It’s round 3 of the playoffs! 256 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

All songs

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PLEASE LISTEN TO BOTH SONGS IN A MATCH BEFORE VOTING

Voting will be live until Monday, June 1st at 9:00am Pacific

Previous Round’s Results:

Kirby Super Star	Gourmet Race	14	4	Jazz Jackrabbit 2	Tubelectric
SaGa Frontier II	Besessenheit (Obsession)	2	14	Chrono Cross	Home Village Arni
Banjo-Kazooie	Mad Monster Mansion	5	13	Final Fantasy Tactics	Run Past Through the Plain
Banjo-Kazooie	Click Clock Wood (Spring)	4	12	Moon: Remix RPG Adventure	I’m Waiting for the Night (MoonDisc Version)
Discworld 2	That’s Death	9	8	Chrono Cross	Another Guldove
Final Fantasy VIII	Blue Fields	10	7	Castlevania: Symphony of the Night	Wood Carving Partita
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time	Forest Temple	7	12	Chrono Cross	Dilemma
Banjo-Kazooie	Mutie-Snippets	3	12	Parasite Eve	Influence of Deep
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time	Kakario Village	10	9	Star Ocean: The Second Story	We Form in Crystals
Marvel vs Capcom	War Machine’s Theme	4	12	Pokemon Red / Blue	Trainer battle
Wild Arms	Into the Wilderness	12	4	Skies of Arcadia	Kingdom of Ixa’Taka
Chrono Cross	People Imprisoned by Fate	9	10	Metal Gear Solid	Encounter
Moon: Remix RPG Adventure	Simone (MoonDisc Version)	12	4	Final Fantasy VII	World Crisis [Ending Theme]
Diablo II	Tristram Village	8	10	Castlevania: Symphony of the Night	Waltz of the Pearls
The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time	Title Theme	17	5	Yoshi’s Story	Title & Prologue
Super Mario RPG	Barrel Volcano	10	10	I.Q.: Intelligent Qube	Stage 1

Just the one tie this time. Super Mario RPG – Barrel Volcano defeats I.Q.: Intelligent Qube – Stage 1.

 

Fun Stats About The Top 256

[spoiler]

Top 256 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.

The proportions we started with are well and truly scrambled now. There is no longer a noticeable bias in favor of early groups over latter. Some early groups have been green the whole way through, suggesting that they might have been legitimately strong. Group 11 has managed to grow every time despite starting from a pretty strong place; I think that might have been our strongest group.

Top 256 by game:

(Songs in bold lost at least half their nominees this round. Songs in bolded italics lost at least two thirds)

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

Despite suffering its first loss in the final day of the last round, Chrono Cross has become the new clubhouse leader, passing Final Fantasy VII by 1 song. 

We’ve also had some paper tigers suffer massive losses. Super Mario RPG lost the most in absolute terms, with 10 of its 18 songs falling. But Xenogears, Banjo-Kazooie, Pokemon Red/Blue, Sonic Adventure, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, and Um Jammer Lammy have also suffered noticeably disproportionate losses. I take at least three of those as personal slights. 

But while leaving it to Lammy might be a poor strategy, belief is undefeated. PaRappa the Rapper is at 6 songs, same as it was in Round 2, Round 1, and after nominations. Not a single PaRappa song has left this whole tournament! A very impressive accomplishment for a multi-song game. We’ll see if the young pup on the block can keep it up. 

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