Video Game Icons Tournament Semifinal Matchups

Dr. Wily says we will not take over the world

unless we are listening to Geekcast Radio Network.

Maybe you should play something else. Welcome

to GCR and Wars. This is episode 19. This is

our video game character tournament. We will

be revealing the quarterfinal winners as well

as going through the semifinal matchups. I am,

of course, one of your hosts. If you want to

join me, it's Steve Megatron. Hello. Hello. Mr.

Solomac, hello. It's never going to catch on.

Drop it, dude. No, it'll catch on. I'll make

it catch on. Come on, say something. Oh, I didn't

know who you were talking to. Yeah, you. Yeah,

I'm from the Solos here. And of course, TV's

Mr. Neal. That's what Dig Dug did last round.

Oh. Low blow. Too soon. No, it's never too soon

for stuff like that. So, yes, what would you

like to say before we get this going, Kev? Well,

last week we revealed the Elite Eight, if you'd

like to call them that, the final eight competitors.

And we left it up to you guys to do some voting

and to select who would win in those fights to

bring us to our final four, our semi -final matchups.

And that's what it's all about today, figuring

out who those people are. And then it's going

to get real tough, I think. Like we've said,

broken record time, I guess, but every round

it gets harder and harder to have a clear -cut

winner. Back in the first round, we had some

shutouts, we had some blowouts. I think that

gets tougher as we go through, and it's going

to get real interesting to see what happens from

here. I think the quarterfinals, there's definitely

some favorites going. I'm very intrigued to see

who the winner of one of the matchups in particular

is going to be. And that's why we're here, so

everybody can hear those results. And I think

we're going to flip the script a little bit today.

Instead of starting in the upper left -hand corner

like we have been of the bracket if you've been

following along, we're actually going to start

in the lower right -hand corner of the bracket,

which our first quarterfinal matchup from last

week saw Sonic going up against Pac -Man. Steve,

how did that one turn out with the voters? I

will say for... All of the votes today, none

of them were blowouts. That's what makes it interesting

as we start going forward, and I would guess

in the semifinals and in the finals it's going

to be some close votes. I have a feeling. Sonic

ran circles around the chomper, 26 -3. So that

is probably as close as we can get to a blowout

for this round. So 26 -3. Mike, any surprise

that Sonic dominates this one? No. Because Sonic

is way faster than Pac -Man. Even when Pac -Man

has his little magic pellet. Well, he is the

fastest thing alive. I don't know. Flash would

give him a run for his money. Different entirely.

Doesn't matter. Like we said last week, though,

it's going to be hard for Pac -Man, who's used

to chasing ghosts, to catch... the speedy Sonic,

so possibly not a surprise there. So our first

entrance into the final four and into the semifinal

matchups will be Sonic the Hedgehog. He survives

to fight against the winner of our other quarterfinal

matchup on that side of the bracket, which saw

Spyro the Dragon, Mike's dark horse, favorite

since the beginning, going against Ratchet and

Clank. Steve, how did that one turn out? Let

me just start this off by saying it gives me

great pleasure to announce what happened. Screw

you. Spyro got double teamed. Or tag teamed,

whichever. He got beat 7 -22. Oh, a little closer

than the Sonic Pac -Man matchup. Not really.

22 -7, that's not exactly close. I said it's

closer. All right, so Ratchet and Clank dominated

Spyro. At this point, Ratchet and Clank are going

to take this whole damn thing. Like we said,

Spyro probably didn't deserve to be this far,

so it's no surprise that Ratchet and Clank dominated

him. Right, Mike? The opinions of Solo Mac are

not reflected in the Geekcast Radio Network.

The Dragon Power. The effects of Michael Blanchard

calling someone Solo Mac makes his entire conversation

irrelevant. No, it doesn't. Yeah, the Dragon

Power could only, the Dragon fans could only

vault Spyro so far into this tournament, but

he finally met his match against Ratchet and

Clank. So that means on that side of the bracket,

we are left with a matchup between Ratchet and

Clank and Sonic the Hedgehog. I think the LeChoy

Dragon would have stood a better chance than

Spyro. I think Mushu would have been a better

choice than Spyro. Neil, what do you think as

far as looking at that matchup now between Sonic

and Ratchet and Clank? Obviously, Ratchet and

Clank have the firepower, the duo, the tag team,

as everyone's been saying. Sonic has the speed

and the popularity, probably. How does that one

go about when we see them facing off finally

ahead, Ed? Well, I keep rooting for the gun,

but I think Sonic's got a little bit of speed

on them, so it's going to be hard to hit them,

and I think Sonic might take this one. Mike,

how do you feel this one going down? I'm hoping

Sonic just creams the two of them, just runs

them over like a giant railroad, you know, just

like a giant train, because I do not want them

to win at this point. Okay, besides your biasness

of feeling that it's unfair that they're here,

you're actually supposed to strategically...

It is actually unfair that they're here now because

there are no more other duos. They fair and square

beat everyone so far. So if you're strategically

looking at the way they would have to beat Sonic...

They cannot beat Sonic. Why? He is too fast.

They cannot beat him. There's two of them. Doesn't

matter. He's still too fast. All right, so we

know Mike's not going to look at this in any

strategic way. He's just going to say Sonic no

matter what. So, Steve, regardless of who you

think is going to win, how do they go about winning

this one? Well, yeah, before I get into actually

who I think will win, because I think it's going

to be kind of close here because you do have

two against one. However, Sonic does have experience

fighting against armies of Robotnik droids. Exactly.

And, uh, basically having to, you know, I mean,

this is essentially fighting like Robotnik and

one of his lackeys that are robotic. So, um,

in, in that essence, I could see that coming,

you know, him maybe getting some, uh, some rings

or, or going supersonic on them and kind of thrashing

them. However, I could see technology being used

against Sonic because even in the show that had

been one of his weaknesses is occasionally he

would get targeted with some kind of technology

and it would take him down temporarily. I can

see that too. And I don't know, obviously Sonic

is the faster of the competitors here. I don't

know if having two people offsets that speed

to a point where maybe you could strategically,

if you're Ratchet and Clank, set up the two of

them to negate some of that speed possibly. They

could trap him. Yeah, or even have, you know,

kind of chasing him into where the other person

might be. They probably have the better arsenal

and firepower Ratchet and Clank do, and Sonic's

got the speed, so it's firepower and teamwork

against straight speed and the ability to kind

of be hard to beat as far as Sonic is. You have

to knock him, get his rings out, like we've mentioned

multiple times, and eventually hit him with no

rings, that type of thing. But it might be an

interesting matchup. I guess if you had to say

one of these two, who's the underdog in this

matchup, Neil? Who's got the odds stacked against

them more? If you had to pick a favorite and

an underdog, regardless of how you feel it's

going to go out, who do you think has the harder

battle to actually win this vote? It's kind of

like an apple and orange situation. I suppose

Sonic, but it's really speed versus weaponry.

Yeah, Sonic doesn't really have a huge arsenal.

He just has the Spin Dash. But then again, as

I said in an earlier episode, he's basically

immortal as long as he has rings. It's definitely

one that's not as... You know, we've had certain

things where it's like one person's strength

easily plays to another person's weakness, or

as far as the matchup, it makes it seem like

it should go one way or the other. This one's

kind of harder to tell. You know, you've got

speed and you've got firepower. That doesn't

necessarily mean one has a clear advantage. That's

true. And I assume that Ratchet and Clank are

going to be more competent than your average

badnik. That's true. Yeah, he's going against

someone who's probably a little bit smarter than

he's used to going against. Steve, if we look

at the path that they've come this far, Ratchet

and Clank took out ToeJam and Earl. Then they

beat up on Jak and Daxter and finally headed

off and beat up the dragon Spyro. So that was

Ratchet and Clank's path. Rocks the dragon. Jak

and Daxter and Spyro. If we're looking at Sonic,

he spun circles around Gex, beat up Earthworm

Jim, and then took on Pac -Man. Does that mean

Sonic comes in a little better shape as far as

not having been through maybe as tough of battles?

Or how do you see the path to the semifinals

affecting either one of them? I see, I mean,

they both have had their portion of decently

heavy hitters, some more than others in certain

battles, but they've also had their more or less

losers in their brackets, their edge of the bracket

anyway. I think it's going to be a real tough

call. I mean, on the one hand, Sonic has had

Gex. I mean, yeah, that's okay. That's kind of

his loser over there. Earthworm Jim, I'd say,

is kind of a little bit difficult for him. And

then you get to Pac -Man, and obviously Pac -Man

didn't stand a chance. Then you go over to the

other side, and you have Ratchet and Clank, and

they've had to fight Toe Jim and Earl, which

is a nobody. Jack and Daxter, which could potentially

have beaten them. And then you get to Spyro,

and it was pretty much a blowout. I could see

the argument being made that Ratchet and Clank

could be hobbling into the semifinals, especially

after that Jack and Daxter matchup, and then

kind of just being able to withstand the firepower

from Spyro, maybe coming in a little bit more

worse for wear, whereas Sonic basically... Should

come in here unscathed. And he kind of got a

warm -up of this type of matchup when he fought

Earthworm Jim. Because, again, that's firepower

versus speed in a way. Obviously, firepower in

a different form coming from Earthworm Jim compared

to Ratchet and Clank, but maybe a little tune

-up matchup that he had. So, yeah, it's kind

of hard to say. Mike, what's your official vote

for this one? Sonic. Neil? I'm going to go with

Sonic. Steve? I'm going to go with Sonic. All

right. I personally would like Sonic to win,

but I'm going to be the oddball and say Ratchet

and Clank use the teamwork to somehow withstand

Sonic's speed, get him cornered where he can't

have any rings, and then it's just a shootout,

and eventually they hit him before he can get

a hold of a ring. But I'd like to see Sonic go

through to it. It'd be interesting. If we shift

our attention to the other side of the bracket,

let's start in the bottom left quadrant there

where we had... The two men going against each

other, Mega Man and Bomberman. Steve, how did

the voting turn out for Mega Man versus Bomberman?

Well, the superior model won out. Mega Man managed

to utilize all of his powers and beat Bomberman

with 24 to 4. 24 to 4. Commanding... Victory

from Mega Man, knocking out the dark horse on

this side of the bracket, Bomberman, who was

trying to make his way through. He had had some

upset wins against Kirby, etc., but Mega Man

proves too much for Bomberman, which means that

he will be facing off against the winner between

our last matchup from the quarterfinals. And

I kind of saved it for last on purpose because,

honestly, I could have somewhat predicted all

those other three. This one, I really have no

idea how the people would have voted. I think

it should be close, but we'll see. I really have

no idea who's taking this one, but we had Yoshi

versus Link in the last quarterfinal matchup.

Steve, Link or Yoshi? Before I answer this, I

will say I was right on who was going to get

to the semifinals. Excellent. It was Link. 22

-9. 22 -9 for Link. Taking out Yoshi, who a lot

of people probably were riding the wave of him

taking out Mario and thinking he was going to

hop his way into the semifinals. But we have

Link instead, which sets up an epic matchup between

Link and Mega Man. Mike, what's your first reaction

when you hear that? Well, first of all, with

Mega Man and Bomberman, Mega Man went ahead and

made a mega move in that battle, didn't he? With

Link versus... I did that just for you, Neil.

With Mega Man versus Link, that's going to be

an interesting battle, because you have technology

versus magic. In a way. Well, for the most part,

Link's weapons are mystical. I mean, yes, sure,

the sword is medieval and so is the shield, but...

a magic boomerang and magic arrows. It's definitely

a slightly different matchup than we had on the

other side, where it's strict speed against basic

firepower. This one is a little bit... These

two, mano a mano, are an interesting fight. Link

does have his boomerangs and his things that

he can do from a long distance. If he closes

it in to close combat, obviously he has the shield

and sword. Mega Man has the same things that

have been helping him this far through, including

bombs now. Which Link has. Yep, so they both

have bombs. Mike, I didn't mean to interrupt

you, though, but what's your first reaction?

How do you see this one going? Who do you want

to win? I think this is going to be, I don't

know, I'm not going to reveal who I think will

win at this point, but I think that this might

be the closest as far as numbers go. Like, I'm

betting this is going to be a one or two vote.

win for either one of them. I thought it would

be a one or two vote between Link and Yoshi and

it did not turn out well. No, because it's friggin'

Yoshi. He beat Mario. Yes, he beat Mario, but

most people don't care for Yoshi. When you look

at the Zelda fans and you look at the Yoshi fans,

the Zelda fans are in the millions, the Yoshi

fans are in the hundreds. Well, it's surprising

because Mario's actually number one over all

of them and look where he ended up. This has

definitely not turned out to be strictly a popularity

contest. I mean, you could say that the ones

that are still around are popular characters,

but some of the most popular characters we've

had have gone to the wayside. I don't know who

I'm going to vote for on this one at this point.

I'm going to have to wait until after the episode

goes up, because... I just don't know. Between

Link and Mega Man, it's going to be a really,

really close battle. It'll be a fun one to watch.

And I really enjoy both characters. So, like,

if it had been Bomberman versus Link, not that

that would ever happen, but that would have been

easy for me. Link's going to kill him, you know.

But I'm just not sure. Do the same thing we did

last on the other side of the bracket, looking

at their past a little bit. Link obviously had

a pretty tough first round match, probably the

toughest first round match out of anybody going

against Little Mac. Not really. His second round

match was tougher. No, I mean from a physical

standpoint, tough to go against Little Mac, who's

a fighter, compared to some of the easy contests

that some other people got to go against. Then

he goes up against his love interest, Zelda,

has to slay his love interest, and then go against

Yoshi, who, even though he's a fun -loving character,

Has a lot going for him. Beat Toad and beat Mario,

so that was Link's path. Mega Man took out Beautiful

Joe, took out the mighty Donkey Kong, and then

obviously took out Bomberman. Steve, do you feel

like their paths play any part of this, or what's

your first reaction when you heard or when you

saw the votes for Link and Mega Man? That's a

crazy matchup. This one, I definitely see this

being the closest out of all of them. Man. Who

has an advantage here? Yeah, it's going to be

tough because you look at it, Mega Man has beautiful

Joe's powers. He has Donkey Kong's powers. He

has Bomberman's powers, plus his own. So at close

combat, he has some of... You could almost argue

some of Beautiful Joe, and then you have some

of Donkey Kong's ground pound or the gigantic

hands to bash him or grab his sword or shield

or smack a bomb back at him. So, I mean, there's

that. And then going on the flip side, you have

Link. He could simply flip over the blast. He

could... hit his boomerang, and distract Mega

Man and get him hit from behind, he could block

any of the blasts with his shield, and then he

could also cut him apart with his sword. So,

I mean, there's a lot going in both their directions

for this, and yeah, they both had some tough

battles, so they could be far worse for the wearer

here, but I think this one's going to be really

neck and neck. Definitely going to be interesting.

Like you said, Mega Man has all the powers that

you just outlined so well. And then Link also

has a treasure chest of weapons that he takes

with him. He can flip out the boomerang, the

shield, the sword, all the different potions

he has. If he has a bunch of heart potions or

whatever, life potions, he can just rejuvenate

himself on the spot. But Mega Man can do the

same thing. Yeah. Mega Man has Eddie in the energy

tanks. Neil, we haven't heard from you. What's

your first reaction to this one? How do you see

it going? That's a tough one. I'm trying... Does

Mega Man have... all of his powers, or does he

just have the three from beating the three contestants?

This tournament. Yeah, if you picture him, he

has the same thing that he would start any game

out with, plus beautiful Joe Donkey Kong and

Bomberman's powers. Okay. So he doesn't have

the metal blade, because if he had the metal

blade, it would be over. Let's see. It's still

pretty tough to say. He can throw barrels, he

can throw bombs. You can overwhelm Link. Anyone

who's played The Legend of Zelda, if he gets

surrounded, you can get creamed pretty quickly.

All he has to do is get behind Link, and that's

a problem for Link. That negates the shield if

you go to the side or behind him. Mega Man is

pretty tough. Like you guys said, while Link

has the potions, Mega Man has the energy tanks,

and he's got quite a bit of them. So it's going

to be pretty close. But I'm kind of edging toward

Mega Man just because projectile weapons. I know

Link has those too, but the sword doesn't quite

work the way it did in the first game anymore.

Yeah. I'm going to go with the gun again and

say that Mega Man has this. I guess another way

you could look at it, and I don't necessarily

think this is how people should vote, they should

vote based on those individual matchups, Mega

Man versus Link, who they think is going to win,

and Sonic versus Ratchet and Clank, who they

think is going to win. Mike, if you're projecting

a finals matchup, I don't think we can come up

with a bad finals matchup no matter what happens,

because if you look at it, we either have Link

versus Ratchet and Clank, or Link versus Sonic.

Mega Man vs. Sonic or Mega Man vs. Ratchet &

Clank? Which of those do you most want to...

I mean, all four would be awesome finals. But

what do you most want to see in the finals? Mega

Man vs. Sonic because my prediction of it being

a Nintendo vs. Sega thing the whole time will

come true. It doesn't really matter because whoever

wins on either side... As long as it isn't Ratchet

and Clank, it's going to be Nintendo versus Sega.

It was always going to be one company versus

another company. There was no way around that.

All the Nintendo characters are on one side.

Yeah. So it didn't matter who was going to win.

You were going to get that wish no matter what.

Neil, does one of those finals matchup intrigue

you more? I really don't have an opinion one

way or another on the final match, so I'm just

kind of going to sit back and see. Sit back and

watch the fireworks? Yeah. One thing, I let you

get away with it last time, Mike, but you keep

calling Mega Man a Nintendo character. He's Capcom,

but he's on the Nintendo system. He started on

NES. He started there, but he converted to SNES

and then PlayStation. He's since jumped the boat.

He's been on just about every platform you can

possibly be on. So is Sonic, too, for that matter.

You don't hear Mega Man necessarily and think

Nintendo character. Oh, I do. That's where he

started. I don't. It's not like Mario, Yoshi,

Zelda, Link. It's not like any of them. Donkey

Kong, they're strictly Nintendo. That's like

saying Street Fighter 2 is Nintendo and it's

Street Fighter's PlayStation all day long. Steve,

a certain... finale matchup that you would most

want to see or which one do you think would prove

the best matchup? I would like to see Ratchet

and Clank versus Mega Man because it would be

kind of robot and technology against each other.

Because it would just be kind of interesting

to see it go that way. However, I have a feeling

it's going to go the Mega Man Sonic route. At

this point, what is very clear is that with these

four and the popularity of all of them, Link,

Mega Man, Sonic, and Ratchet and Clank. I don't

think it's very easy at this point to predict

a winner. I think we can all predict a winner.

We can all have our favorite or who we think,

but any one of these four could come away with

this thing at this point. I mean, there's a ton

of Zelda fans out there that would vote Link

no matter what. You know, Sonic fans are crazy.

You got Ratchet and Clank with the team -up aspect

of it, and then, you know, a lot of people like

Mega Man, too. It's hard to predict who's going

to come out with this one overall. But, I mean,

I guess we've got to get through the semifinals

first. What do you think of what our matchups

are here, Mike? Kind of final thoughts on the

two matchups we're seeing going forward, Link

versus Mega Man, Sonic versus Ratchet and Clank.

It's going to be interesting to see how the votes

come down and to see what people actually are

thinking as far as who they would want to see

win. Yeah. And out of the votes that we had for

the quarterfinals, Steve, what were the, you

said, like, 23 -4? What were the total votes

per matchup? Between 25 and 30 votes for each

matchup? Roughly. It's going to take probably

at least 16 votes. At least 16 or more votes

to get a winner on either side if we're looking

at about 30 votes total. I don't know. I can

see this one being real close. I could see a

16 -15. I could see an 18 -14 or something like

that. It's going to be tough to tell. Yep. All

right, anybody else? Last thoughts before we

let the people vote? I will say that I usually

am pretty good about predicting these. However,

well, I mean, I've been pretty damn close on

most of them, even in the original tournament.

However, that being said, this tournament when...

uh mario got booted second round that threw my

entire process off yeah mario and kirby went

out i i kind of lost some points there um because

that whole side of the bracket got totally screwed

um when those two left um because i i mean either

way i still would have had megaman and link battling

them right uh On that side. And then on the other

side, I still had Ratchet and Clank and Sonic.

One of the breakdowns I had was it was going

to be Sonic versus Mega Man, or not Mega Man,

Mario. Mario versus Sonic. Yes. At the Olympics.

Yes. But this is what we're left with, so it's

going to be up to the people to pick who's going

to win. Who wins in these fights, not just who's

favorite character, who's the more popular character.

Who would actually have the advantage? I think

it's some real tough scenarios that people would

have to paint for us. If you want, go to Geekcast

Radio and go to the webpage and give us your

scenario. Try to convince people to vote one

way or the other. Tell us why Link would beat

Mega Man or why Sonic would beat Ratchet and

Clank or vice versa. Play out the scenario and

maybe it'll influence some more people's votes.

Do it. Do it now. And otherwise we're going to

have to wait and see who comes out on top and

who is going to actually face off against each

other in the finale. Yep. Mike, anything else

they need to know about when and where to vote?

Voting starts Wednesday, Christmas Eve. It will

end Tuesday, December 30th, 9 p .m. Eastern Standard

Time. uh listen to the podcast then go vote and

comment and whatever else and we will see you

guys in the finals thank you for listening to

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-R -N -W -A -R -Z. So until next time, tune in

and check out GCRN Wars Tournament on episode

16 where we cover the other half of round one's

fight so until next time unleash the geek in

you