We're kicking off the Negative World March Madness: Third Party Edition, where our favorite non-Nintendo games go head to head and only one may prevail. The matchups are as follows:

(1) Final Fantasy VI vs. (16) Soul Calibur II
(8) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood vs. (9) Mega Man 3
(4) Ghost Trick Phantom Detective vs. (13) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles
(5) Illusion of Gaia vs. (12) Conker's Bad Fur Day

(2) Resident Evil 2 vs. (15) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
(7) Professor Layton and the Curious Village vs. (10) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
(3) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals vs. (14) Okami
(6) Mega Man X vs. (11) Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

Vote for the game that you think should win the matchup. Please vote on every matchup. Not having played a game does not disqualify you from voting. If a game has appeared on multiple platforms, use your discretion in choosing which version to consider. Please cast your votes in the following format, bolding the game that you choose to advance:

(1) Game 1 vs. (8) Game 8
(4) Game 4 vs. (5) Game 5

Polls are open until Tuesday, March 17th, 2015 at 11:59 PM EST. Enjoy!

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(1) Final Fantasy VI vs. (16) Soul Calibur II
(8) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood vs. (9) Mega Man 3
(4) Ghost Trick Phantom Detective vs. (13) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles
(5) Illusion of Gaia vs. (12) Conker's Bad Fur Day

(2) Resident Evil 2 vs. (15) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
(7) Professor Layton and the Curious Village vs. (10) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
(3) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals vs. (14) Okami
(6) Mega Man X vs. (11) Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

Posted by

TheBigG753

on: 03/16/15, 11:48

(1) Final Fantasy VI vs. (16) Soul Calibur II
(8) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood vs. (9) Mega Man 3
(4) Ghost Trick Phantom Detective vs. (13) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles
(5) Illusion of Gaia vs. (12) Conker's Bad Fur Day

(2) Resident Evil 2 vs. (15) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
(7) Professor Layton and the Curious Village vs. (10) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
(3) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals vs. (14) Okami
(6) Mega Man X vs. (11) Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

A few tough choices there... especially the first - but for a game i loved for quick bouts or long battle sessions VS a game I still have yet to finish because of the random battles - I pick the fighter -

Posted by

Smerd

on: 03/16/15, 20:06

(1) Final Fantasy VI vs. (16) Soul Calibur II
(8) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood vs. (9) Mega Man 3
(4) Ghost Trick Phantom Detective vs. (13) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles
(5) Illusion of Gaia vs. (12) Conker's Bad Fur Day

(2) Resident Evil 2 vs. (15) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
(7) Professor Layton and the Curious Village vs. (10) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
(3) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals vs. (14) Okami
(6) Mega Man X vs. (11) Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

Notes:
- I'll take FFVI against any game. Any. Easy choice right there.
- Mega Man 3 is my favorite Mega Man game. Another easy choice.
- I've never played Ghost Trick, so Sonic 3 & Knuckles wins by default.
- I've never played Conker, and what little I've played of Illusion of Gaia was great.

- Resident Evil 2 is one of the best in the series. Easy choice.
- Curious Village is the worst Layton game (it's still good) while Order of Ecclesia is a solid portable Castlevania game. Tough call since I adored both, but I went with OoE.
- I haven't played Lufia II much, and I loved Okami.
- Layton here, and this was a hard choice. However, the end of Unwound Future was gut-wrenching and left more of a lasting impression on me.

Posted by

ludist210

on: 03/16/15, 22:35

@TriforceBun I would imagine that many people just haven't played Lufia II, given the difficulty in obtaining a legit copy. And I also suspect that there will be a higher number of people who haven't played some of these games than in last year's Nintendo contest, so we'll probably see a lot of these sorts of matchups.

Posted by

Mop it up

on: 03/17/15, 00:31

(1) Final Fantasy VI vs. (16) Soul Calibur II
(8) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood vs. (9) Mega Man 3
(4) Ghost Trick Phantom Detective vs. (13) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles
(5) Illusion of Gaia vs. (12) Conker's Bad Fur Day

(2) Resident Evil 2 vs. (15) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
(7) Professor Layton and the Curious Village vs. (10) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
(3) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals vs. (14) Okami
(6) Mega Man X vs. (11) Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

EDIT:
- My notes:

- One of the best fighting games of all time, against a rather ho-hum (IMO) RPG? Easy choice.
- I love Mega Man, but I love Castlevania more.
- An interesting, innovative adventure game with a unique hook, versus a dumb Sonic game? Easy choice.
- Never played Conker, so Gaia wins by default.

- This was a really tough call, but I decided on Capcom's game mostly due to nostalgia. (and it's awesome, so there's that too)
- Castlevania wins easily.
- I didn't really love Okami all that much, but Lufia II is awesome. Easy choice.
- There are few games better than Mega Man X. Another easy choice.

Seems the only difficult choice for me was Resident Evil 2 and The Sands of Time. Hopefully they are all this easy going forward.

Posted by

GameDadGrant

on: 03/17/15, 00:51

Edited:

03/17/15, 01:06

(1) Final Fantasy VI vs. (16) Soul Calibur II
(8) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood vs. (9) Mega Man 3
(4) Ghost Trick Phantom Detective vs. (13) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles*
(5) Illusion of Gaia vs. (12) Conker's Bad Fur Day

(2) Resident Evil 2 vs. (15) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time*
(7) Professor Layton and the Curious Village vs. (10) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia*
(3) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals vs. (14) Okami
(6) Mega Man X vs. (11) Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

A * means I have not played either of the games. Generally pretty easy picks though.

Posted by

Pokefreak911

on: 03/17/15, 11:32

(1) Final Fantasy VI vs. (16) Soul Calibur II
(8) Castlevania: Rondo of Blood vs. (9) Mega Man 3
(4) Ghost Trick Phantom Detective vs. (13) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles
(5) Illusion of Gaia vs. (12) Conker's Bad Fur Day

(2) Resident Evil 2 vs. (15) Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
(7) Professor Layton and the Curious Village vs. (10) Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
(3) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals vs. (14) Okami
(6) Mega Man X vs. (11) Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

2 Castlevania game put up,and I couldn't vote for either of them!?!? Their competition was just too good.

Posted by

Beardednerd

on: 03/17/15, 13:46

5 hours to vote, y'all.

Posted by

Jargon

on: 03/18/15, 01:00