Nintendo walked away with a lot of the awards for the best games of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the big game industry show in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago.
Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey won all three of its nominations for the prestigious Game Critics Awards, including best game of the show, best console game, and best action-adventure. Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which co-stars Nintendo characters with Ubisoft’s Rabbids, also won two awards. And Nintendo’s Metroid: Samus Returns also won for best handheld game.
Microsoft’s Xbox One X game console won for best hardware/peripheral. And The Artful Escape from Beethoven & Dinosaur/Annapurna Interactive won best indie title.
The top nominees, with four nominations each, were Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Middle-earth: Shadow of War; Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle; and Bethesda’s Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.
I was one of the judges. Here’s what I thought were the best games of E3. The Game Critics Awards are run by game broadcaster Geoff Keighley, and the nominations are based on the votes of a few dozen journalists.
The only games that were eligible had to be playable at E3, so some aren’t on this list because of this sensible requirement. For instance, Electronic Arts’ A Way Out was not actually shown on site at the show, and Ubisoft did not have a playable version of Beyond Good & Evil 2. Others that were not playable included Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Anthem, The Amazing Spider-Man, and God of War.
Here’s the list of winners:
- Best of Show: Super Mario Odyssey
- Best Original Game: Mario + Rabbids Battle Kingdom
- Best Console Game: Super Mario Odyssey
- Best VR Game: Lone Echo
- Best PC Game: Destiny 2
- Best Handheld Game: Metroid: Samus Returns
- Best Hardware/Peripheral: Xbox One X
- Best Action Game: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
- Best Action/Adventure Game: Super Mario Odyssey
- Best Role-playing Game: Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom
- Best Racing Game: Forza Motorsport 7
- Best Fighting Game: Dragon Ball FighterZ
- Best Sports Game: FIFA 18
- Best Strategy Game: Mario + Rabbids Battle Kingdom
- Best Family Game: Hidden Agenda
- Best Online Multiplayer: Star Wars: Battlefront II
- Best Independent Game: The Artful Escape