Nintendo Sweeps 2006 Famitsu Game Awards

Top Japanese game publication Famitsu has revealed the winners of its 2006 awards honoring the top games and companies of the year, with Nintendo taking top honors, and Pokemon tying with Final Fantasy for game of the year. The awards, handed out at an April 20th ceremony hosted by Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, were based on votes both by the Famitsu editorial staff and over 30,000 reader-submitted selections. Any game released between January and December of last year were eligible for the vote. Two games were given the Game of the Year top honors, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, the latest DS version of Nintendo's best-selling franchise, just now hitting North America, and Square Enix's latest of its own top franchise, the PS2 RPG Final Fantasy XII. Nintendo also led a number of the other awards, with Pokemon Diamond/Pearl also taking the prize in the Best Hit category, Wii Sports winning the innovation award, New Super Mario Bros. also topping the magazine's 'rearrange' award, and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess securing the High Performance award. The company was also the recipient of the ceremony's game company of the year award, with its iconic mascot Mario selected as the game character of the year. Elsewhere, Ryu Ga Gotoku 2, the sequel to Sega's ultraviolent adventure game known as Yakuza in the West, took the award for most dramatic. Capcom's cult hit adventure Okami took the game design award, and the same company's local smash hit Monster Hunter 2 took home the award for best multiplayer. Finally, Capcom's Dead Rising won Famitsu's 'impact award,' Konami's Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops topped the award for best portable game, Atlus' Persona 3 won best RPG, and ex-Square Enix producer Sakaguchi Hironobu, now of Mistwalker, creator of exclusive Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon, walked away with the most valuable person award, while Blue Dragon itself won the 'rookie' prize.