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Golden Joystick Awards 2009
Gamerzines were there, but what did we think about the winners?
Written by Jon Seddon, 06 November 2009
This year's Golden Joystick Awards were the 27th year for the awards ceremony sometimes referred to as the gaming Oscars. As ever, the awards are voted for by the general public and this year saw a record 1.2 million votes being cast. As anyone who's watched Strictly Come Dancing knows, this means the winners are not always the best, but they are the most popular. This means that we get what we deserve as the winners will surely be scrutinised by publishers everywhere, with perhaps there being some correlation between the most popular games and the future sales potential for the franchise. It was therefore , depending on the category, both heartening and disappointing to see what came top. The news sites have published nearly a week ago who won, but let's break down some of the categories to see what we (and that means I) thought should have emerged victorious. I'm only covering the categories that surpised me which were most of them.
Little Big Planet - winners at the Golden JoysticksJust to make sure we remember the criteria, the awards only covered games released between May 22nd 2008 and May 22nd 2009, so essentially it's the games that were released last Christmas.
Family Game of the Year - LittleBigPlanet
My reaction to this was how did that win? Not because it's not a good game, but because I don't think it sold that well. However, in a category that had the music games, Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2 and the non-family game, Professor Layton, it probably made a lot of sense. The only other games that could have competed as fun for the whole family were the Lego Batman and Indiana Jones games.
A non-Internet connected LittleBigPlanet is a a fairly pretty, but dull to play platformer when played on your own, but when played with others and particularly kids, it's appeal increases immensely. You have to imagine that lots of parents that bought their children LittleBigPlanet will never go and discover the crazy things people have done with the tools. LittleBigPlanet encourages play between disparately skilled people and was just a very good choice from an uninspired list.
Bliss Handheld Game of the Year - Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
There was a genuine sense of disbelief when this one was announced. This game sold about 10 copies and so who on earth was voting for this above Pokemon an Professor Layton? It would be very illuminating to see how many votes there were in this category as you didn't have to vote in each one. I know 2 people that have this game and probably voted for it, so perhaps each of the other games only got one game each. I can imagine fans that bought this to be indignant about it's low sales and wanting to show their support. With the game just now being released on PSP, it will be interesting to see whether this version has more luck at retail. Perhaps, next year they can ask us how many people have played or own the title they're voting for and then we could at least pick out the games that were being voted for on name alone.
Nintendo Game of the Year - Call of Duty: World at War
PlayZine Issue 35
For our latest LittleBigPlanet coverage, click here to download PlayZine Issue 35 for free.In a category were the alternatives were a collection of niche titles like Chrono Trigger, Okami, and Madworld, it's no surprise that one of the few recognisable titles that were released on Wii scooped the prize. This was a category that was bereft of Wii games, which is very representative of Nintendo's year. At least Wii Fit didn't make the shortlist.
The Rampage Soundtrack of the Year - Guitar Hero: World Tour
I think that the winner for this game was wrong on two fronts. Firstly, rhythm action games should be excluded from the category, because in reality they are just song collections and not soundtracks. For my money, a soundtrack should be carefully selected and orchestrated complement to the game. Games like Bioshock use their soundtracks to add drama and excitement to the game, otherwise the best game soundtrack may as well be your chosen custom soundtrack.
PlayStation Game of the Year - Killzone 2
This is the fanboys choice, but it's certainly not the best game released on PS3 last year and certainly not better than games like Metal Gear Solid 4 or Bioshock.
Online Game of the Year - Left4Dead
Somehow this beat Call of Duty, despite it being a 360 and PC only experience. Brilliant game, but for me too short an experience, as twice through each hour long campaign was more than enough.
Ultimate Game of the Year - Fallout 3
Regardless of what I thought about some of the other categories in here, my faith was somewhat restored in peoples judgement when Fallout 3 walked away with the top prize. It was certainly my game of 2008 and possibly my favourite game of all time. I wonder how much the DLC which was pretty constant for the first 6 months of the year, kept this in people conscience.
My picks for the best games in the same period would have included Dead Space and I think it's time for music games to get their own category, even if that means EA and Activision have it effectively sewn up.
LittleBigPlanet coverage available in PlayZine Issue 35 - click here to download it for free!
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