As a nominee, if not the ultimate winner, of the VGX Game of the Year award, there's an air of inevitability to the news that Super Mario 3D World has scooped the Best Nintendo Game VGX prize.
Mario's latest adventure was up against some strong competition from other Wii U releases, in the forms of Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends and The Wonderful 101. All are outstanding titles, though it seems fitting that the critically acclaimed Mario title receives the award. It's undoubtedly the big-hitter for Nintendo's home console this Holiday season, too, and in his appearance on the VGX broadcast Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime stated that the title is selling "quite well in this market", which has "not surprised" Nintendo. We'll be intrigued to see some firm numbers at some point, of course, particularly in terms of how the game — and others along with bundles — have contributed to hardware sales.
Elsewhere, Animal Crossing: New Leaf caught the Best Casual Game VGX Award in its net, seeing off Disney Infinity, Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time and Skylanders SWAP Force for the honour.
That's a solid result for New Leaf, while Mario enjoys some success over three other excellent games on Wii U. What are your thoughts on these awards?
Comments 65
Yeah, no surprise here.
Good deal. Still disappointed GTAV won GoTY. I'm not saying that SM3DLand 100% deserves it unquestionably, but I'm tired of seeing people drool over GTA games every darn time they're released. I mean what about The Last of Us? Or Bioshock Infinite? Is GTAV really a greater achievement? Or is it just...GTA?
Any reason this wasn't on the stream but the rappers were?
Not a big shock there.
To bad these awards weren't handed out during the show nintendo could use the coverage
To bad these awards weren't handed out during the show nintendo could use the coverage
@NintendoNaut It has vastly improved the GTA formula from the last outing, to the point it's hard to believe both games were released in the same platform/generation. Gameplay wise it's leaps and bounds more enjoyable and functional.
I'd be careful with the "isn't it just GTA?" mentality - it's pretty much the same thing people say about Mario. "Oh Mario again as GOTY contender? Isn't it just one more Mario game?". And as we know very well, no, it is not. It's genius. And the worst Mario games in the last 5-6 years are still better/more creative than 95% of all platformers out there, including most darling indie ones.
But yeah, GTA V best game? Not sure. The Last of Us is a fantastic achievement.
Eh, great to hear, but not eye popping.
Mind blown
About Animal Crossing, yeah my non-gamer Mother is completely obsessed with it right now so it certainly deserves an award.
Super Mario 3D doesn't deserve "Game of the Year". It's BETTER than "Game of the Year".
@NintendoNaut
I will just post here what I posted in the other thread. GTA V is a fun game, sure it has its flaws but it's still very fun. In my opinion, It's a much more interesting game than Bioshock was. I can play GTA for hours on end doing a lot of stupid stuff, side missions, and not to mention enjoy the actual story, I can only play Bioshock for only couple of minutes to a half an hour at most
I'm not at all surprised GTA won the Game of the year award. The Last of Us is an amazing game storyline wise, but from what I have been hearing, the gameplay isn't anything to brag about.
@Excep7ional Last Of Us is essentially Uncharted 4: Drake's Infection. It's literally an Uncharted game with a new story and fresh lick of paint.
@daveh30
Since I'm an Uncharted fan, I guess that's a good thing. Others may not be as positive about that as I am though.
Yeah, this was a no brainer.
However, I hope everyone sees now what a farce this show is. Not only do the producer's think that jokes about killing prostitutes and the elderly, crotch grabs, F-bombs, N-bombs, are suitable entertainment for an 'awards' show, they also expect YOU, the average gamer, to enjoy it.
Oh, and seeing bones break is sooooooo cool.
People were disappointed with Reggie? He's the only part of the show I wasn't disappointed with.
@SirGreatNose
this
I feel as though -in their minds anyway- the jocks just got together and voted to figure out who they thought their favorite chess club member was.
@Excep7ional yeah, I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing. I wouldn't say there was anything new or innovative about it, but they used tried and tested gameplay mechanics to tell a great story. Wouldn't be my pick for GOTY, but it's certainly worth the price of admission.
Congrats to New Leaf and A Link Between Worlds. 3D World had no competition.
Maybe if there were more games...
@Swiket S'all good, gangsta boi.
@daveh30 ah come on yeah it used the same game engine and has the same dev studio but the game play was a different pace and a different feel uncharted was an action game this is a survival/action game with much better story and characters it doesn't have much in common with uncharted besides the game engine and generally being awesome
@NintendoNaut This. So very true.
Well Duh! Its Mario! what critic hates Mario? XD
Not very surprised. It was obvious from the start.
Hold on a sec, did they just count Rayman Legends as a Nintendo game? It was on other platforms.
I would probably buy GTA V if it showed up on Wii U. (ducks)
I just can't justify buying games for older systems when I have a new one, right here. The same logic would be applied if I had any of the 8th gen systems. I couldn't get into San Andreas, though, so maybe not...
Haven't played too much GTA V, so I can't really say whether it deserved it or not, but it probably did. I did play The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite, and both of them were great and deserved to be in the running for GOTY. Really glad Ni No Kuni won best RPG, it deserves it.
It will always be the winner in my heart:)
@SanderEvers How does the fact that you completed it in a day make it better than GTAV? That's kind of absurd. You haven't given GTAV enough time to invest in yet.
Don't get me wrong, I haven't played either game yet and I am looking forward to Mario a lot more, but you shouldn't judge a game from this early on.
With Nintendo so down playin this and other shows recently, this must point toward a huge E3 for then software wise with at least several new titles.
I'd guess including a new Metroid.
This is paradoxically why 3rd party companies don't want to make games for Nintendo. They know they're never gonna be able to compete with Mario and the likes. I mean, Mario is pretty much a flawlessly fun series, but I guess companies are ambitious enough to have the desire to top the sales, and maybe even popularity of a Mario game for once, which is probably not going to happen ..anytime soon ..in the west, at least.
I'm still mad at how bad the whole thing was. x(
This wasn't even a competition. A Link Between Worlds, imo the real Nintendo game of the year, was up against much tougher competition in the handheld department. Super Mario 3D World definitely deserved to take something though. I just wish the VGX as a whole wasn't a complete and utter joke, but it seems to get worse and worse each year and it makes gamers look really bad.
@NintendoNaut
I loved The Last of Us and had it pegged as my GOTY. Until I played GTA V. GTA V is the first game in the series I've really liked since the PS2 era. It's not a perfect release by any means but I logged a ton of hours of fun into it. All the side missions, the crazy story, the despicable, but in an odd way likeable characters. For me it dumps all over the complete trash that was GTA IV and puts the series back on the map. But honestly, I'd have been perfectly fine with any of the 5 overall GOTY nominations taking the award, for once I felt the panel got the nominees correct, although I may have subbed Zelda for Tomb Raider. I know it's a handheld game but if Journey can bring home all the awards it did last year, no reason a game on a portable system shouldn't get a shot at it.
@SirGreatNose This so much. Unfortunately, though, that's what is 'cool' and sells. Sad world.
Loving SM3DW, though, so much fun. W101 and Pikmin3 are 2nd and 3rd place for my GOTY.
Oh, and very happy about Ni no Kuni, it is a great RPG.
i did hope that the winner would be W-101 but congrats to sm3dw, it's also an amazing game.
Great job, Nintendo! I'm happy you took some awards home. SMB3D World is definitely in my top 3 best games of the year. That game is too darn awesome! However, Ni No Kuni was deserving of it's award. I have no doubt that Fire Emblem X Shin will be taking an award home for next year in the RPG section.
GOTY is a toss up between GTAV, The Last Of Us, and BioShock Infinite. Any of these games are arguably GOTY material. Hell even SMB3DW is. Anywho....good show Nintendo!
@Kyloctopus
You could stack an entire library up against 3D World, it still wouldn't be any competition. So I don't think the amount of games had anything to do with it. But on that note, the Wii U library has more than its fair share of good games for a year one library.
They should have awarded smb3dworld as goty, Fire emblem as best gdr.
sm3dw is better than gta5
But gta5 has sold more than 20 mln so it was difficult to expect a different conclusion
ni no kuni is a great game but fire emblem is more enjoyable
These events usually don't give nintendo the value it deserves
Ok and now?
Next year we will see xenoblade 2, mario kart and ssbb.
I want to see if they will award xeno as best rpg, mario kart as best driving and ssb as best fighting
I'm sure they won't
And there isn't a platform cathegory
Reggie saying "quite well" doesn't fill me with confidence.
On the 'wellness scale', it's not up there with "really well" or "very well", it's more of a middling "well", (but better than "not well")...
And why the hate for the concert part of the awards? It was a good deal better than those inane fools making idiotic attempts at jokes for over two hours.
Poor Thomas had to sit through 3 Hours of that awards ceremony last night! I feel for him. . . .
Why is there an award category specifically for Nintendo games? Was there a "best Sony game" and "best Microsoft game" category as well?
@SanderEvers I got through the main game in a few days of short playing sessions and thought it was a bit too easy and that finding the secrets and stars was a bit too easy but the later bonus levels are much more difficult.
@nintendork666: Well, yes, it's by platform (Xbox, PS, Nintendo). But the state of affairs being what it is for Nintendo, it must have been real a tough choice. Other nominees were Pikmin 3, Rayman and W101. And it's not like they'd award it to a game that already bombed.
2012 that overpriced Mario rehash won against a bunch of games that dared show some depth. Go figure.
But see the pattern?
@SanderEvers
The game may not be your cup of tea, so, cool I repsect that but didn't you only get passed the second mission? I'm sorry but you can't really judge the games story line by doing only a few missions. I do admit, after the very first part of the game, it's slow and the missions are stupid. Especially with Franklin. Once you are a couple of missions in the game really picks up and it's addicting. Not to mention the character interactions gets hilarious.
I do, however, agree with you on one thing. The online for GTA V is horrible. It gets boring after a while.
I didn't like the co-host they got, but apart from that I thought it was decent. I don't see anything wrong with the nominees or the winners. GTA V is the highest rated game of the year on meteoritic, but people are acting like it winning here is some kind of fix? All the nominees were great games and any of them would have been a worthy winner.
The live chat last night just confirmed what a bitter bunch of people post on here. People that will criticise anything not on Nintendo platforms and love anything that is. Everyone is (rightfully) enjoying Mario and Zelda right now, great games that are very mechanically similar to their predecessors 20 years ago, but last night it was just a stream of 'Bleh another third person shooter, bleh another action adventure, bleh another fantasy RPG, bleh another point and click game'. I don't know any other community that is like that about games. I talk to people at work about games, and not everyone has the same console, but you never hear this ridiculous behaviour. If a cool game is available on a platform they don't own, usually they're wondering if it's good enough to buy the system for, not coming out with comments like "yeah, played it at my brother's house and it sucked".
@Peach64 As usual....well said, Peach! I have to say I don't understand the amount of negativity you've been getting lately. You tell the truth and you get dinged for it.
@Peach64
You are absolutely one of the most clear headed posters up here, along with Rafie and Futurealphamale. All of your comments aren't blinded by pure fanboyism and you speak the truth. Like Rafie said though, it sucks that you get such a bad rep around here because you aren't a delusional drone. I'm a Nintendo fan myself but some of the comments on this site makes the community look terrible.
No surprise here but well deserved as it's an amazing game.
@Peach64 Question if a bunch of bitter people post here why do u continue to post and visit the site? Any website based on a console of peference will have those obtuse individuals who will refuse to be logical and listen to reason but there are also those of us who arent also visit and post here as well. Would u be upset if people go to McDonalds and not order a BigMac? I personally like ur objective point of views but my disagreements w/ u start when u talk about WiiU owners stepping up when you yourself dont own a WiiU…i wouldnt tell anyone with a PS4 or XB1 about what games they should buy because that's their choice of games or console.
As ive said b4 great games are great games just like whichever consoles they're on. The days when one person could own 1 console and play every game they want are gone…games sell hardware right? Havent u stated that once there r enough games to justify ur WiiU purchase ur goin to buy one? The same will apply to others and with all consoles.
As for those "bitter" comments...kids will be kids but i do find these kids in all websites not just this one
So Nintendo won in best Nintendo game, Casual game, and Handheld game....as predicted.
@Peach64 BItter people are everywhere. Not saying I am defending those people, but if u think that's all that's in here why do you keep coming to this site in the first place? TBH some of the awards I didnt think some games deserve were because I felt like there were truly better game out there, and to be quite honest none of those games were Nintendo games. Nintendo deserved the awards it got but didnt deserve any other awards. There are people in here that have some sense my friend.
The fact that 3D World had no competition in that particular category is very telling.
@Hale-Bopp WEll, i think pikmin 3 was a great game, i think the issue with it was that it was too short. Also a lot people said Wonderful 101 was great, but judging by the people who owned both games, Mario 3D World was phenomenal!
Love or hate gtav it's a great game it's all about the online mode witch works perfect now once you start online your hooked.
Could people stop about being "true" fans and speaking the "truth"? Because it's getting ridiculous.
@fabiosooner great comments there, sounds like the beginnings of an article.
@CountWavula also, the day's have gone when a poor 4 hour game is "fixed" by massively upping the difficulty, and you kept going back to it as your parents only got you one or two games a year.
Many of these super difficult games are not classics as they got the difficulty curve very wrong. Games that are considered classics did a decent job on the difficulty curve, such as the originals Mario and Sonic games, even if the got nearly impossible to beat in later stages.
When I play a game, I want it to be fun, not work, as I have plenty of that to do already
@CountWavula Castlevania and Contra etc were for older gamers only, so it's perfectly okay for them to be a bit harder, and I think they did a decent job of the difficulty curve for its intended audience, but you can't expect all games to be designed for hardcore gamers only, as many people don't have the time to spend 30 hours trying to beat the first level.
What UI personally think is best is the difficulty levels for Left 4 Dead 2 - some can only enjoy it on expert & realism, whereas others only can enjoy it on easy or medium, whereas most start off on easy and gradually build their way up - there's no reason why you can't cater to many different types of gamers. Some people said that having the white tanooki suit in 3D world makes it too easy and therefore they won't play, but rather (at least in 3D Land anyway) it makes it harder to get 100% as if you lose 5 lives in one level, you can't get shiny stars on your save file, so to get them you have to start over if you do it, which makes it much more of a challenge in the end.
It would be good if 3D World had a super hard difficulty for all levels, not just the special worlds - while I probably wouldn't get too far, many would love it and would make 3D World just that much better over all.
@CountWavula The original Contra.... That game is unforgivably difficult. The Code helps, but even then its still very difficult. I like the classic Nintendo difficulty curve. Easy to learn, extremely difficult to master. These days most games hold your hand too much.
There is nothing wrong with games being "Dark" at all. Sure, I love games that are beautiful and light hearted, such as Mario but that can get lame after a while. I want to play scary, violent horror games (can't wait for the Evil Within. Game is going to be epic on Ps4) I want to play games with a dark and gritty atmosphere like Gears of War, or Fallout. Hell God of War, GTAV, Mass Effect, Borderlands, are all great games and they are all very violent. Left 4 Dead 1 & 2, both zombie riddled, but absolutely great, especially when you play it with friends.
I'm speaking for myself here, but I grew up. Those whimsical type games you speak of just won't satisfy me when I want to play something with a breathtaking storyline that can keep me playing for hours. I want drama, strong character development, tragic endings, etc. All of the things you make out to be so bad adds a whole lot of feeling to the game on top of the fun factor. Some games that came out recently offer exactly that. I don't think games have reached a dark age at all. It's great and it's only going to get better when Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo start dropping out games like crazy.
@SirGreatNose haha, touché
Ugh. You can't trust the VGX "awards". They make crappy selections like this.
Animal Crossing well deserved that award. It is a most addicting game.
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