Take a Look at Nintendo's Game Awards 2015 Nominees

Well seeing how Super Mario Maker is the only game on the list that was actually functional upon launch, I'd say it has a good chance.

Splatoon should be game of the year!!!

Splatoon is my Wii U game of the year by far - only Xenoblade can dwarf it... MM is still a console-defining game though.

Honestly... SMT Devil Survivor 2 RB is so underrated, it's sad. Either way, gogo SMM! Splatoon tooooooo

Are they stll putting togheter Mobile Gaming and Handheld? I know they are both played on the go, but that's the only thing in common they have in an ocean of differences.

Anyway I hope Nintendo will get some awards, if anything Splatoon got my attention for so many hours of fun that it definitely deserve an award in my opinion ^_^

I don't know, I kind of doubt SMM could win GOTY, but Splatoon might win some of the others... Honestly the only game I'm rootin' for is Undertale. That game deserves every bit of praise it can get.

I was really hoping for Splatoon to be Game of the Year, but I never expected it to not even be nominated! And this game's already clocking in the highest number of hours on my Wii U, 30% more hours than the next one, Mario Kart 8! I'm actually pretty surprised about that, wow.

Splatoon has to win at least one of three of those awards.

So is Xenoblade Chronicles X not eligible since it comes out in December, or do they just not like it enough? (Assuming this site's reviewers have already gotten their copies...Or would the game just be eligible for next year's awards?)

Splatoon has a great chance at Best Family Game. I seriously think that (and maybe MH4) are Nintendo's best shots at anything this year. That shooter category is fierce and given the sales and reviews, I'd bet the house that Fallout 4 wins GOTY in a landslide.

I can only imagine the complete meltdown and dudebro rage that would ensue if Splatoon won best shooter... x'D

@Santa that means nothing unfortunately. Bug filled, broken Skyrim managed to win over Skyward Sword.

@Crimzonlogic It misses the year by one day! Game Awards are the 3rd, Xenoblade X is the 4th.

@BakaKnight Well, to put it bluntly, handheld gaming has become a one-horse race, with Nintendo pretty much the only one doing anything of note (And not even all that much if i'm quite honest), so folding it in with a related category where there is plenty of activity and competition (i.e. mobile gaming) makes sense to me...

It would be nice for Nintendo to win something this year, but that's unlikely judging by the previous winners.

Considering how week was this year it's a pretty good list.

Let's be honest, Fallout 4 deserves GOTY! It's certainly had a LOT more time and effort than SMM and the like.

@crimsontadpoles, what are you talking about. Nintendo won quite a bit last year. Best Developer, Fighter (SSBWiiU), Sports/Racing (MK8), and Family (MK8).

Anyhow, there's no way Splatoon is going to win Family game, as it's up against Super Mario Maker (which is one of their GotY nominees). There's no way they're going to have a GotY nominee lose in a "lesser" category, as it would tell people right then & there that it's not winning the big award (the only times that happens is when there's more than one GotY nominee competing in one of the "lesser" categories, which isn't the case here).

Xenoblade X's OST should be a nominee for best video game soundtrack of the year. Its made by Sawano for gods sake (Kill la kill and Attack on titan).

@RR529 oh, I must have been thinking of the golden joysticks, though Nintendo have won a few of them as well in the past two years

I think Nintendo will win nothing this time. Fallout 4 will probably win GotY; Best Shooter and Multiplayer would likely go to Destiny (Splatoon's lack of voice chat and the 2 stage rotation every 4 hours will push it down); Lego Dimensions would likely be given Best Family Game and DotY will probably go to Bethesda (Fallout 4) or Kojima Productions (MGS5)

I kind of wish Splatoon was in the GOTY nominations, the current nominations are sequels and spin-offs(Bloodborne isn't truly a new original IP).

You'd think something like Splatoon is what game of the year is supposed to be. A game that breaks the mold of both the own developer and the genre its in that is very creative and of high quality ontop of the fact its a brand new IP without actually leaning on any of the developers previous works or style of game.

Splatoon will win Best Shooter by

'Game' ? Is Mario Maker really a game in the true sense? A weak choice?

@zool of course mario maker is a game. you can play levels from millions of players.

i just know that mgs5 needs to be game of the year. if not im gonna riot.

@Splatburst Good god, the lowest percentage I've seen a team get was 1.3%! How does that even happen?

I hope Splatoon wins.

@Dr_Lugae being creative does not equate to being the best. I could argue that Destiny has better shooting mechanics than splatoon despite it not being entirely original.

@Santa Ive been playing Fallout 4 from launch day, same with Witcher 3 & never had a problem.
Perhaps you'd know better if you'd actually played any of these games & not just believe everything you hear on the internet....

If Fallout 4 wins anything, this show becomes a joke. It doesn't matter how beautiful a game is when it's a bug filled mess and near unplayable.

No love in the "most anticipated" category? Wow.

Splatoon is more of a Game of the Year for me than Mario Maker.

Nintendo probably won't win anything.

As much as I think Super Mario Maker is great, I don't think it will beat the big games on the competing machines—even as much as I know I'd prefer it to basically all those other games personally.

As with all awards ceremonies, there's a 'most famous big budget game on the most popular system with expensive graphics that looks good on a highlight reel' whiff to all this. Nintendo is all about well built games, with colourful undemmanding graphics, catchy music, little story and solid game mechanics- which really don't make for good headlines. All that really matters to Nintendo is they're represented and get to show off their product to an audience that doesn't watch the directs. I also argue a game that's only been out a few weeks cannot be judged in the same light as a game that came out 10 months ago.

Who cares what some random panel of "experts" thinks?!

@Santa I have no idea what you are talking about.... But I guess you don t have too....

All the games were perfectly playable D1

SPLATOON!

@the-madprofessor unplayable? All ive encountered are minor graphic bugs. Have you even played it?

@the-madprofessor unplayable? All ive encountered are minor graphic bugs. Have you even played it?

@RainbowGazelle The internet cares because it's a travesty of justice if their favorite game doesn't win!

@MitchVogel So I'm guessing it won't even qualify for next year's award from this place and so it misses out of consideration. That's dumb.

Inb4 Fallout Vault Simulator wins "Best Mobile Game", just because it's a Fallout themed game. The hype around the brand is annoying. But if this really happens, I'll quit watching this award show forever.

Aannnddd who cares? We all play what we want to play and like what we want to like quantifying it all just sparks more wars in this already argument and bullying filled console cycle.

I'm glad Super Mario Maker is up for nomination for game of the year. While there's bound to be people who think that's silly, as a kid that grew up with the original Super Mario Bros. this game is really a kid's dream come true. I literally remember thinking how cool it would be to be able to make levels for games back then. Seemed like such an impossibility in 1988.

@Volcanox who cares? The game developer cares, the award is not for gamers to care but rather to acknowledge the works of the developers. Its not for us, its for them

Honestly I find all these awards to be insulting. I can almost never say that I agree with any of the winners because the results always seems like a popularity contest rather than the GOTY because of effort. I figure that Fallout 4 is going to win simply because it is so recent and because it was requested for a long time.

Even further, I think that Half-Life 3 would be handed the award if it comes out (sometime) and that next year is already lost with Final Fantasy VII getting a remake. And PushSquare seems almost certain that the winner is either Fallout or Witcher 3.

I'm guessing Splatoon won't win family game because its local multiplayer isn't great.
It's GOTY imo though. A fresh new gaming style handled masterfully.

Although I've only played the powerful special demo for this paint inflicted game, I don't think it will get best shooter or best multiplayer. I think the game is incredibly fun and it deserves the win. However you can't forget about Xbox nubs, from which all those games like Battlefield and CoD came out. Those will probably win because popularity over quality. It's like broken skyrim all over again :/ Sorry Nintendo, maybe next year considering how we have an amazing lineup just in January and Febuary itself. You people doubt Final Fantasy Explorers and Star Fox but there's something intriguing about them I find... And the beauty is there too. Just you wait..

Oops! Forgot to clarify, when I said lineup for Febuary and January I wasn't referring to Star Fox considering it is late April. I was talking about Twlight Princess HD, Fire Emblem fates, the mega man game(forgot title) ect.

If Nintendo doesn't win developer of the year, then the industry truly has a black heart!

Seriously, PS4 and ONE don't really have a lot to offer unlike the Wii U. Nintendo themselves take lots of risk and yet, they end up making fun games.

Go Splatoon!

Splatoon game of the year!

Splatoon should win best shooter!

@Crimzonlogic it has to be publicly available by November 24th I think. And since it is only out in japan, and I believe this is an American run award, they couldn't count it.

I'll be pretty surprised to see Nintendo win anything other than the developer category.

Nintendo really should win developer of year. For the GOTY i'm not sure if Fallout 4 has really earned it's nominee place over Rise of Tomb Raider.

@Tubalcain Yes; I had to return my PS4 copy. When my character can't even leave the vault, how is that not a game-breaking bug?

@the-madprofessor you returned it? Why? Why dont you just reload? Its like a 5 mins loss of Game time. or you could reload a quicksave, or an autosave. There are tons of things you could have done other than returning it. If i returne every game that glitched on me in the begining i wouldve missed on tons of good games. I lost almost 30 mins of playtime in majora mask when i glitched into the game geometry, thats game breaking to, i guess i shouldve returned it.

I'm surprised Super Mario Maker got the GOTY nomination instead of Splatoon, and I'm also surprised Ori and the Blind Forest isn't even nominated for GOTY. Ori is better than anything else that came out this year (at least in my opinion) so I want it to win every category it was nominated for (and deservedly so as everything about the game is amazing). I don't know how Ori got lumped with the indie games since it's not even an indie game, it was published and funded by Microsoft.

@Tubalcain I tried again and again but it kept happening. By the looks of it, I'm not the only one who has/had issues with the game. Bearing in mind that it's the only Bethesda game I've had problems with - both Skyrim and Brink have worked without any issues.

@EverythingAmiibo "Time and effort" should by no means be what a GOTY is judged for.

Glad to see the Splatoon nominees. I know this would never happen but I personally think even a general game of the year nominee would be deserved.

WTF? How is Mario Maker nominated for GOTY? It's a nice "game" (Yes, it is more a game than a tool), no question about that, but not that good or revolutionary to nominate as GOTY.
The only game that really comes into consideration is Splatoon, which is my personal GOTY (without an award).

@Santa I wonder what your understanding of "functional" is? Every one of those games was functional upon release. From what I heard about Witcher 3, it came the closest to being not functional (regarding all the bugs). But I wouldn't even call that non-functional.
@Dr_Lugae Exactly! Splatoon was probably the most innovative game on all systems this year.
@Nicolai: Yeah I also don't get how Splatoon isn't even nominated for GOTY. @Grumblevolcano: How is Splatoon's lack of voice chat and the 2 stage rotation a bad thing? It's actually something the game should be praised for. They actually managed an online shooter where voice-chat is unnecessary and the only reason for the rotation is so that you don't always have to use an allround weapon, but instead can choose your loadout according to the maps that are active.
Both things are strong points and not weaknesses. I guess you haven't played Splatoon, otherwise you would know.

@Trikeboy sadly, probably the bug filled Fallout 4 will win since it is currently getting the most media attention with just being released and all. While it does look like a cool game, I disagree that it should be nominated for GOTY. There are plenty of other games that deserve it than one that is deemed "cool".

I think this whole GOTY has been crap in recent years. It just seems like they declare the nominees of whatever the most popular games are at the time or whatever is most "hardcore". I'm glad smm is making the list, but I'm guessing splatoon didn't make the list because it wasn't a "hardcore" enough shooter for the judges.

You all are too dismissive of Splatoon's plentifully massive faults even 6 months in. I guess I shouldn't take the mind-numbing ignorance on a site called Nintendo Life after all. Glad Monster Hunter is getting a lot of love though, criminally underrated.

Mario Maker's a fun game but I honestly don't think it is even close to something like MGS 5 or Witcher 3.

@MrGuinea Splatoon has a lot of problems, some of which are basic things that don't happen in other shooters. The opposite can be said about it. Just because it's sort of a first for Nintendo doesn't mean it is deserving of winning over games that do feature better shooter mechanics and actual voice chat.

People care about the TGA?
Even after wall the scandals it has been hit with over the years.
If you offer up enough money to the right people you can win your game an award too.

It's just a glorified product placement show.

Mario maker vs witcher boys, everyone else sit in the corner for GOTY.

@6ch6ris6
"I just know MGSV needs to be GotY. If not I'm gonna riot"

As good as MGSV was, I'd rank it about 9th best game of the year.

Rise of the Tomb Raider
Splatoon
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Fallout 4
Halo 5
Mario Maker
Tales of Zesteria
Witcher 3

I'd rank every one of those higher than MGSV. I loved it, and being the 9th best out of hundreds of games is still quite an achievement, but it was missing way too much plot and side missions got pretty repetitive after while. Had they let him finish the 3rd chapter and tie loose ends, then it probably would have been near the top of my list.

@EngieBengie
No, being a first for Nintendo doesn't automatically entitle Splatoon to win anything. However, the fact it really is one of the beat games of the year... That does.

@MrGuinea
"The bug-ridden Fallout 4... There are plenty of other games that deserve it than one that is deemed cool"

While I agree "being cool" should never impact a nomination, Fallout 4 really is one of the best games of the year. Cool or not. And it deserves its' nomination for that reason alone, the same reason I feel Splatoon should have been nominated.

Do I think it should win? Eh, I wouldn't feel it's an injustice- it's a dang good game after all. But personally I'd like to have seen Splatoon or Rise of two Tomb Raider win GotY.

Go Monster Hunter! (...and Mario Maker, lol)

@the-madprofessor This happens when you start a new game after already playing a new game/saved file, simply just quit the game before starting a new one and boot it up.

@EngieBengie If we're judging based upon whether or not a game has voice chat then we've truly lost what makes a great game great. In which case I stand by my second statement.

Ugh, I hate Nintendo Fans who refuse to branch out and experience games from all horizons, and instead sit on their Nintendo consoles playing nothing but Nintendo games and deeming games from other developers and/or companies to be awful and not worthy.

Splatoon got snubbed for GoTY big time, it's the only thing remotely creative to come out of this year.

@MrGuinea A multiplayer shooter game with no voice chat is a bad thing. No twisting, no dodging it. Having played CS:GO competitively, I can't imagine how much of a mess planning strategies would be without voice chat. I owe a lot of my clutches in the game to people who use Voice chat.

If Super Mario Maker gets GOTY, I give up on humanity. I sincerely hope people have better taste

I find it a crime that Xenoblade Chronicles X is not nominated for Game of the Year, regardless of if it hasn't come out yet.

@the-madprofessor yeah it seems way overhyped as well. It's good to see Nintendo getting nominated but the real race is between Witcher 3 and MGS5

Splatoon should win best shooter. Yes, really. It's the only game nominated for best shooter that isn't just a follow up or new version of an old idea with some new story. I also think Splatoon deserves game of the year. Splatoon is one of the most fresh and new games that's been out in a long time. Best multiplayer though, isn't for Splatoon. No voice chat. Best family game isn't for Splatoon either, the lack of proper local multiplayer and only being able to play online one person at a time makes it that way.

Nintendo should win developer of the year. All those other devs put out basically one major game, and often somewhat broken at launch. Just look at how many solid games Nintendo released this year between Wii U and 3DS.

@BlatantlyHeroic That saying is pretty much the equivalent of going to another teams stadium (which is B) and saying that you hate Team stadium B for not showing support for stadium A or C. Yes, expansion of dem horizons can be appreciated for some people for this site (and I can be admittedly guilty of this on occasion teehee) but..... this kind of stuff is to be expected on a site for one brand/thing and there are other examples...