Since its release back in 2007, Super Mario Galaxy has become one of the most acclaimed video games ever made, and will go down in history with the likes of Tetris, Super Mario World and A Link to the Past as one of gaming’s greatest treasures. It has already won a slew of awards (including being the first game to be unanimously named Game of the Year by the likes of IGN, Gamespot and EDGE magazine), Super Mario Galaxy has added yet another award to its belt, as it was named Best Game from the British Academy Video Game Awards.

While it may sound odd that a game released in 2007 would win a Game of the Year award at this point in time, games released from October 26 of 2007 up to December 31 2008 were eligible for the awards.  What makes its victory all the more meaningful was it was up against the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV, which is a game I believe to be the bane of video game art (I have been known to go on rants about that). Grand Theft Auto IV failed to grab a single award, but Super Mario Galaxy’s star was  the one that shined the brightest (pardon the obvious pun there). The British Academy Video Game Awards have restored some of my faith in the gaming community, as they have proven video games should not be about controversy, violence, the technical power of a console, or an over-reliance on creation tools (I’m lookin’ at you LittleBigPlanet!),  video games should be about fun and innovation. Pure and simple. They should be able to capture one’s imagination just by being what they are.

If only we could get a REAL video game award show here in the US of A, instead of that gutter trash known as the Spike TV video game awards.

Congratulations to Nintendo’s Tokyo studio for making such a wonderful game.