Best Video Game Song Tournament, 1996-2000: Playoffs, Round 2 (Part 1 of 16)

It’s round 2 of the playoffs! 512 songs remain, and will face off in groups of 32 per day. No more byes, so all the heaviest hitters are here!

Since it’s the playoffs, groups will be active until 9:00 am Pacific the day after they post, or for roughly 24 hours. You can listen to a playlist of today’s songs (in matchup order) here.

Or you can work ahead!
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Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15 

Round 16 

All songs

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PLEASE LISTEN TO BOTH SONGS IN A MATCH BEFORE VOTING

Voting will be live until Thursday, May 7th at 9:00am Pacific

Previous Round’s Results:

Blast Corps Beeton Tracks 10 3 Tactics Ogre (PSX)
Theme of Black Knight
Shenmue
A New Departure
7 3 Christmas NiGHTS
Dream Bells ~Christmas NiGHTS Event~
Legend of Mana
Pain the Universe
9 1 Fallout Radiation Storm
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure
Song Of Silver Tsumugi Threads (MoonDisc Version)
7 3 Tekken 2 Nina’s Theme
Xenogears Wings 4 6 Vandal Hearts Burning Sorrow
Blade Runner (1997) Blues 2 11 Vagrant Story Ogre
Command & Conquer: Red Alert Floating 7 6 Wild Arms 2
The Town to the Western Winds
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 Quiet Curves 4 10 Final Fantasy VII
Interrupted By Fireworks
Zill O’ll Fierce Battle 8 8 Final Fantasy IX Limited Time
Final Fantasy VIII The Oath 9 7 The Curse of Monkey Island Stan Returns
Command and Conquer: Red Alert Hell March 8 5 Mega Man 8 Astro Man
Duke Nukem 3D
Main Theme (Grabbag)
4 8 Blade Runner (1997) Love Theme
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure Someday 4 8 Deus Ex Main Theme
Shenmue
Shenhua (Original Version)
9 2 The Neverhood
Southern Front Porch Whistler
Quest for Glory IV
Dr. Cranium’s Laboratory
9 3 Metal Gear Solid Cavern

In Tie World, I’ve broken in favor of Zill O’ll – Fierce Battle over Final Fantasy IX – Limited Time.

Fun Stats About The Top 512

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Top 512 by group:

I’ve decided listing this out by raw number isn’t interesting; for me at least, the point of tracking groups is to see if “reputation” holds out, ie do the groups that started with the biggest shares stay that way, or do the “weak” groups hold their own? So I’m tracking this in Sheets here. I’m listing group representation as a percentage; for each round, every group “should” have ~4.55%. Groups above that number are overperforming (highlighted green), groups below are under (red). I’m also using lighter shades for groups that fell but are still above 4.55%, and groups that rose but are still below.

Over and underperformers started out very unevenly distributed. The first 9 groups were all over, but after that only 11 and 18 joined them. But even after 1 round we can start to see that shift. Almost all of the first 9 fell, with some even falling below the line. Meanwhile, most of the latter rounds rose, though so far none have broken over that weren’t already there.

Top 512 by game:

  • 27 songs:
    • Final Fantasy VII [-1]
  • 20 songs:
    • Chrono Cross
    • Moon: Remix RPG Adventure [-6]
  • 18 songs:
    • Super Mario RPG [-1]
  • 17 songs:
    • Final Fantasy Tactics
  • 15 songs:
    • Final Fantasy IX [-4]
  • 14 songs:
    • Final Fantasy VIII
    • Xenogears [-2]
  • 13 songs:
    • Banjo-Kazooie [-2]
    • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night [-1]
  • 11 songs:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  • 10 songs:
    • The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
  • 9 songs:
    • Pokemon Red/Blue [-2]
  • 8 songs:
    • Brave Fencer Musashi
    • Sonic Adventure [-3]
  • 7 songs:
    • Jet Grind Radio
  • 6 songs:
    • Einhander
    • PaRappa the Rapper
    • Parasite Eve
    • Super Mario 64
  • 5 songs:
    • Diddy Kong Racing [-1]
    • Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
    • Skies of Arcadia [-2]
    • Star Ocean: The Second Story [-3]
    • Um Jammer Lammy [-2]
  • 4 songs:
    • Descent 2 [-2]
    • Diablo II [-1]
    • Kirby Super Star
    • Marvel vs Capcom
    • NiGHTS Into Dreams [-2]
    • Sonic 3D Blast (Genesis)
    • Super Smash Bros. [-1]
    • The Curse of Monkey Island [-4]
    • Vagrant Story
  • 3 songs:
    • Afterlife (LucasArts)
    • Deus Ex [-1]
    • Donkey Kong 64
    • Goldeneye 007 [-1]
    • Guilty Gear
    • Mario Kart 64
    • Mega Man 8 [-1]
    • Persona 2: Eternal Punishment [-1]
    • Persona 2: Innocent Sin [-4]
    • Radical Dreamers
    • Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure [-1]
    • SaGa Frontier
    • SaGa Frontier II
    • Shenmue
    • Suikoden II
    • The Neverhood [-1]
    • Threads of Fate
    • Valkyrie Profile [-3]
    • Wild Arms
    • Wild Arms 2 [-1]
    • Wipeout 2097 [-2]
  • 2 songs:
    • Bahamut Lagoon
    • Bomberman Hero
    • Command & Conquer: Red Alert [-1]
    • Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers [-1]
    • Diablo
    • Enemy Zero
    • Fallout 2
    • Grandia [-1]
    • Grim Fandango
    • Half Life [-1]
    • Interstate ’76 [-2]
    • I.Q.: Intelligent Qube [-1]
    • Jazz Jackrabbit 2 [-3]
    • Kirby’s Dream Land 3
    • Klonoa – Door to Phantomile
    • Koudelka
    • Legend of Mana
    • Marvel vs Capcom 2
    • Metal Gear Solid [-1]
    • Omikron: The Nomad Soul [-1]
    • Outlaws
    • Panzer Dragoon Saga [-1]
    • Planescape: Torment [-1]
    • Pokemon Pinball [-2]
    • Pokemon Silver/Gold
    • R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 [-3]
    • Rockman & Forte
    • Silent Hill [-1]
    • Sonic 3D Blast (Saturn)
    • Sonic R
    • Soul Edge
    • Space Channel 5
    • Starcraft [-2]
    • Star Ocean
    • Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold [-1]
    • Tetris Attack
    • The Sims [-1]
    • Wipeout
    • Wipeout 3 [-1]
    • YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World
  • 1 song:
    • Ace Combat 2
    • Alundra
    • Baldur’s Gate
    • Banjo-Tooie [-1]
    • Blast Corps
    • Blade Runner (1997) [-2]
    • Breath of Fire III
    • Buck Bumble
    • Bushido Blade
    • Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
    • Daikatana
    • Dark Cloud (JPN)
    • Discworld 2
    • DX-Ball 2
    • Dynasty Warriors 2 [-1]
    • Forsaken (PC)
    • Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned [-1]
    • Glover
    • Gran Turismo
    • Langrisser V: The End of Legend
    • Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!
    • Living Books (series)
    • Lunar Silver Star Story Complete (1998)
    • Medal of Honor Underground
    • MegaMan X4 
    • Mischief Makers [-1]
    • Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
    • Paper Mario
    • Phantasy Star Online (JPN) [-1]
    • Quest for Glory IV
    • Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire
    • Resident Evil 2
    • Revelations: Persona
    • Riven
    • Samba de Amigo (Dreamcast)
    • Seaman
    • Skullmonkeys
    • Snowboard Kids
    • Space Station Silicon Valley [-2]
    • Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage!
    • Star Fox 64 [-3]
    • Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike [-2]
    • System Shock 2 [-1]
    • Tactics Ogre (PSX) [-1]
    • Tekken 2 [-1]
    • Tex Murphy: Overseer
    • The Last Express
    • The Misadventures of Tron Bonne [-2]
    • The Operative: No One Lives Forever
    • The Pandora Directive
    • Twisted Metal 2
    • Ultima Online [-1]
    • Unreal Gold
    • Vandal Hearts
    • Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense
    • Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
    • Wave Race 64
    • Yoshi’s Story
    • Zill O’ll
  • Remember The Fallen
    • Christmas NiGHTS
    • Crash Bandicoot
    • Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
    • Crash Team Racing
    • Destruction Derby 2
    • Die Hard Trilogy [-2]
    • Dragon Warrior VII [-2]
    • Duke Nukem 3D
    • Escape from Monkey Island [-2]
    • Extreme-G
    • Fallout
    • Front Mission 3
    • Harvester [-2]
    • Icewind Dale
    • MegaMan Legends [-3]
    • MegaMan X5
    • Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh
    • Policenauts (PSX)
    • Quake II
    • Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
    • Rocket: Robot on Wheels
    • Shining Force III [-2]
    • Shivers II: Harvest of Souls
    • Soul Calibur [-3]
    • Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
    • Titanic: Adventure Out of Time
    • Tomb Raider II
    • Wing Commander: Prophecy [-2]

Our top tier remains largely unchanged, protected in part by many byes. Moon’s fallen a bit in terms of absolute numbers, though. Part of the risk of being an unknown is not having the votes to get as many byes.

Elsewhere, Persona 2: Innocent Sin loses a big chunk of representation (but maybe it just wanted to be next to its sister?), the Monkey Island games encounter rough seas (pirate joke), and my beloved Crash Bandicoot games are completely swept.

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