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As 2016 draws to an end it's that time once again - Game of the Year Awards. We're continuing with tradition in having both Staff and Community awards; the latter are entirely in your hands.

As in previous years you can vote through a series of polls. In each category we've created longlists; now, of course, we've had to pick those, so if any of your favoured games are missing from a category hit up the Contact Form and vote for your alternatives, we'll add those votes to the final results. We're also tweaking how we determine the Overall Game of the Year result, which is explained below.

Voting closes at 5pm UK / 6pm CET / noon Eastern / 9am Pacific on 18th December, so get your votes in before then. You have all of the same categories as the staff, and a few important details are below:

  • In some cases games appear in multiple categories, such as download games that went on to have limited-release retail versions.
  • As before there are no Virtual Console games included; this is a celebration of new releases.
  • A few titles are included that only came out in one region; naturally they'll be at a disadvantage, but this is difficult to avoid.
  • You can vote for up to three games in the Wii U eShop, 3DS retail and 3DS eShop polls, but only two games in the Wii U retail list (due to its shorter length).
  • For 'Overall Game of the Year' we're doing something a little different. When the voting in these initial categories closes on 18th December, we'll take the top five from each and list them as a final top 20 (in no particular order) in a follow-up poll. You will then have the chance to vote from that list right up to 24th December; each category will have a top three in the end, in addition to an Overall winner across both Wii U and 3DS. Results will be announced on Christmas Day.

Voting is now closed, thanks for taking part!