Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the eighth generation’s March Madness.

In this corner, standing with the Xbox One, is the multiplayer only first person shooting titan, Titanfall. In the other corner, standing with PlayStation’s own Sucker Punch, is their colorful third person superpowered system seller, inFAMOUS: Second Son.

The interesting thing about studying these games isn’t just that they allow for the consoles to be sold during the spring season. They also showcase what these consoles are all about and how much they differ from each other. Even though Titanfall and inFAMOUS are both big AAA games, they are as similar to each other as the consoles themselves.

For starters, Titanfall is a multiplayer-only first person shooter that combines mech combat with regular first person shooting by jet-pack wielding parkouring soldiers. With both human-controlled pilots and AI soldiers, the story is interwoven into the gameplay, with an introductory sequence and an epilogue at the end of each multiplayer campaign.

On the other side of the coin, inFAMOUS: Second Son is a third-person action game that takes place in Seattle seven years after the events of inFAMOUS 2. Lacking a multiplayer component, the player takes control of Delsin Rowe, a Rouge-like Conduit able to take powers from other superhumans while he battles the Department of Universal Protection, a police force against “Bio-terrorists”.

These games have done almost everything different. For starters, their marketing has been successful on both sides. inFAMOUS has a grassroots ARG marketing campaign sending pamphlets out, telling people to get “tested” for the Conduit gene, which would give in-game karma.

Titanfall uses YouTube to publicize its content, sending out codes to their beta and letting popular YouTube channels show various first impressions of the game. After that, they opened up the beta to include more people who had an Xbox One or a compatible PC. While this may have been a more effective strategy to get the word out, it is still interesting to see what approaches they have decided to take.

Another difference that I really appreciate is the artistic style of the games themselves. Titanfall, which is made by the same people as some Call of Duty games, have the same style as CoD– realistic gray with dullish green outdoor environments which, given the fact that the game loves their mechs, is understandable. They want to make the Titans look as good as possible, and they do. inFAMOUS, on the other hand, has a darker yet more colorful aesthetic with a grunge-esque layout. While I do prefer the inFAMOUS color scheme better, I still appreciate how each game looks and feels.

The last important thing I would like to point out is the legacy behind these studios. Respawn may have Microsoft’s backing with this venture, but this developer is made up of people from Infinity Ward, the Activision developer of Call of Duty’s Modern Warfare series. Microsoft and Activision have had a great partnership and, thus, many Call of Duty players have gravitated towards the Xbox and its family. Sucker Punch Production, the makers of inFAMOUS, have been known as one of Sony’s three or four largest first party studios behind Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, and the former exclusive Insomniac. Sucker Punch’s previous series, Sly Cooper, became one of Sony’s mascots in the PS2 era, and the inFAMOUS series has been highly acclaimed on the PS3 platform. Both of these studios are working to continue what they have done so well before and improve their games further.

Titanfall versus inFAMOUS should be an interesting fight, but why would these two consoles put out these fighters against each other now? Well, they are both playing to the console’s strengths. Titanfall is multiplayer only because one of the features that Xbox hangs over Sony’s head is Xbox Live and its multiplayer fanbase. Its Call of Duty legacy, look, and shooter mechanics all go back to the fact that Call of Duty is huge for Xbox. That is not even mentioning that Xbox’s new impulse triggers will help with these games. inFAMOUS is single player only because Sony serves great series in their legacy of games, from the Uncharted series and Last of Us from Naughty Dog to the Sly Cooper and previous inFAMOUS games from Sucker Punch itself. Its colorful graphics and style are used to showcase the PS4’s slight boost in power. The game even uses the touchpad on the controller in a way that seems innovative.

Both games have been battling against each other, with ads ranging between gameplay trailers saying to “believe the hype” to live action trailers that look every bit as good as the gameplay. While Titanfall may be appearing first, it will also be on the Xbox 360 and PC as well as the Xbox One, which may hinder its “system seller” status that some people want to claim it as. On the other hand, people saying that inFAMOUS, being part of a previous franchise, may not be as easy to get into for newcomers who don’t know about Cole McGrath and the Conduits. Either way, both games have great aspirations to live up to.

Personally, I will be picking up inFAMOUS, as I have a PS4 and am waiting on a AAA game to play on it. Also, I am planning on picking up Titanfall on the Xbox 360. It will be unclear who will win this battle, but I am sure that both Microsoft and Sony both have big games up their sleeves.

This fight will be a strong one. Will Xbox’s power punching mech of a game fall flat, or will inFAMOUS glide by only to run out of smoke? May Gaming’s March Madness begin.

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Shawn Richards studies games to understand how they work. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.