Topic: NSMB Wii Recognized at Spike VGAs

[NWR_Lindy]

Mario unsurprisingly walks away with an award, and a few other games for Nintendo platforms score as well.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=20550

 The 2009 Spike Video Game Awards were held tonight in Los Angeles, California.  While the lion's share of the trophies were taken home by PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC juggernauts like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, and Dragon Age: Origins, Nintendo themselves walked away with one trophy, and several games for Nintendo platforms won awards as well.    

Predictably, New Super Mario Bros. Wii took home the award for Best Wii Game.  Nintendo games comprised three of the four nominations overall, with Wii Sports Resort, Punch-Out!!, and SEGA's MadWorld rounding out the field.    

The Nintendo DS owned the Best Handheld Game category, with three of the four nominees exclusive to Nintendo's portable system.   This was a stacked category that read like a who's who of handheld software, with Scribblenauts, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box all nominated.  In the end, Rockstar's critically-acclaimed Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars took home the award.    

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story was also nominated in the Best RPG category, losing out to BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins.  In terms of multiplatform games for Nintendo consoles, Activision's DJ Hero won for Best Soundtrack, and EA/MTV Games' The Beatles: Rock Band won for Best Music Game.

[D_Average]

I'd say the silliest award of the evening was Beatles Rock Band.  No disrespect to the Beatles, but essentially all the developers did was remove the various artists from their karaoke machine and replace it with the Beatles.  Big deal.  At least DJ Hero tried to do something new.

[Toruresu]

Well, these awards seem like a joke to me anyways. Congratulations to the winners!

[broodwars]

To be quite honest, this year's show was a total joke like all the other Spike VGAs have been, and I come away from watching it feeling disgusted (though that was quickly dissipated by my Jazz beating the Lakers tonight).  What was with them announcing all the console games of the year either during a montage before the commercial break, or when that game won another award?

And what the HELL was with Assassin's Creed 2 wining best Action/Adventure when Batman: Arkham Asylum won Best Studio and Uncharted 2 won PS3 Game of the Year and Overall Game of the Year?

[D_Average]

To be quite honest, this year's show was a total joke like all the other Spike VGAs have been, and I come away from watching it feeling disgusted (though that was quickly dissipated by my Jazz beating the Lakers tonight).  What was with them announcing all the console games of the year either during a montage before the commercial break, or when that game won another award?

And what the HELL was with Assassin's Creed 2 wining best Action/Adventure when Batman: Arkham Asylum won Best Studio and Uncharted 2 won PS3 Game of the Year and Overall Game of the Year?

Yeah.  Considering all of those studios put out ONE game, that award category seemed a bit unnecessary.  Should have been best publisher instead.  Go Activision!

One thought I did have.  Anyone know how many game premiers we saw tonight compared to last years E3?  That'd be an interesting stat....

Also, I'll give Jack Black credit.  I'm not a fan of his, but he caught me off guard in smashing the podium.  That was classy.

[NWR_Lindy]

How RockSteady beat out Naughty Dog, I'll never know.

[broodwars]

To be quite honest, this year's show was a total joke like all the other Spike VGAs have been, and I come away from watching it feeling disgusted (though that was quickly dissipated by my Jazz beating the Lakers tonight).  What was with them announcing all the console games of the year either during a montage before the commercial break, or when that game won another award?

And what the HELL was with Assassin's Creed 2 wining best Action/Adventure when Batman: Arkham Asylum won Best Studio and Uncharted 2 won PS3 Game of the Year and Overall Game of the Year?

Yeah.  Considering all of those studios put out ONE game, that award category seemed a bit unnecessary.  Should have been best publisher instead.  Go Activision!

Hey, I'm just happy that Rocksteady got further recognized for their awesome work with Arkham Asylum, the game I was hoping would come from out of nowhere to win Game of the Year (or at least Best Action/Adventure).  Oh well...at least Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 didn't win Game of the Year.

Seriously, though, was anyone else just thoroughly disgusted by just how sleazy that Awards Ceremony felt, from the sexed-up aides to the punk music and foul language?  If we're going to do a real Video Games Awards Ceremony, we really need something as classy as the Oscars (though much better paced).  The whole industry just looks like a joke when the Spike VGAs are representing you.

[kraken613]

The Beatles: Rock Band is one of my top games of the year overall. Not only the music. But they actually bring you through the career of The Beatles and have more interesting things on screen than Stage A, Stage B. You have real famous venues they played in then the Dreamscapes are amazing.

[NWR_Lindy]

Seriously, though, was anyone else just thoroughly disgusted by just how sleazy that Awards Ceremony felt, from the sexed-up aides to the punk music and foul language?  If we're going to do a real Video Games Awards Ceremony, we really need something as classy as the Oscars (though much better paced).  The whole industry just looks like a joke when the Spike VGAs are representing you.

I totally agree.  Most of the stuff I see on Spike and G4 is straight up embarrassing, playing on stereotypes of gamers and what they like or think is cool.  The commercial that drives me up the wall the most is the G4 one with the bald rapping nerd:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPxWhhYfeWY

Absolutely terrible.  No G4, I'm not an idiot, I don't think this is cool.  In fact, this was never cool.

[broodwars]

I especially loved it when one of the presenters came right up to the podium and called everyone watching the awards (or at them) "Nerds".  Way to be open and inviting to all video game fans, Spike.

[D_Average]

I especially loved it when one of the presenters came right up to the podium and called everyone watching the awards (or at them) "Nerds".  Way to be open and inviting to all video game fans, Spike.

What also annoyed me was how many of the developers would get star struck, and say, "Wow, that Mike Tyson!".  Lame.

Was anyone else brought back to "In Living Colour" during Snoops performance?

[NWR_pap64]

Nintendo Wii takes one step forward in taking gaming out of the social gutter, and the rest of the industry takes three steps back.

I agree completely with how Spike treats gamers. Gaming is now a social event where everyone is welcome to play. Not to mention that many of us gamers are very far away from the gamer stereotype.

Not saying that there aren't gamers who are exactly like society paints them, but consider that with each passing day gaming is becoming more and more social, with a lot of outlets offering games and easy ways to get them, maybe the industry should clean themselves up and treat things with respect.

[Enner]

Absolutely terrible.  No G4, I'm not an idiot, I don't think this is cool.  In fact, this was never cool.

Wallow in further disgust and terror that there is probably enough of an audience that think it is cool.

I think this was to be expected from the channel, its sister channels, and how whatever parent companies (Viacom, I think). Still, new pre-rendered trailers to look at. Gametrailers.com has them so you don't have to watch the awards show!

[NWR_Lindy]

You don't see the Academy Awards marketed, or looking at itself as, a "show for movie nerds".

As long as shows like this perpetuate these lame gamer stereotypes, gaming will always be looked down upon by those outside of it.  What's even worse is that Spike is holding an event that supposedly celebrates video games and the people that play them, but in reality it covertly makes fun of them both.  The whole thing has this hint of astonishment about it, like "WOW, can you believe that Jack Black came to THIS event?  For VIDEO GAMES?  THAT'S AMAZING!!!"

I think the whole thing is pretty patronizing.

<shudder>

[broodwars]

You don't see the Academy Awards marketed, or looking at itself as, a "show for movie nerds".

As long as shows like this perpetuate these lame gamer stereotypes, gaming will always be looked down upon by those outside of it.  What's even worse is that Spike is holding an event that supposedly celebrates video games and the people that play them, but in reality it covertly makes fun of them both.  The whole thing has this hint of astonishment about it, like "WOW, can you believe that Jack Black came to THIS event?  For VIDEO GAMES?  THAT'S AMAZING!!!"

I think the whole thing is pretty patronizing.

<shudder>

What's especially amazing is that the Gametrailers folks who were organizing this were quite vocal the last couple weeks that they had listened to the complaints about previous shows, and that this show would fix those problems.  But just watching the show, I see the exact same pandering and sleaziness that people complained about previously.  On top of that, many of the most interesting awards were relegated to bumpers to commercial breaks.  So outside of letting the public vote in this thing (which honestly is how I think Rocksteady got their well-deserved Studio of the Year award, as well as Uncharted 2 dethroning Modern Warfare 2 for Game of the Year), what exactly did they improve because the show's still crap?

And btw what's with the Monkeys for the awards?  They looked about as legitimate an award as the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards.  No, scratch that...they look less legitimate than the Kids' Choice Awards.

[KDR_11k]

Weren't these awards always a joke? Didn't they award GOTY to King Kong before it was even released or some nonsense like that?

[Yankee]

I totally agree, it was a complete joke. The awards looked like a cheap children's and I swear EVERYTHING was sponsored by Gamestop and Mountain Dew. It was just a long infomercial. Really Spike?

[BeautifulShy]

Wow I figured the show was going to be like the last few years. I think the last one I saw was when Samuel L Jackson won an award for Voice acting in a game.Don't ask me which. I didn't watch the show last night for the very reasons that have been posted in this topic.

Since I feel my point has already been made by one of you(Pap64) I will just say that the industry needs to grow up if it wants complete social acceptance.

[TJ Spyke]

I don't know anyone (outside of the gaming "journalists" involved in making the nominations and winners) who takes these joke of an awards show seriously. This years may not have been as bad as previous years (which sometimes had games winning despite not even being out yet), but it was still bad.

There has also been allegations of it being rigged since it started (which was fueled by stuff like having Tony Hawk appearing and skating after the latest Tony Hawk game just "happened" to win the Best Extreme Sports Game award and similar incidents with other games). I think every winner of the Gam of the Year has not been the best game of the year either.

[D_Average]

Gotta love the award for most anticipated game!  WTF.

[Dropkik]

I still can't understand the Uncharted 2 love, I've never understood the love for that series though, Enemies can take a full clip of AK47 ammo to the face, but can kill you with a pistol from the next town (perfect head shots every time).  I really think Arkham Asylum was a better game overall but that people were getting so fixated on Uncharted graphics.  But whatever, everyone's entitled to their (wrong) opinions.

[Mop it up]

I'm kind of surprised any Wii game was featured, it's usually left out of shows like this.

[BeautifulShy]

I'm kind of surprised any Wii game was featured, it's usually left out of shows like this.

This is one of the reasons I don't watch the awards. Considering what channel this is on you typically get non Wii titles.

[NWR_Lindy]

Truth be told though, Nintendo hasn't made any games this year that would appeal to the "Spike Demographic".  Spike is like a televised version of Maxim magazine.  I mean, Maxim is great for big breastseses, but their game coverage is as purile as it gets.

What really bothers me is that, because of its high level of exposure, THIS is the show that represents gaming to the mainstream public.  And we can't do a damn thing about it.

[TJ Spyke]

It's pretty much the only video game award show. There used to be the G-Phoria awards when G4 used to be a video game network, and nobody but the ultra hardcore are even aware of things like the AIAS awards. If another network like Fox created their own show, I think it could be bigger (especially if they team up with the ESA and make it the official awards show for the industry).