It's Game of the Year season everyone! Take a cursory glance around the internet and you'll be sure to find huge goaty lists of games ranked according to their relative qualities. It's fun - and hey, what else are you going to do while you're sat at home with the family watching the telly over the holiday period?
Of course, not all awards warrant their own huge list, so we here at Nintendo Life have corralled some of our smaller honours (as well as a few silly gongs) into one discreet article for your festive enjoyment. Below you will find a selection of awards for deserving candidates which have stood out in very specific areas of Switch gaming over the past year. Some are celebratory, while other 'honours' are more dubious.
Come with us, then, on a journey through the smaller and 'alternative' Nintendo Life GOTY awards. We start off with 2019's biggest mouthful...
Most Long-Winded Switch Game Title 2019
Winner: Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda
Runners-up: Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition; New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
Writing for a gaming website, you'll find yourself typing out the same titles again and again - the number of times we've punched out 'Pokémon Sword and Shield' into our laptops over the past couple of months has left us with an RSI. Indeed, some games seem to take pleasure in torturing writers, and we're not just talking about the visual novels that go crazy with semi-colons, or the confusion similarly named games can cause (how the heck The Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds ended up releasing in the same year is beyond us).
To complicate matters Switch versions frequently have an extra addendum like 'Deluxe', 'Definitive' or 'Enhanced Edition', too. But for some reason it was Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda's needlessly prevaricating title which vexed us most this year. Cadence of Hyrule would have been just fine.
Best Motorcycle Section in a Switch Game 2019
Winner: Astral Chain
Runners-up: Sayonara Wild Hearts, Trials Rising
Motorcycles are cool and it's a well-known fact that putting one in your game immediately increase its appeal by 36%. Platinum Games knows this and decided to start strong with a two-wheeled intro to Astral Chain, throwing you into a thrilling chase in its opening moments before quickly introducing you to your chained combat beast and getting you immediately into the game's meaty combat. Why dwell on the questionable relationship between you and the enslaved Legion tethered to your wrist, hmm? Let's just get stuck in with a breakneck intro. Perfect.
Also worthy of a mention are the beautifully balletic beat-based bike sections of Sayonara Wild Hearts. And Trials Rising stretches its 'motorcycle section' into an entire game. Cheeky, but - hey - it works.
Best Britishism In Pokémon Sword and Shield
Winner: Hop: "I'll show this wally my real skills in battle!"
Runners-up: Hop: "Now, I'm cream-crackered!"; Grunt A: "Oi, jog on, mate!"
The fact that the Galar region in Pokémon Sword and Shield is based on the UK has made exploring it a particular pleasure for our UK-based staff. As well as eyeing recognisable architecture, it was also a treat to read the dialogue coming out of the mouths of Galar residents. While it was a slight disappointment to not have that dialogue spoken - something we think it's time for the Pokémon franchise to embrace, especially now that it's on home systems - the localisation team did a fantastic job of cramming in plenty of British dialect phrases into the game. Sure, it gets a little Dick Van Dyke at times and we don't use the word 'mate' quite that frequently, but on the whole it was fun to see the world introduced to some classic British lingo.
While discussing rival Bede, Hop's use of the word 'wally' (a childish, softer version of 'idiot') was particularly grin-inducing, as was his Cockney rhyming slang (he says he's 'cream-crackered', meaning 'knackered', meaning very tired) and the various utterances from the Team Yell grunts we encountered on our travels. We were well chuffed to see some of these absolute belters, mate.
The 'Great Game That Doesn't Really Fit In Any Category' Award 2019
Winner: Ring Fit Adventure
Well, who-da-thunk-it? A Wii Fit-alike, but with more 'game' which actually makes exercise fun? Having done more than our fair share of 'exer-tainment' (shudder) with plastic peripherals strapped to our limbs, we were sceptical at first, but Ring Fit Adventure was a real winner with the team. Battling body-building nemesis Dragaux (alongside the bulge) turned out to be the most fun we'd had exercising since running down the street to catch the ice cream van man.
What with this and Fitness Boxing, we must say that Team NL is heading into 2020 in spectacular shape. From our rippling forms alone you'd never guess we spend ten hours every day sat staring at a monitor. We'd daresay we could start up some sort of relay triathlon training - how does that take your fancy, team? Team? Hello?
Oh. They're probably busy battling Dragaux. Yes.
Best Soundtrack in a Switch Game 2019
Winner: Cadence of Hyrule
Runners-up: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening; Untitled Goose Game
There are few game series with such a treasured back catalogue of tracks in the vault than The Legend of Zelda, and we imagine that Danny Baranowsky must have felt a little daunted when tasked with remixing a large chunk of gaming's best loved melodies for Cadence of Hyrule. If he did, you sure can't tell from the music! Every track takes the original by the horns and puts a frantic, pulsing beat into it that not only marries with the gameplay beautifully, but also reminds you just how brilliant those original tunes were in the first place.
Hearing those Zelda melodies now is often akin to listening to an old rock standard like 'Satisfaction' - a classic that's soaked into the culture to the point where you don't really 'hear' the song anymore. Cadence of Hyrule made us re-hear and re-appreciate those classics while injecting a freshness entirely its own. A hell of a feat.
Comments (31)
Eat your heart out, Geoff Keighley.
Lol at the ring fit adventure hard sell couple. They were hard to watch
King K Rool wins the amiibo award for me.
These were great! I particularly agree with the intense video award. It will forever be etched into my subconscious.
Never saw that Ring Fit Trailer till now.... that is ball-retractingly terrifying.....
best weirdness award goes to stretchers
Three Houses snubbed for best soundtrack once again? Unshocking
Bravely Default Agaiin. Why More Heroes? Pokémon Sleep. And what in the wide world of sports are these creepy ads that Nintendo is doing?
Seriously, somebody wake the management up, because these are the exact same problems from the Wii U/3DS era. And I sure don't want to see those decisions bleed through into the Switch's games.
Banjo-Kazooie amiibo, yes, yes, very impressive, however...Shantae amiibo!
Glad Untitled Goose Game got runner up for best soundtrack. It was like a nice relaxing piano tune straight from Mr Roger’s Neighborhood.
@kenyowa I’ve sunk 130 hours into that game and don’t find it anywhere near as memorable as Cadence — the remastered Zelda tracks were cool and appealed to my nostalgia.
The Witcher has a strong soundtrack and would be #2 for me
I loved Astral chain, the OST is also very enjoyable, maybe more than cadence... but the motorcycle phase was very crappy.
This was actually a fun twist, for once. And yeah, that Ring Fit Adventure guy is scary as f.....
To anyone who bought cadence of hyrule, is the game good?
For me, the best physical release was the collectors edition of Dead or alive xtrem3 scarlet.
Ivysaur was robbed
Joey from FRIENDS should've gotten the role to promote Ring Fit Adventure.
@The-Chosen-one Cadence is really really good. I like it a lot better than Crypt, but I also love Crypt. It’s much much easier than Crypt, but still not easy. Probably on par with BotW or the original NES Zelda in terms of difficulty.
"has left us with an RSI"
-What's an RSI? Are you ok?
wasn't there a whole article criticising UNIST's title though?
And worst imitation of the year gos to.... The namika smitch... And game of the year... Nelda breath of the mild 😂👍
I like how you had all these weird, specific awards, and then you're like "Best soundtrack", a normal award you would give.
I don’t know how The Witcher III doesn’t at least get a runner-up nod for best physical release. I buy all my games digitally, but I was SERIOUSLY considering getting a physical copy of the Witcher III because it was such a dope package.
@LunarFlame17 Kinda surprised me too. The fact that regardless of version, Switch, PS4, Xbox, or PC, CD Project Red includes a “thank you for buying our game” note/card along with manual and soundtrack is so awesome. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be included with Switch version so I kept my card, cd and map from PS4 version. Wasn’t needed as the switch version came with all that too. So epic.
Love CDPR! Amazing dev team and studio
"what else are you going to do while you're sat at home with the family watching the telly over the holiday period?"
Correct your grammar, because the word is "sitting"?
@kenyowa I don’t think I would say it has the best soundtrack, while it certainly is excellent. If there was a category for best opening theme, it would definitely win (with regards to Astral Chain, of course)
I just watched the Ring Fit Adventure video expecting absolute cringe, but instead I got... something absolutely standard?
Bar some weird body language, it was mostly just informative and concise. No lame jokes or antics, no screaming, no excessive focus on the presenters. Frankly, I don't see the big deal.
Oh you can bet British people say "mate" a lot! In just under 4 years living in London I got to say it quite frequently among friends at the pub...
@Priceless_Spork
From the context, this RSI, is repetitive strain injury - though it was said in jest, I expect.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjmnazFlNbmAhWrtVkKHbMEDxgQFjACegQIDRAG&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRepetitive_strain_injury&usg=AOvVaw0gLesyoY2CHgDZ5D6izcrG
@LinkSword I mean, maybe you are just very tolerant of unwarranted intensity.
To me, it seems like they might have been injected with amphetamines just before recording and maybe just below a level that would be an overdose. The guy's eyes even look a bit bloodshot as he widens them uncontrollably.
I expect it was just a director pressing them beyond any reasonable amount of excitement before being happy with a take. The behavior is very unnatural to my sensibilities.
@The-Chosen-one There is a Demo available for it, so just try it out yourself. I have played Crypt of the Necromancer, but I never got into the flow of the game and haven't played it very far.
Even though they made it a lot easier and more accessible, I still had the same issue with Cadence of Hyrule.
@countzero
Ohh i didnt know that it had a demo, tnx will try it later.
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