The Golden Joystick Awards is celebrating 50 years of video games this year and is set to answer the age-old question: which game is the greatest of all time?
The prestigious awards show, which is presented by GamesRadar+, will pit the likes of Halo: Combat Evolved, Grand Theft Auto V, and Super Mario 64 against each other in a fight to see who will be crowned the ‘Ultimate Game of All Time’ by the public.
But it’s not just video games whose fate will be determined by the voting public. The Golden Joystick Awards will also decide what the ‘Best Gaming Hardware of All Time’ is, and includes the Atari 2600, Wii, and Xbox 360 to name but a few.
There are 20 nominees in each category, and while not everyone’s favorite will have made the cut, it’s an impressive list of games and hardware that is bound to split opinion. (I’m going for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the Sega Dreamcast.)
Voting has now opened and closes at 3 pm PST / 6 pm EST / 11 pm GMT on Friday, November 12, so don’t miss your chance to register your vote for your all-time favorite. If you’re sick of The Last of Us winning every award under the sun or feel like the Nintendo GameCube was ahead of its time, your vote could make the difference.
Check out the full list of nominees below:
| Utlimate Game of All Time | Best Gaming Hardware of All Time |
|---|---|
| Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | Amiga 500 |
| Dark Souls | Atari 2600 |
| Doom (1993) | Commodore 64 |
| Grand Theft Auto V | Sega Dreamcast |
| Half-Life 2 | Game Boy |
| Halo: Combat Evolved | Game Boy Advance |
| Metal Gear Solid | Nintendo GameCube |
| Minecraft | Nintendo 64 |
| Pac-Man | Nintendo DS |
| Pokémon Go | Nintendo Entertainment System |
| Portal | PC |
| SimCity (1989) | PlayStation |
| Street Fighter II | PlayStation 2 |
| Space Invaders | PlayStation 4 |
| Super Mario 64 | Sega Mega Drive/Genesis |
| Super Mario Bros. 3 | Sega Saturn |
| Super Mario Kart | Super Nintendo Entertainment System |
| The Last of Us | Wii |
| Tetris | Xbox 360 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | ZX Spectrum |
“We are delighted to celebrate 50 Years of Games in a landmark moment for the gaming industry,” said Daniel Dawkins, Future’s content director for games. “In November 1971, Computer Space became the world’s first commercially playable arcade machine, birthing a $150bn industry from a 10-cent coin. We’re celebrating this milestone by inviting the public to vote for their Ultimate Game of All Time and Best Gaming Hardware of All Time.”
The public vote winners will be revealed on November 23 via an online broadcast, and the event will also feature over 20 awards for the best games of 2021, including Ultimate Game of the Year and Studio of the Year.
Check out the Golden Joystick Awards 2021 for more information, or follow the Golden Joystick Awards’ social media channels on Twitter and Facebook.
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