IGN Selects Wii Games of the Year
It's that time of year again, Game of the Year (GOTY) time!
IGN has weighed in with the Wii awards (overall awards won't be announced until Jan. 11).
Best Action Game: Resident Evil 4
IGN felt that, despite being two years old, the game was still the best action game on Wii last year.
Hmm. To me, this illustrates something I really hope the Wii gets better at next year: good ol' fashioned, kick butt action titles. I'm surprised Medal of Honor Heroes 2 didn't get considered, though. That had to be at least as worthy, on the merits of really taking advantage of Wii. I predict that you'll see some better FPS games from other companies in the years ahead, and we'll have some better winners in this category.
Best Adventure Game: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Beating out Zak and Wiki, Nintendo's conclusion to the Dark Samus trilogy wins this award. I agree with IGN here. Prime 3 was a glorious display of what this blogger calls "the Nintendo style," which encourages exploration instead of blind action. So, Wii owners… BUY BOTH OF THESE GAMES (-:
Best Fighting Game: Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution
D3 Publishers must be pretty happy that Smash Bros. Brawl is going to be delayed until February, because obviously if that game gets released this year, it easily p0wns the competition. Yet and still, there were many above average fighters released on Wii, something that doesn't get a lot of press. Between this game, Mortal Kombat Armageddon, and WWE vs. Raw and Dragon Ball Z, fighting fans have a lot to choose from.
Best First Person Shooter: Medal of Honor Heroes 2
Ah, this is how they got away with giving RE4 an award! Sometimes I think they parse these categories too much, but of course publishers like that because they can slap an award icon on the box! Getting back to things, an obvious choice, since Metroid wins in the adventure category. Poor Zak and Wiki!
Bust Music Game: Guitar Hero III
Nothin' to say here. Believe it or not I haven't played one of these games yet- maybe because I play real guitar?
Anyway, kudos to Activision: they are selling tons of these on Wii!
Best Platform Game: Super Mario Galaxy
An easy choice, to be sure. Will it be their game of the year, though?
Best RPG: Super Paper Mario
Meh, not sure I like their choice here. The runner up, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, seems better to this blogger. Besides, you can hardly call Super Paper Mario an RPG. It's an odd mashup of RPG and platformer design that does little justice to either genre, in this blogger's opinion (I was dissapointed with this game, actually).
Best Sim Game: Trauma Center: New Blood
Now I really want to try one of these Trauma Center games. Maybe the DS version, which I can get cheap now?
Best Sports Game: SSX Blur
This is a really competitive category on Wii this year! I suspect sports games will always be a hotly contested genre on Wii, because of the potential that motion control offers. SSX Blur is certainly deserving. It's controls are fantastic and the game offers challenging fun. I really hope that EA doesn't give up on these types of games for Wii.
That said, I think it stinks that Mario Strikers Charged, MLB Power Pros, and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games finished as runners up. I don't think Madden 08 deserved to be a runner up at all, though: the game is a decent Madden offering but the glitch list is extremely high- EA needs to overhaul the graphics engine on that one PRONTO.
Best Strategy Game: Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Ahhhhh!!! This is how IGN gets away with awarding Super Paper Mario Best RPG! As a long time Fire Emblem fan I'm happy to see this pick up an award. I haven't had a chance to dig into this sequel yet, bet you better bet your behind that I will at some point. Fire Emblem FTW.
Best Graphics: Mario Galaxy. Obvious.
Best Artistic Design: Metroid Prime 3. I agree.
Best Original Score: Mario Galaxy. Yep. Glad to see SSX Blur pick up a runner up nod, too!
Best Sound: Mario Galaxy. Uh-huh. Though Prime 3 might have deserved this more.
Best Story: Scarface the World is Yours. Hmm. Dunno, RE4 has a pretty captivating, original story.
Best Local Multiplayer: guitar hero 3… hmm. I think IGN really missed the boat here, because they undereviewed many games designed specifically for local multiplayer. My winner is Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.
Best Online Multi: Medal of Honor Heroes 2. Yep.
Most Innovative Design: Zak and Wiki. Hmm. hard to argue, though Mario Galaxy has it beat, in my opinion, especially when many of Zak and Wiki's conventions are taken from the old Adventure game genre on PC.
Best Use of Wii Remote: Medal of Honor 2: Heroes. Yeah, I would agree. FPS games should be fun on Wii, can't wait to see what the next two years bring.
Best Developer: Ninty. Zzzzzzzzzz…..
GAME OF THE YEAR:
Mario Galaxy.
Well, certainly this is an obvious choice. Galaxy could well win many overall GOTY's including IGNs… though I doubt it because IGN is heavily slanted towards the other systems in its general awards, as witnessed by last year's comical selection of Okami.
Oh…… and Merry Christmas, everyone!
December 27th, 2007 at 7:53 am
Wow… I’m with you on being kinda surprised by the GH3-for-Best-Local-Multiplayer thing, too! I realize that 2007 was the year of freaking out about GH, but with so much on the DS that supported multiplayer this year (much of it being single-card, which is so nice!), I’m sort of surprised one of them didn’t get the nod for that category!