Topic: The Game Awards 2019

The nominees are being announced next week. What do you think'll be nominated, and do you think any Nintendo titles have a shot at being nominated?

I think Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (eligable this year because it was released after last year's deadline) and Octopath Traveller are the only shots Nintendo has to make the GotY or RPG categories, while Mario Tennis Aces will probably show up in the Sports/Racing & Family Game categories. Super Mario Party, Kirby Star Allies, and possibly even one of the LABO kits also have a chance to pop up in the Family Game category, with not much else in the way of competition from elsewhere (except for maybe a Lego game).

Otherwise, I expect Spider Man, God of War, & RDR2 to pop up in the GotY & Action/Adventure categories. Dragon Ball FighterZ & Soul Calibur VI will probably be the frontrunners in the Fighting category, while Dragon Quest XI & Monster Hunter World will probably competitors in the RPG race (one or both may even make a surprise appearance in the GotY picture). This year's Fortza, MLB the Show, and Fifa will probably show up in the Sports/Racing category as per usual as well.

Don't think there'll be many Nintendo exclusives nominated:
Octopath - RPG, maybe GotY
Starlink - Family (it's multiplatform but basically a Switch exclusive because of the Star Fox content)
Super Mario Party - Family

As for Nintendo exclusive trailers, my predictions are:

• Mario Odyssey DLC - New Kingdoms
• Smash Ultimate - General launch trailer or DLC reveal
• Bayonetta 3 - Story trailer, not much gameplay
• The Wonderful 101 - February 2019 release

@Grumblevolcano there is no chance that Octopath will even be in the conversation for GOTY. Not saying it's a bad game but on that particular list I doubt it would crack even the top 10.

I don't want to hear who will be the winner.
I pretend it doesn't exist.
I know who will be the winner and i can extremely mad to hear.
Call me if the winner is from Nintendo games or any Family friendly games.

@redd214 I think it's possible in a similar way to how Bayonetta 2 somehow got nominated for GotY in 2014, wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't though.

@Grumblevolcano it's a niche Jrpg, it ain't happening. Red Dead, GOW, Spiderman, Celeste, and maybe Monster Hunter are my guesses for GOTY noms

I find Spiderman to be such a conundrum...? I really really enjoyed the main story & the swinging was admittedly awesome, but pretty much everything else in the game felt incredibly mediocre to me - yet people were losing their mind saying best game ever? Best Spiderman game maybe but plenty of others i’d pick before it... Octopath would be one such but I concur that no way will the official awards reflect that!

That being said, maybe someone should start a ‘Nintendo life’ awards thread with appropriate categories etc? A week or so to nominate categories/games for those categories and then leave voting open until the week before xmas and tally them together/hand out the ‘awards’?

@Grumblevolcano I think you should start to accept that Odyssey DLC isn't happening

@redd214 Assassin's Creed Odyssey was well-received and is a lot more recent than MHW, so I think it has a bigger chance. But let's be honest, RDR2 is the latest well-received game, so it will win. The other categories are usually more interesting.

@BrainOfGrimlock I've done a Nintendo-only awards thread last year, but since I haven't played a 2018 game on Switch this year, it feels a bit silly doing it myself. I wouldn't be voting anyway.

I think you should re-evaluate who you hang out with. I'd never seen anyone claim GOAT on that game until your post. That game was signposted as 'flashy but lacking' 12 months before release.

Admittedly I don't pay the closest attention, but it seems to me nothing has come close to getting the acclaim that God of War and RDR2 have got this year.

I think people may be confusing the sales success of the game with critical acclaim. Not so say it's a bad game at all. But most reviews and people who've played the game acknowledge that the open world was a bit too bland; It's the standard Ubisoft stuff with dozens of map markers you've come to expect from a generic open world game. The rest of the game is superb however, but I personally think they should've tried something a bit more unique in regard to the open world structure.

It's still one of the better games of this year IMO.

I finished Spider-Man yesterday after playing it for what must have been nearly 6 straight hours - something I've never done before on a single player game except maybe when Breath Of The Wild came out - and I absolutely love it.

I also feel that if you haven't played it you shouldn't disregard it as "flashy but lacking". That's ridiculous. But as someone who has loved the character since I was a kid and being hooked since the first Tobey Mcguire movie, I was always looking for another game to scratch that Spidey itch since the Neversoft game.

This nailed it on all cylinders for me. Not perfect, sure, but good enough for me to think it's one of the funniest games I've ever played.

I'll get stuck in to RDR2 soon hopefully but I promised myself I'd finish Okami HD first (currently 16 hours in). Other than that I mustn't have played many big new release games this year and I think that's Nintendo's fault for filling last year with amazing titles.

Fingers crossed for Pokemon and especially Smash Bros though

@Octane Not long left until I do give up hope for Odyssey DLC but the 1.2.0 content finishing so close to The Game Awards makes me think a DLC reveal is inbound. Probably not released at the same time given Smash but at least a reveal and preorders made available.

@Grumblevolcano The hint art, are they patches/updates? Or have they always been in the game? I never understood what they were about.

@Octane Think Splatoon 2 weapons before it became a monthly process regarding the hint art and outfits, the 1.2.0 update released in February contained a bunch of both and it's unlocked over time.

@Grumblevolcano Yeah, I mean, I get that. But what do they do? More moons?

Because as I understand it, they're pointing towards hidden places (there were some in the game as well), I never figured them out, but I got nearly every Moon I think. Were those hidden locations always in the game and are they just revealing their location just now, or are they patching the game every week with a new hidden location, along with the hint on their social media accounts?

@Octane The hidden locations were added with the February update and has an 8-bit Luigi that gives you coins with the hints being revealed gradually since March. There have been 2 time specific events too:

• Surrounding Captain Toad port launch, the 8-bit Luigis became 8-bit Captain Toads
• Surrounding 1 year anniversary event, a hidden bunch of 8-bit Luigis and Captain Toads were added to the festival area of the Metro Kingdom.

I think the most likely candidate for GOTY that's Nintendo relevant is and probably should be Celeste. It's the highest rated game on Switch this year. Hopefully it and DBFighterZ or something can make it along with the three obvious choices (GoW, Spiderman, RDR2). ...actually I just realized, Fortnite should absolutely be a GOTY contender, it would be stupid to suggest otherwise. Especially if PUBG could get it last year, and Fortnite is blatantly a better game.

I think RPG will be won by one of the two big Switch JRPGs (is that a category...it is right?), and I'm not sure what else would be specifically Switch focused this year, considering the best candidate for awards comes out too late to eligible (which is absolutely the right choice, I hated when the old Spike TV awards would nominate games that JUST came out). I think Switch kinda makes the handheld category weird in the first place. I guess Mario Party might win multiplayer, maybe? Why not at this point?

Honestly the thing that would get Nintendo awards this year is that there were like five AAA games this entire year that weren't console exclusive, like nothing came out outside of Sony games that would overly dominate awards in the first place. Take away Ubisoft and sports games and I might actually be overstating by saying there's been five.

@kkslider5552000 Fortnite came out last year as well.

they'll find a loophole around this

I'm not that interested in the awards this year because I think it'll be very predictable. God of War, Red Dead and maybe Forza Horizon 4.

Looking forward to game announcements though. Nintendo usually do something here. I'm expecting Fire Emblem!