The Family Gamer Awards have been bubbling away for quite a few years now. This year the homepage has had a mini-makeover so that you can see all the past winners. Browsing the list makes for some interesting reading, and reveals the sometimes unusual and unlikely selections.
Working on these awards has been a real treat. Because the games are picked by real families they often include titles that don’t get highlighted elsewhere. Whereas most Game of the Year awards will go to triple A games like Arkham City or Uncharted 3 or Assassin’s Creed Revelation (and nothing wrong with that) I’m once again pleased to see the surprises our families have picked in 2011.
If you’ve not seen them before, the Family Gamer Awards don’t try to find the best games. Instead they look at six different age categories and identify games which are the best fit to each:
While the Students and Workers categories have some space for the big budget blockbusters it is the likes of Flower, Costume Quest or Endless Ocean that pick up prizes elsewhere. In the Infants section we often find hardcore games cropping up that happen to have controls that suit really young players — like Wipeout HD. Then in the Parents and Grandparents category, games that offer more challenging ethical or cultural elements are picked, like Limbo, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.
It wasn’t until I had a browse of the new site that I realized just how many games have been granted FGAs over the years. You can view all the Age Group and Game of the Year winners, or you can browse family games for a particular platform:
- DS Family Games
- 3DS Family Games
- Wii Family Games
- 360 Family Games
- Kinect Family Games
- PS3 Family Games
With just a few weeks left for nominations for the final set of FGAs this year, do let us know what you think should be included for a particular age group. Once we have picked those it goes to a public vote to choose the overall Family Game of the Year.
