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Aside from the fact this contest is mostly about popularity, some of the match-up wins make sense.

Some of them are ridiculously funny too. I saw one match that pits Frogger against Samus Aran. That's a match that'll last three seconds (if Frogger is lucky). Another humorous match was Snake against Crash Bandicoot. Obviously Snake would wipe the floor with Crash.

There's no way Cate Archer could beat Strider Hiryu. She's a secret agent while he's a combative ninja action-hero. He specializes in combat whereas Archer tries to take a more stealthy approach. She didn't always succeed, but in a one-on-one fight, Strider would easily kill her.

I could easily see Wander beating Guybrush. Wander took down huge enemies, all of which had the potential to squash him flat. What has Guybrush done? Used root beer on ghosts? Sword fight primarily using insults? While Guybrush might be a very likable character, he's pathetic at being a hero. Really, there's no contest here.

Pikachu would have no problem defeating Nathan Drake. Drake is primarily a fortune hunter and while he CAN fight fairly well, Pikachu has tons of damaging moves (not the least of which is the ability to command lightning). I do think that Pikachu would have difficulty handling Kratos, however. He could beat him, but Pikachu would walk away severely injured.

Anyway... you guys need to realize that most Adventure game heroes aren't the kind of guys (or girls) that can fight well. Adventure games aren't made for combat.

While Gabriel Knight and Laura Bow might be great detectives, they couldn't reasonably stand toe-to-toe against Pikachu, Samus Aran, Solid Snake or any other combative character. That doesn't mean Knight or Bow are worthless; far from it, but this contest seems to primarily deal with who would win in a fight, not in a battle of wits.

Most of the votes seemed to be more based on "which game was recently popular." Looking at Manuel Calavera lose to Dante is like watching Keanu Reeves upstage Humphrey Bogart. Sure, he can karate fight, but why are these two in the same contest again?

Heck, Frogger. FROGGER! Nobody puts Frogger in a versus match without already knowing the outcome.

I'm pretty sure Gamespot knew what they were doing. They expect it all to come down to same popular characters again, just like every year before, and they wanted to acknowledge a few classic characters, knowing full well they won't get past the first bracket.

Datadog wrote:I'm pretty sure Gamespot knew what they were doing. They expect it all to come down to same popular characters again, just like every year before, and they wanted to acknowledge a few classic characters, knowing full well they won't get past the first bracket.

This is probably true.

Certain characters like Mario and Link are almost guaranteed a top spot. I actually voted against Mario.

To be fair, GameSpot has added some "classic" characters who're kicking butt. Duke Nukem, who first appeared in 1991, for instance. Duke Nukem 3D was obviously the most recognized title that character has ever had and that game was released in 1996. That's three years before GK3.

Kyle Katarn is even less recognized than Duke Nukem. Katarn was the hero of three Star Wars games and played an important supporting role in another. He first appeared in Dark Forces in 1995. The most recent game (with him as the main hero) was in 2002.

So how do two game heroes, both of whom had their first appearances in the 1990s with relatively brief stints in the early 2000s, still remain popular today? GameSpot had nothing to do with it, so what gives?

So, like I said... *quotes self*

Why is Gamespot still relevant?

Rath Darkblade wrote:So, like I said... *quotes self*

Why is Gamespot still relevant?

For anything other than reviews? Not a whole lot.

Hypothetically, if I were to set up a roster of adventure game heroes, what would be the best way to hold a poll for something like that? I'm thinking I'd have to create multiple threads at once and leave them up for about a week before moving onto the next set. Would creating that many threads at once and then doing it again the week after be considered bad netiquette?

If you want to avoid the mess and hassle of posting multiple polls (some of which may be accidentally missed), I'd recommend stating the match-up "??? vs ???" in a normal non-polled post.

You'd then have people "vote" by writing who they feel should win whatever match-up is occurring. You could do several tiers of this within ONE thread.

Sure, that wouldn't be anonymous and you'd have to count the votes yourself, but that would avoid a ton of poll posts. As for anonymity, I don't think that's even necessary. Most of us already know who favors whom when it comes to adventure games.

I second DPX suggestion

Oh, yeah - I could just COUNT the votes, couldn't I? Good call.

I've already gone down through some lists of adventures and started assembling some of the more well-known, exclusive-to-the-genre, names. I figure most of the votes will be based on popularity anyway, so there's no sense working in every hero/heroine from even the most obscure of games.

Of course, if anyone can think of a major game character outside the Sierra/LucasArts universe who should be included (i.e. Tex Murphy, George Stobbart, Simon the Sorceror, April Ryan, etc.) or any favorites at all, let me know and I'll see about putting them in there too.

I'm also considering leaving Graham and Guybrush out of the rankings, since they already seem to be the poster-boys of the genre and I'd like to see who comes in after them (but they could always team up and host the awards show.)

So... who would win in a match-up between LeChuck and Dogbert, hmm?