Nintendo Had A Huge Night At The DICE Awards

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2017 could basically be summed up as the year of Nintendo. The company made a massive turnaround compared to what was going on with the Wii U from 2012 up until 2017. After introducing the Nintendo Switch to the world and a host of exclusives, the Big N has been cleaning up at the awards shows and DICE was no different.

As reported by Polygon, Nintendo came out a big winner at the DICE Awards, with the Game of the Year award going to none other than Nintendo's own in-house developed Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Wii U and Nintendo Switch. The Wii U version is obviously the lesser of the two, but it doesn't detract from the fact that the massive game was squeezed down to run in portable form while also running big and beautiful in the television mode. However, despite all the magical optimization wizardry that Nintendo's team pulled off to bring Breath of the Wild to life, it didn't detract from the sad but hopeful story that unfolded through the massive and adventure-ridden game, nor did it detract from the breathtaking art-style that was utilized to bring the gorgeous game to life.

 

But, it didn't end there. Nintendo's open-air adventure title also walked away with Adventure Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Design.

Nintendo also walked away with Racine Game of the Year thanks to the re-release of Mario Kart 8 in 2017 for the Nintendo Switch under the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe package. It's kind of a sad indicator that a game that originally came out back in 2014 was considered a better racing game than the likes of Gran Turismo Sport and Forza Motorsport 7, both of which respectively came out on the Xbox One and PS4. There were also titles like Project CARS 2 that also released for multiple systems, but the committee handing out the DICE Awards felt that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the better game of the bunch.

Nintendo didn't end there, though. The company also picked up a Handheld Game of the Year when Metroid: Samus Returns, a remake of the Game Boy version of Metroid 2, was remade and released for the Nintendo 3DS last year.

Of course, there was no way Nintendo was going to win a whole bunch of awards without receiving something for one of the most talked about and best selling games of 2017: Super Mario Odyssey. The multi-world, sandbox, 3D platformer themed around capturing objects, animals, monsters and entities ended up stepping away with the award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design. It's a lesser award compared to what was earned by its long-time brand compatriot in Legend of Zelda, but an award is an award after all.

Even outside of Nintendo's own priority hardware the company still managed to earn awards on other platforms, more specifically earning Mobile Game of the Year for the release of Fire Emblem Heroes, despite the early launch day woes and network hiccups that the game suffered coming out of the gate.

And finally, Nintendo picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award for veteran executive producer and game designer, Genyo Takeda. The DICE Awards proved to be a very worthwhile celebration of Nintendo's stellar 2017.