Yoyoyo! Why is this normally Tuesday article a day late? Because last week's Diablo II versus StarCraft battle was epic! Before reading the brutal Blizzard battle below, make sure you read this: in this week's game debate -- all you have to do is vote for your favorite game EVAR! A Mario game? Maybe a Final Fantasy title? A Legend of Zelda game in the Hyrule hizz-ouse? An Atari game perhaps? Even those calculator games you geeks passed on to others back in math class count for this debate -- ANY video game. Just vote for your favorite game of all time to wrap up this year's Tuesday Game Debate articles, and I'll count up all the votes and tell you all the winners next week to bring in the new year.
So there's no reason each and every single one of you readers shouldn't cast a vote! There's no losers among gamers, just have fun, take a trip back down memory card road, and cast your votes.
Ok! Now for the main event! Our Blizzard Battle of 2006 has come to an end and the voting is over. Much like the Rocky series that has, thankfully, finally come to an end, it was a long and gruesome battle. First Warcraft II went the distance against the first and third game in its series, then StarCraft came from out of nowhere like a Russian beast and tore WarCreed to shreads. World of Warcraft tried to be Tommy Gunn tough guy, but Diablo II KO'd the MMORPG in one round.
With just StarCraft and Diablo II left in the ring, many Dtoiders were shaking in both awe and fear. Both were beasts in their different release eras, but both have refused to ever retire, with countless fans still playing their games often to this day. I counted up the votes and could tell that making a choice wasn't easy for many of you. So to ease the pain that recent Rocky Balboa viewers felt after paying for the worst fight scene in the entire Rocky series, I'll give you all the play by play of the final round in this fight. Hit the jump to read vote by vote how the fight went down before finding out the winner.
Ding! Ding! Ding!!
The bell rings and StarCraft and Diablo II come out swinging. BOOM! Headshot! 3-1 votes as Diablo II delivers the first blow. StarCraft stumbles from D2's WarCraft wolloping right hook, followed by a quick left jab, followed by another huge right hook. BOOM! No headshot! StarCraft dodged the Baal blow and unleashes a fiendish reaver round of reaches to Diablo II's mid-section to take an early lead as the 5-9 votes rise in its favor. The clock's ticking as the two continue. BOOM! Headshot and the first blood! D2 caught SC off guard and delivers three huge hooks to the hydralisk, pushing its opponent further back with each broodish blow. 6-9, 7-9, 8-9, Diablo II is laying on the hurt and StarCraft resorts to a grapple until the ref breaks it up. Blizzard blood is spewing from StarCraft's terran teeth, but the ref isn't allowed to stop the fight until just one game is left spinning in the disc tray.
Diablo II comes back with an expansion of effort, but each click bounces off of StarCraft as the RTS returns each punch. With the Lord of Destruction's back up against the corner, the zerg rush comes in with each unit delivering one uppercut after another. D2 escapes but StarCraft pulls it back into the corner -- one vote, another, another, another, another -- BOOM! Headshot! Diablo II goes down! One! Two! Three! Four! And Diablo II gets up with a huge gash above its eye. The ref holds up one finger and asks D2 how many he sees. "I see three campaigns of pain!" And the fight continues with StarCraft looking better than ever.
The two opponents dance around each other like secret cow level targets and StarCraft taunts the weakened opponent: "It took you 4 counts to get up? I 've done quicker Meph rushes, bitch!" Diablo II's hotter than a firebat now, and with StarCraft's guard down, D2 slips off his glove -- what's that?! Beneath the glove are 5 SOJ's on its knuckles and D2 delivers a knockout that not even a necro could save. One! Two! Three! Four! The votes just keep coming! Five! Six! Sev -- and he's up! StarCraft is up and alive! Folks, I've never seen this many votes in a row! StarCraft is gonna need a new map-maker to rebuild its face after that blow -- blood is everywhere! The ref couldn't even get him to count his raised fingers, the RTS game looks unfazed -- no it doesn't, it looks as pissed off as a Protoss parent on prom night.
The PC punches are flying in all directions, it's just a matter of time before one of them delivers the final blow. An arsenal of archon jabs is followed by a series of sorceress swings. Not a tiger's eye in the room is blinking as each opponent brings out the best in Blizzard. And there it is! There it is! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! "Yo Barbarian!" Nine! -- and it's over! Ladies, gentlemen, and peons -- we have a WINNER!
One game has finally prevaled after weeks of votes as the winner of Destructoid's Blizzard Battle of 2006. Thanks to everyone who voted! Congratulations to everyone one of you who have played either of these two great games. And the winner is . . .
- Diablo II - 23 votes
- StarCraft - 30 votes - winner!
Thanks again to all who voted! Make sure you vote for the game you enjoyed more than any other game ever, and check back next week to see how many people agreed with you or disagreed. Don't be afraid to get all emotional on us either -- tell us why your favorite game of all time makes you cry just when thinking about it, and what exactly it is that ranks it above all other games in youyr opinion.
See you all her next week - Happy New Years everyone!
For a career i always wanted to make movies or novels for a living. Then i saw Mario in 3d on the news one night and freaked out seeing my favorite 2d game of all time in full 3d. i got n64 and was completely amazed and blown away by gaming in 3 dimensions. i had tons of Goldeneye gaming summer sprees, but it wasn't until i played Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo 64 and saw that the sun was moving, yes OMFG moving, and that it was now night. i swear i didn't even make it to LonLon ranch before stopping dead in my tracks and watching the sun set all the way to find out what would happen when it did. there was howls and shit popped out of the ground and i was fucking hooked.
Games have come a long way, but OOT's gameplay and mechanics will never let me forget how effective interactive stories could be, and ever since that day i've know that i want to make games for a living. with 6 moths to go til i graduate with a game design degree, i still love Ocarina of Time more than any other great title that has come along.
Super Metroid would be my favourite. It's the game I have finished the most times, and it still looks amazing, has awesome control, and an eerie, unbelievably atmospheric soundtrack.
There was simply too many ways to kill your friend. Freeze ray, remote bomb, back door flaming skulls. The cars all handled differently and with their unique special weapons, had to be approached differently. Just a perfectly tuned game that sacrificed reality for fun in every good way possible.
No other car combat came would make my top fifty.
Chubby Cherub on the NES.
it's like god spit in my mouth....
Thinkin about it gets me started up again NOT.
But Majora's masks sucked to me. Just wasn't special. But wind waker and twilight princess have restored Zelda to its crown as one of the best games in history.
and
Legend of Zelda: A link to the past (fave console all time)
Unreal - PC
Super Mario World - SNES
River City Ransom - NES
Gun.Smoke - NES
(Could have gone with Halo 2, mad props to Super Metroid, I was going to say Super Mario World... but no, as soon as it hit me I knew. Gun.Smoke eeks out Bionic Commando)
What can I say, that game restarted my love of console gaming.
The moment in Halo when the Flood pods appeard, freaked me out, it was 2:00 am in the morning with the headphones on. Pretty sure the whole block heard me yell WTF!
but kingdom hearts comes pretty damn close
as do lego racers for the PS and the grinch (also for the PS)
the grinch is the game i am most fond of, the game by konami that introduced me to platforming games... i must say, it got horrid reviews, BUT BOY IS IT A GOOD GAME!!! once you get past the first area, you can see how much production value it has (it has a lot)... it's very fun with very good puzzles... just great!!! :D i recommend it to all!!!
but yeah, FFX is better!! :P and i'm playing FFXII now which will probably (mayber not, don't know if it can get as sad as FFX) beat it, and if final fantasy xiii/versus have as good a story as they do visuals, they will definitely be up top!!!
and i love the original ratchet and clank as well as the second, and airblade is wonderful too!! bloody difficult, but wonderful!!! whoa, i've never used the word bloody before :o
but whatever, i vote FFX
or Final Fantasy in general, all of them are great! LONG LIVE SQUEENIX!! :P
bitches
I'm gonna say Ocarina of Time right now because I've beaten it more times than any other (time consuming) game. Including one run with only three hearts... It was the only way to make the game challenging enough.
That is shit that I would play to this day. Its so freaking popular I could probably STILL find people to play with online.
This game is the best in a lost legacy that Lucasarts had with space simulators. The last in the series was X-Wing Alliance which had a fairly good single player story, but the gameplay was nowhere close to the polish of XvT. I really miss this genre of games and it is a real shame that they have been forgotten for so long.
Which one to choose... eh. Well I have CT on my disk, yet I don't play it. Same with Privateer. I have both Fallouts on CDs nearby, but I don't even look at them. Same with Deus Ex, Civ and HOMM3.
I still play CS. Sometimes. Well, I didn't play it in a month... Actually, I haven't played any game in a month O_O I'm turning into a real-life geek ;-(
...
...
...
Anyway, I'll go with the game which sucked in a straight month of my life. Or something like that.
Chrono Trigger