Topic: 2006 AIAS Awards Finalists Announced

[WindyMan]

Nintendogs Nintendo's best nominated game; Resident Evil 4 notably absent.

The Academy for Interactive Arts and Sciences have revealed the finalists for the ninth annual Interactive Achievements awards.  The awards celebrate the best videogames of the year, as voted on by industry peers.  The ceremony will take place at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on February 9.    

Nintendo's puppy-powered simulation Nintendogs is nominated in six award categories, half of which are for all the major awards it could possibly be up for: Handheld, Console and Overall Game of the Year.  A first, for sure.  Nintendo's other multi-nominated title was Mario Kart DS, looking to take the racing genre and online game awards.    

Other Nintendo titles to win nominations include Super Mario Strikers in the sports genre, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for role-playing, and DDR Mario Mix for family game of the year.  Nintendogs will need to fight it out against Zelda: The Minish Cap and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time for Handheld Game of the Year.    

The biggest surprise on the list of nominees was the one that wasn't there.  Capcom's Resident Evil 4, released in January of this year, did not recieve a single nomination.  Our pick for GameCube Game of the Year seems deserving of at least a nod from the Academy.  It turns out there's a reason for the omission, though.    

According to GameSpot, RE4 was not considered because Capcom is not a member of the AIAS.  Only games published by members of the Academy may be nominated, and since Capcom "chose not to play," Resident Evil 4 won't win anything.    

For the record, the top three nominated games were all PS2 games.  God of War has eleven; Guitar Hero and Shadow of the Colossus each have seven.

[Artimus]

Ahh yes, nothing like 'awards' where only your friends can get them...total crap.

[Flames_of_chaos]

I think thats a stupid reason why RE4 was left out. It was on top of a lot of sites top game of the year or atleast the top 10 games of the year, then AIAS rains on the games parade just because of Capcom not being a member of the AIAS meh.

[Hostile Creation]

I wouldn't vote RE4 for game of the year anyway, though I'd probably nominate it for something, at least.  Kinda weird, but I can't say I'm a fan of the AIAS.

[miedo]

Meh, these awards kind of annoyed me.  Why do you have to pay money to enter the awards, and where is Advance Wars: Dual Strike?  Seriously, that game is one of the better Strategy games this year, and it didn't even receive a nod, at all.

[Djunknown]

Quote
then AIAS rains on the games parade just because of Capcom not being a member of the AIAS meh.

I doubt it. According to the Gamespot update, the people at AIAS begged Capcom to join the Academy. RE 4 was the most popular write-in vote. Yet Capcom decided to sit this one out.  If they didn't want to pay the dues, oh well, what can you do?

Despite that, its a good list. Nintendo got a lot nominations this year than in recent years. Now we wait for them to lose and more bitching to follow suit...