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)
- “Penny’s Song” (Cristina Lucía Jáuregui – WarioWare: Get It Together!)
- “Yearning For Dark Shadows” (Brian D’Oliveira – Resident Evil Village)
- “Bird in the Hand” (Takeharu Ishimoto – NEO: The World Ends With You)
- “Big Shot” (Toby Fox – Deltarune: Chapter 2)
- “Smell of the Game” (Daisuke Ishiwatari, NAOKI – Guilty Gear -Strive-)
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.
- Guilty Gear -Strive- (Arc System Works Animation Team)
- Metroid Dread (Miguel Orrego Torrado, Alberto Camarasa Cámara)
- Monster Hunter: Rise (Tokie Tanaka, Naoki Sekiguchi, Kenji Yamaguchi)
- Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart (Insomniac Games Animation Team)
- Lost Judgement (Ryu ga Gotoku Studios Animation Team)
Best Art Direction
Game with the best or most impressive overall presentation and production design.
- Guilty Gear -Strive- (Hidehiko Sakamura)
- NEO: The World Ends With You (Tetsuya Nomura, Sayoko Hoshino)
- No More Heroes III (Kunihiko Taniwaki)
- Psychonauts 2 (Lisette Titre-Montgomery)
- Genesis Noir (Evan Anthony, Feral Cat Den Illustrators)
Best Narrative and/or Writing
Game with standout plots and engaging character interactions.
- Gnosia (Shigoto)
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Mary DeMarle)
- The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Shu Takumi)
- Resident Evil Village (Antony Johnston)
- NEO: The World Ends With You (Akiko Ishibashi)
Best Online or Competitive Multiplayer
Best multiplayer title with a heavy emphasis on competition or online play.
- Halo Infinite
- Monster Hunter Rise
- Guilty Gear -Strive-
- Knockout City
- Pac-Man 99
Best Offline or Same-Screen Multiplayer
Best multiplayer title with a heavy focus on couch/local play or designed to be played on a single screen.
- Mario Party Superstars
- It Takes Two
- Guilty Gear -Strive-
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
- WarioWare: Get It Together!
Best Ongoing or Service Game
Game continuing to see relevance due to continued official or unofficial support.
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Final Fantasy XIV Online
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Fortnite
- Genshin Impact
Best Platform or Service of the Year
The go-to platform, whether it be hardware or software based, that delivered the best gaming experience of the past year.
- Nintendo Switch
- Microsoft Xbox Series X
- GamePass Ultimate (Xbox, PC, Cloud)
- Sony PlayStation 5
- Steam (PC, MacOS, Linux)
Best Performance by a Male Actor
Best performance in a game by a male actor.
- Charles Martinet as “Wario” (WarioWare: Get It Together!)
- Richard Horvitz as “Raz” (Psychonauts 2)
- Robin Atkin Downes as “Travis Touchdown” (No More Heroes III)
- Jason Kelley as “Colt Vahn” (Deathloop)
- Paul Castro Jr as “Rindo Kanade” (NEO: The World Ends With You)
Best Performance by a Female Actress
Best performance in a game by a female actress.
- Jennifer Hale as “Rivet” (Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart)
- Erika Mori as “Alex Chen” (Life is Strange: True Colors)
- Maggie Robertson as “Lady Dimitrescu” (Resident Evil Village)
- Ozioma Akagha as “Julianna Blake” (Deathloop)
- Bailey Gamebertoglio as “Shoka Sakurane” (NEO: The World Ends With You)
Game of the Year
- Metroid Dread (Nintendo & MercurySteam)
- Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
- NEO: The World Ends With You (Square-Enix)
- Mario Party Superstars (Nintendo & NDcube)
- Halo Infinite (Microsoft, Xbox Game Studios, 343 Industries)
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