Category Archives: MoeGamer Awards 2019

MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Best Dicking Around Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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Structured fun is all very well and good. Everyone likes completing stages, scoring points, levelling up, that sort of thing. But sometimes all you want to do is do your own thing, making use of the tools a game provides without any real “goal” in mind.

This sort of activity is typically associated with “open world” games — and indeed that kind of game is very good for just dicking around, seeing how the different systems interact with one another and working out exactly how much chaos you are able to cause within the constraints of the game’s ostensible “rules”.

But it’s not just open world games that are good at this. Today’s award, suggested by riobravo79, celebrates a game in which it’s fun — and relaxing — to just dick around and see what happens. And not a bandit encampment in sight.

And the winner is…

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MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Vanishing Point Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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I love a good “vanishing point” racer, as is doubtless evidenced by our podcast episode on this very subject. But have any in particular caught my attention this year?

For the uninitiated, a vanishing point racer is an arcade-style driving game that, rather than unfolding in true 3D, makes use of graphical trickery involving converging lines to simulate driving “into” the screen. As a result, in a vanishing point racer, you tend to move from side to side rather than actually turning, and the emphasis is on skilfully avoiding obstacles rather than handling your car in a realistic manner.

For this award, I’m deliberately celebrating a less obvious choice, despite having covered the excellent Switch version of OutRun earlier this year. Not that OutRun doesn’t deserve love, mind you — but because everyone already knows OutRun is good. With that in mind…

And the winner is…

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MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Least “Retro” Retro Game

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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Last year, the Least “Retro” Retro Game award specifically celebrated an older game that still plays well today for one reason or another.

Perhaps it’s a timeless classic that has remained constantly excellent as the years have passed. Perhaps it’s something you didn’t appreciate much in your younger days. Or perhaps it’s even something that went overlooked or underappreciated in its original time, only to seem even more innovative and distinctive when looked at from a modern perspective.

I’ve got a great one in mind from among the games I’ve played and written about this year, so this was an easy decision to make.

And the winner is…

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MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The #25YearsOfPlay Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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Today’s award comes from the fact that the PlayStation turned 25… err, yesterday, actually, but near enough.

It’s pretty fair to say that the original PlayStation was a defining influence on many gaming enthusiasts’ passion for the hobby, and for a wide variety of reasons. For those who had grown up with earlier systems, the PlayStation marked the moment gaming acquired real mainstream acceptance; for those new to the hobby, it was a platform that played host to a more diverse array of experiences than ever before.

With that in mind, today’s award celebrates a game from the original PlayStation era that I have incredibly fond memories of, not just of the game itself, but of everything going on surrounding it at the time I first experienced it.

And the winner is…

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MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The “Are You Lost?” Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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The next award comes courtesy of frequent commenter ASD. They want to know the five characters (from games I played this year) that I’d take on my desert island survival team.

I didn’t write about it this year, but I rather enjoyed the short-form anime Are You Lost? (aka ソウナンですか？ Sōnan desu ka?) from the summer anime season. It was one of a number of recent pieces of Japanese popular media that had a distinctly “educational” component, and I can’t help but think of it when contemplating this award.

Of course, it wasn’t a video game and thus is largely irrelevant to the discussion we’re about to have, but it was an entertaining anime that is worth checking out. Anyway. I digress.

And the winner is…

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MoeGamer Awards 2019

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Atari Anime Award

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas!

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This year’s first award is exactly the sort of peculiar thing I was after, courtesy of regular and longstanding reader Viscera/@Zwifu.

Viscera wants to know the Atari game I want to be remade with cute anime girls the most. Preferably something that has been covered in one of my Atari A to Z videos.

That’s a hell of a category to start with! I’m going to have to think hard about this one…

And the winner is…

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