Kirby Is Officially A BAFTA Winner, Takes Home Best Family Game

Kirby should have won all the awards

All these big companies and powerful tech and the best game is a pixel art game that runs on a mobile phone 😂 also, it won game design? It looks like every indie game released in the last 5 years.

I tried Forgotten land as my first Kirby game, it was okayyyy, nothing to write home about imo and certainly hasn't made me a fan, though I'm not sure I was the right audience for it in the first place. Good to hear it's done well though, it seems very well loved, I bet it's great if you have kids who can play along.

@DrGonzo first part of my comment was more of a dig at these big companies and how they neet to up their game. I usually play open world games for the freedom, I'm not a fan of these huge games where 80% is talking, cutscenes and quicktime events. Whenever I go on my switch, I play the virtual consoles because they focused on fun gameplay and even though they look trash, the game play holds up for most of them

Nintendo needs new multiplayer IPs other than Splat. Kirby, a well deserved king.

Personally, the fact that Nintendo routinely wins awards in the family categories is an overlooked achievement. Nintendo prides itself on this very image. Plus who knows how many new gamers into the fold through their accessible, easier going titles.

Vampire Survivors' victory seems particularly remarkable considering how these awards are designed from the ground up to favor big budget games. I mean, performer in a supporting role? How many indie games can even afford to have a main performer?

Kirby as family game winner is a decision I can get behind. Much much MUCH better choice than It Takes Two.😂

@Kochambra A victory for gameplay above all else I'd say.

Sigh at God of War. It’s ok, not incredibly special, in my opinion…..

It's interesting that they don't split games up into genres like most awards events do. Unless you call "family" a genre.

@Vivianeat they do have the most multiplayer games out of all big studios though, mario kart, smash bros, all mario parties, mario sports games, switch sports, Arms, 1-2 switch, …

It really doesn't work for western AAAs. You can shove as many meaningless awards as you want, but it won't make them any better.

It doesn't make those games any better, it just makes the awards less relevant

@Friendly Oooh there is another person that agrees with me about GOW then! I thought I might be the only one....

Well deserved! This was a fantastic game in my opinion, pure platforming joy!

"However, it was also a night of big surprises, and the jury's Best Game went to Vampire Survivors, an endless roguelike that is utterly addictive — and we really hope to see it on Switch one day."

i got uncomfortably addicted to VS on my phone a few months ago, like i was trying to find pockets of time at work(!) to get away with playing it (im a finish carpenter, so this is not a normal part of my daily "work" lol)

its not a game, its a slot machine. 😬

One thing that I love about Forgotten Land is that it kept everything that made Kirby good in the first place. Usually, when you make such a leap in hardware, you leave so many fans out in the cold. BOTW is a big example of this, but I even hear it with open-world versus course-clear Marios. But I have heard no one complain about this game that was already a Kirby fan. It managed to be a grand, sweeping adventure with some big additions while still being faithful to Kirby’s roots.

Congratulations to Kirby And The Forgotten Land then! I still need to get around to purchasing that game for my kids since I know they would love to play it. I also need to by Kirby's Return to Dreamland as well. Too many games to buy for my kids!

Kirby games are just joyful. Hard to even put my finger on why, but they just are. Combination of many things I guess. The easy to beat but hard to complete element has always been an attractive part for some I think. They always have something extra once you beat them. Things to find in the levels, but not an obnoxious amount, a boss mode, mini games, an extra story...or all of the above! But not in a super grindy way. I find games which give you a percent meter of how much you have cleared the game a bit stressful, frankly. Not good for OCD people. But I managed to 100 percent Forgotten Land and it was fun to do. (The very last thing was that bloody tilt game though...)

I thought the later levels, and particularly the bosses, in Kirby and the Forgotten Land were very challenging to the point I wouldn't consider this a family game at all!

As a parent myself, I don't really appreciate the category. Picking the best game that you think caters to a family (must likely based largely on how it looks and early gameplay) isn't accurate.

It's perhaps a bit boring, but I'd rather see a Best PEGI 3 award, best PEGI 7 award etc.

That makes more sense to me.

Glad Kirby got recognized. Sad Xenoblade got shafted again

@FishyS That was a head scratcher for me, too. First thing I thought: "Elden Ring is a multiplayer game?"

@FishyS

i agree with all your points, totally. we really need a better word for people like us who are less enamoured with the evolutionary direction of modern gaming, besides "old school gamer," "arcade game fan," et al. i cant even think of any good ones. certainly not "casual." 😣🤢🤮😩

@nocdaes

wow thats a good idea! as a person who prefers E and T games over M, i would find this useful even though i dont have kids 👍👍

I've played Forgotten Land. It's very good. Got God of War Ragnarok a couple of weeks ago. No issue from me about the awards for these titles, although I didn't see Elden Ring winning best multiplayer.

Well done Kirby.
TOTK next year

@Kochambra Actually, the winners of the NAFTA awards are chosen by a profesional jury. So they are usually more fair for indie games.

I'm happy that Stray won nothing. It was pretty unfair how it won every indie category in the game awards for having pretty graphics.

This is why I prefer the baftas over the game awards.

I don't get why a single player first game like Elden Ring would win best multiplayer. It may be a very good multiplayer game...but it seems like more of a secondary function than it's main strength.

@NinjaNicky design is more than just visual design - it’s sound design, gameplay design, and mechanics design. Have you actually played it?

@DiggleDog They pride themselves on this image so much that they allow all these trashy visual novels on the eShop lmfao

pretty much the only category Nintendo does best at making games for children

Nintendo winning awards is always music to my ears and Kirby and the Forgotten Land is definitely one of the best Switch games in my book...but I still would've given the "Best Family Game" award to Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, in my opinion, had a stronger sense of "family" feeling on many corners and the massive amount of content and franchise's fanservice (as far as Star Wars games go), as well as the upgraded gameplay and QoL improvements, helped quite a ton as well to make it a must-have for a Lego game. Heck, it even had a much better co-op mode than Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the latter which (despite liking Bandana Waddle Dee myself) honestly felt like a last-minute addition to me for how "limited" it was in many ways, especially when compared to the likes of Kirby Super Star, Kirby Star Allies, and even Kirby's Dream Land 3.

@BongoBongo I have played it, I enjoyed it.

@RubyCarbuncle guess you didn't read my comments properly. I'm saying it's funny how a little indie game can beat huge gaming companies that have more money, better resources etc. And if you read my other comment, you'd see I said I prefer gameplay over a game with good graphics but mostly story telling. Read comments properly before replying. And yes, I have played it, and I enjoyed it, I'm just saying design wise, it looks the same as 99% of other indie games.

@RubyCarbuncle it is criticism, towards big companies. Having all the resources and more money than an indie developer, they should be making game of the year games, but instead they're not. My description of vampire survivors is spot on, it is a pixel art game and it does run on mobile phones and it does look like almost every indie game, I never said it's a bad thing, I'm saying these bigger companies need to pull their finger out and make games like they used to.

@ComfyAko
The main AAA game on this list is god of war ragnarok which is generally considered a very good game.
If you played it and didnt like it then that is fine, A criticism ive heared for example is that unlike the previous game it lacks a shield and bare handed skill tree.

While its not my kind of game i can appreciate why people would enjoy it, things like the norse themed story and locations and the large amount of combat options for example, and it does feel like a lot of those aspects resonate with others.

Forgotten land was probably one of my overall favorite games of 2022 however. Its one of my favorite nintendo IPs and i felt it had a great transition to 3d. looking forward to what the next game brings, if its on the theoretical "switch 2" we could get a 3d kirby with 60fps gameplay (the series has quite a few 60fps games which was why star allies being 30 felt like a step back, after playing something like triple deluxe and robobot or even the recent return to dreamland remaster it ended up feeling somewhat off)

Well deserved!! I really enjoyed it and hope Nintendo continue to make more Kirby games in 3D because it was worth the wait.

@DrGonzo That’s exactly the reason I have not picked it up. I don’t want my cousins to have a bad time.

Well deserved. Kirby is at the same time the embodiment of everything is good, and an eldritch pink god to be feared.

even many xbox fans do not agree that vampire survivors is a better game then elden ring and god of war ragnarok..

...Vampire Survivors is fun, but it's not THAT great...Forgotten Land is definitely better.

This game was awesome, needs to win more awards in my opinion

Okay so...wait a second...

Vampire Survivors is the greatest game made in 2022 IN THE WHOLE WORLD!...right?

But it was also nominated in and somehow lost out on "Best British Game"..................WHAT?

That's like a foreign film winning "Best Picture" at the Oscars, but not "Best International Feature Film".

Kirby and The Forgotten Land was memorable. This game getting another award is nice to hear. It has a nice story, the music is great (no surprise there, Power Plant being one of the top three favorite stage tracks), and the stages make me want to run around in them completely forgetting the missions at some points lol. My only gripe with this game is that I wish there was some interaction with the Beast Pack (the bosses) before the fight rather than getting to the end for an explanation. Also more moves for the abilities

@Friendly Huh? I said new, those are old IPs.

@Vivianeat why though, when they have so many big multiplayer ip’s? The biggest out of all console manufacturers.