Hey you lot, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword has been nominated for a BAFTA. It's been nominated for a few, actually, finding itself vying for recognition in the Best Game category, the GAME Award for 2011 category and the Game Innovation award (for its MotionPlus controls, we expect).
That's good going by any measure, though it finds itself up against the twin giants of Portal 2 and Skyrim - two games of such greatness that even I, your trusted and handsome Nintendo correspondent, is struggling to judge which deserves a BAFTA the most.
Here's the full list of nominees in that all-important player-voted category:
Batman: Arkham City
Battlefield 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Fifa 12
LA Noire
Minecraft
Portal 2
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword!
Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception
It's a toughie, right? So I have decided to base my decision on six highly scientific criteria, which I believe should inform an objective and unbiased conclusion based on raw facts and solid data. Once you've reached your own decision, you can vote for it over at the BAFTA website, but I must insist that you peruse my findings first.
It's only fair to the other games in the category that we take our time with this and make our votes with care and consideration - remember my last blog post about inter-platform hugs? Heaven forbid that corruption and/or majority bias spoil the video game BAFTAs.
CRITERION ONE: Most Zeldas per square mile
Winner: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Runner up: FIFA 12
CRITERION TWO: Does it have a big bird you can fly around on?
Winner: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Runner up: Batman: Arkham City
CRITERION THREE: Nicest sword
Winner: Skyrim
Runner Up: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
CRITERION FOUR: Most set at the beginning of the Zelda timeline
Winner: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Runner up: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Very scientific reasons there! Anyway, I'm voting for Skyward sword no matter what, it is such an amazing game.
voting mw3 becuase of its vast multiplayer experience and it dosent have a game-breaking glitch :)
It's Skyward Sword!
How can Skyward Sword be a winner AND runner up in criterion 5?!
Have to say Zelda D: The other games seem to be too short (Portal 2) or too much like their predecessors (you know which ones)
Skyrim was great and all but I've seen more impressive AI on the N64 (this is seriously how it works http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbF9ynGZV0), not to mention it's like GET ON THIS DRAGON DAWG and then instead of actually controlling it it skips to the long loading screen which I seem to be seeing every 10 minutes.
In Super Hogman World, anything can happen.
Erm, who are you and what kind of life do you live?
mw3 broke gaming altogether. how can games like that sell in droves while better games like portal 2 never sell that much. plus, its very dated, and the only reason it has a vast multiplayer experience is that lots of people buy it. play some portal 2 co op and then tell me which has a better multiplayer experience.
Skyward Swords screwed :'( nah well, chin up, still voting for the beast that is Skyward Sword
is this implying that Portal 2 wasn't a popular nor massively selling game?
i'd rather vote for DoDonPachi Resurrection, but sadly big name titles get more of a look in. LOL IT'S AN OBSCURE JAPANESE GAME, NO WAY WE'RE INCLUDING DAT
masamune, mw3 is one of the biggest entertainment profiters ever - portal 2 isnt. not saying it isnt popular, just that its more niché than mw3, and will sell less, when its the better game.
From a long-time Zelda fan...Arkham City and LA Noire are both better than Skyward Sword. Sorry.
MW3 is more popular than Portal 2, yes, but i don't think it's really possible to call Portal 2 a niche game, and it's sold well into the millions itself.
i can see your point, but i don't think it's all that valid.
My vote got The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword!, Amazing game and another piece of evidence that games can still be engrossing and fun and with no beta's passed as a fully fledged game. Go my loft wing fly forth to the Bafta awards and claim your prize that IS yours.
yeah, i've kindof dug myself into a hole havent i?
How can you rank THE MASTER SWORD, forged from the Goddess Sword, Godess Long Sword, Goddess White Sword...! I don't see how Skyrim is nominated for 'Artistic achievement; I can see no colour in that screenshot. Skyward sword on the other hand, is beaut.
And don't you mean criterium?
SS is a really good game but then I have played Minecraft for much, much longer. And Portal 2 is extremely hilarious and clever. I don't see why games awards aren't split into "Western" games and "Eastern" games. Because Zelda is probably funnier if it's in Japanese and Japanese is your 1st language.
Skyrim is amazing so don't make any negative comments about it.Also am I weird if i've not played Skyward Sword?I bought Super Mario 3D Land instead.
i have 0 interest in Skyrim
make of that what you will
sorry,i love skyward sword and all.....but i mean it is a bit flawed.
skyrim is miles and miles ahead.but i didnt even pick that game.
minecraft is defiantly my favourite game of the year....and it is also a contender for my favourite game ever
you baka.
how can i be a baka, Skyrim is a disgusting gaijin game that i dare not touch
Skyward sword may be good but I voted for Minecraft! It's just so addictive!
I'm voting Skyrim.
Deeper than Zelda.
The Game has a culture that feels real.
Some of the views are just beautiful.
Has characters who you care for/hate.
More roleplaying choices.
Customization.
I'm not having a pop at Zelda, but how long did Skyward Sword last you? A week? Two?
I've been playing Skyrim since November 2011. That's almost 4 months.
Plus Skyrim, Portal 2, Arkham City and Uncharted were all better than SS.
I love Zelda, but let's give the Best Game Award to a deserving game.
It's a tough call, for sure.
Were this based on 'experience' alone, It'd have to be Portal 2. The voice acting, between McLain, Merchant and Simmons,is some of the best voice acting, accompanied by the best scripting, in any game.
'We'll go down as one of histories greatest rivalries! Holmes vs. Moriarty, Aristotle vs. MASHY SPIKE PLATE!'
Skyrim's pretty neat too, but it doesn't do anything particularly ground-breaking, besides being ENORMOUS. Plus, my version keeps crashing on loading screens (No scratches or nothing), so that doomed it for me. (I've heard tell of the Skyward Sword glitches, but I found no such thing, so...)
So then we reach the logical conclusion (using ACTUAL LOGIC, HOGARTY. Edgeworth would be ashamed...) of voting for Skyward Sword. The art style is beautiful, the controls are just magic, etc etc. The twists kept the game feeling fresh, and the 're-visiting locations' thing really broke the mould; I'm especially impressed that the locations never got 'samey.'
P.S. BAHAHA Modern Warfare 3. What a joke.
P.P.S. Minecraft. Cue bigger laughs. It's not that I think it's a bad game (READ: I do, but that's not the point), but the point of Minecraft was that it was an 'indie' game, i.e. not mainstream. Since it's now up for a BAFTA, that makes it pretty damn mainstream. In short, it can't win without perverting it's original intentions. (Though I think the Xbox port may have already done that... sellout.)
have you played MW3
the explosion of 'indie' games shows just how stupid people can be, thinking that simply because a game has been made by a smaller development team than developer giant that it is somehow a game with more 'heart' and 'soul' and somehow deserves our money more, which on the whole is completely ridiculous idiocy. Minecraft achieved massive success, I don't see how trying to wring as much money out of it as possible is selling out, it's just smart business. The concept of 'selling out' doesn't make much sense to me, it's just what people use as an excuse to complain with when someone does something that people don't like.
Solid reasoning Steve. XD
I completely agree, it's nice to see smaller developers having success but they shouldn't win best game of the year just because of that. Perhaps there could be a best Indie game?
i m going to vote tonight at the BAFTA