Published , by Shack Staff
Published , by Shack Staff
The Game Awards listed its nominees earlier this week. Many of the top games of 2024 are set to receive special honors, but there are a few contenders that we noticed were left out of certain categories. The Shacknews staff had some feelings regarding some of this year's snubs and we felt the need to air those out to the readers for this weekend. Check out our choices of who should have been among the nominees for this year's awards.
Enough people have asked, "Okay, if you're so smart, what would you put in the Game of the Year category if not the Elden Ring expansion?" Well, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is honestly one of the most imaginative 2D Zelda games I've ever played and that alone makes it more than deserving to be up for the year's highest honors. I was present for the discourse the week the game came out, watching as people came up with ingenious answers to the game's puzzles or used the echo mechanic to come up with new ways to have fun.
In an unexpectedly strong year in which the Switch was expected to have a lame duck period leading up to its new hardware, Echoes of Wisdom was Nintendo's finest work and deserves higher honors.
I'll be the first to admit, there's plenty of times where I'm not down with whatever FlyQuest's Victor "Punk" Woodley is ranting about. He's a fiery dude and has made more than his fair share of detractors over the years being so abrasively confident. That said, here's the thing you will never take away from him: Punk is damn good at fighting games, one of the best in the world, and he put it all on the table at EVO 2024. To not even recognize that at the Game Awards feels egregious and silly.
Coming into EVO 2024, believe it or not, Punk had somewhat of a reputation of falling short of the championships at the finish line. This guy is a near permanent fixture of Top 8 contendership, but he had yet to capture the big one at EVO up to this point. At EVO 2024, it kind of looked like that would be the case again. He played through Winners side of the Top 6, beating the likes of Tokido, Nemo, and Momochi on the way there, and even put down the person that would be his final opponent, top Ken player Adel "Big Bird" Anouche of Red Bull eSports. However, Big Bird would not go down easy. He found incredible momentum and pushed through losers side to get the rematch against Punk.
Their set was the stuff of legends. Big Bird aced Punk in the first set, going 3-0 against Punk and winning a reset for the Grand Finals Championship of Street Fighter 6. The second set looked like Big Bird might take it all and Punk would have another story of coming this far only to fall short. But at 2-2, down to the final seconds, down to the final bits of life, these two took each other to the brink. Who knows what Punk found in himself that day, but he came back from that 3-0 reset to take the tightest of victories in a 3-2 final against Big Bird. And that was after beating pools of over 5,700 participants in 13 games. He only dropped the bracket reset against Big Bird.
There's no reason Punk isn't in this conversation after a performance like that. When he hoisted the trophy at EVO 2024, he became only the second American to ever win a mainline Street Fighter title at the event in around 22 years (the first being Jason "AfroCole" Cole, who won Street Fighter 2 Turbo in 2002). Like him or hate him, it might go down as one of the best fighting game tournament runs of all time. If Geoff Keighley won't give air to such an incredible accomplishment, I will.
the man with the briefcase on Cortex
F-Zero 99 was snubbed at The Game Awards 2023, so it comes as no surprise that it has once again been overlooked by the jury. The game didn't receive a nomination for Best Racing Game at last year's event, and this year has been passed over in the Ongoing Game category. F-Zero 99 has had a steady stream of free high quality updates that have injected excitement into the fanbase each time. No dumb gimmicks like a Rap God machine gun, just genuinely fun new tracks to try out and even emotes!
F-Zero 99 is the best live service game that Nintendo has ever shipped, and it continues to be ignored by the broader games media. The Shacknews Awards 2024 are another story...
Look, I rarely side with Electronic Arts, but I'm not sure how you arrive at a place where College Football 25 doesn't get a nomination for Best Sports/Racing game. This thing has sold bonkers copies, even by EA Sports standards, and by all accounts is actually one of the few times EA has delivered an inspired sports game. Geoff, you need to knock this crap off and give EA its flowers so that Mr. Wilson is encouraged to actually invest in their sports titles. This isn't just about football. Do it for us hockey fans!
Geoffy boy literally showed the release trailer for The Finals in last year's Game Awards show, a show it received no nominations in. Due to its release window, it couldn't make it last year, which meant it was eligible this year. And yet, here we are, with no recognition for a game that should be much more popular than it currently is. It blows my mind that people don't flock to The Finals.
It's not often that EA Sports makes a good American Football game. Against all odds, they managed to revive the NCAA franchise (now known as College Football) as a refreshing fun spin on the modern football sim formula. It's emphasis on the college game day atmosphere and pageantry is a refreshing antidote to Madden's stuffy and bleak presentation. Dynasty Mode is deeply fun and will go down as one of my most played game modes of the year. Yet, this game was not good enough to beat out, checks notes, NBA 2K25. Got it.
What is the biggest snub at The Game Awards this year? It's Stevetendo not getting nominated as content creator of the year. In all seriousness, there are plenty of games and companies that can feel they were left out in the cold in terms of Game Awards nominations. Most of the games I really enjoy don't get the love they deserve, and that's why I'm going with Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore not getting a nomination for Best Indie Game of the Year. I feel like I'm the only one who talks about Arzette but the game did something great. It took a formula of terrible Nintendo/Philips CD-I games and made them fun.
The developers at Seedy Eye Software knew the source material and ran with it, with animated cutscenes and a cool art style. Indie games usually are remembered for something incredible like gameplay, graphics, or music. Arzette does all that and more and should be at least nominated for Best Indie Game of the Year! I played the game for the first time at PAX East and loved it. I believe I asked the devs why they tried to create a playable CD-I game and their answer was that no one really tried it and that they could.
Those were the big snubs from The Game Awards that caught our eye. What do you feel was overlooked? We welcome you to join the conversation in the comments below or jump over to the Official Shacknews Community Discord.