Graphics, music, sound, writing… All of these elements enhance a videogame, but every now and then, a developer manages to deliver in one of these areas in a way that shines through and not only enhances, but elevates the rest of the experience to a whole other level. These awards go to the games that excelled in one of these areas.
- Best Music
- Best Song
- Best Sound Design
- Best Voice Acting
- Best Graphical Style
- Best Graphics
- Best Story
- Best New Character
- Additional Commentary!
.
Best Music
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope by Yoko Shimomura, Grant Kirkhope, and Gareth Coker – There’s something very strange and even a bit magical going on when you’re playing a game that’s a crossover between Mario and a bunch of silly rabbits, and it somehow feels like one of the most epic things ever. This game’s soundtrack manages to elevate the entire experience to be something truly grand. Of course, it’s no wonder that this is the case when you see that its soundtrack was composed by a dream team of the three musicians collectively responsible for the soundtracks to Kingdom Hearts, Banjo-Kazooie, and Ori and the Blind Forest (among many many other great games).
Runners-Up:
Pokemon Scarlet / Pokemon Violet by Minako Adachi, Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, Hiromitsu Maeba, Teruo Taniguchi, Hitomi Sato, and Toby Fox
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 by Yasunori Mitsuda, Kenji Hiramatsu, Manami Kiyota, and Mariam Abounnasr
Kirby and the Forgotten Land by Yuuta Ogasawara, Hirokazu Ando, Jun Ishikawa, and Yuki Shimooka
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream by Kazuki Yanagawa, Daisuke Achiwa, Tatsuya Yano, and Ryudai Abe
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel by Yasunori Nishiki
.
Best Song
Overworld Theme 04 by Minako Adachi, Junichi Masuda, Go Ichinose, Hiromitsu Maeba, Teruo Taniguchi, Hitomi Sato, and Toby Fox, from Pokemon Scarlet / Pokemon Violet (Note: I named all the composers for this game because I couldn’t find who was responsible for the track) – The soundtrack for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet has a lot of heavy lifting to do. Being the first truly open-world game in the Pokemon series, players need to get a feeling of the massive world, the grandeur of it all… and the graphics of this game are simply not up to that task. Yet early on, this simple piano solo manages to convey to players that feeling, the feeling of adventure, or a beautiful massive world waiting for them to explore it. In addition, despite being a piano solo in a Nintendo Open-World game, this theme sounds nothing like the soundtrack to Nintendo’s other big open-world game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. No other song from 2022 shaped my opinion of the game it appeared in quite as much as this one.
Runners-Up:
Out and About by Andreas Busk, from Welcome to Elk
Memories by Matt Meyer, from Beacon Pines
Running Through the New World, by Yuuta Ogasawara, Hirokazu Ando, Jun Ishikawa, and Yuki Shimooka, from Kirby and the Forgotten Land
We Ain’t Came to Lose by Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
Somewhere In Between, by Kazuki Yanagawa, Daisuke Achiwa, Tatsuya Yano, and Ryudai Abe, from Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream
.
Best Sound Design
Grand Mountain Adventure: Wonderlands – Grand Mountain Adventure’s excellent sound design does a great job conveying the feeling of carving through snow even if the world looks like one of those Christmas village models, and there are even nice little touches like passersby whistling happy tunes as they walk around the Winter wonderland. I can’t think of another game in 2022 that is so shaped by its sound design.
Runners-Up:
.
Best Voice Acting
It Takes Two – All of the voicework in It Takes Two is excellent, but the real highlight here is Joseph Balderrama pulling double-duty as both deuteragonist Cody and antagonist Dr. Hakim, two roles that couldn’t be more different, yet are each pulled off so convincingly you’d never guess it was the same voice actor. The interplay between Cody and his wife May, voiced by Annabelle Dowler, is also frequently superb. Overall, much of this game’s charm comes from its great voice acting.
Runners-Up:
.
Best Graphical Style
Live A Live – Even with this being the third game to use the “HD-2D” style of visuals, Live A Live still manages to impress with its combination of pixel art, 3D visuals, and excellent lighting and shadows. With each new title to use this art style, Square Enix continues to find new and impressive ways to implement it to great effect.
Runners-Up:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
.
Best Graphics
Bayonetta 3 – More than any prior year, I think 2022 is the year where people really started to question if the Nintendo Switch’s hardware limitations were holding it back. However, Bayonetta 3 shows that the Nintendo Switch can still present an impressive spectacle without taking a hit to the framerates or constantly making us put up with ugly pop-in. Between the massive kaiju battles and epic setpiece scenes, Bayonetta 3 shows a deft hand can still make striking visuals on Nintendo Switch.
Runners-Up:
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
.
Best Story
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim – I think it says something about a game when I think the gameplay is great, but I’m frustrated whenever I have to play it because I just want to get back to the story. 13 Sentinels features a story that just keeps getting better, piling mystery on top of mystery, from kaiju to time travel to alien invasion, you just never know where this game’s story is gonna’ go next. Clearly, no other game this year gripped me with its story like this game did.
Runners-Up:
Star Seeker In: The Secret of the Sorcerous Standoff
.
Best New Character
Dr. Hakim, from It Takes Two – Every time Dr. Hakim shows up, you just know he’s going to make life more difficult for the game’s two protagonists. He seems to delight in throwing obstacles in their way, yet he’s so expressive and charismatic, it’s hard not to love him all the same. Also, come on, he’s an anthropomorphized relationship self-help book, that’s pretty original in and of itself. I don’t know if we’ll ever see a sequel to It Takes Two (It Takes Three?), but if so, I absolutely hope we see the return of Dr. Hakim.
Runners-Up:
Comte de Saint-Germain, from Card Shark
Everett, from What Lies in the Multiverse
Rabbid Peach, from Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope
Noah, Eunie, Lanz, Sena, Taion, and Mio, from Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Serenoa Wolfort, from Triangle Strategy
.
Additional Commentary!
Just going to comment on the categories I feel like I have more to add.
Best Music
I know I’m gonna’ take some flak for not giving one of the music awards to Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but honestly I felt like there were other soundtracks this year that impressed me more. For this category, I should note that the fifth runner-up was almost Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, but I ultimately had to admit that as absurd as it may seem, Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel’s soundtrack was just too damn good to not include here.
Best Song
In previous years, this category has often focused on songs that highlight a pivotal moment in the game. However, this year nearly all of the songs are either from one of the opening parts of the game, or from standard moment-to-moment play. However, when listening to music from this year, I found that Out and About instantly got my mind thinking about the odd quirkiness of Welcome to Elk, Memories brought back warm, cozy thoughts of Beacon Pines, Running Through the New World brought me back to the excitement of starting Kirby’s first big 3D adventure, and Somewhere In Between took me back to happy memories of Atelier Sophie 2. The odd one out here is We Ain’t Came To Lose, from the final battle in TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, which brings to mind the delightful image of the big bad Shredder picking up a mic and taking on the turtles in a rap battle.
I also feel there should be an honorable mention here – Levincia Theme from Pokemon Scarlet / Violet was the song that was just so catchy, it actually made me stop and reconsider my assessment of that game’s soundtrack, which I initially dismissed and now realized had actually become one of the best soundtracks in the Pokemon series.
Best Sound Design
Not many games in 2022 impressed me with their sound design. I should note that this one was pretty close between Grand Mountain Adventure and It Takes Two.
Best Voice Acting
Once again, To Be or Not To Be gets shut out due to its age… Also, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 might have gotten a Runner-Up status here if it weren’t for hearing “You hear that, Noah? Lanz wants something meatier…” fifty times in a row.
Best Graphics
I had to really stretch to find five games with graphics that I found to be technically impressive on Nintendo Switch this year. Think about it, what were my other options? I suppose if I had reviewed it, I probably would have added Splatoon 3 to this list, but otherwise there was very little in the way of new games pushing the envelope in graphics this year and not running into massive technical issues in doing so.
Best New Character
Okay, for the more pedantic readers out there… first, yes, I know Rabbid Peach is not technically a new character, but I felt like her characterization was so different this time that for all intents and purposes she was a new character. And if you’re going to complain about me listing all six characters from Xenoblade Chronicles 3, suffice it to say I couldn’t pick favorites among the main cast – they’re all wonderful and what works so well with them is how they work as an ensemble.
That’s all for today! to keep up with all of the eShopperReviews 2022 Game Awards, be sure to check back at the Awards’ Start Page, which I’ll be updating throughout the week!
You can now support this content on Patreon! Please click the link to learn more!
eShopperReviews 
Leave a comment