Despite not being nominated for any other categories, Armored Core VI won Best Action Game at this year’s Game Awards.
While I already covered the situation regarding the various nominations for Armored Core VI, and Geoff Keighley’s previously documented bias against mecha games, it seems that the game at least won the only category it was nominated for, that of Best Action Game.
Personally, I am not all that interested in what happens at The Game Awards, but the fact that a Japanese mecha game won something at a Western gaming awards ceremony is rather curious.
This is because there has historically been a prejudice towards mecha games in the Western gaming press. Likely brought about the genre’s functional complexity and difficulty coupled with a long and storied pop-cultural history behind it.
After all, if a game schools you repeatedly and ties into a very involved and complex pop-cultural backdrop that you know nothing about, I’m sure some people would be petty and insecure and take that personally.
However, as Armored Core VI has followed in the wake of other difficult and challenging games, such as Elden Ring, those excuses are no longer tolerated. So at least the game was finally appraised on its action game merits.
I definitely enjoyed Armored Core VI, but it is not my favorite game in the series or even one that I regard as being the “best”, but it will be interesting to see how the series will evolve from this point onward.
In the meantime, I am just glad that the gaming press has had to git gud and finally appreciate what mecha games have to offer.
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