The 2021 Source Gaming End of Year Awards: Entrants and Voting

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 2021 Source Gaming End of Year Awards, where we honor the year’s best in video games. And what a year it was. While 2021 was eventful for the games industry in ways both exciting and painful, it saw quite a few excellent releases – some of which may be standard bearers for years to come. In fact, there were even some excellent games that don’t even appear on any of these lists!

Of the ones we have, there are satisfying remakes and remasters to old classics, sequels to games over a decade in the making, and a few projects that took expert use of the new Generation 9 hardware. Together, they show a good swath of what made the best gaming experiences of 2021 so fun. And it’s you, the readers and viewers, who will be voting on the winners.

The link to vote on these is right here. And below are our main nominees.

Best Remake/Remaster

Best re-release of an older title specifically built for newer platforms.

Famicom Detective Club (Nintendo & MAGES)
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… (Square-Enix & Toylogic)
Pokémon: Brillant Diamond & Shining Pearl (Nintendo, Game Freak, Ilca Inc.)
Quake (Bethesda, id Software, Machinegames, Nightdive Studio)
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania (SEGA & RGG Studio)

Best Port

Best re-release or adaptation of a newer title made for specific hardware.

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury [Switch] (Nintendo & Nintendo EPD)
Tetris Effect: Connected [Switch (OLED)] (Enhance, Monstars Inc, Resonair, Stage Games)
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles [Switch/PS4/PC] (Capcom)
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD [Switch] (Nintendo & Grezzo Co.)
Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water [Switch/PS4/Xbone/PC] (Koei Tecmo)

Best Debut Game

Best new first release from a newly-formed team or company.

Astalon: Tears of the Earth (LABS Works)
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
Splitgate (1047 Games)
Eastward (PixPill)
The Forgotten City (Modern Storyteller)

Best Use of Hardware

Game that fully utilizes the technology or “gimmicks” of a certain hardware platform.

Returnal (DualSense Functionality, 3D Audio Processing)
Game Builder Garage (Functions and Features of the Nintendo Switch system)
Deathloop (DualSense Functionality, 3D Audio Processing, AI Upscaling (DLSS/FSR)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Instant Loading, DualSense Functionality, 40fps Mode)
I Expect You To Die 2 (Virtual Reality)

Best Quality of Life or Accessibility

Feature or features specific to a game that increases easier playability for everyone.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
Halo Infinite
Mario Party Superstars
New Pokémon Snap
Dodgeball Academia

Best Audio Design

Best use of audio engineering or technology to create an immersive soundscape.

Resident Evil Village (Wataru Hachisako, Kazuya Takimoto)
Halo Infinite (Microsoft, Xbox Game Studios, 343 Industries)
Metroid Dread (Ignacio Blázquez Roelas, David Bolaños Gallardo)
Returnal (Sony & Housemarque)
Deathloop (Bethesda & Arkane Lyon)

Best Score and / or Soundtrack

NEO: The World Ends With You (Takeharu Ishimoto)
Deltarune: Chapter 2 (Toby Fox)
Guilty Gear -Strive- (Daisuke Ishiwatari)
Deathloop (Tom Salta & Ross Tregenza)
No More Heroes III (Nobuaki Kaneko, Jun Fukuda, Kazuhiro “MEEBEE” Abo)

Best Original Song (links to the songs included)

Best User Interface

Best use of on-screen text or graphics to present precise information to the player or provide better intuitiveness.

Mario Party Superstars
Metroid Dread
Shin Megami Tensei V
Persona 5 Scramble
Unpacking

Best Character Design

Game with the best design or direction of characters within the game.

Guilty Gear -Strive- (Daisuke Ishiwatari)
Metroid Dread (Angel Román Barriopedro, MercurySteam Concept Artists and 3D Modelling Teams)
NEO: The World Ends With You (Gen Kobayashi, Miki Yamashita, Mihoko Ishii, Miki Yamashita)
No More Heroes III (Sho Takiguchi, Masanori Ushiki, Yusuke Kozaki)
Psychonauts 2 (David Russell, Zahra Amirabadi, Jared Mills)

Best Animation Direction

Best or most impressive animation work in a game.