We were pretty confident when we declared Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Hades as two of the greatest games of 2020, but it’s always nice to be validated. Nominees for the 2021 BAFTA Game Awards have been revealed, and both games appear to have claimed a large number of categories.
The two titles were both nominated for “Best Game,” “Game Design,” and “EE Game of the Year” (the latter of which is voted for by the public). Animal Crossing also planted its shovel into the “Family,” “Game Beyond Entertainment,” and “Multiplayer” categories, while Hades has overtaken the “Artistic Achievement,” “Audio Achievement,” “Music,” “Narrative,” “Original Property,” and “Performer in a Supporting Role” (the last reward specifies “Logan Cunningham as Hades, Achilles, Poseidon, Asterius, Charon, and the Storyteller in Hades”).
A number of other Nintendo Switch games (existing and upcoming) were also nominated in various categories:
- Carrion: “Debut Game,” “Original Property”
- Doom Eternal: “Animation” and “Technical Achievement”
- Fall Guys: “British Game,” “Evolving Game,” “Family,” “Multiplayer,” “Original Property”
- Fortnite: “Evolving Game”
- Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition: “Narrative,” “Original Property”
- Minecraft Dungeons: “Family,”
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps: “Animation”
- Röki: “British Game,” “Debut Game
- Spiritfarer: “Animation,” “Game Beyond Entertainment,” “Original Property”
This isn’t the first time Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Hades have received such praise, with both games appearing in Metacritic’s list of highest-scoring Nintendo Switch games of 2020.
Winners for each category will be announced during the BAFTA award show on March 25th, 2021, which “will be streamed exclusively online.” You can vote now for the “EE Game of the Year Award.”
Written by Reece Heather
A lifelong Nintendo fan and a longtime editor at Zelda Universe, Reece will forever be grateful that he somehow dodged the Naughty List of Christmas 1998, when Santa delivered the life-changing gift of a Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Mario Kart 64. When he's not playing games, Reece is usually reading Punisher comics, delving helplessly into the weirdest depths of anime and manga, or spending time with his cocker spaniel Gracie -- the goodest girl ever!
