Here are Nintendo's Nominees for the Game Developer's Choice Awards

Splatoon for innovation award!

Splatoon deserves far more than an "honourable mention" ,Rocket League is in the top 5 though.I've never played it and have heard it's really great but I find it hard to believe it's better than Splatoon.

Bloodborne is really something. It has its own game concept, its own atmosphere and universe. It is really beautiful despite the fact that it is not technically the best graphic engine.

I spent more time in 2015 with Bloodborne than with any game on Wii U.

I think Splatoon deserves plenty of awards for innovation, visual design and audio design. It would win those awards hands down from me but oddly isn't anywhere near my top 5 games of the year overall.

For an overall package, it's Witcher III for me, but Bloodbourne and Metal Gear Solid V are damn close.

It's gotta win something. It's inkevitable...

It's still all too clear that swagfactor is the biggest measure when it comes to western gaming tastes.

What the hell was "innovative" about Mario Maker? And how can there be no (ZERO) 3DS nominees for best handheld/phone game?
These video game awards are such populist trite.
(Having said that I still can't get my head round how Splatoon beat all this year's bland sequels in the shooter and multiplayer categories in The Video Game Awards.)

Which one of the awards shows are considered the biggest?I thought it was 'The Video Game Awards'?

@C-Olimar My Xbox owning mate called it a sympathy vote.He can't fathom that a Nintendo shooter can possibly be better than anything on his own console.

Fallout 4 was a buggy mess but gets a GOTY & Technology nomination, what?

Also, i'm sick and tired of Xenoblade Chronicles getting snubbed for these things because it came out late in the year. That's still 2015, so there's no legitimate excuse.

Not so much this one but any other 'goty 2015' awards tripe that blew its load 'before' every game had released that year can just GTFO.

@Folkloner Or maybe it's because there are 37 games released in 2015 with a higher metascore than it? And another 8 with the same metascore as it. Not including any remakes, remasters or late ports. Xenoblade was a big deal for Nintendo only gamers this year, but it's nowhere near GOTY when all the other games are available to you. It's a good game, but there's no conspiracy about it not being mentioned in GOTY awards.

@C-Olimar I agree there, I'd like to know how the voting process works. How on Earth is Lara Croft GO better than MH4U or Majora's Mask 3D?

@pamplemousse_mk did you play Xenoblade?

Xenoblade for GOTY and best technology. That fact that they got this game to run as well as it does on Wii U is a marvel.

@pamplemousse_mk It's Darksouls.

Mario Maker for Innovation Award? Please! Are you kidding?
Mario Maker is a nice game and I already put over 100 hours in it. But I still don't get the hype around it, especially Polygon seems to love this game (it was #4 in their top 10, while Splatoon was only #8, shared with Life is Strange... the only thing that's strange is this choice!).
It's just a level builder, based on old games, people. There's nothing innovative about that!

Splatoon on the other hand is the most innovative title on all systems (followed by Affordable Space Adventures, maybe). I challenge everyone to prove me wrong (it may be possible that I've missed something, but if something is really innovative, I definitely would've heard of it)

@firstnesfan Not that I totally disagree, but it doesn't run that good if you ask me. The framerate is really slow, something between 20-30 fps (it becomes painfully clear when you switch to a 60fps-title like Splatoon). Sure, I've played PC games with that framerate, but when it became too studdery, I could always just lower the graphics settings.
Xenoblade on the other hand has a vast beautiful world, where you have almost zero draw distance and everything pops out of nowhere right in front of you (especially big enemies). And less important objects like the cars in NLA (which don't even have collision detection) look like objects from the very first 3D games in the 90's.

Don't get me wrong, this game is still awesome. But I disagree that it runs well. It's not even polished.
I expect LoZ U to be smaller, to have much better graphics and to be much more polished. Anything else would be a disgrace.

In fact, XCX is the only Nintendo title where I would be fine with a PC version. This game would be a blockbuster on any other platform and because of the nature of the game, it would really fit well into the PC market. The PC version could also finally be a polished one.

@pamplemousse_mk Can you explain that to me? A friend of mine has it and says it's awesome, but when I watched him play I didn't get what he means. And Bloodborne is also ranked highly in several top 10's of 2015 (Polygon is also a good example here). To me it looks like the umpteenth version of the same type of game that seems to be most popular nowadays. What makes this game stand out?

@ OorWullie I think I would give Splatoon all the awards: 'Best Innovation", 'Best Design', 'Best Visual Art' are a given, 'Game of the Year' should be also clear. 'Best Audio' because the sound FX of the ink are just so pleasing and I got so many earworms from the songs (although in that regard, XCX is very close) and maybe 'Best Technology', although I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean. Does this include game mechanics (the ink)? Otherwise I would give that award to Affordable Space Adventures.
Rocket League is a fun game but it's the opposite of innovative. It's a rehash of the predecessor. It's more like a smartphone game than a "full" game. Sure, it's similar to Splatoon in that it's accessible to newcomers and has some depth for veteran''s at the same time, the flying mechanic is solid. And as I said, it's a lot of fun. But it doesn't deserve any award if you ask me. I doubt anyone would know that game if it wasn't for free in Playstation+. When I told a friend with a PS4 that Rocket League costs 20 Euros on Steam, he was really shocked that they would charge so much money for it. As I said, it's like a smartphone game (all cars steer the same, only their looks are different), maybe worth 3-5 Euros.

Confession, I've never played Splatoon, maybe I will but never had a chance to play it. I've played Super Mario Maker however and do enjoy it a lot.

@MitchVogel I'll let them off the hook for MM3D; it is a remake after all, but this is a year which included the release of MH4U, Codename: STEAM, Steamworld Heist and several several excellent JRPGs on 3DS. Not a single nomination is a joke.

@firstnesfan Hi. I didn't play Xenoblade U yet. I think of getting it this year, but I have also to play The Witcher III on PS4 and A Link Between World on my 3DS. I started Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii two years ago but didn't play more than 3 hours. About Xenoblade U, the character design seems really awful, isn't it?

@amiiboacid Never play any Darksouls. I tried Demon souls 5 hours but I am still in the first level.

@shani The first hours of Bloodborne are really hard. But Victorian London is beautiful. What pushes me to continue is that I started to know how to deal with the foes. I know when I have to dodge to kill them in the back. The first time you meet a monster, it is hard to kill it, it scares you. After some training, you understand its pattern, and now you are near to laugh in front of him. You feel like you are the master of the game ... Until the first boss. So big, so monstrous, the music is played only in front of a boss, and makes the moment so epic. And you die. Restart and die... And start ... And die again ... Sometime it remains only one hit or two to kill the boss, but one error and you die again. The moment is so stressful, so intense when you know that you are near to die, but the boss is also ... You think you will die again, but not that time. That time, you killed the boss ! You succeeded! You exult. You don't believe what happens. You feel relieved. 5 to 10 hours to kill just the first boss... Then you see that the world of the game is bigger than it seems, and that you have to go.

That is Bloodborne.

@pamplemousse_mk So it basically excells in being challenging and extremely rewarding upon success + has a beautiful world? That sounds good indeed!
Thanks for describing the experience, because as an outsider, it looks like every other game and even gameplay videos usually don't let you feel the vibe/experience like you described it. So your description is really key to getting it, because no video can describe a human experience of something. Thanks for sharing and making me understand the fascination! Sometimes the key elements aren't visible in plain sight.

I wonder why no mention of Shovel Knight?

@Peach64 The games weren't judged by Metascore. Also games being a "big deal" is exactly the sort of attitude we should be discouraging when all too often the most popular games are the ones that get played and get the nod when it comes to award season. Also, discriminating against it because it's on the Wii U and thus not a big deal enough for GOTY is another attitude we shouldn't pay any attention to.

Lastly, there's not a conspiracy against the game but when you have some 'award givers' (not necessarily this one) only reviewing games released up until the end of November then that's blatantly unfair.

@Totaldude911 Shovel Knight was released in 2014, not 2015. The article says that these are all games from 2015.

@shani Bloodborne reminds me the games like Super Ghouls'n Ghosts or Mr Nutz: the ennemies always appear in the same place when you restart the level, so you learn their positions and know the world more and more without any map.