mario Galaxy
50.  Super Smash Bros. Melee
999.  Wii Sports

[Fatty The Hutt]

1. Metroid Prime
2. Mario Galaxy
3. RE4 
4. Wii Sports
5. Smash Bros. Melee
6. Majora's Mask

[stevey]

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
5. Resident Evil 4
9. Metroid Prime
11.  Super Mario Galaxy
18.  Super Smash Bros. Melee
999999999... Wii Sports

[Mop it up]

Judging by the previous poster's lists, I now wonder if the two close games are Metroid Prime and Zelda: Majora's Mask.

1. Super Smash Bros Melee
2. Metroid Prime
3. Super Mario Galaxy
4. Wii Sports
5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
6. Resident Evil 4

[Yankee]

1. Super Mario Galaxy
2. Metroid Prime
3. Majora's Mask
4. Smash Bros. Melee
5. Resident Evil 4
6. Wii Sports

[Shaymin]

4. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
2. Super Smash Bros. Melee
3. Metroid Prime
5. Resident Evil 4
6. Wii Sports
1. Super Mario Galaxy

[adadad]

And even though the Wind Waker was a more straightforward Zelda than Majora's Mask, I found it significantly more interesting; plus the fact that it pulls you into the adventure immediately rather than hitting you with bizarre fits of Japanese-ness (that I think prevented me from really feeling a part of the world) seems like Wind Waker gives you the kind of exploring-the-woods-in-your-backyard experience that Zelda was always intended to be.

I'm quite curious as to what you mean by this? I distinctly remember on my first time booting up Wind Waker finding myself underwhelmed by the faux-mythological intro. Thoroughly uncinematic couple of minutes with just the text playing oh-so-slowly across static images of primitive cave art. In fact the game's entire mythos, presented as it was in that Japanese folkloric way, didn't sit very well with me at all.

Wind Waker aside, in what sense would you consider Majora's Mask as being filled with "Japanese-ness"? I think it's been well-established that one of its primary influences is David Lynch's Twin Peaks, and the typical legend aspects of the Zelda franchise (which are not exclusive to the Zelda franchise of course but a common Japanese trope - see Okami for example) are downplayed in comparison to its immediate successors and predecessors.

[Sundoulos]

I think it's been well-established that one of its primary influences is David Lynch's Twin Peaks, and the typical legend aspects of the Zelda franchise (which are not exclusive to the Zelda franchise of course but a common Japanese trope - see Okami for example) are downplayed in comparison to its immediate successors and predecessors.

Twin Peaks is credited as an inspiration for Link's Awakening,  not Majora's Mask; however, you make a good point.  Besides, I think if any game in the Zelda franchise has more of a Japanese flavor, it would be Wind Waker.  The game takes place on a series of islands, for crying out loud.  The art style, I think, probably resembles something more Japanese than any Zelda game before it.  The shop keepers are delightfully zany; the guy running the Battleship game was one of my favorites in any Zelda game.  I think I read somewhere that he was Aonuma's creation.

I really need to give Majora's Mask another shot;  I've never made it more than halfway through the game.  To be honest, the time limit stuff always turned me off because I thought that working against a clock wasn't "Zelda" to me.  Now that I've played the sequels, and the same themes have been repeated ad nauseum, I really appreciate that it tried to do something very original with the formula. 

[Caliban]

1. Metroid Prime
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Super Smash Bros Melee
4. Majora's Mask
5. Wii Sports
6. Resident Evil 4

[vudu]

ATTENTION EVERYONE

I'm compiling a list of everyone's ranking order of the 6 nominees.  I'll release the results later this week or next week, depending on if we still have new votes coming in.  So far we have 12 votes (including mine).  Over a hundred people have voted in the poll, so I'd like to get some more results.  If you haven't already please rank the 6 games in your personal order of preference/importance/whatever.  If you don't want your ranking to be made public feel free to send me a PM with your vote.

[NWR_Neal]

1. Super Smash Bros. Melee
2. Metroid Prime
3. Super Mario Galaxy
4. Resident Evil 4
5. Majora's Mask
6. Wii Sports

[vudu]

By the way, I neglected to mention earlier that the results of the ranking system are quite different than the main poll.  This is interesting. 

[Sundoulos]

1. Super Smash Bros Melee
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Metroid Prime
4. Resident Evil 4
5. Majora's Mask
6. Wii Sports

[Jonnyboy117]

I'm abstaining from the real poll, but I'll try to rank my choices. This is pretty arbitrary though, and could easily be remixed if I did it again tomorrow.

1. Melee
2. Prime
3. RE4
4. Majora's Mask
5. Galaxy
6. Wii Sports

[Fatty The Hutt]

I'm abstaining from the real poll, but I'll try to rank my choices. This is pretty arbitrary though, and could easily be remixed if I did it again tomorrow.

1. Melee
2. Prime
3. RE4
4. Majora's Mask
5. Galaxy
6. Wii Sports

I'm very surprised to see you rank Melee over Prime because I've heard you gush over Metroid in general, and Prime in particular, many a time on the podcast. Not blaming you, just expressing surprise. And I take your note about the rankings changing tomorrow. I'm tempted to change my own rankings on a regular basis. Its like comparing apples to oranges or worse, trying to rank your own kids!

[Tween20]

1. Metroid Prime
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Majora's Mask
4. Wii Sports
5. Super Smash Bros Melee
6. Resident Evil 4

[NWR_Lindy]

1. Prime
2. Melee
3. RE4
4. Super Mario Galaxy
5. Majora's Mask
6. Wii Sports

[Mop it up]

Why am I not surprised at the overall placing of Wii Sports?

[RABicle]

1. Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
2. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
3. Advance Wars
4. Tales of Symphonia
5. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
6. Wii Sports

[Sundoulos]

Wow...good for Metroid Prime!   I would never say that it's It's hard to argue against that as a winner, really. 

[Stratos]

I'm not really surprised, honestly.

Melee and Zelda were both bound to get high and Prime seemed to be one of the darlings on the list from the start.

Galaxy and RE4 are definitely titles that would get talked about more in the thread and backed by the least amount of silent votes in my opinion. Plus Sports was obviously an unfavored pick overall despite of it's good points.

[ejamer]

1. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
2. Metroid Prime
3. Resident Evil 4
4. Wii Sports
5. Super Smash Bros. Melee
6. Super Mario Galaxy

The poll results look pretty good to me.  It was really tough choosing which game to vote for, as there were 3 that deserved strong consideration in my opinion.  I wavered between Metroid Prime and Majora's Mask more than once - but decided the oddness and overall impact (on me) of MM was enough to earn top ranking.  Oddly, I don't think I would've voted other Zelda games as highly because they feel so standardized... but MM was enough of a one-off sidestory that it had unique appeal.
 
The most surprising result is how poorly Resident Evil 4 did, with only 8% of the vote.  That seems low for a game that is so carefully polished, that was tremendously successful across multiple platforms, that changed the course of a popular franchise, that provided more action-filled set pieces than I could've imagined, and that has been replayed dozens of time by countless gamers over the years.

[D_Average]

1. Super Mario Galaxy
2. Resident Evil 4
3. Smash Bros. Melee
4. Majora's Mask
5. Metroid Prime
6. Wii Sports

[adadad]

The most surprising result is how poorly Resident Evil 4 did, with only 8% of the vote.  That seems low for a game that is so carefully polished, that was tremendously successful across multiple platforms, that changed the course of a popular franchise, that provided more action-filled set pieces than I could've imagined, and that has been replayed dozens of time by countless gamers over the years.

I suppose as we've seen, there are a number of Nintendo fans who didn't appreciate the unexpected PS2 port, which perhaps might have had some influence? Seems slightly ridiculous to me, but then again at the same time I can appreciate that RE4 is perhaps slightly lacking in reasonance with Nintendo platforms - the vast majority of games based on the RE4 formula have turned up on the HD consoles. To me at least, that makes it feel a little more nebulous. With Metroid Prime there're at least the other two games in the series and the compilation that help to extend the winning formula, and keep it current.

[Stratos]

Look at everyone's individual picks. RE4 is somewhere in the middle of all of them for the most part. People liked it, but it was their second, third or fourth pick. When asked to pick only one of the six it makes sense that everyone's 'second favorite' game doesn't show much.