I am sorry for the clickbait-y headline. Saying “The Top 10 Game Awards Winners That I Personally Disagreed With The Most” just didn’t have much of a ring to it.
We are coming up very quickly on Game Awards season. Big Nerd Gaming will be one of the most devoted websites in the world to covering it. Including this article, I expect to have something like five articles in total that are devoted to The Game Awards. I also plan on having two podcasts dedicated to predictions related to The Game Awards.
I will talk more about why I think The Game Awards are important in other places. But one reason why I like The Game Awards so much is that I think they do a pretty dang good job at picking winners overall. Of course, I will disagree with the winners quite often, but I almost always understand why a game won over whatever my pick happens to be. I really like the way The Game Awards structures its votes. The awards are mostly voted on by gaming media, and a small percentage of the vote goes to fans. This formula seems to make for a lot of logical winners. Award shows that go with fan votes can be much more all over the place.
But of course, once in a while, a winner will come in, and I will be a bit shocked and maybe even mildly offended. I try my very hardest to be reasonable with these things, but sometimes, it just doesn’t make sense. Once again, this is a relatively rare event. There have been several years in the history of the awards where I had no problem with any of the winners. But I guess that makes the times where I don’t like a pick stand out even more.
To kick off Game Awards season, let’s get a little spicy. Here are the ten worst Game Awards decisions ever (imo). It’s a great credit to the awards that it was actually kind of hard to get to ten bad decisions here. Also, even if I strongly disagree with an award winner, that doesn’t mean that I think the game that won sucks. I just didn’t think it was nearly on the level of another game. Let’s get to it!
10. Inside Beats Out Stardew Valley For Best Independent Game (2016)
I hate to include this one, as I think Inside is fantastic. It’s a thrill ride of a 3 hour journey that gets hilarious in so many unexpected ways by the end. It’s a great game.
But as great as Inside is, I never thought it made sense at all that it beat out Stardew Valley for “Best Indie.” Stardew Valley is probably the consensus greatest farming sim of all time. It could also be considered the greatest cozy game of all time in general. It deserved more respect here.
This also isn’t one of those classic indie game cases where the game wasn’t particularly popular until it took off a few years after release. Stardew Valley was a really big deal from the moment it dropped. It topped over one million sales within 2 months, which is gigantic in the indie space.
Obviously, Stardew has gotten tons of free updates over the years, which have helped sustain its popularity and which have made it even more popular now. That is why this decision looks worse in retrospect. But even in 2016, I didn’t think Stardew was getting the respect it deserved here. It is certainly getting that respect now.
9. Metaphor: ReFantazio Beats Out The Field In Best Art Direction (2024)
Metaphor is a weird game for me from an art direction standpoint. I love the storybook aesthetic it has. The game has some fun and imaginative character models that use its fantasy setting nicely. The enemy designs are often creepy in the best ways. The menus are really crisp and stylish as you’d expect from a game made by the teams that made Persona. The game also has a few still image environments that are absolutely breathtaking.
But man, this game is also not always the most appealing to look at. So many of the environments are super plain and unappealing. The dungeon design is also incredibly boring and generic. The dungeon design is particularly unfortunate coming off Persona 5, which had very compelling dungeon design that fit in with the themes of different villains. For as much as Metaphor does right with its art direction, it can be kind of ugly in spots. I did not view it as particularly worthy of the award because I think it has a few weak points there.
Elden Ring already won this award in 2022. Perhaps the voters were sheepish about giving the prize to a DLC of the same game. I get it. I didn’t play Shadow of the Erdtree, but I was stunned at how they seemed to take their environments to another level for that DLC. Neva is also a gorgeous game with a lovely watercolor art style and excellent animations. Heck, I would have even given the award to Black Myth Wukong instead.
Metaphor definitely has some great elements with its art direction, but I didn’t understand this one at all.
8. Deathloop Beats Out It Takes Two For Best Game Direction (2021)
The winner of the “Game of the Year” award has won the “Best Game Direction” award six out of the nine years that the award has existed. So while winning “Game of the Year” doesn’t always guarantee you “Best Game Direction”, it usually takes some really good reasons for an upset to happen with it.
In the three instances of this happening, 2019 is probably the best example of why different games might win these awards. Sekiro took home “Game of the Year” that year, but Death Stranding won for “Best Game Direction”. I think that while critics viewed Sekiro as the better game, they wanted to show Death Stranding respect for how it was able to make a very unique and difficult gameplay loop work. I think they were also crediting Death Stranding for nailing so many of the cinematic elements of the game. I think those cinematic elements are also why Alan Wake 2 was able to upset Baldur’s Gate 3 for this award in 2023.
The third instance of this happening was Deathloop beating out “Game of the Year” winner It Takes Two in 2021. I think I understand why this happened. Deathloop had an interesting and unique gameplay dynamic with its time hopping elements. The goal of the game was to assassinate a group of people all in one day, and you essentially have to play through the game multiple times to figure out how to make it possible to do this.
I was very into Deathloop early on, but I don’t think they fully stuck the landing with everything they did here.
Simply, the last third of the game or so gets really dull. You mostly know what you have to do to beat the game, but you have to do a lot of tedious set-up work to make it happen while you align the last few pieces of your plan. It’s not easy to make playing through the same area over and over consistently fun, and I think Deathloop failed at this by the end. The ending of the game was also so bad that they had to patch in a better ending a year later.
I still enjoyed Deathloop and thought it was a good game overall. But if a game is going to beat out the “Game of the Year” winner for this award, I think they have to really do something special in their own right, and I don’t think Deathloop quite got to that level. Especially when It Takes Two executed on its formula almost flawlessly.
7. Maggie Robertson Beats Out The Field For Best Performance (2021)
I wasn’t super plugged in on a lot of gaming discourse in 2021, but even I saw tons of Lady Dimitrescu hype in 2021. She became a bit of a meme as a sexy super tall, and strong villain. Before the game came out, she already felt like a beloved character.
After playing Resident Evil Village, I found myself really enjoying her as a character as well. The only problem is that she is actually a pretty minor part of the story. Her screen time is extremely limited, and she doesn’t get much time to showcase herself as a character, even though the few interactions you have with her are pretty memorable.
So I was baffled that Maggie Robertson ended up winning this award. I think literally every other nominee deserved this award more. That is absolutely nothing against Robertson at all. If The Game Awards had a “Best Supporting Performance”, I think she’d be a very worthy winner, but we don’t have that, and I don’t think she was so much better than everyone else to deserve this with her limited amount of screen time. I think a lot of people got caught up in a meme on this one.
6. Splatoon Beats Out Rocket League For Best Multiplayer (2015)
As I discussed in the intro, The Game Awards are mostly voted on by critics, so it’s always a bit odd when an award goes completely against the critics’ own ratings. Splatoon sits at an 81 on Opencritic. Rocket League sits at an 87. Yet Splatoon somehow captured the “Best Multiplayer” prize over Rocket League in 2015.
I have played a bit of Splatoon 2, and I think it’s a fine game. I’d say it’s also pretty different and innovative. But Rocket League is a literal multiplayer all timer. Like the Stardew Valley award discussed earlier, it’s easy to look at this 10 years later and realize that this was a miss, but I think it was a clear miss in the moment, too. Rocket League took an absolutely bizarre concept and made it work splendidly. I never had enough drive to “git gud” at it and stick with it, but it was such a blast while I was into it, and it should have won.
5. Black Myth Wukong Beats Out Helldivers II For Best Action Game (2024)
It wasn’t totally shocking at all that Black Myth Wukong beat out Helldivers II for “Best Action Game” considering that Wukong received a nomination for “Game of the Year,” and Helldivers II didn’t. But, I thought that was wrong too!
Black Myth Wukong sits at an 82 on Opencritic. I think that is pretty appropriate. The game looks amazing, has an impressive sense of scale, and pretty fun combat. But I think the sound design is really weak. The staff does not feel impactful at all during combat. I also dislike the parry mechanic, and dislike the general boss rush flow the game has. It’s a solid action game, but it has real flaws.
Helldivers II sits at an 83 on Opencritic. Yeah, that doesn’t sound much better, but almost every critique of the game was because the servers were overloaded in the first week when reviewers were writing about the game. If it wasn’t for that first week, I think reviews would easily be around 90 for this game.
I am not a big fan of multiplayer games, but even I was pretty into Helldivers II for a few weeks. It feels unlike anything else out there, it requires real teamwork, and every game is full of intensity and laughter. I think that it should have beaten Wukong here, and should have also taken the last “Game of the Year” nomination as well. I predict this one will be like a few others I highlighted here where it just looks worse and worse as the years go on, as I expect Helldivers II to continue to have a solid player base for a long time.
4. Return Of the Obra Dinn Beats Out Octopath Traveler For Best Art Direction (2018)
Return of the Obra Dinn has a very distinct art style. It is black and white with lower resolution. It’s a minimalist art style that feels retro, but there’s enough detail for it to still work. As cool as it seems at the start, I actually slowly grew to dislike the art style the longer I played it. It started to wear me out. It felt hard on my eyes because the lack of color makes it so you have to really focus to see the details that you need to figure out what’s going on. And Obra Dinn is a detective game of sorts, so you have to really pay attention to small details. Perhaps part of the point of the art style was to add a little extra difficulty to the game, but as striking as it could be, I found it to be equally grating to interact with.
Meanwhile, Octopath Traveler pioneered the HD-2D art style, which was absolutely amazing back in 2018. I think Octopath managed to merge retro and modern in a way more compelling way than Obra Dinn. There’s very good reason why this art style remains a consistent presence in Square Enix games. Return of the Obra Dinn did some cool things, but Octopath Traveler’s art style will likely be a presence in our lives for decades to come, and I think it was obvious that would be the case from the moment it came out. I think it very clearly should have won “Best Art Direction” in 2018.
3. Pokemon Go Beats Out The Field For Best Family Game (2016)
“Best Family Game” often feels like a throwaway category to make sure Nintendo games get some shine. But all the awards matter to me, damn it, and this one was a travesty.
Yes, Pokémon Go was a sensation when it came out. Even I played it for a few days. I have friends who still play it. But can we be real? Is the game actually good, or is it just designed to be a time sink that continually extracts more money from you? I think there are certainly fun aspects of Pokémon Go. There’s a social element, and it gives you a reason to get out of your house and literally touch grass, but I also wouldn’t say it had deep or interesting mechanics in its launch year.
I honestly would have been fine with any game winning over this one, but I personally would have loved to see Ratchet and Clank get some love, as that is just a rock solid action platformer. Dragon Quest Builders would have also been a great winner. It’s very disappointing how many fans of this phone game decided to Pokemon Go to the polls and give this game an undeserved prize.
2. Stray Beats Out Neon White For Best Independent Game (2022)
One of the worst “Game of the Year” nominations ever for me was Stray. I liked Stray. It’s a perfectly pleasant game. It has a nice world, lots of cute cat moments, and it ends on a strong note. But in terms of actual gameplay, I wouldn’t say it particularly excels anywhere. Its exploration, puzzle solving, and platforming all feel pretty bare bones and unexceptional. The game sits at an 84 on Opencritic, which is a good score, but a pretty low score for a “Game of the Year” nominee.
That nomination made it unsurprising when Stray won “Best Indie.” But I still didn’t view it as worthy of this award. I wouldn’t have hated to see Tunic win, but my personal pick is the game that was by far the highest rated of any game nominated, Neon White. Neon White sits at an 89 on Opencritic. The game is very worthy of that score. Its speedrunning is an absolute blast, and the way it merges speedrunning with FPS and even card game type mechanics is really unique and cool. Most of the critics hated the storytelling and still loved the game. There’s a reason it was way better rated than Stray, and it should have been honored here.
1. Cyberpunk 2077 Being Almost Completely Ignored In 2021
First off, keep in mind that Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December of 2020. This is why it qualified for the 2021 awards and not the 2020 awards.
When the 2021 awards came around, Cyberpunk was able to net two nominations. One for its soundtrack and one for best RPG. It did not win either.
I obviously understand why this happened to an extent. Cyberpunk 2077’s launch was a disaster. There were an insane amount of bugs. I beat the game on the Xbox One at launch, and it would be a 3000-word blog post if I described every random glitch I encountered throughout my experience.
But despite all that, I beat the game and loved it. Many critics loved the game, too, at launch. It only got bad scores because of its buggy state.
I feel like there has been a revisionist history of Cyberpunk. Many think it was bad until around when Edgerunners came out in 2022. That’s simply not true. I replayed Cyberpunk 2077 in March of 2021 on my new Xbox Series X, and it was already a completely different game at that point. Many of the worst bugs were fixed (not all, but all of the worst ones I encountered were gone), and the game always ran significantly better on the newer consoles and higher end PCs (which is why reviewers only got PC review codes).
Perhaps the people who selected the nominations never went back to the game and didn’t see this. Or perhaps they wanted to avoid rewarding a game that came out the way it did. Even if critics didn’t want to award Cyberpunk 2077 “Game of the Year” (which it would have 100% won if it came out in a better state), I think the game at the very least deserved some other nominations and prizes. It should have beat Tales of Arise for “Best RPG”, as much as I really love the game. No voice actor getting a nomination for “Best Performance” is wild. Usually, big stars get slotted in for that award, and we somehow completely skipped Keanu Reeves. Yes, the game was glitchy, but the art direction was by far better than Deathloop, which won the “Best Art Direction” award in 2021. Night City is completely stunning, and the design of places like the various bars in the game is top-notch.
It somehow didn’t get a nomination for “Best Narrative,” even though the story is one of the main things that got me through the game when I played it in its initial awful state. It Takes Two got a freaking nomination, and that story is mostly dogshit! What the fuck!
Cyberpunk 2077 should have won just about everything in 2021. The critics had no idea what to do with this game, for reasons that are completely CD Projekt Red’s fault to be fair. It kind of reminds me of how Barry Bonds isn’t in the baseball hall of fame. It looks ridiculous that literally one of the greatest baseball players of all time isn’t in the hall of fame, but he also made mistakes that caused the controversy in the first place.
Either way, I’d say the critics blew it, and it looks dumber with each passing year. Similarly, Barry Bonds should be in the hall of fame. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
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