The Game Awards Nominees Announced, Donkey Kong Bananza Up For GOTY

A deserved nomination, though Expedition 33 is still my GOTY.

Let's go BANANZA!

@Elektrogeist1287 I'm confused. Are you suggesting that they should wait a few years before nominating Bananza for 2025's Game of the Year?

Go go go Expedition 33!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Elektrogeist1287 Smash Ultimate was nominated for GOTY in 2019 so Metroid Prime 4 will probably just roll over to next year.

Bananza is getting my vote. When their website stops crashing.

Plus : wouldn't it be more appropriate to ask in the poll "who do you want to see win ?", rather than "who do you think is gonna win ?"

We all know E33 is gonna win.

As much as I want any other game to win besides E33... E33 is going to win. fml

Feeling the bias toward Western games (and generally the bigger ones) more than ever this year. Just really feels like anything developed in Japan has to hit it really big or fit into one of the niche categories to get anywhere, and it still has to be more prominent, considering how games like Fantasy Life i and Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter were ignored.

Mario Kart World is a criminal snub for the soundtrack category, but the jury has consistently proved they only really care about orchestral fare for cinematic games. We're lucky Silksong and Hades II both got nominations there

Great list. Unfortunately, even a GOTY win would be unlikely to quell the bleating about Silksong's difficulty.

I think the most important thing here is that the GOTY medley will be vastly improved with the mood whiplash that Bananzas soundtrack brings. Just a cacophony of serious orchestral arrangements interrupted by Ba-Ba-Da Doo-Dooooo and monkey chanting.

Update: 14/18

I think the whole thing is a joke. But I made predictions anyway. Keep in mind, I haven't played a single game nominated except for No Man's Sky.

GOTY Clair Obscure
Performance Jennifer English
Ongoing FFXIV
Mobile Wuthering Waves
Art Clair Obscure
Score Clair Obscure
Adaptation Last of Us
Narrative Clair Obscure
Community Support Baldur's Gate
Multiplayer Arc Raiders
Indie Clair Obscure
VR Midnight Walk
Anticipated GTA VI
Action Ninja Gaiden
Familky DK Bananza
Sports Sonic Racing
eSports CS2
Direction Clair Obscure

@Nintoz the cutoff date is November 22, which hasn't crossed yet, so that's dumb. But yeah therefore MP4 won't be eligible until next year.

@PikaPhantom Totally agree on Mario Kart World's soundtrack snub and I'm so bored of Orchestral music in both games and films 🥱 It's way overdone as a genre/style and most of the time is incredibly samey

I loved Clair Obscur but I think it’s got to be Bananza for me. Haven’t finished Silksong yet and though I’ve adored it up until now the difficulty really is getting in the way of my enjoyment to be honest. Just feels much less balanced than the original to me. Still up there with the best games I’ve played this year and I will beat it eventually but it’s tiring hitting your head against the wall with the same boss or area over and over when I have such limited time to play games nowadays.

I have a feeling Prime 4 will knock DK off my top spot though (I know it’s not in the running for the Game Awards due to its late release but whatever).

I about guarantee Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will sweep most of the categories it's part of. From what I've heard, the game really deserves it. I'd love to play it, but I don't own a platform at this time that the game is on or can sufficiently run it.

As usual, the Western bias is strong with TGA. I haven't tuned in for a few years now. WAY too much fluff and advertising in the event for my liking, and that's ignoring other well-known issues over time that popped up.

I wish Expedition 33 would come to Switch 2 or PS4. Those are the only consoles I have.

@Elektrogeist1287 The only games on this list that released before Bananza are Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

Say what you will about the game itself, but Mario Kart not getting nominated for best score is a huge clown move, I've seen so many non-gaming content creators online state that it has the best audio they've heard from any media all year.

@martynstuff
I would imagine that Bananza would use Breaking Through for the GOTY orchestra, would certainly be fitting.

Game Awards are massively Playstation skewed, as always. Bananza not nominated for best score is the proof of that.

When I look at the list its the same 5 or 6 games for every category, which is of course simply shortsighted and very bad journalism. Indiana Jones nowhere to be seen. Almost nothing from Nintendo.

And death stranding two everywhere? Yeah, Koyima and Geoff are buddy buddy and it again shows.

Dare I say this whole award show is rigged? Yes, I do.

Why does everyone make such a big deal of this mediocre Oscars imitation?

I think Clair Obscur Expedition 33 should and will win, but I won’t be mad if any of the games on that list win. Silksong and Hades 2 are masterclasses in their respective genre.

@Friendly and yet bananza was nominated for goty..?

Really wish Hundred Line got a nod but not at all surprised it didn't.

@Friendly Interesting take. What game(s) would you add to the list that aren’t on there, on any category. For GoTY, there are several games that are on multiple platforms, and Hades 2 and Donkey Kong are only on Switch (unless you want to count PC).

@squiddu-real thrown in there as distraction. Sixth entry where almost every other category has 5.

CO33 is going to win without question. Reviewers and media outlets have been glazing the game in a very similar vein to how BG3 and other GOTY winners have won in years past. It's a good game and deserves to win though. But it's good to see DK Bananza and Silksong get GOTY noms as well.

It seems like there should be 2 polls: What game do you think will win and What game do you want to win. Go, DK!

I have only played Donkey Kong so my vote goes to it

People saying Western bias but I'm curious what they felt SHOULD'VE been there.

I definitely think Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Sonic Racing Crossworlds, and Ninja Gaiden 4 probably deserved some accolades, but what else? EDIT - Whoops, I guess the last two DID get noms, my bad.

lol @ people saying Mario Kart World deserved a soundtrack nom. Come now.

@Kraven i’m missing Doom for best audio design, Assassins Creed Shadows for best art direction (visuals - my goodness, did you see that game!), Donkey Kong for best score, the Hundred Line for best narrative. As a start. And just way more diversity in general.

But those categories have the only two playstation published exclusives somehow listed. And most other big categories too.

Indiana is almost completely missing, while that was GotY for a lot of outlets last year but didnt make the cut date for game awards.

While I would personally want to see Donkey Kong Bananza win (most fun ive had playing a game in a long time), I think Expedition 33 has it locked up. I really hope a Switch 2 version is in the works so that more people can experience it.

Hades II slipped my mind when making my predictions. Surprised not seeing Split Fiction on here, I was expecting KCDII to get snubbed.
Obviously these awards don't mean anything but for what it's worth this is a stronger list compared to other years.
I can't even remember last year's nominees, all I know is that Unicorn Overlord wasn't one of em, for shame.

The last of us ánd Until dawn in best adaptation? Until Dawn has a 4.7 on metacritic, user score of 5.4.

I absolutely believe the Game awards is at least partly rigged by Sony and Geoff. Unbelievable. Games or movies do not have to win, but being nominated is already an advertisement.

You people are REALLY underestimatijg just how much Geoff loves Kojima

@PikaPhantom I loved Clair Obscur. It is a beautiful game, but I think it's funny how it's a game that is inspired by JRPGs and uses the mechanics of JRPGs, but if it actually was a Japanese game it would never sniff the awards and accolades it has gotten.

@Zeebor15 I see death stranding 2 being shown the most. Geoff doing a classic Geoff move: ‘Goty is 33 obscure but let’s immediately move to a really cool game: death stranding 2!!! Here’s the orchestra for that game! And here’s my buddy Koyima who i’m now going to talk to for 15 mins!’

I think we can all agree that 2025 has been packed with amazing games (can't complain) and tbh, I don't really care which one wins GOTY. All amazing contenders and they all deserve it.

DKB is the only one I have played and likely to be the only one unless they miraculously release a Switch 2 edition of CO:E33 on a non-GKC in the next few days.

@Friendly couldn’t agree more. Just a massive advertising campaign. Disgraceful.

@Elektrogeist1287 so wait until June of 2026 for GOTY 2025? That wouldn’t work buddy

@Friendly Indiana Jones being snubbed isn't surprising. That ALWAYS happens to December releases. Expect the same thing to happen next year with Metroid Prime 4 (if it is as good as I hope).

Bananza for me. Even though it's insanely obvious who wins this.

Death Stranding 2 is the obvious winner here. It wouldn’t be the game awards without Geoff’s nose firmly up Kojima’s butt.

@PikaPhantom I would love to see Trails a Fantasy Life in their have and continue to enjoy both immensely. But while they(Trails particularly) have reviewed well it’s hard to say they’ve captured any real momentum outside of their core audiences. They’d probably have more of a case if it wasn’t such a strong year.

@Bobb E33 seems to be nailed on. But DK was the only one that had nothing but positive reviews by metacritics reckoning, so who knows?

I understand why E33 would be game of the year, but Silksong managed to cause both the Eshop AND Steam’s payment servers to crash.

I’d still be 100 percent cool with either game winning though. I’d like to play Clair Obscure, when I have the free time for it.

PS, why is the Mortal Kombat Collection nominated for best fighting? Aren’t those games like 20+ years old??

Wow no nominations whatsoever for Trails in the Sky Remake, what a joke.

My vote is definitely going towards Donkey Kong.

The Platformer had its GOTY spotlight last year (which was nice, even if going to Astro was slightly undeserved IMO). So although DKB deserves it more in that sense, the competition is a little greater here. Although I’m very surprised Split Fiction isn’t actually on the GOTY listing, that’s a phenomenal co-op experience and should have been on here just to level out the playing field.

@OwenGamer22 Because they did not allow preorders.

Mmmm.. I don't think E33 deserves the GOTY reward but it will surely grab some awards (best debut Indie, RPG and soundtrack). I hope Silksong gets Indie GOTY and art direction, Hades 2 get best action game and best game direction. And I'm surprised Silksong isn't nominated for best audio design as it was absolutely stellar in that category..

I think all those games are nominated in so many categories that they will all win at least one or two categories each. And also, well, you can see how poor the year was in term of releases when it's basically 7 games sharing 15 categories for a whole year..

I'd love to say Donkey Kong, but Expedition 33 is definitely the best of the lot in my opinion.

clair obscur got goty in the bag..

@Madskillz19 it would make more sense and the variety of games would be more varied and spectacular.

@TheExile285 I can see that. A meager sampling!

It’s nice to see it get nominated, it deserves it.
As for its chances of actually winning, I’d say that’s unlikely.

Looking at best game adaption to media, it looks like they either forgot to include or just outright snubbed the Sonic 3 movie which is wild.

Clair obscure is going to win. DK bananza has a chance since some people will mindlessly go for anything nintendo puts out regardless of quality but I think even those people can see the obvious winner.

Expedition 33 will win GOTY. Haven't played it but anyone i know say its top notch. Silksong is my personal choice for this year. Would have been bananza if Silksong didn't release

Neither Donkey Kong Bananza nor Mario Kart World deserve to be nominated for Game of the Year in my opinion. Whether it's removing post game content and locking it behind a paywall, or increasing the appearance rate of the intermission tracks that nearly everyone dislikes before undoing that change because of all the backlash that it justifiably received, Nintendo made too many stupid decisions surrounding the 2 largest debut games for the Switch 2. I am rooting for them to win absolutely zero awards at this ceremony. I am excited for next year, when Metroid Prime 4 and Kirby Air Riders can be part of the Game Awards discussion, but this year has been rough for Nintendo, IMO.

Of these I have only played DK and Silksong. Bananza was pretty fun but not quite GOTY material for me. Silksong was great and more GOTY-worthy although I never did Act 3. I haven't played E33 because it hasn't come to Switch 2 yet (crossing fingers!) I feel E33 will win just based on all the praise it has gotten.

@KayFiOS Sadly I think Metroid will release too close to this years awards show to have a shot at 2026 - see also: Indiana Jones this year/last year.

The lack of Deltarune is pissing me off

@larryisaman I also liked Silksong until about halfway through act 3. The rewarding-frustrating balance started to tip the wrong way eventually. I’m also quite excited for Metroid Prime 4.

@Tyranexx The GOTY last year was a Japanese game so i wouldn't say western bias. End of the day this has been a very stacked year, if not for E33 existing it would be hard predicting the winners.

I don't get why DK wasn't nominated for Best Action Game. It's the only GOTY nominee not to be also nominated in it's genre.

"Family Game" is not a genre.

Of the nominations, I've only played two. DK and Hades. DK takes my vote for just being crazy fun, but it ain't perfect, so definitely don't see it being top banana here.

interested in clair obscur, haven't had a chance to play, but can't say. DK was fun and atleast felt pretty different, even just doing critical path seemed like a good game and some parts felt dungeon-y. it's kind of everything-lite though, you're kind of too powerful to bite into any genre. i really do not want silk song to win, it's just actually annoying and commits like a bunch of avgn sins, new ones, and 1 fromsoft said they'd never do, who they're inspired from.

It'll be E33, but for me personally its KCD 2

I think expedition 33 will take it and that’s fair but personally my goty would be donkey kong just because it was the most fun game I’ve played in years.

Not enough love for Hades II in the comments so I’m just posting to remind everyone this is well deserving of accolades like this and should be getting more hype

I feel like Donkey Kong is on there just to throw Nintendo a bone. My guess is that Expedition 33 will take the crown.

My pick for the winner is… I don’t care. Because the Game Awards are stupid and anyone who puts any stock into is a fool.

As much as I did love DKB, expedition 33 was superior

@DennisReynolds A fair point regarding GOTY last year. However, overall it seems Western games often sweep many of the TGA categories in my experience. Not that there aren't Western games that deserve recognition, more that I've felt - historically at least - this particular awards show has lacked some visibility for games developed outside this sphere.

2025 HAS been a stacked year. Especially the latter half IMO.

Please. Bananza has about as much chance of taking this as I do of being named starting quarterback for Miami. It’s just there to make up the numbers.

The game awards are so actually western gaming skewed it is ridiculous…. And no music nod for Mario kart or DK? I mean that’s frankly just wrong LOL.

Everyone says Nintendo wins at this show all the time, but they rarely do. Not that it really matters because there is no one "GOTY" award.

@Whirlwound consider the other nominated games and realize how low the bar is this year. DK would take the title if it wasnt for silksong hype

@Jireland92
whos more foolish, the fool or the man that takes the time to say he's too cool to care?

@PikaPhantom So the best Soundtrack award is sponsored by Spotify which might be why Mario Kart World was snubbed. And all the other nominated soundtracks are on there...

I haven't played Expedition yet, but watched it a bit on YouTube and think it looks great, but Bananza is by far the most novel of those that have been nominated this year. Unfortunately, The Game Awards prefers narrative-oriented games.

Well, there's three games I've narrowed down to in my mind as to what I think GOTY will come down to...Which is probably bad news for all of them, since I similarly narrowed down last year's field to three in the same manner, and Astro Bot was not one of those three...

(Of course I'm not going to say which three of this year's crop I've narrowed it to! Don't want to jinx things!)

Can't wait for the ad awards + games

Clair Obscur should win GOTY in my opinion. It's truly a special and unforgettable game made by passionate developers

I would love to know what the hell happened to Despelote being on Switch.

Silksong is my jam but surely Clair Obscure is a shoe-in for GOTY!

Why did Death Stranding 2 (we all know how 🙄) and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 get nominations when they both reviewed worse than Split Fiction? Split Fiction reviewed better both of them and better than their previous game that won GOTY. We all know it SHOULD be the best reviewed game of the year, Hades 2, but it WILL be Clair Obscur: E33.

Seriously guys, what on earth is DK Bananza doing on the list above? One can understand there might be some bias here, but this is getting shameless now. No, I'm not referring to NL guys, but to the Game Awards ones. There's definitely something fishy about all this hype for what turns out to be just a "good" game, even on metacritic.

@SirLink

I mean the Game Awards were always just a popularity contest with a heavy bias to western games, just look at all the nominees in the RPG category only having 1 JRPG.

There's no reason to be surprised.

DKB should've gotten more animations. Of course Keighley has his buddy Kojima to kiss up to. It's like they're kissing butt to Western made games.

@UltimateOtaku91 Tbf, that game is a remake, not a new game

From what has been said in the media, it seems like Expedition 33 has probably got this in the bag. I’ve heard it compared to a “2025 technical showcase with the gameplay and heart of a 1998 JRPG” and the commenter said “it absolutely proves Square wrong when they say people don’t want turn based mechanics anymore.”

I haven’t played it but based on what I’ve watched of it on YouTube it’s exactly how FFVII Remake should have been built, even though I love that game’s real time battle system too.

Why are we still pretending the Game Awards are actually a meaningful award? They are more rigged and awful than the Grammy's.

Which is quite the feat.

As a JRPG nerd, I'd be inclined to root for Expedition 33, but after these folks' track record with the friggen Xenoblade series itself, recognition of a JRPG with even less franchise/publisher clout to its name will never not be a pure dice roll. Which, of course, says nothing about E33's quality but a fair few words about "award shows". Just sit back and hope for Pedro "Flute Guy" Eustache to make another appearance instead.

Damn, it's so hard this year.

Hades 2, DK Bananza, Expedition 33 and Death Stranding 2 are ALL my GOTY this year. 😭

@OwenGamer22 Yet Final Fantasy 7 Remake got nominations and even won a few.

@UltimateOtaku91 Fr, peak getting ignored. (Has only played the original lol). Hopefully it'll at least be in player's voice, but frankly, I don't have much hope for it (but I'll still vote for it regardless)

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was nominated for 2 Game Awards:

• Best Performance
• Best Action/Adventure

There have been 6 nominees for Game of the Year for the last 8 years, going back to 2018.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's highest MetaCritic score is "88" for PS5. The others were "87" for PC and "86" for Series X.

Every Game of the Year winner of the past decade has had a MetaCritic score of "89" or higher on at least one platform.

Of the 6 nominations this year, only Kingdom Come: Deliverance II failed to get an "89" or higher. It got an "88" on all 3 platforms it was released on: PC, PS5, and Series X.

Ninja Gaiden 4 was nominated for Best Action Game.

Here are all the Game Awards nominees that are on Switch or NS2:

• Hades II - 6 nominations (Game of the Year, Direction, Art Direction, Score and Music, Independent, Action)
• Hollow Knight: Silksong - 5 nominations (Game of the Year, Art Direction, Score and Music, Independent, Action/Adventure)
• Donkey Kong Bananza - 2 nominations (Game of the Year, Family)
• Split Fiction - 4 nominations (Game Direction, Action/Adventure, Family, Multiplayer)
• EA Sports FC 26 - 2 nominations (Innovation in Accessibility, Sports/Racing)
• Fortnite - 2 nominations (Ongoing, Community Support)
• No Man's Sky - 2 nominations (Ongoing, Community Support)
• Mario Kart World - 2 nominations (Family, Sports/Racing)
• Sonic Racing: Crossworlds - 2 nominations (Family, Sports/Racing)
• Absolum - 1 nomination (Independent)
• Ball x Pit - 1 nomination (Independent)
• Shinobi: Art of Vengeance - 1 nomination (Action)
• Capcom Fighting Collection 2 - 1 nomination (Fighting)
• Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection - 1 nomination (Fighting)
• Lego Party! - 1 nomination (Family)
• Lego Voyagers - 1 nomination (Family)
• Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles - 1 nomination (Sim/Strategy)
• Sid Meier's Civilization VII - 1 nomination (Sim/Strategy)
• Two Point Museum - 1 nomination (Sim/Strategy)

@iLikeUrAttitude @FishyS The reviews are exactly what I was talking about. Still, I guess you’re right, seeing DK Bananza on that list isn’t really shocking, especially with obviously biased sites like NL reviewing games on what’s still a niche platform like the Switch 2.

Speaking of Silksong, I love it to bits, but I’ve got to admit it has its flaws (mainly its economy and the fact that you can run through the same screens over and over without even realizing a boss is nearby), mostly carried over from the previous game. So I doubt it deserves a GOTY, sadly.
Still, it’s way more deserving than DK Bananza, if nothing else, it reached far more people by not being tied to a single platform, earning a wider approval.

Honestly? I’m not that excited about this year’s lineup.

@SirLink
Yeah, I stopped taking the Game Awards seriously a long time ago, it's not a celebration of gaming it's Geoff and friends the show with ads. I think most people did after the Last of Us 2 won 7 awards in 2020, including GOTY.

Just look at the RPG category, I find it a bit jarring how Monster Hunter Wilds was the only JRPG on this list and the fact that two of those nominees were NOT received well by fans being Avowed and Outer Worlds 2.
No sight of Digimon Time Stranger, Dragon Quest 1&2 HD 2D, Trails in the Sky chapter 1, Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition and more. All of which reviewed much better than the two.

Now if you made the argument it makes sense a remake or dlc wouldn't be nominated I would agree... if Elden Ring's DLC wasn't nominated and two Fighting game collections were nominated also.... (Capcom Fighting Collection 2 & Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection).

Also Death Stranding 2 feels like a sneak in placement, especially since Hideo Kojima and Geoff are well known friends.

But hey it makes sense in the context of the Game Awards - Dragon Quest, Trails, etc. aren't as "big" as DK Bananza and don't generate as much "hype". So even if they are reviewed very positively I guess in Geoff's mind the average gamer is just going to go "huh?" when they're nominated.

@Oldstalk Or it was very reasonably priced on top of being an anticipated game to begin with.

@UltimateOtaku91 Well, you’re free to disagree with me, of course, but I personally think that is ridiculous. A remake of a game from 20+ years ago shouldn’t really count as an “original” game. It’s one reason why I think the Game Awards are a joke

@Elektrogeist1287 It would make more sense to have the 2025 game awards in 2026? I don't follow your logic. By 2026 most hardcore gamers will have moved on from 2025 games because they will be playing 2026 games.

@OwenGamer22 Silksong sold 6 millions. Any game franchise that sell this much can except to have the same effect if they don't allow preorders.

@nervous-noodles I’m not too cool to care, I’ve never been cool.

@Friendly NG4 did get nominated for action.

As a Nintendo fan, I do want Donkey Kong Bananza to win, but considering that like the Academy Awards, more serious and mature games tend to win, I do hope Hollow Knight: Silksong or Hades II win as GotY because those games are also great to play.

@FishyS What ever game gets the most upvotes on reddit usually wins

@MontyCircus @kraven sorry guys, you’re right, I made the error of overlooking Ninja Gaiden 4 and not being consistent about Indiana in my posts.

Still, I think that my point still stands that it’s skewed towards a Playstation award show, and that there’s way too few diversity in the larger categories than what could’ve been done, and this is not the first time I’m noticing that.

Also, metacritic score are just a first metric for being nominated for GotY in particular. Remember Wukong being nominated with a metacritic of 81? That was a choice. Also happened to be a Playstation exclusive (and maybe a way to attract the Chinese audience to the game awards too - i don’t know).

Bananaza is definitely not going to win GOTY.

A good point. Yes, that was odd.

I gotta say Silksong. Truly a best value game and unforgettable experience

These categories really are frozen in 2014. Fighting games have a category but platformers don't. There are enough platformers nowadays, especially if you include Metroid-likes.