In this month's podcast we revealed the Nintendo Life Game of the Year Awards winners, showcasing the very best games that 2009 bestowed upon us. If you didn't get chance to listen to the show yet, be sure to check it out, but here for posterity are all the categories and winners from a bumper year.
Staff awards
Best Visuals
We saw some great looking games in 2009, with 2D animation featuring heavily in our end-of-year votes. Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story was a hot contender but in the end Muramasa took home the crown.
Winner: Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Runner-up: MadWorld
Best Sound
Again, we had some fantastic sounding games on Nintendo consoles this year, running a gamut of styles from dance, trance, rock and classical, truly delivering something for everyone.
Winner: Bit.Trip series
Runner-up: Little King's Story
WiiWare Game of the Year
WiiWare stepped up its game this year, delivering more quality titles for pocket money prices. Picking a winner wasn't easy, but NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits edged out the competition and netted itself a well-deserved award.
Winner: NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits
Runner-up: LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias
DSiWare Game of the Year
Despite only being up-and-running since April, DSiWare saw some of the year's best games, with the Art Style series fitting the handheld perfectly and walking away with the top prize, sharing second place with WayForward's ace Mighty Flip Champs.
Winner: Art Style: PiCTOBiTS
Runners-up: Art Style: Intersect, Mighty Flip Champs
WiiWare Developer of the Year
There was a good number of WiiWare games released in 2009 from a wide variety of developers, but two teams did enough to stand out and share joint honours in the top spot, with Over-the-Top Games netting second place.
Winners: Frontier and Gaijin Games
Runner-up: Over-the-Top Games
DSiWare Developer of the Year
Two developers really stood out on DSiWare today, both having a hand in the unbelievable Art Style games. As DSiWare grows up, we'll surely see other teams emerge to take on these big boys.
Winner: Skip ltd.
Runner-up: Q-Games
Wii Game of the Year
A close-run thing between the top two titles released this year, with those plucky plumbers just doing enough to outpace King Corobo and his Kingdom of Alpoko.
Winner: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Runner-up: Little King's Story
DS Game of the Year
Surprising nobody, the DS vote came down to new outings for the Mario brothers and the Hero of Time, and it seems the Italian twosome managed to outmuscle little Link to take the top spot.
Winner: Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Runner-up: Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Ultimate Game of the Year
Despite the number of tremendous DS games released last year, the best overall game came down to two classic Wii titles that will surely be remembered when 2009 is but a distant memory. In the end, the plumbers used a power-up mushroom and stomped the Little King to claim Nintendo Life's Ultimate Game of the Year 2009.
Winner: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Runner-up: Little King's Story
Nintendo Life Reader's Choice Award
The reader's vote took in nearly a hundred votes for forty different games, proving the wide variety of quality titles released on Nintendo formats in 2009. Tiny puzzle games rubbed shoulders with big budget adventures and there were plenty of surprises. In the end, it came down to three titles vying for the top spot, and the results are:
Winners: New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Little King's Story
Runner-up: Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Congratulations to all our winners and a huge thank you to everyone who voted. There's no denying 2009 was a great year for games and here's to an even better 2010!
Comments 38
Some good choices there and I couldn't be more happy with the readers choice result, I personally voted LKS purely because of how original its concept is, however I can't argue with a tie.
The results are definitely better than IGN's who for some bizarre reason have Madworld as winner or runner up for nearly every category, the only choice I disagree with is the Wiiware game of the year, Lost Winds should have won that but ah well.
Pretty much went with what one would expect. Congratulations to all the winners!
Good choices all around! golf claps
Though my favorite didn't win I think the results are great overall.
It's interseting to see these lists compared to lists from sites with different kind of communities, such as older/younger ones.
@stevie: Goes to show you that a bunch of morons run IGN...
All of these games deserved the awards they got. 2009 was an amazing year in gaming. Here's hoping 2010 is better!
EDIT: Hold on... I don't see any awards for VC games.
@CH405K1N6 That's because there weren't any
Congrats to Over the Top games and Frontier games! I think those 2 developers really show the potential of what Wii Ware can do.
Eh, NyxQuest's demo was duller than just about anything I've played on WiiWare to date, unimaginative desert visuals / floaty gameplay and all. The other choices are mighty fine, however.
Hmm. I see my vote for Sexy Poker for best visuals was a wasted vote. Oh well.
Great results. I just finished NSMBWii last night, and 'twas awesome.
LostWinds > Nyxquest. There must've been a few "hanging chads" that were miscounted.
Congrats to all the (other) winners, and thanks guys for taking the time to break it down for us all. Good job!
awww love little king story i hoping that win as mario bros is more of same were at least LKS was unique:)
I haven't got to play New Super Mario yet, but eagerly awaiting for it. And cheers for Little King Story, its a really great, innovated game.
I still don't see how Nyx quest beat lost winds.
Yea Muramasa! Easily my favorite game of the entire decade.
Intersect?? I know a few people liked it, but I'm surprised to see it here.
And how did Bit Boy not win best WiiWare? They spent so much time on it. It's basically A Link to the Past meets Mario 64. It certainly got my vote.
Lostwinds>NyxQuest seconded. But other than that, a very respectable list. TIme for me to find a copy of LKS...
Cheers to the winners! Jeers to no-one else voting Punch-Out!! as best visuals
Great results there!
Congratulations to all the winners. I'm especially happy to see Little King's Story finally getting the respect it so rightfully deserves.
Did anybody vote for Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes? It is one of the best games that came out on the DS in 2009 but not that many people even know about it. I would have voted it DS Game of the Year!
NSMBW = Win.
Where's Scribblenauts?!
I thought a Boy and his Blob has better visuals than MadWorld, personally.
And how come Spirit Tracks is higher than BIS?
woohoo go super mario bros wii. I love that game
Echo Vendetta, Chunky Droid, and SpaghettiToastBook.
@Prosody: Well, why not?
mario bros wii and bowsers inside story easily two of this years best games!!!
I didn't know how to vote, am I stupid? =x
no ur not I didn't know how to either. wait, that doesn't prove anything.
Good choices. Also in am in the same camp as @rafaelluik.
Unless Prosody rigged this, I did not know there was so many LKS fans here. I still wish ST would have won. Though NSMBWii is a well deserved winner
Pictobits is pure Nintendo genius and should have won Overall Game...... just my opinion. I hate puzzle games and that one has me hooked still.
I also didn't know how to vote for this thing. Great results, though I have to wonder how NyxQuest beat LostWinds 2. Sure, I only played the demo of NyxQuest, but it seemed just a bit dull when compared to LostWinds 2. I also don't agree with DSiWare's winners. I personally didn't like PiCTOBiTS much, and I think Thorium Wars should've won for DSiWare. It definitely had the best graphics and some great, if not sometimes a little frustrating, gameplay.
You just needed to use the "Contact" link guys -- remedial reading courses for everyone!
Skip ltd. & Q-Games are the best on DSiWare for sure! but talking about DS games: where is GTA?.. I would like to see it a runner up or something
Way to Go to all the winners and runner-ups!
Yes! Yes! Wooooo, go N.S.M.B. Wii! Well done, winners and runners-up!
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