Video Game March Madness: Franchise Versus Franchise Single Elimination Tournaments

This right here is about as unscientific as it comes.

But it’s March! Springtime! Lions! Lambs! Single-elimination tournaments! All this stuff is in the air. So let’s stack up a bunch of video game franchises and consider them in a multitude of ways: gameplay, mechanics, story, legacy, broader cultural impact, consistency, ambition.

Literal points will not be awarded, but a judgement will nevertheless be rendered. The winner moves on and the loser is consigned to the bargain bin of history. (Not really. These are all terrific franchises that are honored simply by making it this far.You’ll find your Army Men, your Rogue Warriors in the N.I.T.)

It’ll be fun!

West Region

Western Region Mario (1) vs. Virtua Fighter (8)

Virtua Fighter is a scrappy upstart here.

Sure it's a long-lived franchise with five main installments spanning nearly twenty years. It's long held a place of privilege with fighting game connoisseurs who appreciate the hard work and craftsmanship that goes into learning a difficult but rewarding game and a fighter like series headliner Akira.

But it's not enough scrap to upset a powerhouse like the Mario franchise. Since his debut in Donkey Kong nearly 35 years ago, Mario has been one of the most successful and flexible characters in video games from platformers to racing titles to Super Smash Bros. to the RPG-lite of Paper Mario. So Virtua Fighter might have counters and the Stun Palm of Doom, but Mario's headstomp comes out ahead.

WINNER: Mario

Grand Theft Auto (2) vs. Sonic the Hedgehog (7)

Sonic has some diehard fans, without a doubt.

But weighed against other major video game franchises, Sonic hasn't made a serious impact beyond that dedicated fanbase in years. Yes, the original Sonic the Hedgehog is a stone classic, a dizzying mix of speed and whimsy that's still charming as all get out. But rings and Chaos Emeralds can only get you so far.

Grand Theft Auto is by no means flawless, and the highly addictive mix of criminality and freedom that reached an early high water mark in Grand Theft Auto III has worn a bit thin over the years, stretching its adolescent charms a little thin in Grand Theft Auto IV as it overreached for emotional resonance and coming under fire for its bro-y plotline in Grand Theft Auto V.

But the worst Grand Theft Auto game is still good for hours of wide open mayhem and excitement. No contest here.

WINNER: Grand Theft Auto

Metal Gear (3) vs. Gears of War (6)

Metal Gear is so weird.

But it's also consistently shown an ability to deliver the goods in new and unexpected ways, from Psycho Mantis possessing your controller to capturing enemy troops to building your own personal army. Maybe the overarching story makes sense to no one beyond series creator Hideo Kojima. But Kojima and co. show no signs of letting up with the recently released Ground Zeroes and the upcoming The Phantom Pain. The series is uneven, but never to be faulted for ambition.

No one should question Gears' chops when it comes to its innovation early on. It invented the cover-based shooter for all intents and purposes, plus grounded its narrative in a compelling and rich universe that has allowed for iteration after iteration to tap into new characters and situations. But the cover-based shooter and the Horde mode introduced in Gears of War 2 have also become some of the most tired formats in video gaming since Gears' innovated them. You can't fault Gears' overall consistency, but I'll take Metal Gear's skyclimbing clownshoes any day.

WINNER: Metal Gear

Bioshock (4) vs. Tomb Raider (5)

As recently as last year, this would have been a completely different kind of matchup.

The Bioshock series is a critical darling, and garnered plenty of praise and year-end-best consideration for Bioshock: Infinite. Meanwhile, the Tomb Raider series had been through endless attempts to kickstart its heart after its early success on the original PlayStation and on PC before promising a radical makeover in the newest edition, simply titled Tomb Raider.

But BioShock: Infinite's success was not enough to hold developer Irrational Games together and the company folded in late February, with founder Ken Levine's focus shifting to digital download games for Take Two.

The critical powerhouse had fallen. By contrast, Tomb Raider's critical and popular success on the last console generation paved the way for a "Definitive Edition" release on next-gen consoles, re-vivifying the series going forward. Tomb Raider takes this in a mild upset.

WINNER: Tomb Raider

PACIFIC DIVISION Zelda (1) vs. Star Wars (8)

On the one hand, we have a model of consistency and on the other, a set of things so wildly all over the map in terms of quality that it's hard to believe they can be encompassed by one universe.

The Zelda games have long stood as a bulwark against the vicissitudes of the video game industry, whether carrying the series forward into 3D with Ocarina of Time or pushing and eventually winning gamers over with the childlike and cartoon-ish The Wind Waker. Meanwhile, for every Knights of the Old Republic or Battlefront (or Dark Forces, which never seems to get the recognition it deserves), the Star Wars universe has a Force Unleashed II or Masters of Teräs Käsi.

The de facto shuttering of LucasArts as a game developer when the entire Lucasfilm company was purchased by the Walt Disney Company in 2012 seems at best a mixed blessing for the universe in video game terms: many promising titles like Star Wars 1313 were put on indefinite hold. That kind of uncertainty does not a championship make.

WINNER: Zelda

Final Fantasy (2) vs. Uncharted (7)

On one side, you have a storied but often dissolute franchise, stretching it's basic core of role-playing thinner and thinner as the years go by.

On the other, a solid, reliable, relative newcomer with a strong trilogy wrapped around a truly great second game. As the realization of what everyone ever wanted out of being able to be Indiana Jones, the Uncharted series is fantasy fulfillment at its finest. But it's also not the kind of seminal franchise that Final Fantasy is, even with all its unevenness. Plus, chocobos are great on defense.

WINNER: Final Fantasy

Mass Effect (3) vs. Battlefield (6)

Here we have a critically-acclaimed trilogy up against a long running franchise that started in World War II before moving into the present day and encompassing everything from the somewhat tongue-in-cheek Bad Company offshoots to the deadly serious Battlefield 4.

Destructible environments, vehicle combat, often awful single-player campaigns: Battlefield has it all. By contrast, the Mass Effect series is steeped in storytelling, even if the side stories were usually more compelling than the main quests. On a strict pound-for-pound weaponry analysis, Battlefield wins out. The sheer level of customization available to you as you progress through the multiplayer ranks is staggering.

But Mass Effect has heart. Although they're getting better at it, there still aren't many video games that can tug at your heart strings and ME2 did just that in many of its moments with your crewmates. Oh and it also has psionics.

WINNER: Mass Effect

Assassin's Creed (4) vs. Splinter Cell (5)

Stealthy stealth stealth.

The Splinter Cell series didn't invent stealth gameplay (that honor probably belongs to Tenchu or maybe the Metal Gear series, in terms of making it integral to the game), but it may have perfected it early on.

Splinter Cell: Conviction gave it a flexible new twist with the Mark & Execute mechanic, making you feel like even more of a movie badass than ever before. The Assassin's Creed series marries a core of stealth gameplay to open world exploration that offers constant rewards for climbing everything you can find, more or less. The kind of nutty Templars vs. Assassins story that's wrapped around the whole thing is labyrinthine and maybe not really worth it, but it's hard to deny the franchise's ambitions or how viscerally satisfying the core gameplay is.

Sorry, Splinter Cell: full marks for execution, but sea shanties carry the day.

WINNER: Assassin's Creed

SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE: Halo (1) vs. Killzone (8)

Killzone has pulled off some impressive things in its time, including the criminally underrated PSP game, Killzone: Liberation.

It's always been a shooter steeped in atmosphere with serious technical chops, especially with Killzone Shadow Fall for the PS4 as the flagship launch title for the new console. But guys: Halo. HALO.

When the first Killzone game launched on the PS2, it was touted as a "Halo killer" but it just wasn't. It has its own unique appeal, but it's exceedingly difficult to beat the subtle blend of rock solid gameplay loops, genre-defining multiplayer and compelling (if occasionally muddy) storytelling. Halo just has the moments, from your first encounter with the Flood to the final, futile battle at the close of Halo: Reach to wherever the story will be taken in the next console generation. Halo just overwhelms Killzone with depth.

WINNER: Halo

Metroid (2) vs. Tekken (7)

Metroid has taken its lumps recently with 2010's Metroid: Other M, but it's hard to deny the pedigree of the franchise as a whole.

From something as simple as having a badass female protagonist early in console gaming to showing that the Wii could effectively support a first-person shooter with the re-release of the GameCube's Metroid Prime.

Not every innovation has worked within the format, but at its heart, the collection and exploration mechanic is still strong. The Tekken series has always been the Scottie Pippen to numerous different franchises' Michael Jordan. Neither quite so cartoony and over the top as Street Fighter, nor as bloodily violent as Mortal Kombat, nor as realistic as Virtua Fighter, nor as flawlessly balanced as Soul Calibur, nor as shamelessly exhibitionist as Dead or Alive, Tekken is simply your vice-president of fighting video games.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing: vice-presidents can have all the fun! Robots! Wrestlers with cheetah heads! Side-scrolling brawler side-games with chicken health boosts! Bears! Pandas! But you're not beating Metroid with that.

WINNER: Metroid

Street Fighter (3) vs. Need for Speed (6)

I'll be honest: Need for Speed is in this competition mostly for Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit and for how gloriously Criterion has managed to reinvigorate the basic tenets of that game with the recent Need for Speed Rivals.

The endless tinkering and tuning of games from franchises like Forza and Gran Turismo has its appeal, but the Need for Speed franchise has always been at its best when it's honoring its title and catering to our visceral desire to throw a high-performance car into gear and then throw it into other stuff, especially when that stuff is cop cars.

It's just plain fun. And yet Street Fighter manages to be somehow both gleefully fun and nonsensical yet also deadly serious in terms of the depth and complexity on offer. Sure, there are always characters you can jump in on and just button mash to have a fine time fighting against buddies, but when you run up against someone who's genuinely good, that's when you realize you need to learn something about this game to excel.

Who can forget throwing down on Street Fighter II in the arcades when you faced legitimate human competition in the flesh? In this battle, Street Fighter has the depth and range of a Ken or Ryu, while Need for Speed is maybe more than a little Dan-esque.

WINNER: Street Fighter

Castlevania (4) vs. MegaMan (5)

This one is tough, as befits a good fourth and fifth seed matchup.

Two classics of old-school gaming that have each met with mixed success moving into the modern era. Just recently, Mega Man's possible evolution into a first-person shooter as Maverick Hunter got the kibosh, robbing us of the chance to see how the man in blue would do stepping out of the two dimensions he's generally been held to on handhelds.

As such, Mega Man's future looks resolutely retro. By way of contrast, the Castlevania franchise has never stopped trying to push its 2D success into the third dimension, even as many downloadable success stories from Shadow Complex to Stryder have borrowed heavily from its map exploration and upgrades structure. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was met with critical praise, but its sequel has not fared as well.

So where does this go? Two classic 2D franchises that have aged in distinct ways. It's basically a tossup.

WINNER: Mega Man

EMINENCE FRONT: Call of Duty (1) vs. Saints Row (8)

The Call of Duty series is as much of a 1 seed as they come. It's the titan of the industry, a cash cow, no matter how much people might bemoan its lack of single-player chops, its emphasis on raw stats for a sense of fulfillment, its juvenile fanbase. The fact is, you might have missed the boat with COD and feel like you'll never catch up now, but that's not going to stop millions of people from playing it endlessly. Basically, it's Duke. The Saints Row franchise has all the makings of a plucky upstart, from its tongue-in-cheek attitude to its often surprisingly savvy sense of self and just what it's capable of. Mercilessly going after the conventions of the open-world or sandbox game while still managing to revel in them, the Saints Row games are just plain fun, and in this way, a good matchup for COD, which seems to take itself so seriously. Spoiler alert, though: pluck can't stop overwhelming force. WINNER: Call of Duty

Fallout (2) vs. Mortal Kombat (7)

Can the Fallout series compete with the Mortal Kombat franchise in terms of sheer volume or pop culture impact? No. Mortal Kombat has a movie and even an awful techno song that everyone knows. The idea of fatalities was groundbreaking and things like "Get over here!" and ripping someone's spine out have become part of the cultural lexicon. But Fallout is just so. Damn. Good. From its beginnings as an isometric post-apocalyptic RPG in the spirit of the original Wasteland to its evolution into an irradiated first-person epic in the last console generation, the Fallout series has shown its ability to not only innovate with mechanisms like the V.A.T.S. control for targeting enemies but to tell a compelling story within a rich and dense world full of colorful characters. Even if its future lies in a blasted and ruined world, the future for Fallout is very, very bright. WINNER: Fallout

Elder Scrolls (3) vs. Gran Turismo (6)

With a history stretching all the way back to 1994, the Elder Scrolls franchise is a standard bearer for action RPGs, plus its built itself into a genuine blockbuster with recent releases like Oblivion and Skyrim.

Although no one seems entirely sure exactly how the series thick worldbuilding and narrative elements are going to transfer over to the world of MMORPGs when The Elder Scrolls Online launches, there seems to be little doubt that it will have plenty of people willing to sign up and find out.

Gran Turismo is maybe not the original car-tuning driving simulator, but it was probably the first to make such attention to detail an element of prestige, a thing to be aspired to. Spend enough time tweaking the suspension on your virtual Subaru WRX and you'd be likely to find yourself wondering if you could lower your actual Subaru Outback any to improve its handling in tight turns. But this isn't really a fair fight.

Gran Turismo is great at what it does, but it's basically been doing the same thing since it started, just with more polish and shine. Nothing wrong with that, but Elder Scrolls has gone from niche genre to event-level gaming and that's huge.

WINNER: Elder Scrolls

Resident Evil (4) vs. Half-Life (5)

Call it what you will, but acknowledge that Half-Life is a scrapper.

With just a pair of games to its name, the series has nevertheless lived a rich and full life, whether via series offshoots Portal and Team Fortress or the passion project Black Mesa, which has been in development for over eight years by a team of volunteers working to recreate the original Half-Life for a new generation of players.

That kind of loyalty and dedication are astounding, and a testament to the original's enduring influence on both gamers and developers. In some ways, Resident Evil is kind of the opposite of Half-Life. After a strong start as THE original survival horror game, the series has moved in a more action-oriented direction and met with some success, but just as much failure.

It's still undeniably a popular franchise and a moneymaker in the industry, with a generally successful film spin-off to boot, but the authentic scares it drummed up early on have given way to increasingly generic action sequences. This has to go to the underdog.

WINNER: Half-Life