And finally, Game of the Year of 2023, goes to “Tears of the Kingdom”!
The Game Awards, established in 2014 by media entrepreneur Geoff Keighley, began hosting their awards ceremonies at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles with the intention of celebrating releases from the gaming industry throughout the year.
In order to choose nominees, over 100 global media outlets and influencers—such as IGN and Screen Rant—list out top 5 choices for given categories and the most recurrent picks become nominees. The voting for winners are settled by both the public and the jury: the jury holding 90% of the votes for the final decision and the public holding the last 10%. Categories of the Game Awards include: best game direction, best art direction, best narrative, best sound/music design and so on.
UPA students tuning into the YouTube and Twitch streams look forward to seeing their picks win the awards they voted for or Game of the Year.
In 2022, the games “Elden Ring” and “God Of War Ragnarök,” clashed for the title of Game of the Year with both games winning other awards during the ceremony. In the end, “Elden Ring” won the title Game of the Year.
However, the winner of “The Most Anticipated Game” in 2022, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” is the game UPA students believe will win the title of Game of the Year in 2023.
Junior Emerson Lau believes that cultural impact is an important qualifying factor for a game to be Game of the Year.
“Aside from the game itself, people’s reactions to the game is a big part of the impact it has on the community and on the industry,” Lau said.
Lau added that Game of the Year should be a game that can appeal to a wide audience while avoiding being simplistic or too easy and still being “fun and appropriately challenging.”
When comparing “Tears of the Kingdom” to its prequel, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”—winner of Game of the Year in 2017—Lau believes that the innovations in the sequel are deserving of Game of the Year.
“It’s intelligent how they integrated new mechanics,” Lau said. “They made the map fun to explore by being able to build your own vehicles, even though it’s the same map [from Breath of the Wild].”
For senior Bethel Seyoum, the storyline in “Tears of the Kingdom” stood out to her and solidified her stance on why it should win Game of the Year.
“There’s just something that makes you want to continue [playing] and go on and on,” Seyoum said. “I think that’s an aspect of a really good game.”
Seyoum also mentions that the beautiful cutscenes and soundtrack present as the player moves through the story supports her stance on the game.
“I think that the music was really good, I even think that it should be nominated for ‘Best Soundtrack,’” Seyoum said. “But, there are also so many beautiful cutscenes like the ending sequence.”
Furthermore, Seyoum adored the art style in both “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” and “Tears of the Kingdom.”
“I really like the art style of Breath of The Wild,” Seyoum said. “It feels like I’m immersed in a moving painting.”
In other aspects, Seyoum appreciated the freedom the player is given as the player moves through the game.
“I think what made the game what it is,” Seyoum said, “is the feeling that you’re able to do whatever you want without being stopped. [Tears of the Kingdom] gives me options like the Zonai Devices to explore the world in many ways unlike Breath of the Wild.”
Physics and Principles of Engineering teacher, Matthew Bourbeau, believes that although “Tears of the Kingdom” wasn’t as revolutionary as “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” in terms of impact on the industry, it still embraces the positives and improves upon it.
“It took what Breath of the Wild had going really well, which was exploration,” Bourbeau said. “And then it took the really robust physics system and let the player play with it. Like there were people making crazy contraptions in the wild.”
Bourbeau enjoyed the return of dungeons into “Tears of the Kingdom” which was absent from the prequel. He preferred them over the identical aesthetics of the divine beasts in “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”
“I think the return of the dungeons were one of the big things that long term Zelda fans were missing, myself included,” Bourbeau said. “The theming [of each dungeon] was way better, especially the desert dungeon.”
Although Bourbeau has not played some of the other big titles, he still believes “Tears of the Kingdom” deserves Game of the Year.
“It really took what Breath of the Wild accomplished and improved on it in just about every single way,” Bourbeau said.
