On Monday morning, Geoff Keighley revealed the nominees for this year’s Game Awards. The listing honored lots of this 12 months’s greatest video games, from Astro Bot to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. For anybody who has been following video video games carefully in 2024, it’s a predictable listing that’s heavy on well-received big-budget video games and one key indie breakthrough.
Of course, not everyone seems to be completely satisfied. Discourse is already brewing on social media on all the pieces from Black Myth: Wukong‘s Game of the Year nomination to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree making the reduce regardless of being a DLC. As is the case yearly, it’s a hodgepodge of deserving nominees, disappointing omissions, and downright bizarre picks. Let’s break down the greatest takeaways from this 12 months’s listing, from the surprises to the “snubs.”
Surprise: Balatro lands Game of the Year
Indie video games have had a notoriously tough time making a splash at the Game Awards (far more on that in a second), however one did break by way of this 12 months: Balatro. On paper, the poker roguelike isn’t the form of sport that usually will get a Game of the Year nomination. That class tends to favor flashy, big-budget video games over progressive oddities. Balatro is the uncommon sport to interrupt that curse, combating alongside giants like Astro Bot and Black Myth: Wukong. It deserves that spot too; Balatro is an ingenious work of sport design that finds new depth in the basic deck of playing cards. It feels as foundational to its style as Hades did in 2020.
Snub: Other indies nonetheless wrestle to make waves
Despite Balatro‘s huge second, The Game Awards nonetheless have an enormous drawback relating to indie video games. It is subsequent to not possible for indies to compete in most classes outdoors of a choose handful designed for them. Neva managed to land a nomination for Best Art Direction, however that’s just about the solely breakthrough right here apart from Balatro. 1000xResist missed out on Best Narrative, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes couldn’t nab recognition for its course, Children of the Sun didn’t get honored for sound design whereas Call of Duty as soon as once more eased into the spot. This has lengthy been an issue with the ceremony, however this 12 months looks like a breaking level: It more and more looks like nobody is taking these nominations very critically. A handful of common zeitgeist video games get shuffled into each class with little thought put in. It’s a failing on the jury that selects these nominations, however the Game Awards itself too, which is ready as much as favor these video games in delicate methods — contemplate that the slim Best Action Adventure is a class, however not Adventure, excluding as massive swath of video games. Until there’s a rethink of how nominations are created, The Game Awards feels much less like the Oscars and extra like the MTV Movie Awards.
Surprise: Silent Hill 2 hits huge
Perhaps the greatest shock of 2024 is Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2. Before its launch, followers of the PS2 basic had been bracing for a careless remake that misunderstood the authentic horror sport. As it turned out, Bloober Team nailed the task and delivered certainly one of the 12 months’s finest. Now, the studio has 4 nominations to commemorate its work: Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Best Score and Music, and a Best Performance nomination for Luke Roberts. A number of of these nominations really feel a bit lazy contemplating that the remake doesn’t stray very removed from the authentic’s writing or music, however it’s nice to see a contented ending for a studio that proved the doubters improper.
Snub: Thrasher, Riven miss out on VR honors
It’s been an outstanding 12 months for VR gaming, and this 12 months’s Best VR/AR Game class exhibits that. Batman: Arkham Shadow and Asgard’s Wrath 2 are each licensed blockbusters which are shoe-ins for the awards. But as is all the time the case at The Game Awards, it looks like the tech’s finest video games are likely to fall to the wayside in favor of VR ports of present titles. This 12 months, each Thrasher and Cyan Worlds’ excellent Riven remake — two of the 12 months’s finest even outdoors of VR — did not get a spot, Meanwhile, VR variations of video games like Metro and Metal: Hellsinger did. It’s a little bit of a letdown contemplating the high quality of one thing like Thrasher that was constructed with the tech in thoughts, however it’s laborious to argue with the huge video games that made the reduce.
Surprise: Super Mario Party Jamboree will get some love
With nominees this uninteresting, it’s the little issues that add some gentle. The most nice shock for me this 12 months is that Super Mario Party Jamboree received acknowledged in not one however two classes: Best Family Game and Best Multiplayer. The former isn’t stunning, however the latter is. Best Multiplayer tends to be reserved for high-skill on-line video games and shooters, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. It’s not as pleasant to a collection like Mario Party, however this 12 months’s installment earned its spot. It’s a strong package deal that finds the core board sport expertise at its finest. With a number of ingenious modes padding out the package deal, together with the mass multiplayer Koopathalon and the co-op Bowser’s Ka-boom Squad, Jamboree deserves its place proper subsequent to the huge boys.
Snub: Best Mobile sport, basically
There are just a few classes at the Game Awards which are so painfully out of contact with actuality that you need to query the complete voting course of for the present. Best Mobile Game is chief on that listing, and it stays on prime this 12 months. Looking at the nominees yearly, it turns into very obvious that lots of voters don’t play lots of cell video games. The class is commonly dominated by free-to-play video games and huge IP. Services like Apple Arcade and Netflix are likely to stroll away empty handed whereas middling video games like Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis waltz their solution to the ceremony. This 12 months isn’t any totally different, as video games like Netflix’s Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure misplaced out to free behemoths like Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket. Even Apple Arcade’s strong Sonic Dream Team couldn’t get recognition whereas microtransaction heavy gacha video games did. One may make the argument that not sufficient individuals have subscriptions to the providers that these video games are on, however it’s a jury’s job to play and contemplate a big selection of video games fairly than the ones most simply obtainable to them. To anybody who really pays consideration to the cell or VR landscapes, it’s clear that there’s a disconnect.
Surprise: Kunitsu-Gami sneaks into Best Strategy Game
I’ll be trustworthy: Finding real surprises on this listing of nominees is a tough activity. Very little is precisely a shock, as every area went about the means you’d anticipate. If it’s not clear from what I’ve stated to date, it’s a disappointing area of simple nominees. So I can solely deal with the small wins right here, and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess touchdown in Best Sim/Strategy Game suits that invoice. Capcom’s oddball tower protection sport is certainly one of the 12 months’s finest, presenting a trendy and progressive spin on a basic style. It’s in contrast to something I’ve performed and deserves its spot in what I’d name this 12 months’s strongest class. Kunitsu-Gami will go face to face with Frostpunk 2, Manor Lords, Unicorn Overlord, and Age of Mythology Retold. That’s a stacked area.
Snub: Should Hades 2 have been nominated?
Perhaps the most notable omission from this 12 months’s nominees is Hades 2. Despite being a vital darling, the roguelite obtained zero honors this 12 months. That’s possible on account of the undeniable fact that it’s nonetheless in early entry, so the voting jury felt it wasn’t fairly prepared to guage. It’s comprehensible, however ought to it have been thought-about? After all, Manor Lords picked up two nominations regardless of being an early entry sport. Hades 2‘s wonderful motion already feels developed sufficient to earn it a spot in Best Action, and its already wonderful soundtrack isn’t more likely to change a lot earlier than 1.0. I personally wouldn’t embrace it in a class like Game of the Year but, however’s it’s one other space the place the nominations really feel inconsistent. That results in an general lifeless batch of nominees that spotlight the want for a strategy shakeup.
