The 2006 Game Critics Awards winners have been named, and Nintendo features quite promininently amongst them, grabbing over a quarter of the categories with its hardware and software.
Upcoming home console Wii nabbed Best Hardware/Peripheral, edging out their own DS Lite, the Logitech G25 Racing Wheel, Sony's PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset. Explaining the award is EGM's Dan "Shoe" Hsu: "The Wii — with its funky motion-sensing and sound-emitting controller, always-online awareness, and retro-friendly virtual console — promises new, totally fresh gameplay experiences that will appeal to the young and old, hardcore and casual, and even the "cool kids" who won't mind looking like idiots while frantically waving a piece of plastic in the air."
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo DS got Best Handheld Game. GamePro's Wes Nihei: "Amid stiff and deserving competition from Nintendo's own DS product line this game cast out all the proper hooks with a rich storyline, impressive cel-shaded graphics goodness, and innovative touchscreen gameplay to haul in E3 honors." Hourglass beat out Elite Beat Agents, Killzone: Liberation, LocoRoco, and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
Best Racing Game was awarded to Excite Truck for Wii, which had players steering and sending trucks into the air through the use of a sideways-held Wii Remote. Game Informer's Billy Berghammer explains his attraction: "Excite Truck is all about addictive fast-paced racing, dynamically changing landscapes, turbo boosting, huge air, and colossal crashes — Yosemite Sam mud flaps not included." Excite Truck contended with Formula One 06, Gran Turismo HD, MotoGP 06 and Test Drive Unlimited for this award.
Wii Sports walked off with Best Sports Game, edging out licensed mainstays Madden NFL 07 (both the PS3/360 and Wii versions), NBA 2K7, and NCAA Football 07. 1UP editor in chief Sam Kennedy says, "What could be more natural? It's, like, actually playing sports but without the potential for [serious] bodily injury. Wii is really well suited for simple games, and at E3, this is where Wii was at its best."
Finally, pushing them over the ¼ mark, Nintendo also picked up the Game Critics Awards' Best of Show for Wii. Greg Kasavin, executive editor of GameSpot, details why: "It's a good thing Nintendo got the name change of its next console out of the way before E3. With the shock of that announcement mostly over, the company proceeded to become the talk of the show (and possibly a fire hazard for the LA Convention Center) by inviting audiences to get their hands on an impressive lineup of fun and interesting software for the Wii... not to mention that wild controller. People practically stampeded to try it out — either that or they waited in line for hours. Yet most of them seemingly still came away more excited than ever by Nintendo's weird, inspired vision for how gaming could be different."