The nominations for this year's Game Awards, the annual show hosted and organised by Geoff Keighley, have been posted and Nintendo has a good showing with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate gaining a nomination for Game of the Year.
One of six games to receive a nomination, the others are Remedy's Control, Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, the Resident Evil 2 remake from Capcom, From Software's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and The Outer Worlds from Obsidian. Of those nominees, only the latter is Switch-bound, arriving on Nintendo's console some time before the end of March 2020.
The other nominations have been published on The Game Awards website and Keighley tweeted the main nominations for the coveted GOTY:
Other categories contain a generous sprinkling of Switch games. Smash also features in the 'Fighting Game' category, of course. Astral Chain gets a nod in the 'Action Game' category and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is nominated for the 'Action / Adventure Game' award as well as 'Art Direction'. Elsewhere the crazily addictive Tetris 99 pops up with the 'Multiplayer Games', Cadence of Hyrule gets a thoroughly deserved nomination for 'Score & Music' while Fire Emblem: Three Houses has been recognised in the 'Strategy' category. Try saying that five times quickly.
There are also nominations for a bunch of indie developers who have had success on Switch and other platforms with games including GRIS, Baba Is You and, of course, the world-conquering Untitled Goose Game.
There's one category, though, in which Nintendo cannot fail to bag a gong seeing as no other platform besides Switch has been nominated. The 'Family Game' category features Luigi's Mansion 3, Ring Fit Adventure, Super Mario Maker 2, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Yoshi's Crafted World. Of course, Next Level, Good-Feel, Bandai Namco and Sora had either a hand or total responsibility for the development of those respective games, but it's an impressive feat for all games in one category to come from a single platform holder.
It's hard to argue that it hasn't been a good year for Nintendo fans so far, and we're eager to see how the Switch games above get on at The Game Awards when the event is broadcast on 12th December. Might we get a sneaky announcement, perhaps? You can watch the entire nomination announcement below and also head to the Game Awards website to sign in and start voting for your favourites (fan voting makes up 10% of the blended vote).
Not a bad showing for Nintendo, eh? Let us know if any of these surprise you, or if you think there's anything missing with a comment below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 46
I didn't realise that the Game Awards were on at the same time as the election results...
Pretty sure Death Stranding is going to win everything its nominated for.
@Grumblevolcano Nah, Smash has gotta win some to justify the reveals they're gonna do.
FE Three Houses deserves the strategy medal. Great game
I don't think Smash will take the title, but it sure deserves it.
Hopefully Fire Emblem and Astral Chain wins in their respective categories. Great games!
Am I the only one who feels Death Stranding been up for anything here is wrong?
IDK, but TGA been Geoff Keighley's award show, his very open love of Kojima, and the fact he's IN Death Stranding, kinda comes across as a conflict of interest, especially considering most people I know agree that the game's really not that good.
Does it matter either way? Not really, but at the same time, it just feels a little shady.
@KingBowser86 Both can happen at the same time, Death Stranding could win the 9 awards its nominated for meanwhile Smash could get Best Fighting Game and/or Best Family Game which Death Stranding isn't nominated for.
The fact all five nominations for “Best Family Game” are Nintendo shows how accessible the Switch is to everyone.
Luigi’s Mansion 3
Ring Fit Adventure
Super Mario Maker 2
Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Yoshi’s Crafted World
They are all great for adults and kids.
And the fact Smash is fun for adults, children solo, parties, online and has pro players in tournaments is a massive achievement.
May as well get the awards over with and give everything to Death Stranding right now.
@Spike6958 Yeah, that feels a bit weird. I think RE2 will win though.
we all know Resident Evil 2 Remake is winning
I voted for Death Stranding. It really deserves it.
But I feel like populism along with the mixed reviews will make it go to Smash.
Smash is a good game don't get me wrong, but it's just a fighting game.
Game awards are stupid...I'm only watching just to see announcements. Like Smash ultimate's final fighters pass character.
Three Houses and Astral Chain and Luigi’s Mansion all got snubbed.
Smash should win, but I doubt it will.
Imagine how fitting it would be for Smash to win GOTY then immediately follow it up with the reveal of the final fighters pass character
@Grumblevolcano No Death Stranding will not win all the categories its in, it will only win a few guarantee, its not winning GOTY that will be Resident Evil 2 Remake
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy he’a Not only the host, but the producer and organizer, so it’s obvious he has a lot of input on who gets nominated and wins
@Trajan You're wrong.
@Zoomzeta How so?
Smash bros should just walk that list, it is wildly better then the rest of the list. Resi 2 is good but it its like 9 to Smash Bros very clear 10, its nostalgia whereas smash bros does feel like a huge step forward for the game, and the more I play Smash the better it gets.
I hope Smash wins. Sakurai deserves it. Plus it's a really great game that celebrates gaming history. Kinda like the Game Awards in a way. I hope FE wins the strategy, Link's Awakening for art direction, and Cadence of Hyrule for soundtrack. Hope we get some good Nintendo reveals too. BOTW 2 trailer PLEASE! And the next Smash Fighter. Either way good luck to all nominees.
Would have liked to see Fire Emblem: Three Houses nominated for Game of the Year, but I guess it lacks the wide appeal of the other games. It's still Game of the Year in my heart.
I'm happy that I don't bother with these awards anymore. Actual great games get snubbed for mediocrity, it happens every single year.
I'm less interested in the awards themselves, but more for the announcements that come with the show lately haven't been terrible.
Why is Smash not considered for best Soundtrack? It has everything!!
xeno soundtrack?
Game Awards is like the equivalent of Oscars. Last year's production was AAA quality.
It's not a game of the year award without dragon quest XI
Some people complain that Smash should not be nominated for best game or best fighting game, but why it was not nominated for best soundtrack?
It's the best soundtrack in videogame history, over 900 songs, over 800 of them are from other videogames, it's a selection of the best music from all videogame history into one title, but it wasn't nominated, I thought it was because most of the songs were taken from other games, but Cadence of Hyrule is there.
And the winner of the family game award goes to...
KNACK 2 BABYYYYYYYY
@Eddyson XC2 was released in 2017 and torna was released in 2018. As much as I would be on board it isn't happening.
Three Houses having just one nomination hurts my soul.
@Joe-b, I believe DQXI was nominated for some awards last year. As the Switch release is a port (even though it has a lot of extras), it's not eligable.
Ports & HD Remasters aren't eligable for nomination (the first few years they did have a category specifically for Remasters, but they dropped it for some reason), though full on remakes like Link's Awakening, RE2, and CoD: Modern Warfare are eligable.
I hope Smash wins out of those picks. Death Stranding honestly bored the heck outta me.
I'm so glad Smash made it! Having been released last year, I wasn't very confident. I don't think it will win (RE2 will imo), but it's good to see it there.
Too bad Fire Emblem and Luigi's Mansion only appear in 2 categories, though. Too bad.
That’s great and all, but Kojima’s little boyfriend likely won’t let Death Stranding lose.
@RR529 ah ok. It's definitely an amazing game.
Thanks!
With all the people being wary of the connections with DS, Geoff, Kojima and the fact the approval of DS is mixed, its gonna come down to Smash or RE2, with Smash ahead. Also, come to think of it, if RE2, a Capcom game, is up for GotY, then why didnt Capcom pay more for DMC5, the game people have been clamoring for, to be up for GotY? We would see here which game Capcom gave priority to with their money.
I’m not a fan of awards shows but the Game Awards are especially silly, I think. They are heavily biased towards certain types of games.... There were many better games than Death Stranding and Control.
Funny story. Smash Ultimate released the night of the game awards last year. I was waiting out the release at My local GameStop which is managed by a very good friend of mine. She cracked up every time Red Dead Redemption 2 won an award, because I’d get upset because the game had been out for all of two weeks at that point and they were just cleaning house. When GOTY finally happened and God of War took it from RDR2, I went crazy and she lost it.
Death Standing killing it - it is everywhere on that list 😳
Only missing RE2 From the Game of the year list... I guess I should give it a try
Outer worlds, Control, Sekiro, Smash, Death Standing - All must play!!! - Ok with any of them taking it. Good Year!
FIFA should be in the "family games" also - at least in the EU
Death Stranding is the most original game of the bunch and probably deserves to win. Too bad Fire Emblem didn’t get more nominations. I’ve just started playing it and it’s really one of the better games I played all year.
They could really use a better group of judges for the nominees, it seems like every year there are several additions and omissions that can only be chalked up to a lot of low-quality news outlets nominating the same 5 AAA games for as many categories as possible without actually thinking about what games excel in those categories.
Greetings Professor! Nothing to report!
Voting for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
I'm sorry, Death Stranding, but Smash is where it's at.
@Joeynator3000 It does mean a lot to the developers tho
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