The GNamer Forum Annual Awards 2014! (Thanks for Playing!)

3D OutRun: "...quite possibly the best 3D remake of a 2D game I’ve ever played. It’s ace, and I’ll certainly buy it again once it reaches Europe (hopefully this month!)"

Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dark Sky: "...just got edged out of my other formats game of the year, but that game’s ability to make the mundane fun is to be commended."

Balladeer ( ): "Were the forum left to Stu_the_great since June of last year, the place would likely be in tatters were it not for the tireless efforts (and disturbing post-count) of Balla. Props to the guy for keeping things running so seamlessly, and appointing a sterling new Admin."

Bayonetta 1: "Most I think would of picked up this alongside number 2 and might have been there first play of it and it’s a great game but I don’t want to take away from some great new games on the Wii U, so doesn’t go in my top 3..."

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair: "...which I feel perfectly comfortable giving an honourable mention based solely on the quality of its predecessor."  (To clarify: said poster hadn't actually played DR2 to completion at time of voting - Ed.)

Etrian Odyssey: the Millennium Girl: "I’ve heard very good things about this, yet I haven’t played it. Will fix that this year."

Inazuma Eleven GO: Light: "Enough gameplay changes to mean that original trilogy veterans needed to rethink their approach. Liked that."

Indies and downloadables in general: "All the great indie and downloadable titles, across the entire platform’s this year."

Mario Golf World Tour: "Actually loved this one, despite the forum's general down-ness on it."

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Most things: "Most things I've played this year. I can't remember anything turly disappointing off the top of my head so it must've been a pretty decent year."

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: "Layton Vs AA turning out to be quite the crossover certainly proved me wrong, especially as I was quick to poo-poo it in its own thread. Maybe I ought to eat my (top) hat."

The Walking Dead: Season Two

Thomas was Alone: "...no dount great, but I haven't got round to playing [it] yet."

ZeroJones: "Couldn't ask for a finer authority figure around the place. Always constructive, and always a proper gentleman. Keep up the good work, dood!"

Child of Light:
"Aesthetically none better this year."
"Put the people in charge of this behind UbiSoft's wheel immediately!  From the music to the art style to the dialogue (YMMV), simply if self-consciously charming."

NES Remix 2:
"A lot of the better games, and some novel ideas. Now if someone could tell me how the fuck Wario's Woods actually works..."
"The new best way to play NES games, and just about saved Wii U’s very, very empty Easter."

Shovel Knight:
"...no dount great, but I haven't got round to playing [it] yet."
"Out by a hair."

Mario Kart 8:
"...would have been 4th as it’s a great game but doesn’t add anything new to series."
(Specifically about the soundtrack:) "...quite the surprise. Even without the big band live performances it’d still have been stellar: so many memorable and distinctive tunes, and the way the music intertwines with what’s happening on screen is the icing on the cake, as it were."

Nintendo's "E3":
"Nintendo could have blown us all away with Zelda U alone.  Instead, they piled on top a new Wii U IP, a Star Fox teaser, and hours upon hours of actual non-bullshotted gameplay via their Treehouse streams.  Showing the amateurs (and, erm, themselves in previous years) how it's done."
"Nintendo’s Digital Event was genuinely inspired, far better than last year’s po-faced E3 Direct. Nintendo putting all their weight behind Wii U was also a great moment to witness, and 2015 should be a vintage year for software releases."
"Worked better than I ever dared hope."

Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails:
"Not smooth, definitely not smooth... but fun, and there's nothing else like it out there."
"The closest thing the Wii U eShop has in a must-have exclusive."

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze:
"Like Donkey Kong Country Returns, but fixing the horrendous "shake to roll" flaw of the original. Original reboot that it."
"Probably the best ‘straight’ Donkey Kong platformer I’ve ever played. The soundtrack deserves an hounourable mention on it’s own."

(And specifically about said soundtrack:)
"Dat soundtrack."
"I presume, given how little I've heard about it from other sources, that ill will from the spectacularly misjudged reveal still lingers.  It's the only possible reason.  The best soundtrack since Mario Galaxy, mixing epic LotR-like pieces with the Lion King-like joys of Grassland Groove, or the folksy charms of Windmill Hills.  Word to the Wise: if you don't have the game, go listen to it on Youtube."

Costume Quest 2: "Cute and thus charming, but repetitive and oddly flawed."

Mario Golf World Tour: "Despite being in my 3DS top 3, Mario Golf: World Tour wasn’t as good as it could have been. Its problems revolve around how it’s structured, with the “Mushroom Kingdom” courses separated from Castle Club. This makes the single player feel awkwardly light on content despite the excellent Star Coin challenges being present, and online tournaments for Mushroom Kingdom courses don’t count towards your World Tour standing. A shame."

Nintendo of Europe/America: "Staying shtum about New 3DS was a joke, and still is a joke, even when the Ambassador Edition is in people’s hands. Pretending the thing doesn’t exist is doing no one favours at the moment."

Nintendo Pocketo Football Crub (as I call it): "You never had enough genuine influence over the time. Gradually the desire to play ebbed away to nothing."

Picross e5: "Such effort!"

Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (and presumably Omega Ruby): "...being quite possibly the easiest Pokemon adventure up to the Elite Four ever. Not the most satisfying game to conquer, then."

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: "Instead of a heady mix of Wright and Layton, we got Wright and Maya chucked into Layton's world.  That means Layton's suspension-of-disbelief-suspending plots, Layton's characterless secondary cast, and Layton's irritating sidekick.  The fact that the initial introductory Wright-only trial was the best part of the game says bundles.  But it's not a bad game, just immensely disappointing.  Come at it expecting "Professor Layton with a Bit of Phoenix Wright Shoved In", and... well, it's still got nothing on Layton 6."

Senran Kagura Burst: "I seen this in a few shops, sitting on shelves alongside the likes of Mario Kart 7 and Sonic Generations. Judging a book by a cover here; Rolf Harris-ey stuff like this surely has no place in gaming as a whole, let alone in Games Centre and HMV. Who are the freaks that buy this stuff?"

“SILLLLLVER MEDAL!”: "You’ll know what this is if you played it…"  (I then had to type up these awards, complete with their silver medals, with this playing in my head every time. - Disgruntled Ed.)

Sony's E3: "Had some good stuff in it but it was dragged down with meaningless timewasting content.... Powers TV, letters from "fans", how many times the share button had been pressed... Yawn."

Stu_the_great: "For being a skiving dickbag. Or, indeed, willy-head."

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark: "just awful"

Vidofnir: "I kind of rushed this whole voting thing, sorry about that."

Wii Sports Club's Boxing: "It just doesn’t work, is all. Unfortunately it’s a step back from the 2006 original."

Sonic Boom:
"And I'm not a Sonic fan. But even he deserves better than this."
(Rise of Lyric specifically:) "Why has Sonic been transported into this completely different, utterly bollocks horse’s arse of a game? This lives up to it’s very, very dishonourable hype."

The 3DS' 2014:
"It was always going to be hard to follow 2013, but there's a feeling that 2014 didn't even try."
"Wouldn't actually rate any above others, A pretty bland year for me."

UbiSoft:
"...and the worrying trend in AAA gaming of just plain unfinished games getting turfed out in order to maximise profit at the cost of consumer satisfaction. Thank fuck for Nintendo in this day and age."
"In the words of Jim Sterling, "And then UbiSoft UbiSofted."  And they did.  They UbiSofted everywhere, leaving a sticky mess all over the industry."

Yoshi's New Island"
"Mechanically sound, but badly lacks the spirit of many of its peers, such as Pandemonium, Kid Chameleon and the original Gex."
"WHY WOULD YOU I MEAN COME ON STOP"

Bravely Default:
"...may not count by half a month but it gets mine solely because of how poorly it stands up in hindsight because of its atrocious design of an end-game."
"Yeah yeah, it was released before the end of 2013, but we were all playing it in 2014 anyway: Bravely Default’s second half certainly could have been handled in a better way."
(You both recognised that you were cheating, and mentioned it anyway!  Truly, the most dishonourable of dishonourable mentions - Ed.)

These are always good fun to read through, especially the dishonourables.  The honourables, meanwhile, highlighted some of the downloadables that might have been pushed out of other votes by bigger games.  I'm also very happy to see DKCTF finally get its due, albeit in the least prestigious award of the ceremony.  

And thanks for the honourable mention, kind sir!

=beemoh (two votes)



"Its just pure wit isn't it?"

"Who else?"

=The Cappuccino Kid (two votes)



"Funny guy, shame his name can't be spelt."

"Phillips has a knack for saying things as they are, and sometimes saying them in amusing ways. Love it."

Jimbob (three votes)



"He rarely has a post that doesn't make me laugh"

"Just for this:

Spoiler:

"Voting for this man for the second year in a row.  Look at his predictions in the new prediction thread if you don't understand why."

Drunkalilly (five votes)



"...just, for being deliberately funny, above being accidentally funny."

"His drunken posts have already become the stuff of legendary myth. The sober posts aren't too bad, either."

"how can it not be"

"Often unintentional (tenderloin, anyone?) but still the guy who's made me laugh the most this year here."

"That guy makes me laugh, what else is there for funniest forumite to do?"

I was surprised that Drunka didn't come higher up the humour ballot last year: I guess that beemoh just distorted the votes by that much.  Anyway, in the absence of the Grand Old Man of GNamer humour (who still managed to clock up two votes despite his absence), Drunka stormed the table, getting his five votes early while the others fought it out below him.

Chuffed to see Jimbob making it up to second, too: and congratulations too to Cappa.  He's shown off his straight-talking wit once this thread already!

So we're all going to complete more and post more, and maybe read more, exercise more, and tolerate more.  I can get behind all of that!  Apart from the exercising, natch.

=masofdas (two votes)



"I always appreciate his posts and they're usually information packed."

"Maintains quite a lot of threads and periodically comes up with new things to discuss and interesting topics."

=Stu_the_great (two votes)



"For coming to the forum alone. Hurrah!"

"He returned from the Dead! Its a miracle!"

=The Cappuccino Kid (two votes)



"Always has something insightful to say, and he keeps the bargains threads going."

=Drunkalilly (four votes)



"Changed his username for a laugh and provided so many other laughs it's untrue. Host and master of the podcast, Buskadrunka is a fine, upstanding forumite. 10/10."

"I always enjoy Drunka's posts, be they drunk ramblings or sober thoughts. He does a lot for this place in organising the secret santa and the podcast, and that's why he gets my vote here."

"This was a hard one as you all bring something that post regularly but I'm going to give Drunka a moment in the spotlight."

=The_Jaster (four votes)



"Ever present, ever contributing, and undoubtedly one of this forum's best posters. Even in the lull moments here, he's contributing and keeping this place somewhat active."

"Partly for his posts, but mainly for his forum support (here and elsewhere) and his friendship to everyone."

"Quite simply, quantity and quality.  Also: a fine line in humour, and the occasional artsy dabbling."

=ZeroJones (four votes)



"He's stepped up to admin and since I'm sure he's been posting more and some good stuff as well."

"It was no surprise when the chap became admin. He's a pillar of the forum that constantly keeps us entertained and a lovely guy to boot."

"Jumped into the mod role with both feet and has been incredible since. Good lad."

"Zero's always been a fine poster: kind, erudite, with much to say and the knowledge of how to say it.  Ever since he became an admin., he's stepped up his game yet further, including several ace taglines and several ideas of how to improve the forum.  Top man."

Balladeer (five votes)



" squeeeee!"

"As horrible as it is to admit to your face you're alright really   Keeps the forum chugging through thick and thin and always has plenty to contribute."

"I've been trying to write a comment about the Balls man for a few minutes and have come up with nothing to match the scale of his contribution adequately. I blame lack of sleep."

"One must pay one's dues to Mr. Bossman."

"You do a good job of keeping the law and order! Plus a good contribution rate to the majority of threads."

(one vote each)

=Axis1500



"My memory is hazy but I think he was my santa."

=fronkhead



"On a different class from anyone else who posts here. There’s too many people earning a paid living writing about games that are distinctly inferior at it than sporky."

=andyman949



(No comment, just appreciation.)

=JayMoyles



(No comment, just appreciation.)

Wow.

Even the one-vote margin of error doesn't show how close this vote was.  There were four people jostling for position throughout, and the other three were frequently ahead of me.  Going to sleep on the last day of voting, it was a four-way tie for first place; I woke up to find a final vote submitted before midnight that pulled out a decider.

So, thank you all, again! Absolutely chuffed to win this a second time, especially against such competition.  (And I don't do that much law-and-order keeping, really.)  The two three-way ties highlight just how great our forumites are, and how hard it must have been for everyone to choose between them.  An appropriately close result for the final vote of these awards!