Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wind wins "Ultimate Game of the Year award" at 2017 Golden Joystick Awards

The 35th Golden Joystick Awards took place earlier today. Zelda: Breath of the Wild was a big winner, as it earned the “Ultimate Game of the Year award”.

These are the full lineup of winners for those who are interested:

Best Storytelling – Horizon Zero Dawn

Best Visual Design – Cuphead

Best Audio – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Best Gaming Performance sponsored by The Sun – Ashly Burch (Horizon Zero Dawn)

Best Indie Game in collaboration with Square Enix Collective – Friday the 13th: The Game

Best Multiplayer Game sponsored by GT Omega – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Studio of the Year – Nintendo EPD

Best VR Game – Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Esports Play of the Year sponsored by Intel – Agilities

Esports Team of the Year – Lunatic-Hai

Esports Game of the Year sponsored by Omen by HP – Overwatch

Best Streamer / Broadcaster – Markiplier

Handheld / Mobile Game of the Year sponsored by Bespoke Arcades – Pokémon Sun and Moon

Nintendo Game of the Year – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

PlayStation Game of the Year – Horizon Zero Dawn

Xbox Game of the Year – Cuphead

PC Game of the Year – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Critics’ Choice Award – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Breakthrough Award sponsored by Badfly – Ashly Burch

Hall of Fame – Final Fantasy

Most Wanted Award – The Last of Us Part 2

Still Playing Award – World of Tanks

Outstanding Contribution to the UK Games Industry sponsored by The Telegraph – Debbie Bestwick MBE

Lifetime Achievement – Sid Meier

Ultimate Game of the Year – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Best Esport.... Overwatch...

wut.

The best Indie game is Friday the 13th?? Seriously?

Best gaming performance, e-sports player/team, broadcaster/streamer WTF

All these award shows are a joke, thankfully I don't watch them and just shake my head at them instead.

Yeah, some of those winners are a bit lulzy, but whatever. Nobody ever fully agrees with any of these lists.

No surprise on BotW though, we've all seen this coming for most of the year. And it is among the more deserving games this year, so that's cool.

@hrt_rulz01: wow lol yeah seriously what is that, I thought CupHead would win that lol. At least it won in 2 other categories.....Congrats to all the winners and looking forward to playing PC GOTY soon on my X!

@Alucard_Prime:

Yeah I haven't played too many indie games this year, but Cuphead is easily one of the better ones I've played (one of the better games I've played this year in general). Haven't tried Friday the 13th, but from what I've seen it's hard to imagine it stacking up.

Cuphead and Specter of Torment would be my tops for that category, though I slightly prefer Specter even if it is just an expansion.

@ConanTheStoner: Yeah I mean F13th is amusing although I haven't played it too much, but it released with numerous issues and I couldn't play it for nearly a month after release. It's fun but rough around the edges in the gameplay department and is not the first game with that concept, so was a little surprised so see it nab that award. I don't really take this stuff too seriously though to be honest, the awards, but it's nice how they can sometimes get a game some extra attention, not like CupHead needed that though.

I actually haven't played much of Shovel Night, I own it and I plan to play it after CupHead.....hopefully that expansion is out too on XOne(I know it released on Nintendo, not sure other consoles). I always like to keep an Indie game on the side to play, I think that will be next.

@Alucard_Prime:

I hear that man, awards are kinda pointless, but it is always nice to see a great game get some recognition. And I'm sure Cuphead will sweep up some awards from multiple places before the year wraps up.

Shovel Knight is dope man. It's like all the things you could love about 8 and 16 bit action platformers, but minus a lot of the garbage design that came with the times. The main Shovel Knight campaign is great, and Specter of Torment is just as good, if not better. The Plague of Shadows expansion is a bit weak though.

And yeah I'm pretty sure the expansions are available on all platforms, for free. :)

@ConanTheStoner: cool, good to know...I did play a little of Shovel Knight and yeah definitely enjoyed it....looking forward to play some more

Am I the only one who is not blown away by the switch and games like Zelda and Mario? I really liked these types of games when I was younger. However, now that I'm older I do not find them nearly as appealing as they once were. In fact, I am selling my switch. It just isn't for me.

lets just acknowledge this is a bad list and move on

Is this has anything to do with this thread?

I'm not sure why Horizon won storytelling... It's one of my favorite games in a long time, but along with its limited platforming I'd rank its storytelling as one of its weak points. Bad voice acting, mixed animation quality, and pointless dialog wheels (they only have one outcome and you can't turn quests down... I mean, really, what's the point?) communicating a one-note character.

I'm also not blown away by the Switch even though I like handhelds. Zelda deserves to win GOTY though.

That's all these are.

So Mario Odyssey didn't get anything? Lame.

Well, even if there was no merit (and most awards are console focused popular shite), Zelda or Mario would win. They've got pretty much every award across the board won. Only a silly billy would claim otherwise.

the zelda praise begins...

Nice to see multiple awards for AAAE 9.0 Editors Choice Award winning Horizon Zero Dawn

Best story: Horizon:ZD..... well deserved........ One of the reasons I love SP player games is for the story and this game has an amazing one, as well as an amazing game world to play and explore.

And your issue is????

where were the persona 5 and nier automata nominations? both of those games had better stories than horizon.

GOTY isn't sufficient any longer that we're now tacking on the modifier "Ultimate?" And for what purpose beyond sounding like a frilly, pompous asshole?

According to the Zelda staff that attended the Joystick Awards (to pick up the win for Breath of the Wind), voting for the nominations ended a week after Super Mario Odyssey was released. I am unsure whether the game is elgible for this year's awards. If not so, then it would be eligible for next year's Joystick Awards in 2018.

It's really true. I also enjoy Horizon: Zero Dawn and it's my personal favorite PS4 games of 2017.

Shame that P5 and SMO got no mention at all. :(

Note that the Golden Joystick award is funded by Nintendo behind the scenes.

Best performance....sorry, I like Ashly Burch, but Horizon Zero dawn was no Chloe like great performance.

And Burch's breakthrough this year has nothing to do with gaming.

BotW deserves it. Mario couldn't take it although I really enjoyed it. Nothing on other platform comes close to it.

What did you think of Horizon:ZD?

The game certainly deserves it, amazing game.

It's golden joystick awards.

Don't expect any real comparisons. just nod and move on.

Overwatch best Esport apparently , you gotta laugh.

Breath Of The Wild has my vote for GOTY right now. This is one of those games that's left a permanent impression on me. It's unforgettable. Years from now, many of us will still be holding his game in very high regards. It's an essential experience for any console gamer out there that shouldn't be missed. For me, there are only two other console games I have this kind of praise for: Super Metroid and Final Fantasy 7. All three of these games are in a class of their own and are untouchable in my book.

P5 and Nier Automata definitely deserved to win Best Story over Horizon. But it's worth keeping in mind that the Golden Joystick Awards are simply a popularity contest, and Horizon happens to be the more popular game.

Even though I love and have the pc version of Cuphead, its pretty sad that the XB1x with all of its power the game of the yearn for that console is a is a 2d game. LOL

@scatteh316: Looks great, but the gameplay feels very limited after Zelda. Got it on release, stopped playing it when got my Switch and Zelda. Haven't finished it yet.

It gets loads better!!! Started off a little slow for me but then out of no where just got massively better..... Zelda just feels like Zelda to me..... all a bit 'samey' once the open world aspect wore off.

Where as I'd never played a game with environments or creatures like Horizon has before, maybe that's why I'm enjoying it more..... it's a fresh idea.

@scatteh316: Contextually? Because Breath of the Wild is unlike any previous 3D Zelda game from a gameplay perspective. The core game loop is entirely different.

@Epak_: Played HZD after Zelda and realized it was a mistake, should have done it the other way around. Couldn't stop feeling constrained by the gameplay and also that I was constantly being asked to do the same things over and over.

That it was still the Zelda universe and had the Zelda vibe...... Same with Mario I imagine (Only played BoTW not Mario) but it for some people it's still just another Mario game.

I'm at the point now where I'm getting tired of the milked franchises..... not just Nintendo games but there's load of them that just need to die now and make way for some new games and idea's.

@scatteh316: Context is one thing but the appearance of a game world doesn't define the freshness of the gameplay. There are genuinely more fresh ideas in Breath of the Wild than I have played in other contemporary open world games recently (excluding Horizon: Zero Dawn from that comparison as I haven't played it). There are some familiar aspects such as races, characters and items like the master sword but all of these are contained within a gameplay loop that is completely new to the series and houses fresh takes on mechanics and ideas popularized in other open world games.

Granted, though I can only make this assertion with an apology, but I don't actually believe you have played Breath of the Wild... :/

Though I agree that more IPs would be great all around, that to me only counts if it's not just the same thing we have seen before with a different coat of paint. How new are these new IPs? Or are they the same game with different characters?

I've tried to continue it many times, but it really hasn't grabbed me like Zelda or The Witcher 3 did.

Indeed. Maybe I'll finish it some day, been playing Skyrim on the Switch. Skyrim is mediocre at best, but somehow I've managed to enjoy it in handheld mode, maybe because the experience is more intimate or something lol :D