Last night, the Game Awards presentation affirmed what many game fans already know: Nintendo is back.
After several comparatively dismal years with the Wii U, Nintendo exploded back to the forefront of gaming with the Switch console in March 2017. Fast forward nine months and Nintendo takes home six Game Awards, including five awarded to Switch exclusives.
Headlining the awards was a Game of the Year victory for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This Switch launch title has been a frontrunner for this prestigious honor all year, and it didn’t stop there. The open-world Zelda game also took home honors for Best Action/Adventure Game and Best Game Direction.
A duo of Mario games added more prizes to the Nintendo pile. Super Mario Odyssey, another nominee for Game of the Year, picked up Best Family Game despite being a mainly single-player experience. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, one of the year’s biggest surprises, took home Best Strategy Game for its XCOM-like gameplay.
Lastly, Metroid: Samus Returns beat out three of its Nintendo counterparts to win Best Handheld Game (Fire Emblem Echoes is a much better game, just saying).
This haul of prestigious honors comes after Nintendo won exactly one award at the 2016 Game Awards, and even that was Breath of the Wild taking Most Anticipated Game. This was Nintendo’s first Game of the Year honor and by far its best overall performance at the awards.
The Japanese godfather of gaming went all-out in 2017. From the massively successful Switch, to new installments in virtually all of its hallmark series, to hot commodities like the SNES Classic, Nintendo has sent gaming fans a clear message: they are not fading anytime soon.
Nintendo wraps up its banner year with December releases like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the second Breath of the Wild DLC addition. Next year already has several promising titles looming, including Metroid Prime 4, Yoshi, and Project Octopath Traveler.
