3rd Annual I.V.E.A. Awards by Verbal and Ryo

Well it is that time of year again when Verbal and I after hundreds and hundreds of hours of playing games to come together and make our picks for the best of the best. I know there is a thread already for Chud Game of Year, but Verbal and I have been doing this for a while now, and like to have our own thread for people to discuss our choices.

3rd Annual I.V.E.A. Awards

Best Vocal Song – Utada Hikaru “Simple and Clean” (Kingdom Hearts)
Honorable Mentions – Izzy “Wish” (Rygar), Joanne Hogg “Kokoro” Xenosaga

Best Synthesized Song – Nobuo Uematsu “Long Fall” (Final Fantasy XI)
Honorable Mentions – “Future Seen Through a Stare” and “Shenmue 2 Opening Theme” both (Shenmue 2)

Best Orchestrated Song – Michael Giacchino “After the Drop” (Medal of Honor: Frontline)
Honorable Mentions – Yoko Shimomora “March Caprice For Piano and Orchestra” (Kingdom Hearts) Yasunori Mitsuda “Gnosis” (Xenosaga), Michael Giacchino “Escaping Gotha” (Medal of Honor: Frontline)

Best Main Theme – Nobuo Uematsu “Final Fantasy XI Opening Theme” (Final Fantasy XI)
Honorable Mentions - Yoko Shimomora “Kingdom Hearts Theme Hikari” (Kingdom Hearts), Richard Jacques “Jack’s Theme” (Headhunter)

Best Special Release CD – Nobuo Uematsu “20020222 Final Fantasy Live Concert”
Honorable Mentions – Nobuo Uematsu “Final Fantasy X Piano Collection”

Best Score - Michael Giacchino “Medal of Honor: Frontline”
Honorable Mentions – Richard Jacques “Headhunter”, Yoko Shimomora “Kingdom Hearts”, Yasunori Mitsuda “Xenosaga”, Nobuo Uematsu “Final Fantasy XI”

Best Platform Game – Super Mario Sunshine
Honorable Mentions – Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Sly Cooper and the Thevious Racconus, Ratchet and Clank

Most Innovative Game - Steel Battalion
Honorable Mentions - Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Mr. Mosquito, Rez

Best Racing Game – Rallisport Challenge
Honorable Mention – Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (X-box Version)

Best Sports Game – Madden 2003
Honorable Mentions –World Series Baseball, NFL Fever 2003, NHL 2003

Best Extreme Sports Game – Tony Hawk 4

Best Music/Rhythm Game – Rez
Honorable Mentions – Mad Maestro, Parapper the Rapper 2

Best Action Game – Splinter Cell
Honorable Mentions – Contra: Shattered Soldier, Headhunter, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance

Best RPG – Kingdom Hearts
Honorable Mention – Wild Arms: 3rd Advanced, Grandia Xtreme

Best Graphics Technical – Splinter Cell

Best Graphics Artistic – Rygar: The Legendary Adventure
Honorable Mention – Kingdom Hearts, Shenmue 2, Mark of Kri, Jet Set Radio Future

Best Graphics Overall Appearance – Resident Evil Zero

Best Survival Horror Game – Fatal Frame
Honorable Mentions – Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil 1

Surprise Game 2002 – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Honorable Mention – Headhunter, Mark of Kri

Best Game Design – Metroid Prime
Honorable Mention – Splinter Cell

Best Adventure Game – Shenmue 2
Honorable Mentions – Metroid Prime, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Star Fox Adventures

Best FPS – Metroid Prime
Honorable Mention – Red Faction 2, Timesplitters 2

Best PS2 Game – Kingdom Hearts
Honorable Mentions – Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Sly Cooper and the Thevious Racconus, Ratchet and Clank, Socom: US Navy Seals

Best Gamecube Game – Metroid Prime
Honorable Mentions – Star Fox Adventures, Super Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil Zero

Best X-box Game – Splinter Cell
Honorable Mentions – Shenmue 2, Unreal Championship, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Mech Assault, Blinx: The Time Sweeper

Verbal’s Favorite Game of the Year – Kingdom Hearts

Ryo Hazuki’s Favorite Game of the Year – Shenmue 2

Best Game of the Year – Splinter Cell
Honorable Mentions – Metroid Prime, Shenmue 2, Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Kingdom Hearts

Thanks, Agent86. Mark of Kri was a great game, definitely had the shock value going for it, and the control scheme was very nice.

A few more categories were just decided on...

Best Fighting Game - Virtua Fighter 4
Honorable Mention - Tekken 4

Best Party Game - Super Monkey Ball 2
Honorable Mention - Mario Party 4

Sadly no, we havent played FFXI or Xenosaga, I just have the soundtracks for them, since they are released in Japan months ahead of time. I never really thought about the Japanese version of Simple and Clean, but if I don't know which one is better to be honest, they are both great.

Edit: Also a few more misc categories.

Best Title Screens (Included both animations and music) - Metroid Prime
Honorable Mentions - Mark of Kri

Best Opening Cinematic - Resident Evil Zero
Honorable Mentions - Fatal Frame, Rygar: The Legendary Adventure

Best Credits Score - Yoko Shimora "March Caprice for Piano and Orchestra" (Kingdom Hearts)
Honorable Mentions - Izzy "Wish" (Rygar: The Legendary Adventure)

Any other year it may have gotten the honorable mention but now that game music has become very popular among game fans to listen to, the developers are taking alot of time with the music portion of the game. In doing so the competition is very fierce now, and with the honorable mentions we put up there, we could have put a few more honorable mentions up there without even getting to the Morrowind Score, that is how good this year has been for game music.

I didn't.

Sorry but the score of the year went to Nobuo Uematsu for Final Fantasy X, maybe it was alittle unfair because the FFX score had 91 songs on it, so it had more chances to get a quality song on it next to MGS 2's score which only had I believe 17 tracks. This year though as you can tell Medal of Honor: Frontline won and that only had 16-17 tracks not sure. Harry Gregson-Williams won for best main theme for MGS 2, last year.

Post of the wee morning hours.

Me too, it never gets old. There will be a live orchestrated version of the song performed at the Videogame Music Concert at the Hollywood Bowl on May 16.

[quote]otisthecat:
Honestly I wasn't that amazed by it, it was too similar to the first one's opening scene. I know the same could be made by RE0's opening being very similar to REmake's, but the RE0 opening movie amazed me still.