Desert Island Video Game Draft Playoffs - Round 1 8/9

Whose games would you rather have on your island?

  • Spike

  • Warhawk

Results are only viewable after voting.
Capt. Factorial

Capt. Factorial

ceterum censeo delendum esse Argentum
Staff member

Spike​

1. Super Mario World (SNES)
2. Quake (PC)
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Genesis)
4. Minecraft (PC)
5. Pokemon Red and Blue (Nintendo Gameboy)
6. NHL '96 (Sega Genesis)
7. Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (Sega Genesis)
8. NBA 2K (Sega Dreamcast)
9. Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade)
10. PaRappaTheRapper (PS1)
11. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Arcade Game (Arcade)
12. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Nintendo Wii)
13. BurgerTime (Intellivision)
14. Dead Or Alive 2 (Sega Dreamcast)
15. Dragon's Lair (Arcade)


vs.


Warhawk​

1. Portal (PC)
2. Diablo IV (PC)
3. Half-Life (PC)
4. MarioKart (Nintendo Wii)
5. SimCity 2000 Special Edition (PC)
6. Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour (PC)
7. Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)
8. MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (PC)
9. Descent: Anniversary Edition (PC)
10. Pocket Tanks Deluxe (iOS)
11. BioShock (PC)
12. Half-Life 2 (20th Anniversary Edition) (PC)
13. Dungeon Siege (PC)
14. Rock Band (Nintendo Wii)
15. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC)
 
I'll just keep the same format for all of these... I'm going to rank all 30 games based on how much I think I would enjoy them and add up the scores to pick the winner.

  1. Half-Life (Warhawk) = 30 "A stone cold classic and right in my 1995-2000 wheelhouse. I had to uninstall every other game on my hard drive to be able to install this back in 1998 but it was worth it."
  2. Unreal Tournament 2004 (Warhawk) = 29 "I was planning to pick an Unreal Tournament game for my list and ultimately did not, so this makes up for that."
  3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Spike) = 28 "One of the few games here that I actually played in its arcade format. I would play the heck out of this to this day. Especially 4-player."
  4. PaRappaTheRapper (Spike) = 27 "I played this only one time in 8th grade, handing off the controller between friends until we passed each level and its still one of my favorite gaming memories."
  5. Sim City 2000 (Warhawk) = 26 "There was a time when I probably would have listed this as my favorite game."
  6. Ms. Pac Man (Spike) = 25 "Never played it. But it's still Pac-Man at its core right? So I can't rank it lower than this."
  7. Half-Life 2 (Warhawk) = 24 "Improves on the original in many ways, but less of a formative experience for me so it ranks a little lower."
  8. NHL '96 (Spike) = 23 "I had NHL '95 back in the day. Moreso than other sports, ice hockey is a game that is just a natural fit for video game simulation. And I'm watching a lot more NHL games now so I'd for sure give this a go."
  9. Command & Conquer: Generals (Warhawk) = 22 "Played this only a couple times, but I like the series and the 3D terrain here actually looks better than the old sprite-based graphics (which was not always true of other strategy games that made the leap from 2D to 3D)."
  10. NBA2K (Spike) = 21 "They've gotten pretty over the top with the RPG style gameplay modes and virtual currency store but I like that you drafted the first one, back when the focus was just on the basketball gameplay."
  11. Descent: Anniversary Edition (Warhawk) = 20 "A first person shooter where you weren't tethered to the ground but could rotate completely upside down. Was this the first space shooter? I'd still play this though I would have to get a joystick first."
  12. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Spike) = 19 "Spike is keeping the Sega Genesis alive in this draft. I'm still bad at this game but I had more time to perfect my skills than I did with the NES and SNES platformer games and there's a lot about the Sonic games that I still like. Visual style, music, speed."
  13. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (Warhawk) = 18 "The graphics have not aged well and the level designs often confused me but it is Star Wars."
  14. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Spike) = 17 "I've played this one a little bit and have mixed feelings about the Lego games. It's cute to see familiar stuff done Lego but a lot of the gameplay is not that fun to me. And half of this game is the Prequel Trilogy which is... not my favorite."
  15. Diablo IV (Warhawk) = 16 "I loved the original Diablo but already Diablo II started to feel too big. This looks better than Diablo III but these days Blizzard games seem to be designed around bleeding money out of people through microtransactions which is gross. The Rogue class is back though so I'd at least be willing to try it."
  16. Pocket Tanks Deluxe (Warhawk) = 15 "I really like this style of game. I played Dome Wars in middle school and a lot of Worms: Armageddon with my brother. If we play Worms now though we only ever play the game mode we invented called Super Sheep Wars where we remove all of the weapons except the Super Sheep and the construction materials and you spend your first 5 turns building an impenetrable fortress and the rest trying to take out the other player's Death Star base by steering a Super Sheep up their exhaust port. Good times."
  17. Pokemon Red / Blue (Spike) = 14 "The only Pokemon game I've played. It's fun but got repetitive. There's the outline here of something I would like but I wish the story was more engrossing. Collecting stuff and beating progressively harder trainers is a little more gym time than game to me."
  18. Quake (Spike) = 13 "I barely played this but it's got the look and feel of the gaming era and platform that I'm most familiar with so there's a comfort food quality to this one."
  19. MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (Warhawk) = 12 "Same as Quake I've barely played it despite my favorite game ever being this design team's thematic re-working of the same game engine. I do love a good mech battle though."
  20. BurgerTime (Spike) = 11 "Initially this game looked like a joke but the more I watched a playthrough, the more it grew on me. It looks like a stoner's fever dream but also one I would like to play."
  21. Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (Spike) = 10 "Did I really rank Street Fighter II this low? It's the fighting game in many ways but that's not a style of game I want to play much."
  22. Portal (Warhawk) = 9 "So I've only watched this game played and I don't really get what's fun about it. Blasphemy I know. It's a genius idea for a game but has that Tetris vibe of being too puzzley and repetitive for me. Also this isn't the Portal game that has a song by 'The National' in it so I can't give you extra points for that."
  23. BioShock (Warhawk) = 8 "Okay so as a Deus Ex fan I should love this but both System Shock 2 and BioShock were off-putting to me in some way. I can't explain why."
  24. Dungeon Siege (Warhawk) = 7 "Perhaps the most startling of startling admissions yet, I don't really like dungeons nor dragons as thematic material. I am that weirdo who enjoys Lord of the Rings mostly because of the historical allusions. This looks like a standard hack n' slash party-based game in the vein of a Diablo clone. I'd play it but don't have huge expectations."
  25. Dragon's Lair (Spike) = 6 "Wow, what even is this? This is a weird one to have to rank. I can see the direct lineage to a lot of games that I do enjoy but the gameplay element seems lacking. Cool concept though."
  26. Rock Band (Warhawk) = 5 "Playing music and playing a music game are such oil and vinegar experiences that I have a tough time even talking about this style of game. To me this is a programmer's idea of what music is -- did you play each note correctly? Then you win! Umm, no. I guess the same could apply to PaRappa above but timing rhymes to the beat is actually a skill that I don't mind being graded on and PaRappa doesn't take itself too seriously."
  27. Minecraft (Spike) = 4 "I probably would have loved this if it came out when I was younger. There's enough of that Sim City / Lego lineage. And I love seeing what creative people do with it. But having never played it, the prospect of stepping into that world now is intimidating."
  28. Dead or Alive 2 (Spike) = 3 "I do like the look of early 3D fighting games, I can see the appeal."
  29. Super Mario World (Spike) = 2 "Well it's Mario Bros but bigger and a lot more complex. Mostly I remember being bored out of my mind watching other people play this and wishing we were outside playing baseball or swimming instead."
  30. MarioKart (Warhawk) = 1 "This might be the only game I hate more than Super Mario Bros. At least in Super Mario I lose because I did something wrong. What if there were a racing game where driving well is a mistake and you win by making everyone else miserable? This is that game."
Final Score: WARHAWK = 242 defeats SPIKE = 223
 
I had to give this one to @Spike because of Super Mario World, NHL '96, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Arcade Game. Some classic 90s console heavy hitters there! @Warhawk's list was tougher for me to evaluate since it primarily comes from an era of PC gaming that I just didn't participate in much at all. That said, I've given both Portal games a spin, and they're awesome. 👍
 
Toughest choice so far. I ended up giving the nod to Spike because of Pokémon Red/Blue. Still one of the greatest games/memories I have of gaming.
 
hrdboild said:
  1. Rock Band (Warhawk) = 5 "Playing music and playing a music game are such oil and vinegar experiences that I have a tough time even talking about this style of game. To me this is a programmer's idea of what music is -- did you play each note correctly? Then you win! Umm, no. I guess the same could apply to PaRappa above but timing rhymes to the beat is actually a skill that I don't mind being graded on and PaRappa doesn't take itself too seriously."
Click to expand...
Just a note on this - as I believe mentioned, I have NO MUSICAL TALENT whatsoever. 🤣

For me this is not learning how to play an instrument or become a musician, it is more of a challenge of a game that happens to have music. Just like Unreal Tournament 2004 doesn't train me to become an alien soldier that can snipe enemies with a shock rifle, I don't expect Rock Band to turn me into a guitar virtuoso. It's all just for fun. I don't take this seriously either as any kind of musical training or whatever.

I had never even heard of Rocksmith before - that sounds a little more like actually learning how to play. If so, and I had unlimited time on my island, that would have been an option if I actually wanted to work on learning the instrument. This...isn't that. Not for me.
 
hrdboild said:
Rock Band (Warhawk) = 5 "Playing music and playing a music game are such oil and vinegar experiences that I have a tough time even talking about this style of game. To me this is a programmer's idea of what music is -- did you play each note correctly? Then you win! Umm, no. I guess the same could apply to PaRappa above but timing rhymes to the beat is actually a skill that I don't mind being graded on and PaRappa doesn't take itself too seriously."
Click to expand...

I played these kinds of rhythm games a bit at parties in college, and as a drummer, I will say that you can learn a number of important principles of drumming from games like Rock Band: keeping time, isolating limbs, wrist control, etc. It's obviously not an expressive way to play music. You don't have the freedom to "play it your way". But if you've never held a guitar or sat behind a drum kit before, it's not the worst way to expose beginners to some basic musical principles. Most musicians spend a considerable amount of time "covering" their favorite songs, trying to "play each note correctly", before they discover their own voices. Mimicry is an enormous part of the creative process when you're just starting out, so I say 👍👍 to games like Rock Band, especially if we're going to be a nation that continues to slash funding for the arts in schools. It's a relatively inexpensive entry point, given the cost for private lessons.
 
These list both largely dabble outside of my style. Warhawk takes it on the power of DiabloIV and Rock Band. OG Rock Band was a staple in high school.

Hate to vote against Red & Blue, but alas…
 
Warhawk said:
Just a note on this - as I believe mentioned, I have NO MUSICAL TALENT whatsoever. 🤣

For me this is not learning how to play an instrument or become a musician, it is more of a challenge of a game that happens to have music. Just like Unreal Tournament 2004 doesn't train me to become an alien soldier that can snipe enemies with a shock rifle, I don't expect Rock Band to turn me into a guitar virtuoso. It's all just for fun. I don't take this seriously either as any kind of musical training or whatever.

I had never even heard of Rocksmith before - that sounds a little more like actually learning how to play. If so, and I had unlimited time on my island, that would have been an option if I actually wanted to work on learning the instrument. This...isn't that. Not for me.
Click to expand...

Oh absolutely, none of my rankings are meant to indicate which games I think are objectively better, just my own preferences. I know that Super Mario Bros is a good game, for instance. Way too many people like it for it to be a bad game. There's nothing wrong with liking Rock Band and I even see reasons why it would be helpful in getting people interested in playing an instrument or just enjoying their friends and enjoying music in a more interactive way.

That's why it's hard for me to talk about it. All I'm saying here is that I don't personally like these games and that's because of how I think about music and the way that it is usually taught. I'm 100% a play-by-ear self-taught musician and I think that learning to play music needn't be any harder than learning to talk if we just let go of the idea that there are right and wrong ways to do it and also that there are good and bad musicians. There's no one else out there who talks and thinks exactly like you and if you choose to play an instrument or sing or write songs or whatever there's no one else who would do it exactly like you. Which is awesome and I would say it's the whole point.

These types of rhythm games provide a framework within which there is a right and wrong way to do it and this is already such a dominant ideology in the world of music creation that I'm a little perturbed it continues to be reinforced. Oh and the skill that needs to be learned to play music is hand-ear coordination not hand-eye coordination so in some ways games like this can be counter-productive to the whole process of getting better since they might train you to be overly reliant on using your eyes to perfect your timing.

I would love to design a board game where players learn how to play an instrument (something cheap like a recorder for instance) through experimentation and play just so more folks can see that they can do it and that it can be an enjoyable way to express yourself instead of a source of performance anxiety. Especially young people. But I started thinking about that before Covid and now I'm more conscious that sharing a mouth instrument is a problem so I guess it would have to come with one for each player... so it starts to get too expensive to sell at that point so I'm not sure.

And also, I'm just one vote. :) Oh and I won't mention my overall list rankings for everyone's list but I had your list at #1 so this didn't hurt you in any way from my POV.
 
Last edited:
hrdboild said:
Oh absolutely, none of my rankings are meant to indicate which games I think are objectively better, just my own preferences. I know that Super Mario Bros is a good game, for instance. Way too many people like it for it to be a bad game. There's nothing wrong with liking Rock Band and I even see reasons why it would be helpful in getting people interested in playing an instrument or just enjoying their friends and enjoying music in a more interactive way.

That's why it's hard for me to talk about it. All I'm saying here is that I don't personally like these games and that's because of how I think about music and the way that it is usually taught. I'm 100% a play-by-ear self-taught musician and I think that learning to play music needn't be any harder than learning to talk if we just let go of the idea that there are right and wrong ways to do it and also that there are good and bad musicians. There's no one else out there who talks and thinks exactly like you and if you choose to play an instrument or sing or write songs or whatever there's no one else who would do it exactly like you. Which is awesome and I would say it's the whole point.

These types of rhythm games provide a framework within which there is a right and wrong way to do it and this is already such a dominant ideology in the world of music creation that I'm a little perturbed it continues to be reinforced. I would love to design a board game where players learn how to play an instrument (something cheap like a recorder for instance) through experimentation and play just so more folks can see that they can do it and that it can be an enjoyable way to express yourself instead of a source of performance anxiety. Especially young people. But I started thinking about that before Covid and now I'm more conscious that sharing a mouth instrument is a problem so I guess it would have to come with one for each player... so it starts to get too expensive to sell at that point so I'm not sure.

And also, I'm just one vote. :)
Click to expand...
Yeah, no worries! I understand completely where you are coming from. I just wanted to share my approach with choosing this game.
 
Spike said:
I mean, you did steal some games that were clearly on my list.
Click to expand...
hrdboild said:
I'll just keep the same format for all of these... I'm going to rank all 30 games based on how much I think I would enjoy them and add up the scores to pick the winner.

  1. Half-Life (Warhawk) = 30 "A stone cold classic and right in my 1995-2000 wheelhouse. I had to uninstall every other game on my hard drive to be able to install this back in 1998 but it was worth it."
  2. Unreal Tournament 2004 (Warhawk) = 29 "I was planning to pick an Unreal Tournament game for my list and ultimately did not, so this makes up for that."
  3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Spike) = 28 "One of the few games here that I actually played in its arcade format. I would play the heck out of this to this day. Especially 4-player."
  4. PaRappaTheRapper (Spike) = 27 "I played this only one time in 8th grade, handing off the controller between friends until we passed each level and its still one of my favorite gaming memories."
  5. Sim City 2000 (Warhawk) = 26 "There was a time when I probably would have listed this as my favorite game."
  6. Ms. Pac Man (Spike) = 25 "Never played it. But it's still Pac-Man at its core right? So I can't rank it lower than this."
  7. Half-Life 2 (Warhawk) = 24 "Improves on the original in many ways, but less of a formative experience for me so it ranks a little lower."
  8. NHL '96 (Spike) = 23 "I had NHL '95 back in the day. Moreso than other sports, ice hockey is a game that is just a natural fit for video game simulation. And I'm watching a lot more NHL games now so I'd for sure give this a go."
  9. Command & Conquer: Generals (Warhawk) = 22 "Played this only a couple times, but I like the series and the 3D terrain here actually looks better than the old sprite-based graphics (which was not always true of other strategy games that made the leap from 2D to 3D)."
  10. NBA2K (Spike) = 21 "They've gotten pretty over the top with the RPG style gameplay modes and virtual currency store but I like that you drafted the first one, back when the focus was just on the basketball gameplay."
  11. Descent: Anniversary Edition (Warhawk) = 20 "A first person shooter where you weren't tethered to the ground but could rotate completely upside down. Was this the first space shooter? I'd still play this though I would have to get a joystick first."
  12. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Spike) = 19 "Spike is keeping the Sega Genesis alive in this draft. I'm still bad at this game but I had more time to perfect my skills than I did with the NES and SNES platformer games and there's a lot about the Sonic games that I still like. Visual style, music, speed."
  13. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (Warhawk) = 18 "The graphics have not aged well and the level designs often confused me but it is Star Wars."
  14. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Spike) = 17 "I've played this one a little bit and have mixed feelings about the Lego games. It's cute to see familiar stuff done Lego but a lot of the gameplay is not that fun to me. And half of this game is the Prequel Trilogy which is... not my favorite."
  15. Diablo IV (Warhawk) = 16 "I loved the original Diablo but already Diablo II started to feel too big. This looks better than Diablo III but these days Blizzard games seem to be designed around bleeding money out of people through microtransactions which is gross. The Rogue class is back though so I'd at least be willing to try it."
  16. Pocket Tanks Deluxe (Warhawk) = 15 "I really like this style of game. I played Dome Wars in middle school and a lot of Worms: Armageddon with my brother. If we play Worms now though we only ever play the game mode we invented called Super Sheep Wars where we remove all of the weapons except the Super Sheep and the construction materials and you spend your first 5 turns building an impenetrable fortress and the rest trying to take out the other player's Death Star base by steering a Super Sheep up their exhaust port. Good times."
  17. Pokemon Red / Blue (Spike) = 14 "The only Pokemon game I've played. It's fun but got repetitive. There's the outline here of something I would like but I wish the story was more engrossing. Collecting stuff and beating progressively harder trainers is a little more gym time than game to me."
  18. Quake (Spike) = 13 "I barely played this but it's got the look and feel of the gaming era and platform that I'm most familiar with so there's a comfort food quality to this one."
  19. MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (Warhawk) = 12 "Same as Quake I've barely played it despite my favorite game ever being this design team's thematic re-working of the same game engine. I do love a good mech battle though."
  20. BurgerTime (Spike) = 11 "Initially this game looked like a joke but the more I watched a playthrough, the more it grew on me. It looks like a stoner's fever dream but also one I would like to play."
  21. Street Fighter II: Champion Edition (Spike) = 10 "Did I really rank Street Fighter II this low? It's the fighting game in many ways but that's not a style of game I want to play much."
  22. Portal (Warhawk) = 9 "So I've only watched this game played and I don't really get what's fun about it. Blasphemy I know. It's a genius idea for a game but has that Tetris vibe of being too puzzley and repetitive for me. Also this isn't the Portal game that has a song by 'The National' in it so I can't give you extra points for that."
  23. BioShock (Warhawk) = 8 "Okay so as a Deus Ex fan I should love this but both System Shock 2 and BioShock were off-putting to me in some way. I can't explain why."
  24. Dungeon Siege (Warhawk) = 7 "Perhaps the most startling of startling admissions yet, I don't really like dungeons nor dragons as thematic material. I am that weirdo who enjoys Lord of the Rings mostly because of the historical allusions. This looks like a standard hack n' slash party-based game in the vein of a Diablo clone. I'd play it but don't have huge expectations."
  25. Dragon's Lair (Spike) = 6 "Wow, what even is this? This is a weird one to have to rank. I can see the direct lineage to a lot of games that I do enjoy but the gameplay element seems lacking. Cool concept though."
  26. Rock Band (Warhawk) = 5 "Playing music and playing a music game are such oil and vinegar experiences that I have a tough time even talking about this style of game. To me this is a programmer's idea of what music is -- did you play each note correctly? Then you win! Umm, no. I guess the same could apply to PaRappa above but timing rhymes to the beat is actually a skill that I don't mind being graded on and PaRappa doesn't take itself too seriously."
  27. Minecraft (Spike) = 4 "I probably would have loved this if it came out when I was younger. There's enough of that Sim City / Lego lineage. And I love seeing what creative people do with it. But having never played it, the prospect of stepping into that world now is intimidating."
  28. Dead or Alive 2 (Spike) = 3 "I do like the look of early 3D fighting games, I can see the appeal."
  29. Super Mario World (Spike) = 2 "Well it's Mario Bros but bigger and a lot more complex. Mostly I remember being bored out of my mind watching other people play this and wishing we were outside playing baseball or swimming instead."
  30. MarioKart (Warhawk) = 1 "This might be the only game I hate more than Super Mario Bros. At least in Super Mario I lose because I did something wrong. What if there were a racing game where driving well is a mistake and you win by making everyone else miserable? This is that game."
Final Score: WARHAWK = 242 defeats SPIKE = 223
Click to expand...
Burger Time was not just a fever dream for stoners, but fat kids as well. All I ever wanted was to make burgers.
 
This one's tough. Seeing Super Mario World on display in a department store as a kid probably significantly impacted my life. Also, I love a good sandbox, and Minecraft is the boxiest of sandboxes.

Sweeping Valve games was a strong move for Warhawk though. Portal is a game I could recommend to anybody. Half-Life was a step change in scripted level design, and the mod scene was crazy. So many games on my list owe a debt to Half-Life 2 for introducing physics-engine based gameplay (and introducing Steam, though initially results were mixed.)

A real pity that the story for HL2 was broken by Valve deprioritizing game development.
 
whitechocolate said:
The arcade version of Burger Time is available for PS4 and Switch.

www.arcadearchives.com

Arcade Archives Burger Time | Arcade Archives | HAMSTER Corporation

"Burger Time" is an action game released by Data East in 1982.The goal is to make burgers by stepping on the giant ingredients to drop them onto the plates below.Defeat the enemy pickles and wieners by trapping them between the burger ingredients!
www.arcadearchives.com www.arcadearchives.com
Click to expand...
Yeah, but it's not like anybody would have ever packed up their Intellivision over the past 50 years😀
 
Warhawk said:
I just picked the format I had played it on. I had no idea other platforms had different content. 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
I went from the biggest anti-DLC hater to waiting for weekly announcements what was coming out next week. I beat the endless setlists on RB both RB 1 & 2 solo guitar and vox. I was pretty obsessed with RB.
 
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