Nintendo Wins Four At The Game Awards 2014, While Shovel Knight Scoops Best Indie Prize

Developer of the Year was huge! Slightly disappointed that Smash didn't win best handheld game, and Bayonetta 2 didn't get at least Best Action Game, but it was a great overall night for a Nintendo fan. They had such an amazing presence this year with great reveals and great games.

Still can't believe Heart stone won Best Mobile/Handheld... I was so sure that Smash would win hands down.... Maybe it won first runner up...

GG Nintendo ! 2014 is definitively the year of the japanese company. A shame for Bayonetta 2 that deserved to win something, but nevermind... The Wii U is in da place (y)

I'm not really expecting Nintendo to win handheld category against Hearthstone. For the best action game, it's real tough between Bayonetta2 and SoM. For the GotY I couldn't say much as I knew little about the new Dragon Age But I'm happy they've won some major ones.
Anyway

@Tsurii897 Me too! I just couldn't stay up any longer but the intro was just INCREDIBLE!

@BensonUii Is that picture a thing if and if so WTF?

Don't forget Bayonetta 2 won best action/adventure

I'm glad that Shovel Knight won Best Independent Game. It really deserved it! I really look forward to where Yacht Club Games goes with all this praise and success with its first major title. I don't know much about the Game of the Year nominees, since I have yet to have the chance to play any of them. I'm sure that I'll be playing Bayonetta 2 some time in the future though.

@MrWalkieTalkie Shadow of Mordor won Best Action/Adventure

Still wondering how heartstone won

Nintendo's great work this year has paid off. Bayonetta should have won but it is very out there. It could have increased sales to further highlight its excellence in reinvigorating the genre but oh well. I'm not sure if Dragon Age should have been game of the year considering how the actions of building up everything doesn't amount to much in the end. The micro transactions with that coop or multiplayer mode that was very pointless and underdeveloped to focus on buying stuff in game also wasn't good at all. Still a great game but yeah.

Good for TPP! And it was a great Nintendo night, too!

Congrats Nintendo! Well deserved! Now when other award shows come up and if Nintendo doesn't win as much....I don't wanna hear about how these award shows don't matter and such.

They won best developer of the year! That brilliant! Condisdering how badly the WiiU is selling.

@Blakenator strange, some sites said Bayonetta 2 won.

Think the only real snuff was Shadow of Mordor over Bayonetta for Action Game of the Year. Everything else was well-deserved, IMO.

I ended up sleeping through it, but it's good to hear that the big N was successful.

@MrWalkieTalkie I can see how it can be confusing to some, since those two games were most widely seen as the top two contenders as far as popularity and gameplay. But The Game Awards website listed SoM as the Best Action/Adventure when I checked it for the first time this morning. I completely forgot that the awards were going on yesterday

Developer of the year is good and all but...they really got robbed.

Not only did Bayonetta lose to SHADOW OF MORDOR as best action game of the year, Sm4sh lost to a freaking card game as best handheld game?
That's just sad.
On the other hand, Bayonetta will probably get a bunch of GOTYs from IGN, Gamespot and whatnot...specially from Gamespot. That 10.

Go Shovel Knight!

@themac2001 It is just Link using Lana's weapon. There is a glitch in HW that allows you to basically skin one character on top of another. So it makes for funny moments like that. Though I could see Link's hidden talent is that he is an amazing back up dancer (couldn't sing for obvious reasons) lol!

@Melkac I feel the same way with Sm4sh and Hearthstone to an extent. As far as scale of the game, Sm4sh has a lot going on. So much stuff packed into the game, great local and mostly okay online (at least for me), and a variety of characters.

Yet what I've seen from Hearthstone idicates that it is a worthy opponent. Most of my friends play it on their iPads ever since our school issued them (I don't play it because I don't like most iPad/"mobile type" games). It's ease of access makes it a great game for mobile, plus the online multiplayer is really easy to get into. It's premise is simple enough, and the depth of play is just right for an addicting mobile game. Probably where Sm4sh lost out to it is in the controls/online department, since many have complained about imprecise controls on the 3ds (mostly concerning the wonky circlepad inputs and lack of c-stick) and spotty online, as well as the shallow Smash Run and all the steps you have to go through just to play with a friend online. That's just my two cents, but maybe I'd be able to pass better judgment when I play Hearthstone myself

Great job, Nintendo! Developer of the year!

Kind of disappointed that Bayonetta 2 didn't win anything, even though the competition was stiff and the winners weren't bad picks.

Technically Shovel Knight isn't a "Nintendo Win" as it was also on Steam but it was very successful on Nintendo platforms and Nintendo was supportive of them. This show is a much improvement over last year, i wish they continued to do those jokes with Video Game characters actually interacting with the show

Well earned titles indeed
And congrats to Yacht Club. Indeed one of the best Indi titles as of late for the simple fact that these guys actually knew what "8bit retro style" meant
Remember kids: Pixel Art =/= 8bit

And to top it all off, here is a (clever but awfull) comparison my buddy made the other day regarding the WiiU:
"It was like a slingshot. At first, the slingshot (this gaming gen) moved forward, while the WiiU (the ammo) stood in place...and now, shots are fired...hard"

As stupid as it is, its pretty true. The console had a rough start, but now you see why. Nintendo proved to be one of the last developers to truely finish and polish their games.
Even the often seen as dire situation the WiiU was in was no reason for Nintendo to rush production of games like Mario Kart of Smash and it shows.

And we have a truckload of exciting games on the horizon. Though i have to say, we now saw more footage of Zelda U than of Starfox U...which is supposed to come earlier. About to you show up fox...its quiet, too quiet.

After E3 and last night's showing and Nintendo's consistently excellent quality this year.... I can't help but think there is something very wrong with people who aren't even slightly interested in the Wii U.

Wow the wiiU has so much going for it but still it can't ramp up it's sales no matter how many quality exclusives it has. I'll bet Yamauchi-san regrets allowing Sony the opportunity to get a foothold in their territory because now that they have established themselves in the interactive entertainment market their marketing hype has become all pervasive. People will happily pony up the dough for a machine that costs more, has fewer quality games and offers less innovation purely out of brand loyalty. All the same I want Nintendo to learn from their setbacks and keep fighting on their terms. Eventually Sony and microsoft will tire of making loss after loss and move on once they find a way to do so with out losing face. I look forward to the day when Nintendo finally reclaims their throne, even if that day is a long way away.

This awards were way better than last year. The opening music composer that Reggie introduced really set the stage to talk about Mario Maker. Sierra tribute was compelling and really gave the awards some history. Gameplay that was introduced by via world premieres gave a lot of content and fanfare. Showing Zelda U huge Open world and gameplay was exciting and had fans salivating for their beloved series. Closing it up with hyrulian music by the legendary composer and imagine dragons was superb and gave me chills. Nintendo stepped up their presence and showed the world that they are relevant but we all here at this website already know that.

I basically expected this games awards show to be completely dominated by games I'm simply uninterested in & bands who bore me & hence I ignored it. Then I heard that the world's first gameplay footage of Zelda U was shown so I watched that & it was mind blowing of course. Then I decided to sit down & watch the whole thing figuring I could just skip passed any footage too violent for my liking. Then I was quite surprised to see Reggie open the show with the great Koji Kondo playing some SMB music on piano. There was a lot of Nintendo all over the show which was great imo but I wish Reggie would've toned down the PR a bit, it came off as unnatural when it comes straight after some indie guy admitted how humble or nervous he was etc. It would've been nice if he had've cracked a few jokes & acted actually excited about the games he was talking about. Oh well, it's not a big deal. I'm glad there was a Nintendo presence & lots of nostalgic Nintendo music too. But I gotta say, what was with Mr. Kondo's off key playing of LoZ music on that piano? It was a little heartbreaking to listen to. He did it a bit in the SMB music playing but much more when he was playing MM music. I also wish they had've played LoZ music together like they did for the last song, oh well. Overall it was still a great show, much better than past years & I'll definitely watch next years live. Great work all involved & congratulations to the winners of all the awards!

Nintendo received some good awards. Nice! Developer Of The Year is a pretty big deal I think.

@WiiLovePeace regarding koji kondo I would imagine he was quite nervous he defiantly looked it.
It was nice to see Nintendo a lot at this show, however they are all really starting to show there age now.

I have to say that was a pretty great awards show. Much improved over any other year. Every console was well represented, and the focus seemed fairly split between small and large developers.

Also you can tell Geoff Keighley is a big NIntendo fan That finale was a really cool surprise.

pretty happy with the Nintendo results and the overall performance. Glad Dragon Age won the best game, it totally deserve it for the amount of content they stuffed into a disc.

The only "meh" moment was for the portable award... SSB deserved it, not a magic the gathering clone...

Hearthstone didn't deserve to win over smash 3ds, that was just ludicrous

@DiscoGentleman don't get your point at all... one can't say it?

Congrats to Nintendo. Very successful year. They came up with more wins than I imagined.

Also really liked how The Game Awards didn't have stuff like "Best PS4 Game" or anything like that. I'm never a big fan of those categories.

As for the Hearthstone. I'm pretty interested to try the game out. I've heard stories of people really getting addicted to that game.

@DiscoGentleman Agreed. Hearthstone was a legit contender. Not to discredit Smash, because let's face it- it was a truly amazing handheld game. But yeah, I don't think anyone should criticize a game unless they've actually played it.

And yes, Nintendo winning Developer of the Year is huge. That's a very coveted award, and they were competing against some big name devs this year.

@DiscoGentleman I tried it and it s ok, but nothing so "wow". Still, if I want to play a card game, I get my card and some friend and play. But I see your point now

@DiscoGentleman Heh, I'm just moreso concerned that Smash bros on the 3ds wasn't exactly a perfect game among-st it's contenders instead of worrying about a card game winning.

How did Hearthstone win? IMO, Hearthstone is a way better match for a portable format than Smash Bros. When I try Smash Bros. on 3DS I'm thinking it's impressive they could cram it onto that tiny play area. When I play Hearthstone on an iPad I think to myself, this is the best way to play this game. It's interesting that both games successfully bring outsiders to a somewhat niche genre.

I thought Monument Valley had a good chance in it's categories, too.

I found the show to be on its way to respectability, but am I the only one that finds all the extremely gory footage being showcased in games as sort of distasteful in an awards show covering all of video gaming?

As for selling Wii U consoles we'll see but this show will take awhile for people to notice or care. The previous award shows were pretty much a joke. It definitely had the effect of making Nintendo feel relevant, but only to those who took the time to watch.

It seems like Nintendo should be pushing over an edge of acceptance for more people, but I'm already so sold on the Wii U (and was from day one, actually) it's getting harder for me to relate to gamers who don't want it.

@aaronsullivan Smash bros for the wii u is amazing,3ds version is still good but still lacking.Fighting games on handhelds are bad especially 3ds with its design.Those who say Hearthstone didnt deserve it,either didnt play it at all or never stayed for long.
The game is addictive and fun.Yes a major part of it is the RNG but you can still make choices that can give you a win or a loss.

The only negative thing about it are the slow progression for newer players if they dont want to cash money to get cards.

Looks i need play hearthstone again, i have played a few months ago and it was good but missing content to be a real top game.

Meh awards mean nothing.

Hurray for Nintendo! Tonight, we feast!

@aaronsullivan hopefully they leverage this. They should print this on every Wii U for next year.

Great job nintendo

Cards Of Humanity won best handheld game? sigh

Serious question - who was Nitnedo up against for "developer of the year"?

They had 2 great games this year - MK8 and SSBU. Bungie had so-so Destiny, Ubisoft had meh Watch Dogs adn nearly broken AC and who made a new COD game. Nintendo also started the year w/ DKC:TF.

I'm really glad Ntinedo did so well last night but what other company develops so many great games in 1 year like they do? Bungie, Blizzard, EA, Ubi? I know Sony has several companies but inFmaous 2 was about it for this year as DriveClub literally crashed an burned.

So who came in 2nd and how wide was the margin of victory?

Honestly I don't really care who won what, since these awards things are basically just opinions and sometimes the opinions suck. Like with Smash 3DS...or Bayonetta 2 (then again I haven't played that game yet, but whatever, lol).

To those wondering how Hearthstone beat Smash 3DS, it was obvious a mile away.

Hearthstone was nominated for overall GOTY. It would have been very inconsistent if it were to lose in a "lesser" category against titles not nominated for GOTY.

I'm not saying I agree or disagree (I haven't played the game, so I'm not about to judge), but it seemed fairly obvious because of my above point, IMO.

@BensonUii but... how-uh?

@RR529 This is why PTCGO needs to come to 3DS, goty 2015 for sure!!!

Congratz Nintendo! Glad to see them getting the recognition.

Smash 3DS didn't win any awards? That's to be expected. Nintendo won a lot of awards, but that doesn't matter. All that matters is a crappy 3DS game winning Best Mobile Game. Nothing else.

Bayonetta REALLY deserves GOTY. It really does.
And Shovel Knight deserves better than just some downloadable code. Bring it on Wii U disc and 3ds cartridge, I'm almost certain Nintendo will gladly help publish it. Who knows, maybe even patch him in in SSB afterwards? Come on, you know you want to, Nintendo. You know we want this!

@aaronsullivan I know, Wii U is truely amazing. From day one, if I wasn't sneaking past zombies, or ordering mini nukes and clone factories to burn in my Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace (just for me), I was drawing on Miiverse, browsing the web (I prefer Wii U for that over a pc),... I really don't get all the negativity. But then again, I was a real fan of the Wii too, and most other Nintendo systems, but always with new reasons, and never getting how people could say they had no games...

Nintendo was the only reason I stayed up for the game awards. It was 3am and I heard there was a Nintendo world premiere so I waited.

I went through all these trailers that was just CGI and then the Zelda U part was when I listened.

@PinkSpider Ah okay, yeah that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification

@LordOfGamez "I went through all these trailers that was just CGI and then the Zelda U part was when I listened."

This!

It's awesome that most all of Nintendo's trailers and demos from recent years have been comprised almost completely of true gameplay video!
It pays in the long run, even if some Ninty trailers might seem boring in comparison to more cinematic ones.

Everybody hates false advertisement!

@rjejr Heh, heh.

I love the Wii U!!

I really detest Kneighly and couldent watch more than 20 mins without turning off, glad nintendo picked up a few awards but they should have picked up more, I found what I seen of the show pretty cringeworthy in fairness and it was laden with sponsorship and promotion. I thought it was a sony event for a minute. The whole 'world premiere' thing was just too much for me.

@BinaryFragger I didn't just focus on Nintendo. But they played a prominent role here. By the way, this is a Nintendo-dominated site. You should a least expect a bit of bias.

@mozie, I fail to see how you could have percieved it as a Sony event.

Sony only had as many appearances on stage as Nintendo in terms of new trailers (Bloodborne, MLB 15 the Show, & Order 1886 for PS, and Mario Maker, S.T.E.A.M, & Zelda U for Nintendo). If anything, since they both opened & closed the show, I'd say Nintendo had a slightly more prominent presence.

As for the ads, they have to pay for the event somehow, so I was fine with them (no different than watching commercials on TV, other than the fact that they were all gaming related). Neither Sony or MS won any awards either, meaning there can't possibly be any accusations of them "paying off the event" (not that I'm accusing you personally of saying such. It's just I don't really see how the ads were a problem).

@LordOfGamez CGI means computer generated imagery and is a pretty general term. Do you mean pre-rendered cinematics? Most of the trailers I saw were using in-game footage rendered by the game engine.

I do like Nintendo's down to earth approach at showing early game footage. Developers hanging out talking about the progress.

@RR529 As I said I only seen a small portion of the event perhaps it was just a playstation segment or something but there were way to many ads, like every five minutes. I know they have to fund the event somehow but at times it was almost impossible to distinguish between 'world premiere' and the ads that followed. Most were for games that were already receiving significant airtime during the event anyways. It was all shadow of mordor or far cry 4.

Personally, if there was an award for best sequel of the year. Does anyone else other than myself think that Bayonetta 2 would have won that category? Maybe I'm wrong and maybe the judges would have picked Far Cry 4 but I'm just curious. Then again, Far Cry 4 was not in the running for Best Game of 2014 so maybe I am wrong about that as well. I would love to hear your thoughts!

@theBluntKnight I don't know what the price reduction did to the bottom line for the holidays, but my understanding is that Microsoft was making a sliver of profit on the new console rather than losing money. I don't know about Sony.

No....not at all, where did I infer I was judging the entire 4 hour show? I was merely stating an opinion regarding what I did see of the show, no more no less. No need to state implicitly that someone is ignorant because you disagree or misunderstand with there comments. I clearly stated in the original post how much of the show I had seen and my opinions of that.