Tegan Wusthoff ‘26, Photo Editor
With the new year came The Annual Game Awards ( TGA), a highly anticipated award show that brings light to the gaming and game developing community. The live show took place on Dec. 12 and included many game announcements for the near future, as well as many awards for games that came out in the past year.
The most notable game awarded was, of course, The Game of the Year which was won by Astro Bot. The PlayStation exclusive action adventure game released in September earlier this year. When Astro bot won the award, Team Asobi’s Nicolas Doucet said, “I thought about why this game brings people joy and smiles on their faces. It came down to the people every day making the game.” It features a small robot who travels through worlds of different PlayStation games to save lost robots. The game uses the unique features of the DuelSense controller to directly affect gameplay throughout the game. Astro Bot also won the awards of Best Family Game and Best Game Direction.
The Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, and Best Mobile Game, went to Balatro. Balatro is a roguelike deck builder game with a distinct poker theme released in February of 2024. When Balatro won Best Debut Indie game they said,“We want to recognize all nominees tonight, and all indie games that were released this year and flew under the radar.” Balatro was a massive hit, selling more than three million copies about 10 months after release; with its large platform and growing popularity, Balatro definitely deserves the awards it has received.
The awards of Best Art Direction, Best Narative, and Best RPG were given to Metaphor: ReFantazio. Metaphor was released in 2024 and is an RPG set in The UK of Euchronia with a medieval theme. Its unique art style and interesting story captivated players. The game takes you through a great story where the main protagonist tries to lift a curse that was put on the kingdom’s prince. Safe to say the story was very captivating and kept players hooked.
Player’s voice and Best action game went to Black Myth: Wukong, inspired from the Chinese book, Journey to the West. This Soulslike action game shows features similar to titles such as Elden Ring and Dark Souls. The game started development in 2018 and came out in August this year. In the past few months it has reached sales of over two million copies on steam alone.
Best Adaptation went to the show Fallout. Fallout has been a popular game series for years, with nine games and one of which, Fallout 4, received the game of the year award back in 2015. The Fallout show is a post-apocalyptic drama based on the franchise with a new story while still staying true to the original content.
Innovation in accessibility went to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, who was given the award because of the massive amount of platforms it reached upon release. PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox One, Xbox series X, Xbox series S, Nintendo Switch, and Mac. Unlike some games, where performance on different platforms can differ greatly, The Lost Crown tackled this issue where every console should get the same performance and work the same across all platforms.
Best Ongoing Game, and Best Multiplayer Game went to Helldivers II, the sequel that nobody wanted, but everybody needed. Helldivers II is a war simulation where you are trying to rid planets of either giant bug aliens, or robots by completing missions on the planet. The game is completely cooperative as you complete missions and kill bugs/robots, the liberation percentage increases. Players fell in love with this game when it came out as they can make a difference for the better for everyone else.
Winner of the Best Score went to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The second game in a trilogy of remakes from the original game series released in the 90s. The game is reimagining the original story with all new technology and cast, and Square Enix is remaking these games to their best ability to keep it in the greatest image they can.
Best audio design went to Hellblade II, a game set in the ninth century with hints of Norse culture and mythology. The game was entirely made in unreal engine five, the newest of the game engines which allowed for graphics and sound design to be more appealing and better overall, and it shows. The game has received increasingly positive reviews from critics and players alike.
Games for Impact went to the title, Neva, a platforming puzzle game with a beautiful art style and an overall great mechanics, which also included combat and movement confined to a two dimensional space; this makes for a great game. The goal of Neva is to rid the darkness of the world and bring light back. Most definitely fitting for the award with it’s unique style and mechanics.
Best Community Support went to Baldur’s Gate 3, a game released last year that won Game of the Year in 2023. Despite this the community has shown endless support and love for the game. It is genuinely beautiful graphics and overall gameplay really set a stone in the pathway of game development showing new innovative ways of making video games.
Other honorable mentions are, Batman Arkham Shadow for Best VR game, Tekken 8 for Best Fighting Game, Frostpunk 2 for Best Sim, EA Sports FC 25 for Best Sports, and Grand Theft Auto 6 for Most anticipated. Even with some big issues facing the industry, TGA this year has been exceedingly positive, many were still able to enjoy a great year of games and we all cannot wait to see what others make this year.
Lyon Life 