Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Now might be the right time to construct a bigger, stronger mantelpiece in the Miyamoto household, because Nintendo hero Shigeru Miyamoto has just won another damn award. This one comes courtesy of Japanese gaming bible Famitsu, which recently held its own awards ceremony in recognition of its 1,000th issue.

As Miyamoto picked up 2007's MVP gong and subsequently burst into tears on stage, it seems fitting that two of his most ubiquitous Wii creations also did rather well, with Wii Sports (not a pack-in game in Japan, remember) bagging the Best Hit award, and Wii Fit grabbing a trophy of its own for innovation. So congrats, Shiggy -- even if you don't return our daily letters asking to meet up IRL for a chat, some chamomile tea, and a round of Wii Sports tennis (he'd be really good), we still love ya!

It's nice when your peers recognize your work. So, Miyamoto and co. must be beaming with happiness to hear that Super Mario Galaxy got the nod in several categories for the Game Developer's Choice Awards. If our opinion means anything (it doesn't), we liked the game a lot.

Overall, Super Mario Galaxy gets its hat tossed into two categories, although many* might consider them to be the best two categories: Best Game Design and Game of the Year. It's up against some tough competition, however, as undersea romp Bioshock and Portal, which has seemed to help pie's ugly cousin cake propel itself into the stratosphere of popularity, will undoubtedly give Mario a run for his coin (or stars).

Head past the break for all of the nominees.

The entertainment awards competition with the most enjoyable name, the BAFTAs*, have come and gone, leaving Nintendo ordering a new trophy case for Wii Sports. Their flagship title took home six awards, more than any other game. In fact, the only category in which Wii Sports was nominated, but didn't win was Best Game, which went to Bioshock.

The other big winner that Wii fans should be happy about is actually a PS2 game (for now). Clover Studio's brilliant Okami was awarded in the categories of Artistic Achievement and Original Score, both of which are well-deserved. We can gladly concede those categories to Okami over Wii Sports without much controversy.

Check after the break for the full list of nominees and winners!

*British Academy of Film and Television Arts; we didn't know without looking, either.

In case your G-Phoria watch party got too loud for you to actually hear the winners, a GoNintendo reader wrote down all the Nintendo wins and sent them in. We had our G-Phoria Scorecards all ready for the big show, but at the last minute our traditional Adam Sessler-shaped G-Phoria cake fell apart, and we cancelled the gathering out of shame. We still had to pay for the auditorium, but we think we made the right decision.

Here are the winners (good luck on your betting pool!):
Best Sports Game: Wii Sports
Best RPG: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Stride's Longest Lasting Game: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Game Most Deserving of an Uwe Boll Movie: Red Steel

Oh, G4 and their hilarious comedy awards. Zelda's not an RPG!

Nintendo Wii Fanboy is related, in an odd sort of second-cousin once-removed kind of way, to the hyper-popular Engadget, which like totally everyone reads all the time forever. As such, their annual Engadget awards are nothing to sneeze at, and so we look with great pride (we helped, after all) at their selections for 2k6. Let's take a glance at the honors:

• Reader's Choice: Most Innovative Peripheral
• Reader's Choice: Game Console of the Year
• Editor's Choice: Game Console of the Year
• Reader's Choice: Gadget of the Year (!!!)
• Editor's Choice: Gadget of the Year (!!!)

Yeah, that's right. That means the Wii pretty much wins at life. It's quite a series of awards, but which console will take home 2007? It may come down to one showdown: Halo 3 vs. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Which will suck up more of the average gamer's free time? Bring it, Chiefy.

The awards continue to pile up for Nintendo. Both Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Wii Sports have taken awards at the GDC Choice Awards. Twilight Princess nabbed an award for Best Writing, beating out top contenders like Sam & Max, Oblivion, Dreamfall and Bully.

Wii Sports picked up the award for Best Game Design, beating other hopefuls, such as Okami and Viva Pinata. The Best Game award, however, went to Microsoft Game Studios' Gears of War, proving that sometimes, graphics do make a game better.

Short of having Satoru Iwata hurl bricks into the crowd at the Nintendo press conference, it seems that there was very little the Japanese giant could have done to disappoint the myriad E3 attendees, especially the overly critical ones. The Game Critics Awards, an independent group of journalists from 37 different media outlets, have deemed Nintendo's Wii Best of Show, praising its unique controller and "different" approach to gaming.

Nintendo also grabbed the Best Hardware and Best Sports Game gongs, the latter one being awarded for the very energetic Wii Sports collection. Other big winners were Will Wright's Spore, Microsoft's Gears of War, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed. The shockingly innovative PS3 controller was mysteriously overlooked.

With the Wii receiving this sort of vindication, both as a concept and as a console, we hope that critics and gamers alike don't forget that, like any other system, the games are what will make or break it. The Wii was a success at E3 due to games like Super Mario Galaxy. Games like Final Furlong, on the other hand, remind us that the hardware alone, weird controller and all, can't guarantee an enjoyable experience.

[Thanks AssemblyLineHuman!]