Nintendo DS Games Nominated for GDC Choice Awards

Press Release

February 27, 2006, 3:38 pm EST
Total comments: 11

Nintendo earns five nominations for its innovative Nintendo DS titles, and Resident Evil 4 finally gets some love.

INNOVATORS DAVID JAFFE, TIM SCHAFER AND FUMITO UEDA DOMINATE LIST

OF NOMINEES FOR 6TH ANNUAL GAME DEVELOPERS CHOICE AWARDS

"God of War" Leads With Six Nominations, "Shadow of the Colossus" Garners Five;

"Guitar Hero," "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Psychonauts" Tie With Three Nods

Each

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Feb. 27, 2006 - Sony Computer Entertainment's "God of

War" and "Shadow of the Colossus" lead the list of nominated games for the 6th

annual Game Developers Choice Awards, receiving six and five nominations, respectively.

"Guitar Hero," "Project Gotham Racing 3" and "Psychonauts" follow close behind

with three nods.

The ceremony, produced and hosted by the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and

presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), is the only

peer-based, open nomination awards program in the industry where honors are bestowed

to developers by developers. Recipients will be announced during the GDC, slated

for March 20-24, 2006 in San Jose, Calif.

"Recognizing and showcasing individual achievement in the creation of games is

a core principle of the GDC," Jamil Moledina, director, Game Developers Conference,

said. "For that reason, we are proud to produce and host the Choice Awards."

The ceremony will take place Wednesday, March 22 at 6:30p.m. at the San Jose

Civic Auditorium.

"Every year, thousands of nominations are submitted by developers from around

the world," Jason Della Rocca, executive director, IGDA, said. "Voting on the

final recipients will be extremely competitive, and who can spot excellence and

creative achievement better than the creators themselves?"

Nominations were free of charge and open to all IGDA members, ensuring that the

nominees reflect the international development community's opinions. The IGDA

membership will vote on the finalists.

The 6th annual Game Developer Choice Awards are supported by Platinum Sponsor

Motorola and Gold Sponsor AGEIA. In addition to the voted award categories,

honors will be presented for the Lifetime Achievement, First Penguin, Community

Contribution, Maverick and Innovation awards.

For more information about the Game Developers Choice Awards, check out www.gamechoiceawards.com.

The complete list of nominees is:

Best Game

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)

- Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

- David Jaffe, Shannon Studstill

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)

- Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)

- Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda

The Movies (Lionhead Studios / Activision)

- Gary Carr, Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley

Audio

Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward / Activision)

- Mark Ganus

Electroplankton (Nintendo)

- Toshio Iwai, Koichi Kyuma, Yuichi Ozaki

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

- Dave Murrant

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)

- Eric Brosius, Kasson Crooker

Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)

- Nick Bygrave, Guy Whitmore, Nick Wiswell

Character Design

City of Villains (Cryptic Studios / NCsoft Corporation)

- Ocala Bellows Kulig, Ryan Butts, Jay Doherty, Jeremy Mattson

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

- David Jaffe, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath (Oddworld Inhabitants / Electronic Arts)

- Lorne Lanning, Rich McKain, Iain Morton, Raymond Swanland

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)

- Scott Campbell

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)

- Atsuko Fukuyama, Hitoshi Niwa, Shunpei Suzuki, Fumito Ueda

Game Design

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)

- Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

- David Jaffe

Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)

- Tsutomu Kaneshige, Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kiyoshi Mizuki

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)

- Erik Robson, Tim Schafer

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)

- Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda

Technology

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat (Digital Illusions / Electronic Arts)

- Fred Gill, Måns Vestin

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)

- Eran Egozy, Eric Malafeew, Phil Winston

Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)

- Tsutomu Kaneshige

Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)

- Edmund Clay, Roger Perkins, Phil Teschner, Ian Wilson

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)

- Jinji Horagai, Takuya Seki, Hajime Sugiyama, Masanobu Tanaka

Visual Arts

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

- Steve Caterson, Terry Smith, Charlie Wen

Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)

- Gren Atherton, Julie McGurren, Peter Roe, Kiki Wolfkill

Resident Evil 4 (Capcom Production Studio 4 / Capcom Entertainment)

- Yusuke Hashimoto, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Yusuke Kan, Masaki Yamanaka

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)

- Koji Hasegawa, Hironobu Nakano, Masanori Kajita, Fumito Ueda

We Love Katamari (Namco Limited / Namco Hometek)

- Keita Takahashi, Takeshi Ugajin

Writing

Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich (Irrational Games / Vivendi Universal Games)

- Ken Levine

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)

- David Jaffe, Marianne Krawcyzk, Alex Stein

Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream / Atari)

- David Cage

Jade Empire (BioWare Corp. / Microsoft Game Studios)

- Drew Karpyshyn, Brian Kindregan, Luke Kristjanson, Mike Laidlaw, Peter Thomas,

Mac Walters

Psychonauts (Double Fine Productions / Majesco Entertainment Company)

- Tim Schafer, Erik Wolpaw

New Studio

ArenaNet (Guild Wars)

- Mike O'Brien, Jeff Strain, Patrick Wyatt

Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts)

- Caroline Esmurdoc, Tim Schafer

New Crayon Games (Bonnie's Bookstore)

- Phil Steinmeyer

TellTale Games (Bone: Out From Boneville)

- David Bogan, Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors, Troy Molander

Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse)

- Alexander Seropian

Talkback

ArtimusFebruary 27, 2006

What is UP with the industry? They're acting like morons with these awards.

RE4 gets ONE nomination? It loses out to THE MOVIES?

And God of War? WTH?

Even the Oscars aren't this flat out stupid.

WuTangTurtleFebruary 27, 2006

WOW, what on earth is going on? I've played both RE4 and God of War, i think both are great but there is no way The Movies gets in and RE4 doesnt!

King of TwitchFebruary 27, 2006

Is this one of those awards gigs where you have to pay to enter?

Ian SaneFebruary 27, 2006

What's the big deal with God of War? I remember hearing all sorts of praise about it when it came out but I couldn't seem to get a straight answer out of anyone about WHY it was so praised. From what I read it seemed like a typical 3D action game in the mold of titles like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. The most exceptional things I heard about it was that it had bare boobs. So is there anything really notable or unique about it or is just one of those games that does what's been done before, only really well? I don't have a PS2 so I'm in the dark here.

TheYoungerPlumberMichael Cole, Associate EditorFebruary 27, 2006

People going to GDC voted for the nominees. Clearly some people got their buddies to vote.

Infernal MonkeyFebruary 27, 2006

God of War's a very generic, yet fairly enjoyable game. Boss battles are an absolute joke, though. In order to make them look stylish, you have to play DDR with the dpad.

Quote
Best Game

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Katsuya Eguchi, Hisashi Nogami, Takashi Tezuka, Kazumi Totaka

God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
- David Jaffe, Shannon Studstill

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
- Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda

The Movies (Lionhead Studios / Activision)
- Gary Carr, Peter Molyneux, Mark Webley

None of those deserve to win. =|

PaLaDiNFebruary 27, 2006

God of War is just a good game. Not so different from RE4 actually... it takes what's been done before and does it well.

That said, I preferred RE4.

WuTangTurtleFebruary 27, 2006

to me it felt more like a beat em up/hack n slash, of course with a bit more depth like learning new attacks and all but at the end of the day its still just like a beat em up/hack n slash to me.

KDR_11kFebruary 27, 2006

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo, Alex Rigopulos

None of those deserve to win. =|

Beware of .

miedoFebruary 28, 2006

Seriously, Resident Evil 4 not being nominated for best game makes me lose all credibility in these awards. AIAS had an excuse of Capcom not paying to enter, but this is an honest joke. This isn't even coming from the Nintendo fanboy in me, I'd argue for both versions getting a bit more recognition then Visual Arts.

TrueNerdMarch 01, 2006

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
What's the big deal with God of War? I remember hearing all sorts of praise about it when it came out but I couldn't seem to get a straight answer out of anyone about WHY it was so praised. From what I read it seemed like a typical 3D action game in the mold of titles like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. The most exceptional things I heard about it was that it had bare boobs. So is there anything really notable or unique about it or is just one of those games that does what's been done before, only really well? I don't have a PS2 so I'm in the dark here.

As Leisure Suit Larry proved, boobs are all you need to make a good game.

But yeah, there's nothing really new about the game. It's a combination of Devil May Cry and Prince of Persia, but presented with a Greek mythology spin so it looks like it's new. It's extremely polished and Kratos is an awesome character. And it's pretty. A bit overrated to be sure, but the game is still a good time.

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