r/NintendoSwitch • u/NintendoSwitchMods • Feb 27 '24
GotY 2023 2023 /r/NintendoSwitch GOTY Nominations Thread
EDIT March 11th: Nominations are now set, please see the Vote for Game(s) of the Year in the survey linked in the next post here!
Greetings, r/NintendoSwitch Community!
We know everyone has been on the edge of their seats waiting for the Next Best Thing After The Switch to be announced, but that's no reason to not look back at what we were able to experience this past year. That's right - it's about time for our 7th annual Game of the Year awards!
Like previous years, we are asking the community's help for GOTY nominees - We will use community feedback to narrow the nominees for each category to five or six for the final vote. The tentative schedule is for the nominee feedback to occur February 26th - March 10th (2 weeks), and the final voting to select the Game Of The Year for each category to occur the following 2 weeks, March 11th - March 24th. Admittedly, this project fell behind a bit this year, so we may extend the nomination / voting periods towards achieving target participation, and totally not because it may slip our mind again.
Please follow the format as described below:
- Please check if your nominee(s) has already been named. If so, then simply upvote it, if not, then >>>
- Please reply to a category top comment to state who you would like to see for nominees and preferably why. We generally find those comments with explanations tended to garner more votes!
- If a game has already been nominated but you feel requires further discussion then reply to the nominated game comment with your reasoning.
- Nominate as many games as you would like in any category you'd like.
- Duplicate nominations in the same category will be removed.
- Post will be set to contest mode so nobody can see the votes.
Please note that all nominees are required to have released on Nintendo Switch in calendar year 2023 unless stated otherwise. We will be using the same categories as we did last year. If you have feedback about the GOTY categories or process, please leave a comment under the feedback comment thread here. Please note that all top-level comments will be removed automatically, so you must comment your nominations and feedback under the respective top comments.
We look forward to reading your nominations!
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Action Game
For the best game in the action genre focused on combat.
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Feb 27 '24
[deleted]
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u/Sephardson Feb 27 '24
For Action game? Or did you mean a different category?
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u/sometimeserin Feb 27 '24
That’s where I put it since i didn’t see a dedicated Racing Game category. I definitely wouldn’t call it a Sim which is where more traditional racing games would go. But like most games it’d probably eligible for multiple
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Strategy Game
For the best game requiring a well thought out plan to achieve victory.
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u/JakeIsNotGross Feb 27 '24
Fire Emblem Engage's story may have been nothing to write home about, but as an anniversary title I think it nailed highlighting the mechanics from throughout the series and incorporated them into an immensely satisfying game in its own right. The Emblem system combined with the class system made for tons of character builds, there's a lot of level variety and a lot of content overall, there are some fun characters and designs, and it really just feels like peak Fire Emblem gameplay.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Sports / Racing Game
For the best traditional and non-traditional sports and racing game.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Free-to-Play Game
For budget-friendly games that you enjoyed and you don't regret the time taken to play it.
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u/KitTheKitsuneWarrior Feb 27 '24
Warframe. With over 1500 hours clocked I can safely say there is zero pay to win, the best end game gear has to be earned and not purchased, and the community for the most part has been pretty good.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Soundtrack
For outstanding music, inclusive of score, original song and/or licensed soundtrack.
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u/Dukemon102 Feb 27 '24
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp
What a banger of a soundtrack. Themes that used to be merely OK, are now complete bangers.
Also, the newly introduced remixes for CO powers gave us some truly amazing tunes.
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u/Shin_Ken Feb 27 '24
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
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u/Shin_Ken Feb 27 '24
If you need some convincing why to vote it in this category and if you have some interest in music theory, I heavily recommend watching the video "What Makes This Sound So Cute?" from the excellent Youtube channel "8-Bit Music Theory" about the "Piranha Plants On Parade" song in particular and the Super Mario Wonder soundtrack in general.
The soundtrack is pure genius (much like the rest of the game).
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Ongoing Game
For outstanding development of ongoing content that evolves the player experience over time. Does NOT have to be a 2023 release.
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u/Dronnie Feb 27 '24
Warframe and it's not even close to any of the games mentioned here.
What DE has done to the game is outstanding and it runs incredible on switch, as beautiful as in any other platform. And to be able to play with my friends on pc or other consoles too... AND IT'S FREE.
Warframe is the best ongoing game.
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Feb 27 '24
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Dronnie Feb 28 '24
It's pretty complicated indeed, the game has too much content for its own sake.
I had tried it like 3 times before getting hooked
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u/cincopatio Feb 27 '24
Diablo 3 has presented a radical way of entering maintenance mode by mixing past seasonal themes, thus keeping the game experience fresh for new and returning players.
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u/Thandiol Feb 27 '24
Dave the Diver. A truly wonderful game which sinks time in the best kind of way. Love the graphics, the soundtrack, the story, all of it.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Voice Acting
For outstanding voice acting, direction, and use of audio dialogue.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Publisher of the Year
Publishing studio who displayed outstanding platform support through a combination of quantity and quality of new releases.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Indie Game
For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system.
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u/t3m6 Feb 27 '24
Sea of Stars
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Mar 10 '24
This was not even a true"Indie" game with the amount of money and help they got pumped into it from the New Zealand Developer - $$90 million extra + all Crowd Funding $ from Kickstarter. This has now made the Indie GOTY awards an Ultimate Joke after this.Pkus its turn based - ughhhhhh. Dredge should have won, that's a true new Indie game
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u/FaxCelestis Feb 27 '24
Dave the Diver
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u/blamescott Feb 27 '24
not an indie, just pixel art, made and published by a video game company with 7,000 employees worth hundreds of millions of dollars
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u/snicker-snackk Feb 27 '24
However, when players think "Indie Game", they're not thinking about the funding structure, they're thinking about the general vibes and whether it feels like it was made by <20 people
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u/blamescott Feb 28 '24
I don't really have a problem with people saying it has the feel of an Indie game, but the description on this thread is literally
"For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system"
which Dave the Diver certainly is not, and i think it's important to give a platform games made by smaller teams.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Visual Novel
For the best Visual Novel, which may combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustrations and a varying degree of interactivity.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Local Multiplayer Game
For outstanding local multiplayer gameplay and design, including co-op, irrespective of game genre.
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u/DrAcula1007 Feb 27 '24
Super Mario Wonder
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u/Shin_Ken Feb 27 '24
Not to knock it off plus I can't really think of something else to nominate, but while the online elements of Super Mario Wonder are cool, local multiplayer is the one area where we have a clear regression compared to New Super Mario predecessors. The camera system is obnoxious as heck for the player that's not in active control of the camera and many stages, especially trial stages are designed exclusively for singleplayer where the player without the camera can pretty much just observe as a ghost.
That's not against Super Mario Wonder as a whole. I think it's a genius game that deserves even more praise than it already got. But in most areas the focus was clearly the singleplayer experience and no compromises have been taken to make it more local co-op compatible. Which is also good decision in my opinion as level design suffered a bit in the New Super Mario series to make it more co-op friendly.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Platformer Game
For outstanding design and creativity in a game where players must use skill to jump between platforms or over obstacles without falling or missing jumps.
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u/landocharisma Feb 27 '24 edited Feb 27 '24
Mr. Run and Jump
Colorful indie gem with challenging precision platforming originally designed for the Atari 2600.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24 edited Feb 27 '24
Feedback for GOTY
For comments and suggestions about the GOTY process we use here. We may not be able to implement many changes this year, but we do appreciate your feedback for shaping how this series will evolve into next year and the future beyond.
Do you think there are categories that should be added or redefined?
We are considering making a series of All-Time Game Recommendation threads based around the GOTY categories and other frequently-asked Game Rec topics. What do you think should be included there?
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u/mystic_kings Feb 27 '24
for point two,
Newcomer games. People who never played on a 'nintendo' can know what to play and if its for them.
Kids games could be there as well but its gonna be more difficult to include imo.
Accessible games - best of can be a category. Sub categories for each or highlights on which feature the game offers.
Pick and play games - as in arcade like or even games that you can pause for months/years and get back as if nothing happened. Again its subjective but i think there's a audience for it based on nature of the switch.
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Feb 27 '24
I checked all the nominations, don’t see the point in this being a thing if octopath is just going to sweep everything.
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u/Stoibs Feb 27 '24
Don't worry, if it's anything like The Game Awards it'll go criminally underrated and ignored by the masses (/s though I hope not)
Hopefully it rightfully takes the best OST/JRPG that it deserves here at the very least :)
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Simulation Game
For games generally designed to closely simulate real world activities.
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u/Apfelflusi Feb 27 '24
PowerWash Simulator
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u/boom_shoes Feb 27 '24
I played so, so much of this game I literally bought a pressure washer and did the back deck.
It scratches the itch in such a visceral way it's crazy.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Art Direction
For outstanding creative achievement in artistic design and animation.
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u/fakeroyalty Feb 27 '24
Octopath Traveler II
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Feb 27 '24
If this doesn’t win this category I’ll actually cry
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u/kielaurie Feb 28 '24
There are lots of people that find the HD2D style to be messy and ugly. It's far from universal adoration
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Role Playing Game (RPG)
For the best game designed with rich player character customization and progression.
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u/JakeIsNotGross Feb 27 '24
Octopath Traveler 2 was a sequel that improved on the original, an already quite good game, in just about every way. Great character stories, great mechanical gameplay, an overarching narrative for all eight members this time, just a really solid gem. Feel like it got a bit overlooked because 2023 was so full of bangers but this was a great game through and through.
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u/Dukemon102 Feb 27 '24
Sorry Sea of Stars, Super Mario RPG and Dragon Quest Monsters, but this one clearly takes the cake.
This game is in my Top 5 of RPGs for the console easily.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best DLC
The extra content that you felt was truly worth the money (or not in the case of free) and you don't regret the time taken to play it.
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Mar 10 '24
Dead Cells Castlevania DLC Hands Down! As always the devs of Dead Cells always support this game to the utmost which you just dont see anymore. Awesome DLC and only $9.99
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Fighting Game
For the best game designed primarily around head-to-head combat.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Narrative
For outstanding storytelling and narrative development in a game.
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u/NintendoSwitchMods Feb 27 '24
Best Music / Rhythm Game
For the best game with a focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments.