Topic: 10th Annual AIAS Award Nominees Announced

[WindyMan]

Twilight Princess earns nominations in six categories; Wii Sports and Brain Age also show up a few times.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences released the nominations for the 10th Annual AIAS Awards, to be awarded in Las Vegas at the DICE Summit early next month.    

Among the list of nominees, Nintendo again has a strong presence this year, with 17 chances to win in 11 categories.  Leading the  charge is Zelda: Twilight Princess with six nominations, including console and overall game of the year honors.  Wii Sports is up for the same two awards, as well as three others, making it Nintendo's second-best contender.  Brain Age also has multiple considerations, with four.    

Microsoft leads the way with 18 total nominations, with the bulk of them for Epic's Gears of War, which has a pack-leading 10 nods.    

Other Wii games to receive nominations are Ubisoft's Rayman: Raving Rabbids with two, and Excite Truck with just one.  A partial list showing the categories with Nintendo games nominated can be seen below.  For the full list of categories and nominees, go to the AIAS website.    

Overall Game of the Year
 Gears of War - Epic Games/Microsoft
 Wii Sports - Nintendo
 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo
 Guitar Hero 2 - Harmonix/Activision/Red Octane
 Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Bethesda Softworks/2k Games    

Console Game of the Year
 Gears of War - Epic Games/Microsoft
 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo
 Wii Sports - Nintendo
 Guitar Hero 2 - Harmonix/Activision/Red Octane
 Viva PiƱata - Microsoft/Rare    

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
 Wii Sports - Nintendo
 Nintendo Brain Age - Nintendo
 Gears of War - Epic Games/Microsoft
 Viva PiƱata - Rare/Microsoft
 LocoRoco - Sony Computer Entertainment    

Outstanding Achievement in Story and Character Development
 Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock - GameTap/Telltale Games
 Saints Row - Volition/THQ
 24: The Game - Sony Online Entertainment/2k Games
 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo
 Dreamfall: The Longest Journey - Funcom/Aspyr    

Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering
 Wii Sports - Nintendo
 Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Bethesda Softworks/2k Games
 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo
 Gears of War - Epic Games/Microsoft
 Company of Heroes - Relic/THQ    

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
 Wii Sports - Nintendo
 Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Bethesda Softworks/2k Games
 Company of Heroes - Relic/THQ
 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo
 Nintendo Brain Age - Nintendo    

Racing Game of the Year
 Test Drive Unlimited - Eden Studios/Atari
 Burnout Revenge - Criterion Games/Electronic Arts
 Excite Truck - Nintendo
 Full Auto 2: Battlelines - Pseudo Interactive/Sega
 Need for Speed: Carbon - EA Black Box/Electronic Arts    

Children's Game of the Year
 LocoRoco - Sony Computer Entertainment
 Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team - The Pokemon Co./CHUNSOFT Co./Nintendo
 Disney's Kim Possible: What's the Switch - A2M/Buena Vista Games
 Over the Hedge - Edge of Reality/Activision
 Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning - Krome Studios/Sierra Entertainment    

Action/Adventure Game of the Year
 Gears of War - Epic Games/Microsoft
 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Nintendo
 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent - Ubisoft Shanghai/Ubisoft
 Saints Row - Volition/THQ
 Daxter    - ReadyatDawn/Sony Computer Entertainment    

Handheld Game of the Year
 LocoRoco - Sony Computer Entertainment
 Elite Beat Agents - iNiS/Nintendo
 New Super Mario Bros.  - Nintendo
 Nintendo Brain Age - Nintendo
 Lego Star Wars II - TT Games/Lucas Arts    

Family Game of the Year
 Rayman Raving Rabidds - Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft
 Viva PiƱata - Rare/Microsoft
 Guitar Hero 2 - Harmonix/Activision/Red Octane
 Lego Star Wars II - TT Games/Lucas Arts
 Nintendo Brain Age - Nintendo

[Artimus]

I have to say that I am, personally, still reeling from how innovative Gears of War is.

[Acefondu]

Gears is finally a game that is over-hyped and meets its hype, unlike Halo 2 which was just outright over-hyped.

Okami got completely snubbed from categories it should have been in like Best Art! Give me a break.

Zelda deserves every accolade it gets, I don't care about how it doesn't really differentiate from other Zelda's.

Did anyone else die of laughter when they saw Wii Sports with a Game of the Year nod?
And, does anyone else think Nintendo is kicking their own ass for giving us Wii Sports for free now?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Wii Sports attracted public attention like no other game did.  It's justified.

Okami is a Capcom title, and we know Capcom doesn't participate in AIAS cuz they don't pay up to be a member.  AIAS is an industry club.

Again, it's another popularity contest among insiders that will fail.

[Acefondu]

Attracting public attention doesn't warrent a game of the year nod. It's hardly a game. I'm not trying to take away from the absurd awesomeness that is Wii Sports, but come on, there are other games to fit that slot.

And I had no clue Capcom doesn't participate in the awards.

What failure? Nintendo, and Konami are failures? From that statement I conclude you mean anyone who participates in these awards will fail.

[Artimus]

Quote
Originally posted by: Acefondu
Attracting public attention doesn't warrent a game of the year nod. It's hardly a game. I'm not trying to take away from the absurd awesomeness that is Wii Sports, but come on, there are other games to fit that slot.

And I had no clue Capcom doesn't participate in the awards.

What failure? Nintendo, and Konami are failures? From that statement I conclude you mean anyone who participates in these awards will fail.

How isn't it a game? I think it defines "game of the year" in a LOT of ways. Remember that unlike the Oscar the word "best" isn't in the category name.

[IceCold]

Quote
Did anyone else die of laughter when they saw Wii Sports with a Game of the Year nod?

Not really.. it's my pick.

[TheYoungerPlumber]

GOOOOO EBA!

[KDR_11k]

Glad to see Company of Heroes getting some nominations. Seriously people, just because it's a WW2 game doesn't mean it's bad.

[oohhboy]

I can't believe that Saints Row got nominated for anything. Sam must have f'ed someone up to get that happening.

[Ian Sane]

"And, does anyone else think Nintendo is kicking their own ass for giving us Wii Sports for free now?"

I doubt WiiSports would have been as popular if they didn't make it a pack-in.  A lot of people were almost surprised by how much they enjoyed it.  Those same people would probably have never tried it otherwise, particularly since Nintendo has that strange policy where they don't demo GOOD games in the Wii kiosks.

Let's go Zelda.  It's been far too long since a game that won Game of the Year actually deserved it.  It seems since SSX for the PS2 won it the category should be called "Most Hyped Game of the Year".

[Djunknown]

Quote
Those same people would probably have never tried it otherwise, particularly since Nintendo has that strange policy where they don't demo GOOD games in the Wii kiosks.

I don't know about the rest of North America, but the EB/GS's in my area are putting other games in the kiosks. I sampled Wario Ware Smooth Moves last week to my delight. Before that, I tried Wii Sports sans Nunchuck which basically sold me on the system. So far, so good...

Its a good list this year. The complete has a nice mix of the usual suspects and some unexpected titles. Check out the Web site which has the winners from past years. It was a nice stroll down memory lane for me at least...