[JackN]

In this context I think Best and Favorite have very different meanings.

To me the two BEST games that FIRST has released since I have been involved (2005-Present) are Aerial Assist and Aim High. These two games are the closest I think FIRST has ever come to nailing the idea of competition robotics. In my opinion FIRST should be striving to create games that are easily accessible to the average person and could be broadcast on TV.

Aim High works because it is so conceptually simple. Three robots try to shoot balls into a goal, most balls wins. I think the other variations on this idea (2012/2016) have tried to introduce more elements that generally detract from what makes this game so fun, the ball shooting. Of the ball shooting games this had the easiest goal and I think it works because teams of all skill level could contribute pretty easily. My only complaint was the shooting speed limits because I think that did limit some of the more interesting possibilities for the game.

Aerial Assist is the closest we have ever come to a full contact game where teams have to play offense and defense. It is fairly simple conceptually and could work for the general public, though assists are kind of a weird concept in practice. Having said all of that, I honestly think that this game played out pretty miserably in practice and I have never figured out why anyone likes it. The game always struck me as very shallow strategically, with every alliance eventually doing the same thing by championship.

My personal favorite game is Ultimate Ascent for a variety of reasons. You could replay that game two or three years in a row with zero changes, and the best robot design would change every single year which I think is mind boggling. The diversity of alliance composition and strategy exhibited at the highest levels was so interesting to me and unique in almost any game designed by FIRST. All four Einstein alliances attempted to play the game in a completely different way, which is something that never happens in any game. I think this game's flaw is that there were so many different and unique things happening that it is pretty hard to impossible to tell who was winning at most times, so it would probably be a bad game for the general public. Even still, I would love to play this game again and it is my favorite game ever designed.