Recently, Gamespot has had a little bit of a controversy on its hands. Which has sent fanboys of two breeds into a frenzy. So unless you've avoided checking out the "Greatest Game Hero" contest, you know that the two "protagonists" of Bubble Bobble fame actually toppled Master Chief, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Of course anyone with any small knowledge of the internet knows how and why they accomplished this, and obviously Gamespot staff have caught on, and now are removing any votes that were considered cheating.
Now, I have to point out that the reason for that site doing this seems to be a simple matter of spite. Voting Bub and Bob over one of the most popular characters in gaming history. Now, I'm not saying B&B deserve any more merit than Chief, but I can say that I respect the message that can be taken from this entire fiasco. When you look at the title it simply says "Greatest Game Hero" and let me emphasize Hero. Not most popular, which is essentially what contests like this always turn into. A battle between the heroes with the most fan boys.(Anyone who has seen the Game Faqs contests of similiar nature knows this is generally Link and Cloud Strife.)
Obviously I'm not dumb enough to believe that this would turn into a proper contest of weighing options and doing a little research. Of course it would just be popularity, and of course mister Chief would be one of the top candidates. Yet, the second someone had the audacity to vote Chief off, alarms began to go off and people instantly began to black list B&B as if they had done something truly horrendous.(Aside from the proxies, of course.) Now, if Chief can be voted forward in a Herocontest simply on popularity, shouldn't B&B have the right to cash in on other people's dislike for the overly hyped spartan? Or over the blue speedy Hedgehog for that matter?
Things like this are just a hazard of doing this as if it is a popularity contest. If it was done the way it is supposed to, I'm sure the brackets would look a lot different by this point. Instead of things like Pacman, who realistically, is not a hero. We would get interesting, deep characters like The Nameless One of Planescape Torment. Or Kirby for that matter.(Who regretfully lost to the yellow eating machine.)
So, I'm just going to go through some of the more mind boggling winners of the first round, just to try and drive home exactly what I mean here. Because honestly, what are some of us even thinking? Before I do though, let me reitterate that my contest bracket was designed as a popularity one because I know how it would turn out. SO don't flog me for being sour about the results.
First one I come to, Pikachu over Nathan Drake. Now call me crazy, but in an actual contest of heroics, the little yellow electric mouse doesn't really carry any stock. At all, he isn't a hero, he is simply a tool for the hero of the Pokemon games to use. The logic in having Pikachu labeled a hero says that instead of Link, we should have the master sword. So, somehow a TOOL managed to beat Drake, who I'll assume is a treasure hunter who pulled some heroics of some sort on some nasty baddie.(Sorry, I haven't played Uncharted, it's on my to do list eventually.)
Niko Bellic over The Apprentice, now this one may purely be an opinion thing, as with Apprentice, he can swing in either the Heroe or villain roles, but, come on Niko is a crook. Yes, he has some sort of motive behind everything he does throughout GTA4, but he still remains a murderer thief and drug trafficker. What did he save by shooting a bunch of pointless thugs and a large handful of blue? Nothing. On the other hand at least Apprentice has the opportunity to try and be the good guy. He can attempt to take down the Emperor and be the good guy. Yes, he fails and this his heroics are diminished, but come on, who doesn't love a good tragedy?
Then we have Yoshi beating Liu Kang. This one should be obvious to the eye, as it's essentially the same argument as Pikachu. Yoshi is a tool at least, and a side kick at most. Kang fought for the safety of our entire realm against some of the most bad ass ninjas to ever exist. Yoshi saved a baby. Scales seem kind of one sided, don't they?
Now, this does bring me to Bub and Bob beating Chief. Now, I won't lie, I hate the Master Chief character. I think he is one dimensional and lacks any worth. Yet, going on the fact that he is a hero, I have to say he SHOULDhave beaten our rainbow colored dragon, dino guys. I mean, saving earth from an outside alien force shouldn;t be taken lightly. Especially when they have a ring of mass destruction that will trahs our entire system. What did B&B do? Shoot some harmless bubbles?
Pacman over Kirby? I said it once, this one should be the other way around. Pacman did what? Ate some dots, some fruit and some pie and terrorized some ghosts? That hardly seems heroic to me folks. Especially when ut next to the lovable pink puff of Kirby. Who managed to save Dreamland multiple times, all while being cute. I could have sworn the female gamers would back him.(I know you do't all love cute things) Kirby is more of a hero than alot of the nostalgic characters on here by a long shot.
I could go into the second round, and ramble about the atrocious victories we had there, but I think you get the point already. I could also go into detial about some of the heroes who lost to less deserving and more mundane heroes. Yet I won't because that may ruin the point behind this, as I would have some bias in some areas.
So in the end, I'll admit B&B having a potential DQ on their end is a good thing, and Gamespot would be doing the right thing. Just keep in mind that bringing back Sonic the Hedgehog won;t change things. This contest will still go to one of the three most popular characters in gaming. So just stop complaining. This is either going to be a heroe who can't speak and does the same thing over and over again. A plumber jacked up on drugs who does the same thing over and over. Or one overly angsty blond guy who takes all the credit for a group effort. None of which who should be in the running for the all time greatest heroe in gaming lore.