Nintendo Power and Strong Bad
I voted in the Nintendo Power Awards of General Excellence (or whatever) because Emily asked us to, and I like to give out my opinions to complete strangers. One thing kind of struck me as odd in the voting, though. For the best story award, SBCG4AP wasn't listed, but Prof. Layton was. I loved PLatCV, and I realize there were cute animations sequences between the puzzles, and they did kind of tell a story, but it's a story that would probably total less than 1500 words typed, even if you included all the dialog from the cutscenes and had descriptions of the different areas. To have it nominated and not SBCG4AP is just weird.
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Sure, but that doesn't change the fact that SBCG4AP has a much more cohesive story than Professor Layton. (Five of them, in fact!)
I thought Professor Layton was a fun game, if a bit overrated. It is a great puzzle game, but definitely doesn't have too much in the way of story. I think there's a novelty factor, though. There's nothing else like it out there at the moment, so I think it sometimes gets a little more credit than it's due. Which is fine, I'd rather people pay attention to that type of game than not pay attention to it.
Not necessarily, guess who didn't know a single thing about homestarrunner.com before playing SBCG4AP
I agree with the complaints about Professor Layton... I mean, there IS a cohesive story, but it's pretty much a children story. I liked it, I wasn't expecting a more several layered Ghibli/Pixar storyline, but what there is doesn't really stand up to the hilarious and witty dialogue the Strong Bad games have, and it was never supposed to (the excuses for new puzzles alone prove it... "So you are left-handed... that reminds me of a most smashing puzzle!"). We also have DQIV over FFIV, so yeah, it's weird.
A link would be nice.
Here's the link: http://npawards.wordpress.com/
And I wouldn't slight Professor Layton's writing entirely. The story itself was a bit weak, but my guess would be that they included the riddles themselves as part of the writing. There are no descriptions of why the nominees were chosen, so if you don't like it, don't vote for it, I guess. Personally, I thought the writing was medicre, but I wouldn't call it nonexistent.
It wasn't in a writing category though, it was nominated for best story, which I consider two separate things. And the story in Professor Layton wasn't particularly inspired or exceptionally presented. Personally, I loved PLatCV; I can't wait for the next two games, and if they're just like the first one I will be extremely happy. But I don't consider them to be much story-wise. Like, you could cut out the story in Professor Layton entirely, and the game would be just as fun. The puzzles in SBCG4AP couldn't really exist outside of the story. While it wouldn't be unheard of for Strong Bad to cheat at a race to win it, it is unusual for him to do so in a Homestar Runner costume. But in the context of the story, it makes perfect sense (for the H*R universe anyway.) The puzzles rely on the story, not the other way around. And I didn't say the writing in Professor Layton was non-existent, I said that story wise, there wasn't a hell of a lot of it.
Sorry if I sounded a bit hypocritical since I have never played Professor Layton, I was just guessing that Professor Layton might be on there instead of SBCG4AP because it might not appeal as much to people who are not fans, but apparently I'm wrong from what LittleBuddy said.
So, we're all right in the end
It was "Best Writing/Story," at least on the online ballot, which I take to mean "Best writing and/or story."
Actually, thinking of all the games on the list, maybe one of the reasons SBCG4AP wasn't listed is because it's a series, and not a single game. Like, it wasn't the Ace Attorney series nominated, it was Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. I would think they could just list SBCG4AP, but maybe they think of each episode as a separate game so didn't want to single one out to nominate? The whole episodic thing is still pretty unusual, I guess.
http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/forums/viewforum.php?f=26
I shall abstain for my lack of Britishness. You do realize, erm, realise that, do you?
That and also Hotel Dusk. AMAZING games. We have the chance to see the genre coming back from the dead thanks to TellTale and Nintendo ( to a lesser extent ) + ( professor Layton is a trilogy in japan ). Still, i'll vote for SB just because i love you guys at TElltale and i believe in what you are doing. But i didn'T play it yet.
Ah, I remember that... I was all like,"Dad! Strong Bad made it into Boy's Life!"
Not very well.
WiiWare Game of the Year was stolen by Mega Man 9 in both staff and reader opinion. It also lost in both staff and and reader's choice for Best Adventure Game. For obvious reasons (sorry, TellTale), it lost to Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Overall Game of the Year. Also, the NP staff chose No More Heroes over SBCG4AP for Best Sound/Voice Acting (truly offending Matt's talented vocal chords), although the readers gave SBCG4AP the award in this area.
I'm not sure how you can compare two games in different genres. It's not as is someone is going to go out and buy Smash Bros over Strong Bad because someone has said Smash Bros is "better". They're different types of game!
Haha, well, it's honestly an honor to be nominated, and in such company as Smash Bros, Mega Man 9, and No More Heroes! Those are some of my favorite games of the last year, so I'm cool with that being the company we keep in the Nintendo Power awards.