Wii Sports, Crackdown Win Big at BAFTAs

All the winners and non-winners (aka losers) inside.

Wii Sports has done a lot over the last year, from enticing retirees to pick up a Wii remote to showing mom that games can actually be fun - and helping Nintendo to sell boat loads of consoles in the process. There's one more accomplishment to tack on to the game's resume: multiple BAFTA Award winner.

At a no-doubt swanky affair in London this week, the British Association of Film and Television Arts handed out trophies to the creators of the best games of the year, a list that is overrun by Wii Sports.

The game won all but one of the seven awards it was up for, including nods for Gameplay and Innovation. The only award it was nominated for but didn't win was for Best Game, which ended up going to one of the night's other big winners, BioShock. Also bringing home a few was Xbox 360 action game Crackdown, which picked up awards in three categories.

For the most part, the awards were voted for by members of the games industry, but there was one, the PC World Gamers' Award, that was chosen by the public. The winner: Sega's Football Manger 2007 for the PC.

The night also saw a special award to Will Wright. Wright, the creator of SimCity, The Sims and the still-in-development galaxy creator Spore, was honoured with a fellowship to the academy - a first for a game creator.

Below is a complete list of all the winners (in italics) and nominees for this year's awards.

• Action and Adventure: Crackdown, Gears of War, God of War 2, The Orange Box, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• Artistic Achievement: Okami, BioShock, Heavenly Sword, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, Skate, Viva Pinata
• Best Game: BioShock, Crysis, Gears of War, Guitar Hero II, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Wii Sports
• Casual: Wii Sports, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, Cake Mania, Guitar Hero II, More Brain Training, SingStar
• Gameplay: Wii Sports, Crackdown, Gears of War, Sega Rally, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Warhawk
• Innovation: Wii Sports, fl0w, Okami, Super Paper Mario, Eye of Judgment, Trauma Center: Second Opinion
• Multiplayer: Wii Sports, Battlefield 2142, Crackdown, Guitar Hero II, World in Conflict, World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
• Original Score: Okami, Final Fantasy XII, God of War 2, Lair, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Viva Pinata
• Sports: Wii Sports, Colin McRae: DiRT, FIFA 08, Football Manager 2008, MotorStorm, Virtua Tennis 3
• Strategy and Simulation: Wii Sports, Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars, Forza Motorsport 2, Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, Rainbow Six Vegas, World in Conflict
• Story and Character: God of War 2, Final Fantasy XII, Heavenly Sword, Okami, the Darkness, the Simpsons Game
• Technical Achievement: God of War 2, Crackdown, Gears of War, MotorStorm, Okami, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
• Use of Audio: Crackdown, Elite Beat Agents, Gears of War, God of War 2, Guitar Hero II, Skate
• BAFTA One's to Watch Award: Ragnarawk, ClimbActic, Bear Go Home
• PC World Gamers' Award: Football Manager 2007, Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, FIFA 07, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Resistance: Fall of Man, Wii Play

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo