Nintendo had a phenomenal run last year, and 2018 so far is proving even better. Financial numbers for the Japanese company have been nothing less than exceptional, and when it comes to the awards, it has no match either.
Nintendo scored big at one of the gaming’s biggest events – the DICE Awards. It was a big night yesterday for Nintendo, who bagged several awards, including Game of the Year, which went to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
In addition, the same game won in three more categories – Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, and Adventure Game of the Year. After Zelda, another game that won more than two awards was StudioMDHR’s Cuphead. The game won three awards – Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, Outstanding Achievement in Animation and Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.
Other notable winners were: PUBG Corporation’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Ready at Dawn’s Lone Echo/Echo Arena and Guerrilla’s Horizon Zero Dawn. All these games won two awards each.
Other Nintendo games also received accolades. Fire Emblem Heroes was termed as the Mobile Game of the Year, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe won Racing Game of the Year, Metroid: Samus Returns on 3DS was Handheld Game of the Year, while Super Mario Odyssey won for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design. Further, SFB Games’ Snipperclips (publisher Nintendo) won Family Game of the Year and the DICE Sprite Award.
Apart from the games, Nintendo’s veteran executive and designer Genyo Takeda was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for his valuable contribution to the world of gaming. He was the seventh recipient to receive this honor at DICE so far.
Takeda, who retired just last year, is credited for developing Nintendo’s first arcade game – a horse-racing sim called EVR Race. Remember 1983’s global hit Punch-Out! – it was also created by Takeda. His contributions while working as a hardware engineer were even more commendable.
Takeda played a significant role in the designing of the Nintendo 64, and its analog controller. He also revolutionized gaming with the design of the Wii console, notes Polygon. Nintendo, overall, won ten awards as either developer or publisher. And, to collect all these awards, the Kyoto-based game company didn’t send anyone from their development teams to the ceremony.
Interestingly, it was just one man, who came up again and again to collect the trophies, according to Kotaku. This man, Nate Bihldorff, who works as a localization manager for Nintendo of America, became popular as the “Nintendo Guy.” After appearing on the stage a couple of times, when he went up again, he said: “Hi again. Sorry, I’m Nintendo guy for the night.”
The DICE Awards are decided by the members of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), which currently has 33,000 members, according to VentureBeat. The 21st DICE Awards ceremony was hosted by Jessica Chobot of Nerdist News and Greg Miller, cofounder of internet video show and podcast Kinda Funny.
In a statement, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Meggan Scavio, said: “Every year, the DICE Awards brings the global interactive entertainment industry under one roof to recognize and honor the very best in video games – the games that captivated and inspired us, and kept us entertained for hours on end.”
