Why Nintendo games don't win GOTY

[Veknoid_Outcast]

I have to respectfully disagree with your points. Deriding Nintendo sequels as unoriginal and then quoting Skyrim, The Last of Us, and Grand Theft Auto V as examples of innovation doesn't work for me. The leap between Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8, for example, is just as significant as any other. Skyward Sword, which launched in 2011, was a huge departure from the Zelda series.

This entire discussion is moot, anyway, because a game should be judged on its own merits, not on how it changes the prevailing paradigm. A game doesn't need to reinvent the wheel to be great.

Lastly, I think most people on this forum distrust the mainstream video game media, so why are we so obsessed with the consensus pick for "game of the year"? The people who pick these awards are the same unscrupulous hacks we discredit 11 months out of the year. Why, now, do we give them any legitimacy?

In the end, who cares what some guy or gal with a byline thinks about the best game of the year? We should be confident enough in our own beliefs to weather a few opposing opinions.