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GameFAQs contest ends in surprise victory

Over the past ten years (2000-2009 to be clear), thousands upon thousands of games have been released. Some great, some terrible, most somewhere in between. Many new systems have launched, old systems have faded, sales records have been broken, and more and more people have gotten into gaming. As difficult as it could be to choose just one game out of the thousands released across over a dozen systems, GameFAQs hosted a user vote-off contest to do just that. Despite the fact that the Nintendo 64 sold a quarter of its rival, it's home to the game that users voted Game of the Decade: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

This leaves just one question: Why this game? Fans seem pretty split over it; some say it's the best Zelda game ever, others claim it as the worst. I'm a part of the latter crowd, and am definitely surprised to see Majora's Mask win. Personally, I find it to be the worst Zelda entry, which doesn't mean it's a bad game since even the worst Zelda title is better than 80% of games out there. It has a lot of poor design decisions that really hold the game back, chief among them the time system that strips everything from the player, forcing the replaying of many tedious segments over and over and over throughout the game. It also did away with the save-anywhere feature, requiring a couple hours to play the game in order to get anywhere. The final dungeon also thinks its clever but it's really just the height of tedium.

However, this isn't about the game itself. I'll cover that in depth when I get to the letter L. Why did people vote for this game? There have certainly been more popular games released over the past ten years, not to mention higher-rated titles, including, but far from limited to Super Mario Galaxy, Call of Duty series, Halo series, Final Fantasy franchise. There have also been two console Zelda games released, both of which have received more fandom than Majora's Mask ever had.

My best guess? As a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, a game which is ineligible due to its earlier release date, Majora's Mask probably received many votes from the legion of fans who claim the original Nintendo 64 Zelda adventure as the greatest game of all time. Not to mention, the Zelda series is one of the longest-running and most popular franchises around, so many people probably voted for it just because it is Zelda. Though it is rather interesting that Majora's Mask went head-to-head with The Wind Waker and emerged victorious, as I would have thought that The Wind Waker had even more loyal fans.

The results have me conflicted. It's great to see the Nintendo 64 be recognized, but the game involved is far from the one I would have chosen. Although few Nintendo 64 games were released in this past decade, it still had greats like Perfect Dark, Banjo-Tooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and others. All three were actually in the contest, as well as WWF No Mercy, but were knocked out in their first round. Paper Mario actually made it to round three, but it didn't stand a chance against Metal Gear Solid 3. Still, perhaps I should just be happy simply because it was a Nintendo 64 game. Even if it's one I don't personally care for, it is nice to finally see the Nintendo 64 recognized for greatness rather than lynched for its perceived failures.

And hey, at least the abysmal disgrace Super Smash Brothers Brawl didn't win!