Final Voting For This Year's Golden Joystick Awards

10 August, 2009 9 September, 2023

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The final shortlist for the the 27th Annual Golden Joystick Awards show been announced. A huge list of games has been whittled down into the handful for each category you see from today. Sega and more specifically Sonic Unleashed has made it into the shortlist for a number of categories including ‘Family Game of the Year’, Xbox and PlayStation Game of the Year and is even eligible for ‘Ultimate Game of the Year’ accolades.

Sonic isn’t the only Sega game up for voting as both House of the Dead: Overkill and Madworld are included in ‘Wii Game of the Year’ and the brilliant if underrated Valkeyria Chronicles featuring in ‘PlayStation Game of the Year’ and ‘Ultimate Game of the Year’ categories. You can even vote for Sega as ‘Publisher of the Year’. Sega and Sonic face some stiff competition with blockbuster games like Gears of War 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, Fallout 3, Bioshock and more all in the running for a number of categories. The blue team is going to need every vote they can get. Votes can be cast here in the ‘Vote Now’ section of the Golden Joystick Awards website.

The results will be announced at an award ceremony taking place in London on the 30th October. TSSZ News will update you with the winners and losers.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.

15 Comments

The fact that it’s even being considered for such nominations is quite a treat, really. But, big or small as the window of opportunity may be, it’s still open, and I’m more than willing to take advantage of that by putting forth a vote.
Best of luck to Unleashed to maybe snag at least one of those titles!

Definitely not winning “Ultimate Game of the Year” lmao

@serpx: no it won’t win but just the fact it’s there brings some hope for better things to come. Hell if they just gave us the game without the werehog or the hubs then it could have been the ultimate game of the year… could have done without Chun-nan’s level design and Rooftop Run Act II however

I’d lmao if Sonic Unleashed wins anything.
Too much bias hate towards the game.

PJMan. I agreee with you. I haven’t played the 360/PS3 version yet so i don’t know how the werehog is in that version. So I don’t really know. But you’re right.
I think it was stupid to create the werehog. I like him! But they should been saving him for an another game! This was more of Sonic real comeback, Sonic 06 was nothing comparing to Unleashed!
But it brings some hope, yes.

Most of the hate has come from the press, some have unfairly not reviewed it any better than Sonic 06 despite it being a vast improvement. In general the fans like it even if they don’t think it’s the best game ever.

I agree with Paul Street. If you go with the critics, they tear the game up from top to bottom, without really aiming to do much else. However, the important part that most should pay mind to is those whom the game was intended for; the fans who wanted something that could get our minds off of how much Sonic 2k6 fell through. Unleashed was that title, with graphical and control enhancements, the creation of an engine specifically for Sonic-based gameplay, etc.
A lot seem to agree that the day stages were well-received, and the night stages could’ve been left out, or better yet, left for someone like Knuckles, perhaps. But, overall, reception from the fanbase has been much more positive than the critics, and logically, this would probably indicate that something -right- had been done. Granted, flaws exist, but it comes pretty close to almost being an apology for how 2k6 came out. A lot more development time, a lot more care being taken of it… and for that, I can appreciate it a lot more.
Do -I- think Unleashed is the best Sonic game ever? Not really. Do I think that it’s a good step in the right direction for the future of the franchise? But of course. Not a perfect shot, but it’s a -good- shot. And the fact that Unleashed is being considered for a few of those nominations reflects this.

Unleashed isn’t deserving of a spot on this list. It was close, but no cigar, in my opinion.
Now, if the next game makes an improvement over Unleashed, liked Unleashed made over Sonic 06, then I will be paying attention.

I seriously surprised SU even got nominated for GOTY, and then got this far.

Good luck Sonic! We’re rooting for you!

Oh, and I totally agree with Tony. Also, my main gripes with the Werehog was that while it did control well, the level design and other environments in the game felt sort of basic… and long.
Other than that, he wasn’t horrible, not even that bad. I just think there was alot of potential that was missed.

@Everything about werehog was bad: Huuu… I don’t know what to think anymore… Or… I think so much! Too much! The werehog was a great idea that went wrong way. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to bring Sonic back on feet, but if the werehog was as good as the day stages the game would have been better then just a day game. So… GO SONIC! He’s on his feet again even if the game wasn’t perfect. And I’m so happy that the half of the game that actually was the real Sonic and not a gimmick was one of the best things I have ever played, so as I sad, GO SONIC!

I do think Unleashed had some unnecessary aspects to it. Easily the Werehog is the worst, but requiring medals in the 360 version was another thing. If it weren’t for the fact that you -need- the medals to progress in the game, I’d probably prefer the 360 method to medal collecting, because it actually makes you look for it. Now, if they had switching the methods of medal collecting, as in, you find medals in the Wii version but earn them in the 360 version, it probably would be better liked in the 360 version because it is tedious to find them, especially since they’re required.
Unleashed on both 360 and Wii have different flaws, though, such as excessive amounts of Werehog gameplay in the Wii version, plus the fact that the graphics aren’t as good and gameplay also suffers somewhat (as I’ve heard, anyway).