Negative World 2024 GOTY Awards | Negative World Nintendo

Before we get started, I want to clarify to anyone who has stumbled upon our GOTY awards that we are a Nintendo-focused site, and our awards reflect that. This doesn’t mean that we don’t love and play games on other platforms, but for the sake of these awards we stick to games that appear on Nintendo platforms only.

Also, for these awards we define eShop as anything that seems more focused on the eShop than retail (indies, etc.), while our regular awards apply to games that seem more focused on a retail release. There is no clear line between the two and we do the best we can to put games into the categories that make the most sense!

So let’s get to it!

Best Visuals
And the winner is…

Unicorn Overlord (24 points)
Runner-ups:
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (19 points)
Neva (15 points)

Not quite:
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (12 points)
Pizza Tower (11 points)
Mario & Luigi: Brothership (10 points)

This was a year for style over tech when it came to graphics, with Unicorn Overlord nabbing the top spot with its exceptionally detailed characters and environments. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year door will never not look great, and Neva is about as artsy as you can get.

Best Audio
And the winner is…

Animal Well (28 points)
Runner-ups:
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (19 points)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (15 points)

Not quite:
Mario & Luigi: Brothership (6 points)
(tie) Balatro (4 points)
(tie) Pizza Tower (4 points)

Animal Well is a key example of why this award is called best audio, with a soundtrack that you may not remember, but an atmosphere of excellent sound design that is hard to forget, showing that sometimes less is more. Paper Mario and Zelda fall on the other side of things, with upbeat songs that just make you feel happy.

Best Narrative
And the winner is…

Unicorn Overlord (18 points)
Runner-ups:
Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club (14 points)
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (13 points)

Not quite:
SteamWorld Heist II (7 points)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (6 points)
Mario & Luigi: Brothership (3 points)

Unicorn Overlord wins its second award with an epic narrative of liberation, while the weird and creepy Emio and the uh… also weird and creepy Lorelei had narratives that resonated with us as well.

Switch eShop Most Wanted
And the winner is…

Mina The Hollower (35 points)
Runner-ups:
Hollow Knight: Silksong (26 points)
Hades II (20 points)

Not quite:
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound (17 points)
Rift of the NecroDancer (6 points)
Haunted Chocolatier (2 points)

Hollow Knight: Silksong regains its spot from its eShop most wanted usurper of 2023, Hades II, but in a shocking twist newcomer Mina the Hollower surpasses them both! Of course, a new game from the developers of Shovel Knight taking the top spot isn't a huge surprise.

Switch eShop GOTY
And the winner is…

Animal Well (30 points)
Runner-ups:
Balatro (21 points)
SteamWorld Heist II (18 points)

Not quite:
Penny's Big Breakaway (13 points)
Pizza Tower (10 points)
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (8 points)

Speaking of not being a surprise, it's pretty clear that the unique Metroidvania Animal Well was a beloved game around here, resulting in it beating out indie darling Balatro for the eShop GOTY. SteamWorld Heist was also a beloved game on NW, and the sequel puts up a good showing against two beasts.

Switch Most Wanted
And the winner is…

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (74 points)
Runner-ups:
Pokémon Legends: Z-A (25 points)
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition (15 points)

Not quite:
Professor Layton and the New World of Steam (11 points)
Civilization VII (6 points)
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (1 point)

We finally have gameplay images to use for the very, very long awaited and almost always winner of this category Metroid Prime 4! And supposedly it is releasing this year, so will we have a new champion next year? Pokémon and Xenoblade X did what they could against the monster of Prime 4.

Switch GOTY
And the winner is…

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (46 points)
Runner-ups:
(tie) Super Mario Party Jamboree (13 points)
(tie) Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble (13 points)

Not quite:
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (7 points)
Mario & Luigi: Brothership (6 points)
Princess Peach: Showtime! (1 points)

While it wasn't the biggest year of the Switch by any means, we did receive a surprise brand new Zelda game in the style of the Link's Awakening remake, as well as some solid Mario Party and Monkey Ball games that while maybe not quite up there with the best in their franchises, were still great entries on their own terms.

Strange side note: Unicorn Overlord won two of our other awards but didn't even get enough nominations to be considered for our Switch GOTY.

And that’s it for our GOTY 2024 awards. For 2025 we will have a whole new console and a bunch of Switch 2 games to consider! Thanks to anyone still around! Things have slowed down a bit but we're still here!

If you’re interested, you can view our GOTY results for past years here! And if you're reading this and not a member yet, get yourself signed up, ok? You can sign up right now in less than a minute. All accounts are totally free! Go for it!

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