21st DICE Awards Crown Nintendo's Zelda Breath Of The Wild Game Of The Year

Each year the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) holds an annual games award show and this year was the 21st annual event. The awards show crowns a game of the year and hands out other awards during the show. Nintendo cleaned up with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild receiving four awards in various categories including Game of the Year. Breath of the Wild is in good company, the Game of the Year winner for 2016 was Fallout 4.

"Every year, the D.I.C.E. Awards brings the global interactive entertainment industry under one roof to recognize and honor the very best in video games – the games that captivated and inspired us, and kept us entertained for hours on end," said Meggan Scavio, president, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. "On behalf of the Academy, I am thrilled to congratulate this year’s winners of the 21st D.I.C.E. Awards."

In addition to Game of the Year, Breath of the Wild also won awards for Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, and Adventure Game of the Year. Other awards handed out include Immersive Reality Technical Achievement going to Lone Echo/Echo Arena published by Oculus Studios; that game also won Immersive Reality Game of the Year.

Mobile Game of the Year went to Fire Emblem Heroes from Nintendo. Handheld Game of the Year was Metroid: Samus Returns from Nintendo. The D.I.C.E. Sprite Award went to Nintendo's Snipperclips. The award for Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay went to Playerunknown's Battlegrounds from Bluehole.

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year was Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle from Ubisoft. Sports Game of the year was FIFA 18, RPG of the Year was NierR: Automata from Square Enix, and Racing Game of the Year was Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Fighting Game of the Year was Injustice 2, Family Game of the Year was Snipperclips, Action Game of the Year was PUBG. Horizon Zero Dawn from Sony Interactive Entertainment took home awards for Outstanding Technical Achievement and Outstanding Achievement in a Story.

Nintendo took home an award for outstanding sound design with Super Mario Odyssey. Cuphead won Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, and Outstanding Achievement in Animation. Outstanding Achievement in Character went to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - Senua from Ninja Theory.

D.I.C.E. wrote, "In addition to the awards for the industry’s best games and creators from the previous year, the D.I.C.E. Awards also celebrated Genyo Takeda, Special Corporate Advisor at Nintendo, with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the seventh recipient to receive the honor from the Academy. Takeda was recognized for having been at the forefront of shaping the video games hardware industry in his career-long tenure at Nintendo with the development of the Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube and the Wii system."