I pretty much voted based on games that meant a lot to me or are personal favorites. And also voted against people with games that I didn't care much for.

Alright, an explanation of my choices, even though it might be too late.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion is one of the best games. That sentence was not missing a clause or a modifier. Morrowind hooked me, and Oblivion delivered what is, to me, the finest game experience I've ever had. I've spent 100+ hours on it and then put it away because it was simply too good and was draining too much of my time. This is the reason I haven't even looked into the DLC: I am simply frightened of how good it would be.

Mario Kart 64 (N64). I think the Mario Kart series is arguably the best non-simulation race series in history. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but MK64 was simply the one I played the most. I'd even say that part of what made Mario Kart DS so great was the inclusion of MK64-style levels.

Fallout 3 (PS3). This is a game I'm playing now and while it's not as immediately great as Oblivion, I've had a lot of fun with and I can see myself playing it again as a bad character. That means, more than likely, this is another 100 hours game. That's hard to argue with.

Donkey Kong Country (SNES). Honestly, this one was completely off my radar until I was at a relative's house who had DKC on the VC. It took a few minutes, but eventually my old skills came back. While the graphics blown up on a huge plasma screen don't hold up, the fun does.

Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox) Here's a game I liked and played but simply wasn't good at it. But I've heard enough praise from friends and elsewhere that I figured I should include it since I didn't have any straight-up action games.

Burnout Revenge (Xbox 360). I had a ton of fun with this and the online portion of it really took it past the older titles.

Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox). Here I wanted to shed some light on an old, great game that some people may have forgotten. If you've never played this, you're missing out on a lot and the cel-shaded graphics will still hold up. I liked this better than the original.

Metroid Prime 2 (GC). A game I've never played but included to please Metroid fans and FPS fans.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves (Neo Geo) At this point, I wanted to include a fighting game. Street Fighter and its iterations were obvious, safe picks (although I admit I would've picked MvC2 if it had lasted this long). This was a game that only a minority of fighting game fans would know.

PixelJunk Monsters (PS3). Bar none, the most addictive game on the PS3. Imagine Desktop Tower Defense, but filtered through Babar cartoons via the South Pacific Islands.

Right there with you on MK64 and Burnout, Bus.

I was honestly surprised no one grabbed Paradise.

I took a decent amount of time on my picks. I actually made my picks as I went through my explanations. Some of them I was still flip-flopping while writing. It was fun trying to give weight to certain titles over others.

I didn't write out a very detailed analysis, but I have spent a lot of time (at work) looking at the various "teams." I don't think it has to take a lot of reflection for most of the match ups to decide. I think it is perfectly valid to just look at the lists and make a snap judgment on which list you like more. On the other hand, some choices were very tough. I haven't played more than half of the games listed, but I very much want to play some of them. Also, a nice thing about this "tournament" is that it gives people exposure to a lot of different games they may not have heard of before now.

Stealing someone's pick always feels good

I'm not. I thought it was a step back for the series.

I thought so too until I really put a good amount of time into it. Theres some things I don't like (it's way too easy to crash into traffic coming out of nowhere), but overall, between a solid game and great free DLC, it's pretty good.

I noticed some of mine were quite different to most so I'll try and explain my individual picks when I have some time. Gotta go to work now!

My criteria were games that I want to play today. So there are some games that are too archaic for me to get into. Many of the 8 bit or earlier games fall into this. Secondly, there are tons of classic games that are really highly rated that just hold no interest (probably I even played them at some point but didn't get into them). These include games like Animal Crossing, the GTA series. Anyway, I'll post again later, hopefully it's not too controversial .

^ wow. He must really have had to go to work.

I was waiting for someone else to say it since I come off like a broken record around here about it.

Maybe I'll give it another shot when I can get it for $10 so I can check out all the DLC.

Well I thought 3>Paradise, clearly, but I though Paradise was a lot of fun (and I got it at $25 I believe), and I got a lot of good play out of it. 3 is still the best racing game I've played IMO, and was one of the few picks that I missed out on because I sat on it too long.

Paradise is fun for some of the things that they added, such as the challenges. however I think that Revenge and earlier entries were better.

At a bargin price, Paradise is a fun game. At full retail price of $60, maybe not so much.

A great, great series of games, only two of which I haven't played. GTA4 is probably the best of the series although it is the least revolutionary: it built on its predecessors but it's not leaps and bounds beyond the previous installment. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

Soul Calibur I always liked but I thought it was slightly overrated: I always preferred the weapon combat of the Last Blade series, and for sheer fun I'd go with Dead or Alive. (Come to think of it, that should've been my 9th pick).

SSX3 I actually played over the weekend thanks to edstein's post. It offered the best single-player experience of all the titles and it was deliciously frustrating. I don't think I've ever cursed at a game so much. When I played it again, I noticed my skills were a bit rusty.

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 is a nice pick, but it is puzzling: the next two sequels are much better, and THPS3 has the best 2-player graffiti level in the entire series: the cruise ship. This would've been stronger with THPS3 or THPS4.

Jet Set/Grind Radio: Another great game, but one that was improved in the sequel. One of my favorites on the Dreamcast.

Call of Duty 2 was one of the 360 launch titles I got and it didn't disappoint. I wasn't a big fan of the multiplayer, however, and I never got good enough at the game to play on Veteran.

The NHL series of hockey is great, and the Genesis ports are the definitive versions: something was lost on them on the SNES. But again... why '93? I always assumed '94 to '96 were the classics, and '96 was the one I played the most.

I'm surprised there was only one pick from the Twisted Metal series. While I never played the first, I really enjoyed TM2 and TMB and have unfortunately been eagerly awaiting a sequel that has never materialized. In this case, I think both games are equally great.

All great picks, just a number of them seem slightly off.

Right off the bat, I have to say I'm unfamiliar/haven't played with Kid Icarus, Earthbound, Tekken 3, and Shenmue (for the most part). Samba de Amigo I actually tried on the Dreamcast once: I thought it was so terrible I never put it in again.

BUT... Super Mario 3 is among the best in the franchise. Star Fox was a revelation on the SNES, and Blast Corps is one of the most underrated games on the N64. Plus, it's hard to deny the greatness of Geometry Wars 2 and PGR2.

Well said Groucho.

DVDChris vs. Fandango: Two solid line-ups but neither really grabs me by the throat. I give it to Fandango, but it's a close one.

Michael Corvin vs. Spainlinx0: SMG, Prince of Persia, Eternal Darkness, Tomb Raider, Okami, and Phantom Hourglass are all solid picks. I like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Banjo Kazooie a lot, but they just can't overcome Michael Corvin's list.

edstein vs. Groucho: I like many of edstein's choices, but I have to give Groucho credit (and the round) not just for going old-school in his first two picks, but for picking Kid Icarus. That game is old school awesome.

The Bus vs. Jeremy 517: The Bus shills for Bethesda with two incredible RPGs from the software house. Jeremy 517's list has a bunch of great games, but I don't think it can overcome the one-two punch of Oblivion and Fallout. The Bus gets my vote.

Lordwow vs. Orangecrush18: Another matchup of two extremely solid lists. On the strength of Portal and Mass Effect, I'm going to give it to Lordwow.

Vryce vs. JasonF: JasonF is a mad genius with the game-chosing skills of some sort of game-chosing sensei. Vryce turns in a very solid effort that would be a contender in any other match-up, but he falls before the mighty list of JasonF.

Mattysemo247 vs. cruzness: Psychonauts vs. Beyond Good and Evil? Half Life 2 vs. Resistance 2? Twilight Princess vs. Assassin's Creed? This game tears at my soul. cruzness gets the nod for recognizing the genius that is Dead Space.

Raul3 vs. jdpatri: It's purely a matter of taste, but jdpatri's list just didn't do it for me. Raul3 wins my vote.

Fortunately for you, I have no friends.

Oh wait ... I mean

Picked up for $20 and am having a blast with it. 3 is still greater but it is a great value if you can find it cheap.

I believe he meant, for the draft.

Well yeah, obviously.

Never played: RE4, FFT, ESPN, Rogue Squadron, MVP Baseball.

I really liked Mass Effect (although I haven't finished it) and Portal is of course awesome (although slightly overrated). But Zombies Ate My Neighbors for the SNES? The Genesis one was uncensored, IIRC.

Sonic 2 I liked a lot and Super Mario World is probably the best out of the entire series (although not my favorite).

I have to say I'm not a fan on your first pick. I played it on PC, but I needed a friend to sit beside me and tell me what to do. I just didn't have the patience to play it by myself. Still, I beat it, and I liked it, I just never went back to any FF games. And SSBB? Let's just say I don't get why its popular.

I've also never played Panzer Dragoon or God of War 2.

But your other picks are spot on: Halo 2, Rock Band, Mario Kart, MvC2, Tetris, Sonic... All great games.

Your list has more games I've played and liked, but lordwow's has SMW, the best game out of all 20.

I was surprised by some of the versions of games selected by various people. I chalk it up to people picking the version of the games they played.

There was red blood (if you consider using red blood uncensored) in Zombies for Genesis, but there also was a black bar on the right side of the screen in the Genesis version, and the controls were better on the SNES version.