We're here at the big award already! Well this being an award ceremony and all, I better get dressed up for the occasion!
I picked It Takes Two for the ultimate award 'cause, well, the co-op was so refreshingly creative and polished that playing through the game brought me and my then-girlfriend closer together and also changed my opinion of co-op gaming as a thing, and I don't feel like you can ask for more than that. And yeah, I was also charmed by its sweet and earnest story. Coming together does seem like something the world (especially my country) needs more of right now.
My preference aligned with that of the critics for the third year in a row (what's up with that?). To judge by the volume of reader's choice awards it also won (see the aforementioned link), it was also the second choice of gamers themselves, perhaps reflecting the impact that critical opinion can have on what games people opt to try!
Anyway, congratulations to Metroid Dread for being this year's winner on VGC! While that might seem like a conventional choice on the surface level, it's actually really not that conventional. Check out the aforementioned link and you'll see that, in fact, the game has won just two other reader's choice awards so far, making it part of a three-way tie for sixth place, and ranks only in fifth among media outlets as well so far. (Fun aside: Returnal got just as many reader's choice awards despite selling fewer copies, perhaps implying a higher customer satisfaction rate. Just had to point that out!) You know what the reader's choice winner for the year was? Resident Evil Village, which didn't even make the GOTY shortlist here despite there being a rather low vote threshold for doing so. These facts establish the VGC community's preferences as quite distinct from those of most hardcore video gamers.
A couple other fun facts about Metroid Dread's victory here:
-VGC is among the only gaming sites to choose a female-centered title for a second consecutive year. This despite its almost exclusively male membership. That's kinda cool!
-This is only the second time that a 2D platforming game has won GOTY on this site.
-This is the first Switch exclusive to win GOTY on VGC despite many other such titles selling much better over the years, indicating that VGC almost uniquely considers Metroid Dread to be among the very best games ever released for the Switch.
I'd also like to take just a moment to highlight some of the outlets that made extremely unorthodox choices with their GOTY awards this year, and namely to highlight their reasoning behind those unusual choices.
The two sites that chose Chicory: A Colorful Tale as their Game of the Year: the Destructoid write-up and the MinnMax commentary.
Here are the overviews from the two sites that gave Kena: Bridge of Spirits their ultimate awards: DualShockers' opinion and the Houston Press write-up.
The one site that gave their ultimate award to Life is Strange: True Colors: KeenGamer's overview.
And here's the one site that chose The Arful Escape: the L.A. Times' opinion.
The L.A. Times' top 10 list was favorite one to read so far. They chose:
1) The Artful Escape
2) Psychonauts 2
3) Sable
4) Chicory: A Colorful Tale
5) Unpacking
6) Last Call
7) Overboard
8) Genesis Noir
9) Halo Infinite
10) Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
That's the most refreshingly original list I've read to date! Not sure I agree with just all the logic there myself, but it was fun just to see some less conventional, really creative choices. Unpacking, Last Call, and Overboard are now my next must-buys as a result! My own top ten for 2021 (so far) are...
1) It Takes Two
2) Returnal
3) Chicory: A Colorful Tale
4) Solar Ash
5) The Artful Escape
6) Psychonauts 2
7) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
8) Deathloop
9) Metroid Dread
10) The Medium
