The GNamer Forum Annual Awards 2017

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (six points)



Metacritic page

TV Tropes page (is Mario Kart

"Only Nintendo could take the best Mario Kart and make it better."

"The best Kart game ever made is better than ever on the Switch, essential."

"After disliking 7 and not getting super into 8 I wasn't super pumped for this, but I picked it up and it finally just clicked. Good stuff"

Super Mario Odyssey (fifteen points)



Metacritic page

TV Tropes page

"A perfect game, mechanics that feel so good and a "just one more" feeling to moon collecting that made this a true highlight."

"It's a Mario game with a talking cap and oh my days the transition from 3d to 2d is my favourite thing."

"We got this AND Zelda in the same year. Nintendo's playfulness in its top form with secrets squirrelled away in every nook and cranny."

"Managed to recapture the joy of the greats like SM64 and the Galaxy games but also add something completely new making it more open."

"I'm still going through this, but, after 30 years of the Marios, it keeps surprising me. How dey do dat?"

The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (eighteen points)



Metacritic page

TV Tropes page

"What more is there to say about this one really? It's Openworld perfection."

"Best game this year by a long shot, thoroughly immersive world teeming with stuff to do. Gorgeous environments. Shield surfing. Octo balloons. Utterly incredible."

"As perfect as a game can get, such a joy to play and I'm genuinely upset I won't ever be able to play it for the first time again."

"The new pinnacle of open world gaming. An adventure over every hilltop. I'll reserve more words for this for other votes, but it's unreal to think the Switch launched with arguably the greatest Nintendo game of all time."

"Because of all of the reasons why. Come on now."

With five points

SteamWorld Dig 2: "Beautiful, colourful, expertly designed little adventure. Lots of options to play through it in the way you want and lovely from beginning to end."

With three points

1) Monster Hunter XX: "Sure, it took far too long to get to the new stuff but once I'd reached it, it was that same ol' Monster Hunter fun that gripped me with MHGen originally... but now in HD!"
"Monster Hunter ensured it stayed in my most played list by simply adding a little bit more content. I can forgive the language because you're just so good."

2) Spla2n: "I love splatoon, it's fresh."

3) Xenoblade Chronicles 2: "This has got my claws into me in the time between 2017 and the awards, and it's exactly what fans of XC1 would have hoped for. MonolithSoft should get some credit for improving some of the few things that were wrong with the original, without going full stupid like they did with XCX. Apart from the female character design, that's still mixed. XC1 was one of our favourite games on Wii, and this deserves to continue the trend."

With two points

1) L.A. Noire: "It's just so big! The vaunted facial expression thing is a bit janky, maybe, and the interrogation system is a bit off... but otherwise utterly excellent."

With one point

1) Fire Emblem Warriors

2) Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle: "I would say a nice surprise but I always had high hopes for this one, the Rabbids blended perfectly in to the Mushroom Kingdom and the gameplay was incredibly fine tuned."

3) Snipperclips - Cut It Out, Together!: "Cute puzzle game that's big on the laughs no matter who its played with. I'm sure Odyssey would've trumped this, but I still haven't got a copy of that yet "

4) Severed: "Nobody voted for this in the Wii U votes, and I'm reckoning nobody will vote for it here either. Yet if you want a pint-sized adventure, chock-full of atmosphere, with a great new battle system, that'll make you believe this hybrid can be a handheld too, you'd be well advised to get this in your Switch sooner rather than later."

5) Thimbleweed Park: "You can tell it's a classy adventure game - you feel bad for solving the puzzles, as it means having to stop interacting with characters."

A launch game from a previous console, the best game on the Switch?! Pffft... amateurs. And by 'amateurs', I mean 'people doing it for the love of the sport', as clearly Breath Of The Wild has earned its spot as one of the best games there is. Pleased to see a really good mix of titles in there, with thirteen different games getting votes from our Council Of Twelve.

=1-2-Switch (three points)



Metacritic page

TV Tropes page

"It can be fun with mates, sure. But when the Switch has MK8D, Rocket League, Snipperclips, Overcooked, the Jackbox games, Fast Racing Neo, and stuffing the Joy-Cons into bodily orifices, there are so many better ways to have fun with mates and the Switch that this, from Nintendo themselves at full price, has to be considered a disappointment, if not necessarily outright bad."

=Monster Hunter XX (three points)



No Metacritic page

TV Tropes page (is Monster Hunter series page)

"Terrible game for nerds. It's just the same boss fight over and over, and the monsters are all animated, well-designed, living things instead of bin bags, ice creams and bundles of numbers for convenient battling."

=Prey (three points)



Metacritic page

TV Tropes page

"Awful, difficulty all over the place, barely playable on the easiest difficulty and it made the game a chore. Pass"

=Rime on Switch (three points)



Metacritic page

TV Tropes page

"Can I vote for the Switch version of Rime specifically? The game looks awesome, and I can't wait to play it... but on the PS4, as the frame rate is acceptable."

=Vaccine (three points)



Metacritic page

No TV Tropes page

no comment provided

Monster Hunter Stories (four points)



Metacritic page

TV Tropes page (is again Monster Hunter series page)

"Very disappointing, an RPG spin off to one of my favourite franchises sounded great, the demo seemed good too, problem is the demo was kind of more than enough."

"Urgh, who played Pokémon and thought "this should be fully 3D, and have a slightly more exciting and dangerous story, and the humans should have actual usefulness and take part in the battles, and the monsters should actually feel like part of the world" . . . rubbish!"

Picross S (six points)



Metacritic page

TV Tropes page (is Picross series page)

"An insult to long-term picross fans, an irrelevance to everyone else."

"Came to the Switch with fewer features and less excitement than the 3DS Picross e series. Poor show."

A Majestic Two Point Salvo For

1) Rugby '18

2) Thumper: "Do you like being kicked in the testicles repeatedly while experiencing a bad acid trip? Well, we have just the game for you! Incidentally I'm kinkshaming you to Rhythm Hell and back."

A Measly One Point Apiece For

1) The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

2) Dragon Quest 8: The Journey Of The Cursed King: "After thoroughly enjoying 7 I couldn't wait to get into "the good one", I found it to be the weakest Dragon Quest game I've played (including the spin offs). I didn't like the characters, I felt like I was just being pushed down a corridor and I was just bored."

3) Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite: "They had a perfect game, then they added a Monster Hunter and ruined it."

4) Thimbleweed Park: "I didn't think about how slow this would be to play without pointer controls. I might switch (YES! Nailed it) to the touch screen, which I hope will revise my thoughts on the thing."

Sad and bad games given the shoeings they deserve in most cases. The winner deserves to win - or the loser deserves to lose, maybe - and I'm delighted to announce that the next result will see us move on to happier times.