Bookend Game Awards: Best Independent Game

So, I bitched about how I don’t see the need to split best indie and best Debut Indie before, this is basically the same list for both for me, so probably no surprises here... I’ve copy and passed a lot for this one.

My Nominations:

• Cuphead - It took them long enough to make, but it’s a damn fun little game that looks amazing.
• Hollow Knight – A fantastic metroidvania, with great art, sound, lore and gameplay. What’s not to like? It already got the last award. Will it get another?
• Hyper Light Drifter – A beautiful looking action game with fun, challenging combat and exploration, though it took a little while to click with me.
• Slime Rancher – I never knew how much I wanted to farm Slimes with cat ears until I bought this game.
• Sunless Sea – It might have niche appeal, but this Lovecraftian London is one hell of a trip.

And the Winner is:

                Hollow Knight

What a shock... I suppose it was up against another Bookend Award Winner in Sunless Sea and the decision was quite close actually, but I think Hollow Knight is the better package.

Next up, join me for Best Ongoing Game!

Bookend Game Awards: Best Family Game

Yea, this is an award that I don’t totally understand, I suppose it’s supposed to be game with no objectionable content that people of any age could play? But also not too hard? So just kinda accessible? Whatever, these are my nominations:

• Banjo-Kazooie - A classic for a reason, I barely need to make any excuses for this game like I do for most of the rest of this first iteration of 3D platformers that came out in the 90s.
• Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – Another absolute classic for good reason, and the last zeelda game outside of handhelds to work in this format but a damn good time. Possibly a bit hard for a “Family Game” though, but who cares.
• Puppeteer – Super interesting style, framing the game as a play with puppets. Gameplay is simple but quite fun and while super wierd, is one hell of a game to see in motion.
• Slime Rancher – Just the most inoffensive fun imaginable. Wander the world finding new slimes and faming them for plorts. The tar can be a little creepy though...
• Spyro the Dragon – Not my favourite Spyro, but probably the best made and most consistent gameplay wise. Spyro’s first adventure has aged very well in my opinion, and is always a good time for the whole family.

And the winner is:

Banjo-Kazooie

It was tough choosing between this and Spyro 1, but In the end I decided as I play at least one of the Spyro games every year, I can’t even pretend to be objective towards them, so thought I better give it to the one I played for the first time. Maybe you already have to be somewhat used to the world of 3D platformers, but as they were developing this with no prior 3D platformers to draw inspiration from, I think it overall plays amazingly well and was a super fun time. I can only imagine how good it must have been playing this when it was new.

Up next we have Best Role Playing Game!

Bookend Game Awards: Best Debut Indie Game

Yea, I’ll be honest; I don’t really get this award. It does eliminate a few people from the running, but I don’t see why a game should get any more or less props just because the company hasn’t made a game before. It might make the devs achievements more impressive, but the game is just as good either way. Eh, I guess I just give zero fucks about the devs for the most part, so the distinction doesn’t matter to me.

Spoiler, expect my best Indie Game list to look veeery similar.

My Nominations:

• Cuphead - It took them long enough to make, but it’s a damn fun little game that looks amazing.
• Hollow Knight – A fantastic metroidvania, with great art, sound, lore and gameplay. What’s not to like?
• Hyper Light Drifter – A beautiful looking action game with fun, challenging combat and exploration, though it took a little while to click with me, when it did I had a blast.
• Lone Survivor – Jasper Byrne's side scrolling exploration of the nameless protagonist’s mental health as he tries to survive after some silent hill style apocalypse is a strong first game by anybodies standards.
• Slime Rancher – I never knew how much I wanted to farm Slime with cat ears until I bought this game.

And the Winner is:

                Hollow Knight

What can I say, all of the games in this category were great and could have easily won, but for me Hollow Knight just has the whole package, it’s not perfect,  but once it got it’s nail stuck into me I couldn’t put it down until I had completed every last part.

Next up, join me for Best Multiplayer Game!