Walk of Game Polls are Open

October 3, 2005, 5:18 pm EDT
Total comments: 18

Help Donkey Kong ditch bananas and nab a star!

Voting Opens for Metreon's 2006 Walk of Game Inductees

Gaming Icons Vie to Join the Ranks of Mario, Link, Sonic, Halo, Miyamoto and Bushnell for Permanent Star and Recognition

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2005--Starting today, gamers from around the globe can once again cast their vote for Walk of Game, the first physical landmark honoring videogame icons and the impact they have had in entertainment and our culture. Last year's wildly successful launch resulted in hundreds of thousands of votes cast on the Walk of Game website, allowing gamers to voice their opinion and honor the 'movers and shakers' in the gaming and game development community.

Between October 1 and October 31, 2005, game enthusiasts can visit www.walkofgame.com to cast votes from a list of nominees in the categories of 'Games/Characters' and 'Lifetime Achievement' to determine the next set of inductees for 2006. The top four games/characters and the top two lifetime achievers will be honored with a 24"x 24" customized steel star permanently installed at San Francisco's Metreon. Real-time ranking of the votes will be available on the Walk of Game website through the month of October, with the final results announced in November 2005. The 2006 induction ceremony is slated for the spring leading into next year's Game Developers Conference.

At this year's ceremony, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaimed it 'Walk of Game Day', as Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong) and Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari and creator of Pong) became the first recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award. Halo, Link (The Legend of Zelda), Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog also received stars in the Games/Characters category.

The 2006 Walk of Game Nominees are ...

Games/Characters

Castlevania, Civilization, Donkey Kong, Doom, EverQuest, Final Fantasy, Fox McCloud (Star Fox), Frogger, Grand Theft Auto, Half-Life, Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Madden NFL, Mortal Kombat, Myst, Pac-Man, Pitfall Harry (Pitfall!), Pong, Quake, Resident Evil, Samus Aran (Metroid), Space Invaders, StarCraft, Street Fighter II, Tetris, The Sims

Lifetime Achievement

John Carmack (Doom, Quake), Peter Molyneux (Populous, Fable), Sid Meier (Civilization, Pirates!), Toru Iwatani (Pac-Man), Will Wright (Sim Series)

About Walk of Game: Walk of Game is the first-of-its-kind landmark honoring the icons and pioneers of the videogame industry located in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Every year, gamers worldwide select inductees to receive a permanent star placed on the Walk of Game. For more information: www.WalkOfGame.com.

Talkback

ArtimusOctober 03, 2005

It's nice to see a mostly solid gamelist, unlike last year when Halo won.

EDIT: I take that back. Lara Croft is winning. Let's face it, this is an embarassing joke.

KnowsNothingOctober 03, 2005

Honestly, I would pick Madden one hundred times over Lara Croft. This is shameful.

Sir_StabbalotOctober 03, 2005

Metroid and Civilization... Gah! My two favorite game series! I can't choose.

mantidorOctober 03, 2005

This stupid thing lost any kind of credibility when master chief was nominated last year but not Samus.

thepogaOctober 03, 2005

Lara Croft...how?!?

There's only been like one good game for that series. How is Lara Croft in the lead?!

DjunknownOctober 03, 2005

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This stupid thing lost any kind of credibility when master chief was nominated last year but not Samus.

On the flip side, Master Chief did what Samus couldn't this generation: Push hardware. Halo and Halo 2 were able to push Xbox's off the shelves, but Samus's adventures in Prime couldn't. Master Chief had more weapons, drove vehicles capable of total chaos, and had multiplayer to keep fans busy for a long, long time. Samus had...a great single player experience. Metroid Prime was outsold by Splinter Cell one for crying out loud during holiday season 2002! Prime 2 was overshadowed by Nintendo's own DS.

But at least she's nominated this year. She should get a spot if nothing else as a nod to Retro Studios and the late Yunpoi Gunpei

This years games/characters is a very good list. Just about everyone of them listed can be labled quintessential in their respective genre.

For FPS fans this will be an interesting battle. Who was more influential: Quake or Doom?
For fighting fans: Street Fighter II or Mortal Kombat?

Same thing goes for Lifetime Achievemement. Aside from my personal distaste for Molyneux, the rest of them didn't promise gamers the sun, moon and stars. They just made great games, which in turn spoke for themselves.

mantidorOctober 03, 2005

Yunpoi Gunpei... LOL

...

poor Gunpei Yokoi Seeing all the great stories about Miyamoto signing games last weekend in NY, I thought how awesome would be for Yokoi san to be alive to sign a super Metroid cartridge, or a Game Boy, it would be worth heaven and earth combined...

Anyway, Samus is not just Samus as the Metroid Prime heroine, is Samus as the star of a long standing series who began in the NES, is the Super Metroid Samus, game heralded by many as the best game of all time. So no matter how you see it, putting the "green ranger" above this videogame legend was nothing short of insulting.

nickmitchOctober 03, 2005

Halo did pull in a lot of sales and make some history. I think it deserved the spot.

Lara Croft on the other hand. . .

I just hope Toru Iwatani wins.

mantidorOctober 03, 2005

Selling millions for me isnt worth it, Furby sold millions, should it be heralded among the greatest toys of all time? hell no. Or are you telling me that that list of characters is acceptable with a straight face? lets review, Link, ok; Mario, of course; Sonic The Hedgehog, obviously; and... master chief!? seriously, WTF!? master chief!? master chief above... simon blemont? above contra? hell even above Snake? Final Fantasy? I can go on and on...

ArtimusOctober 03, 2005

Halo might deserve a spot eventually, but the very first year over actual classics? Not a chance.

TheYoungerPlumberMichael Cole, Associate EditorOctober 03, 2005

Oh hey guys, look, it's almost 2006! What's that, Castlevania is nominated? And Samus? Nah, I don't care because they were ignored before. Let's prove ourselves right by not participating.

ArtimusOctober 04, 2005

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Originally posted by: TheYoungerPlumber
Oh hey guys, look, it's almost 2006! What's that, Castlevania is nominated? And Samus? Nah, I don't care because they were ignored before. Let's prove ourselves right by not participating.

Who said we didn't participate?

mantidorOctober 04, 2005

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Originally posted by: TheYoungerPlumber
Oh hey guys, look, it's almost 2006! What's that, Castlevania is nominated? And Samus? Nah, I don't care because they were ignored before. Let's prove ourselves right by not participating.

As much as I hate the fact that Halo won last year and how the games who are winning are the sims and ..eww, lara croft

the first thing I did was to vote precisely for Samus and Castlevania

, even while I know they wont win because gamers of today are retarded.

And I only wanted to vote for Iwatani, but they force you to vote for two ... so I voted for Carmack also.

wanderingOctober 04, 2005

+Donkey Kong, +Myst, +Samus, +Tetris (very hard to choose between one of the first video game heroines, and the very first successful video game. Ultimatley decided on Samus, because PONG, however sucessful, was a blatant, blatant rip-off)

+Iwatani, +Wright (Iwatani was a given. But my second choice was very hard- I decided on Wright because he's created a large number of games AND several of the games he created, like SimCity and the Sims, were true innovations that really changed the way people thought about video games.)

Booyah.

EDIT Lara Croft is winning? F@ck. What is wrong with people?

DjunknownOctober 04, 2005

I guess people love teh guN'z n bOobieS! But seriously though Tomb Raider wasn't ALL bad. I personally liked part 2, though I think they fell off after that. I think the folks already forgot about Angel of Darkness...

Yeah I knew I was going to botch up that spelling with Mr.Gunpei, but I couldn't find his first name! No disrespect for the deceased; he was definatley Nintendo's unsung hero.

My point on Samus is that she's a step higher than Kirby in Nintendo's heirachy, but not quite in the vein of Mario and Link. Now she's getting some exposure now than she ever did. Hopefuly Metroid Prime 3 and a masterfully done Metroid 5 in 2d will put her back into the public eye,not just the Nintendo fans. Master Chief got more exposure from the get-go.

I do find it a bit unsettling that Ms.Croft is outpacing the rest of the pack. Samus vs teh Chief? Understandable. Samus vs Lara?

KDR_11kOctober 05, 2005

I find it understandable that Samus isn't getting many votes, being pretty much a non-character and not having sold that many games lately (at least not enough to compete with the larger Playstation franchises) but hell, second place is still too much for LC, there are other heavyweights more deserving of the title like GTA, Final Fantasy or Pac Man. Every single one of them is more worthy than Tomb Raider!

Good to see Peter "Promise you the world, deliver a pebble" Molyneaux dead last.

mantidorOctober 05, 2005

Although Im sad that there will pass a long time before Samus gets the recognition she deserves, Im happy to say that FF is at the top of the list, although everquest being there seems kind of fishy... but anything is better than lara croft even gta, and god knows how much I hate that franchise...