“Winners of the 2017 Mage Academy Awards!”
3 min read
Thanks for joining us for the 1st Annual Mage Academy Awards! We announced our nominees in an earlier post (found here) and now it’s time to present our winners! I’ve included screenshots of our votes and where they ended up. Sometimes it was pretty evenly split. Sometimes the competition swept the board.
Don’t forget to let us know what game you would’ve picked!
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.:Game of the Year:.
For standing out from the noise, redefining a genre and a classic franchise, and giving players the opportunity to do anything and explore anywhere, our choice for the 2017 Game of the Year is…
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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.:Best Developer:.
For providing a host of quality exclusives, critically acclaimed titles, reinventions of classics, and new ways to play and have fun, our pick for Best Developer of 2017 is…
Nintendo
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.:Best Protagonist:.
2B – Nier: Automata
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.:Best Antagonist:.
This award is presented by the inventor of this awards show, the Purple Prose Mage!
Rain. The antagonist we all face on rainy days. Something about the true enemy being nature. Reference to pathetic fallacy. It pours on the just and the unjust.
Sorry. Not much you can do when you’re presenting an award literally to rain. There’s no point anyway, it can’t come to collect it. Does it say something about this year’s other video game villains being that terrible if rain is voted the best one? I don’t know. I suppose we could try summoning a water deity on the off chance that they exist and would want to collect an award for how well they were recreated digitally. What about Lono, the Hawaiian god of rainfall? That wouldn’t work, because he doesn’t have his own rain dance. Oh well. I tried. There’s only so much you can do with this.
Best Antagonist is presented to the rain in Breath of the Wild, apparently. The people who voted in this are idiots.
Rain – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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.:Best Supporting Character:.
Cappy – Super Mario Odyssey
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.:Best Score/Soundtrack:.
A tie! So we left it up to our tie-breaker, the White Out Mage, to elect the winner…
Cuphead
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.:Best New IP:.
Horizon Zero Dawn
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.:Best Indie:.
Cuphead
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.:Best Storyline:.
Nier: Automata
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.:Best Art Direction:.
Cuphead
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.:Best Mobile Game:.
A tie! So we left it up to our tie-breaker, the White Out Mage, to elect the winner…
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
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.:Best Handheld Game:.
Pokémon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon
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.:Best Console of 2017:.
Nintendo Switch
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.:Best Exclusive Title:.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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.:Best of Nintendo:.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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.:Best of Xbox:.
Cuphead
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.:Best of PlayStation:.
Horizon Zero Dawn
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.:Best of PC:.
Cuphead
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.:Best Port of 2017:.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
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.:Best RPG:.
A tie! So we left it up to our tie-breaker, the White Out Mage, to elect the winner…
Persona 5
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.:Best Action/Adventure:.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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.:Best Platformer:.
Super Mario Odyssey
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.:Best Strategy:.
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
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.:Best Shooter:.
A tie! So we left it up to our tie-breaker, the White Out Mage, to elect the winner…
Splatoon 2
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.:Best Fighting:.
Pokkén Tournament DX
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.:Best Multiplayer:.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
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.:Best Family Friendly:.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
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.:Most Anticipated:.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
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.:Worst Game of the Year:.
Mass Effect Andromeda
And last but not least….
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.:Best Dressed Mage:.
Me, of course.
Thanks for attending our awards ceremony! Thank you to the developers and publishers who made these great games happen! Thank you for the opportunity to play and review them! Thank you for reading! Happy Thanksgiving!
-The Well-Red Mage
Lord C here, Hi Well Red! *Waves*
Well, this was awesome & also YAY!!!! Cuphead!!!
I’ve ytubed it previously (nocomm play through) & it was lovely.
The music, the animation, the sense of joyous adventure!!!!! *Grins*
Word of caution tho my friend, I’m not sure how much web you do in ya spare time, apart from this, so: avoid certain sections of t’web, as people have Gone In on makin #Rule34 of Cuphead &… A lot of it is…. disturbin.. to say the least!
Kudos!
Nice to see Persona 5 scoop the top RPG prize. It’s my fave game of the year thus far.
I’ve actually never played it and yeah I’m happy to see it win the nomination as voted on by the mages!
Since you got three eggplants, does that mean you’re now the Eggplant Wizard. That’s…not even a good bad pun. I apologize 😋
Just call me the Auspicious Aubergine Mage!
AKA the Pretty Purple Mage :p
There are some really awesome looking games in here! It jsut sucks that I haven’t had the chance to play most of them. I’ve been trying to think what my favourites were, but given the limited nubmer of new games that I’ve played this year, i’m quite limited in what I can choose. So, with that in mind, for me, the list would be:
GOTY – Sonic Mania
Developer – Nintendo
Protagonist – Avatar (Sonic Forces, ’cause I love a good create-a-character)
Antagonist – The Kitty Litter (Super Lucky’s Tale)
Supporting Character – Rotty Tops (Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero)
Soundtrack – Sonic Forces
Indie – Super Lucky’s Tale
Story – Sonic Forces
Art – Super Lucky’s Tale
Handheld – Mario Kart Deluxe (if we’re counting the Switch as a handheld)
Exclusive – Super Lucky’s Tale
Nintendo – Maro Kart Deluxe
PC – Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero
Best Port – Mario Kart Deluxe
Action – Sonic Forces
Platformer – Sonic Mania
Shooter – Splatoon 2
Fighting – Tekken 7
Family – Super Lucky’s Tale
Most Anticipated Game – Resident Evil 7
Worst Game of The Year – I’ve been lucky and not disliked anything this year thus far
Nice list and thanks for sharing! Are Super Lucky’s Tale and Sonic Forces really that great? Neither made a blip on my radar and I am curious at the least.
Super Lucky’s Tale I would describe as a charming, kid friendly 3D platformer that is reminiscent of have like the original Spyro and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, but with a modern shine. It’s one I had immense fun playing with my youngest, and is well with the budget price it’s being sold at, resistant when taking the time to collect all 99 lucky clovers in the game.
Sonic Forces is one that I can understand why is had a mixed reaction. It took me less than the hours to finish it, and it features a fair few on rails sections where your input is limited. For me though, it does everything I wanted from a modern style Sonic game. The create a character is fun, and I love the send of word you get when you buy the on rails bits or build up a boost. It deserves the mixed reaction is sold ways, but from a personal standpoint it was simply great fun. Throw the extra gallery I’ve been putting on to collect all the red star rings and it’s added a fair bit to it.
When I looked it up, I was surprised it was on Xbox at all. I guess it’s there for players with kids, because it seemed much more like something Nintendo would put out.
It certainly fits that mold. Playing it with my youngest was a joy too, so it does good job in that respect. Challenging without being overwhelming. The people that made it seem nice too, to the point that they actually responded my daughter’s question about whether Lucky has a fishing license, as he was fishing in the opening cut scene.
That’s adorable! 😀
It really is. She was really worried that Lucky was fishing without a license and was going to get himself in trouble.
Again though, my exposure to new games was limited this year. Had I played more, I would have had other options to at least consider.
So basically my takeaway here is I need to play Cuphead and Nier: Auotmata. Thanks for destroying my wallet Well-Red.
Pleasure to be of service… to the games industry! Mwahahaha! Line my pockets!! >:D
Our list are very different :). Here’s mine
GOTY – Divinity: Original Sin 2
Developer – Ubisoft
Protagonist – B.J. Blazkowicz
Antagonist – Frau Engel (The New Colossus)
Supporting Character – Anya (The New Colossus)
Soundtrack – Nioh
New IP – For Honor
Indie – Divinity: Original Sin 2
Story – Wolfenstein: The New Colossus
Art – Figment
Handheld – Fire Emblem Echoes
Exclusive – Divinity: Original Sin 2
Nintendo – Fire Emblem Warriors
PC – Divinity: Original Sin 2
Best Port – Nioh (PC)
RPG – Divinity: Original Sin 2
Action – Mass Effect: Andromeda
Platformer – Hollow Knight
Shooter – Wolfenstein: The New Colossus
Strategy – Xcom 2
Fighting – For Honor
Multiplayer – The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind
Most Anticipated Game – Mass Effect Andromeda
Worst Game of The Year – Resident Evil 7
Would like to add that this list isn’t final. I expect Xenoblade 2 to pop up as the best Nintendo game when I write my own list later this year or early next year :).
Xenoblade 2 as the best of the year? I’m excited to play it but it’ll have to be really great to beat out a few other titles for me right now. Nintendo has had a great year and on that I think we can both agree.
I think as far as a new console goes it’s been a good year, but for games… it’s only good. I wouldn’t call it great. I’m not in love with Breath of The Wild or Odyssey. I like both games, but they’re very overrated imo. I love the Xenoblade series and I expect Xenoblade 2 to be the best Nintendo game to release this year.
And my best of the year is Divinity: Original Sin 2 :). I don’t see any game topping that one this year.
So with Nintendo’s successes this year, I think most people are talking comparatively, and that’s likely fair. I haven’t played all of their exclusives but nearly everything has been met with great reception, they launched a new IP in Arms, BotW is taking tons of awards, Odyssey has been incredibly popular, indies have been selling better on Switch than anywhere else (I’ve been able to play games I missed previously because Nintendo has been hand picking some great ports). Nintendo has changed the direction of the gaming industry, at least in their corner, with a lot of people I know, plus myself, who play much more now thanks to the Switch. Bomberman R is the only exclusive dud, critically and personally, I’ve played on the Switch this year. Also, there’s their DS line front that still draws tons of players, and they launched Samus Returns and several other titles this year that caused a big ripple. I think the distinction to my mind with Xenoblade 2 is the trailers never grabbed me for whatever reason. The footage they showed with that giant air dragon talking in an old man’s voice was super boring. Maybe it was exciting for fans of the franchise, but then how many people have actually played the other games in the series, especially thanks to the low sales of the Wii U? I’m excited for Nintendo’s many well-received releases this year and I am sure than Xenoblade 2 will fit into that category comfortably, but I’ll personally have to wait and see to be impressed. I’m picking it up day one, of course 😀
I’m glad you’re enjoying the games so much. Breath of The Wild didn’t do it for me. I got rid of BoTW for another Monster Hunter game on the 3DS. To be fair I still own BoTW on the Wii U so I can live without the Switch version.
I think the games that Nintendo has released this year have been solid, but they’re overrated to me. I played them, shelfed them and will probably never touch them again. My most played game on the Switch (strangely) is Fire Emblem Warriors. I’ll admit that I’m not a big Metroid fan, but I’m glad the series is back for people that do love the games. I expected BoTW to win a ton of awards, but that doesn’t make it a great game to me.
Nintendo is having a good year, but I won’t pretend that everything they release has been gold this year. It’s far from it in my eyes. I’m still enjoying my Switch and 2 games I play on it and I can’t wait for games like Pokemon, Shin Megami Tensei, and Fire Emblem to drop on the console. That’s when I’ll start praising it to the sky. That being said I do love my console and it’s the only console I own out of the big three. Nintendo is number 1 to me and no one comes close. Maybe I’m disappointed because Breath of The Wild is so different from previous Zelda games. I have very little negative to say about Odyssey other the fact that it’s too short and I can’t wait for the next game in the series to drop. Hopefully it’s another 2D Mario game because those are my favorites.
I’ve also bought about 20 games on the Switch since it’s release. That’s a lot to me because I’m a PC gamer and I tend to buy most of my games on that platform and I ended up buying more games on the Switch this year than the PC.
Is Nintendo having a great year? Yes. The numbers don’t lie, but they’re not perfect games to me. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy playing them. I put 100 hours in BoTW (Wii U and Switch combined) and about 10 in Odyssey.
I think a clarification I need to make here is I don’t believe they’ve made perfect games this year (I’m stingy with the perfect claims, as we talked about before). I don’t claim that everything they’ve released in 2017 has been gold, either. Another distinction is I don’t make the claim that I’ve personally enjoyed everything they put out this year either. BotW and Odyssey aside (I liked the latter less), I haven’t played absolutely everything, anyway. The numbers are what I’m going by and reception. Strong year is what I’m most comfortable saying but not an unprecedented year or perfect one. Nintendo has successfully brought themselves back from the brink in terms of general populace consensus and their marketing has been very strong this year. So our meeting place in this discussion is where we agree on them having a great year. Everything else is how much the games appealed to an individual and how much we’ve actually played ourselves, or what level of impression each title has left on us as persons. I think we can distinguish those things and even if I didn’t play any Nintendo this year I’d have to concede it’s been a good one for them.
I agree with everything you just posted :). I hope my comments didn’t come across as being too harsh. That was never my intention :).
Not at all! I relish conversation and I like exploring where people meet to agree 😀
They are different! To be honest, my own personal list would be different from the one in this article, as well, since it was put together by over a dozen participants. I can vouch for most of the games on this list, though, and the ones which I can’t are ones I’d like to play. Minus Andromeda, though. I never was very interested in Mass Effect as it was.
Mass Effect is my second favorite game series of all time (Elder Scrolls being #1). Nothing came close to the excitement I had when I booted up Andromeda for the first time.
I’ve played just about every game on the list except the PS titles.
I’ve never actually played a Mass Effect or Elder Scrolls game. Is Andromeda a dating sim? Every time I hear people talking about it, it’s about wooing and romancing rather than space stuff?
People do love their Mass Effect romances :). Mass Effect is so good imo. Even though Andromeda was driven into the ground by everyone I still enjoyed it a lot. It has some great moments that’s covered by a lot of annoyances. To prevent myself from going full fanboy on you about The Elder Scrolls I’ll just say that it’s the greatest series of games ever made lol. I LOVE The Elder Scrolls. Those games got me into open world games.
No I’M the best dressed mage! 😛
The red mage hat. ‘Nuff said. 😛
I have to laugh a bit at Xbox One X getting no votes whatsoever, and its best game being a multiplatform title. Poor Microsoft, they’ve really made a mess of things this generation.
Oh I had a good laugh at that, too! I wasn’t certain how this project was going to turn out, putting it together with over a dozen participants but the fact that Microsoft was shown such disdain except for a single indie… man, even when we asked for exclusive titles for the Xbox nominees it was hard to think of many. They’ve had an exclusives problem for a while and though Cuphead is one game I would really love to play, I can’t think of many else that would allow me to justify purchasing one of their consoles. The Xbox and the 360 I’ve owned were gifts.
Great selection. Apologies, I’ve been insanely busy and missed out on this. However, I was going to vote for Breath of the Wild for most things. I’m still playing it now. The wonderful thing that it is. Mario Kart 8 is phenomenal.
Most anticipated for me is the Ori and Blind Forest sequel! Bring it on!
I just played Ori recently – so… BEAUTIFUL! *sobs*
Definitely an exclusive I’d love to get my sausage fingers on!
No need to ever apologize to me! We appreciate your work in tandem with our team 😀 I second the games you’ve mentioned, and I will play Ori someday, by golly! I was surprised though by how frequently MK8D was mentioned. Great and amazing game but I didn’t expect it to have such an effect on everyone.