There is something that has bothered me for years now, the Spike TV Video Game Awards (or as they should be called, the Spike TV PS3 and 360 game awards). I have intended to write about this for a while actually, but now, with the dreadful event looming its hideous head once again, it seemed like an appropriate time to finally state my opinions on these supposed “awards.” The Spike TV Video Game Awards, to put it lightly, are an abomination. They are a sad, pathetic disgrace to the artistry of games, and serve as nothing but a mindless showcase of bias and juvenile antics that cater to no one but the disgruntled thirteen-year olds who make up the Xbox Live community. Though I suppose the name Spike TV should already give away impossible idiocy, the sad thing is this is the only form of “mainstream” video game awards we have here in the United States, and people accept them as such. It seems I am alone in actually wanting a decent award show for the medium I love.

The Spike TV Video Game Awards will perform antics as mind bogglingly stupid as writing the name of a winner of a category on the leg of a scantily clad woman. Yeah, that’ll show people how classy and artistic video games can be. And I guess envelopes are scarce these days.

And what is with Samuel L. Jackson hosting these things so often? Since when has he been a voice in the gaming world? If they are aiming to get a celebrity to host these things, why not get someone who is a confessed gamer, like Vin Diesel or Robin Williams? Or even Jimmy Fallon lets the world know how big of a video game fan he is. What has Samuel L. Jackson ever done to show the world his love of gaming? Robin Williams named his daughter after an iconic Nintendo character, how can you top that?

But the most disgraceful thing about these abominable awards is their unrestrained bias towards western games, and their disgusting bias against Nintendo.

Every year it’s the same thing, all of these overly hyped western games on the PS3 and Xbox 360 get nominated for everything, notably Game of the Year, whilst the only awards that Nintendo games (or any Japanese games for that matter) are nominated for are Best Wii Game and Best Handheld Game. Forget that Nintendo not only pioneered the video game industry, but continue to revolutionize it on a ridiculously frequent basis, culminating in finally turning video games  into a mainstream medium. And not only that, but they continue to craft some of the greatest and most heralded games of all time.

Let’s look at Spike TV’s Video Game Award nominees for Game of the Year for 2010:

Halo Reach

Red Dead Redemption

Mass Effect 2

Call of Duty: Black-ops

The same exact types of western video games that are always nominated. I try to be fair and open-minded about all games, though I’m afraid my appraisals for western games often times only go so far, as they rarely ever try to bring any new ideas to the table, are sorely unimaginative, and only serve to further solidify the juvenile outlook most people have on video games. Granted, the nominees this year are far better than previous years (though Black-ops has received criticisms for some of my aforementioned reasons), the fact stands that they are still the same lot of games that always are nominated for these bogus awards.

And let me take a moment to point out that Super Mario Galaxy 2, like the first Mario Galaxy, is better reviewed and more acclaimed than not only all of these nominees, but more so than anything that has ever been released on any Sony or Microsoft Console. Ever. Think about that, it’s more acclaimed than anything on Playstations 1, 2 and 3, Xbox and Xbox 360. And yet, the only thing it’s nominated for is “Best Wii Game.” No mention in the Game of the Year category, and no, not even its grand musical score is nominated for Best Original Score. To say that’s laughable is an understatement, it’s downright dumbfounding.

And now let’s bring this into an even bigger perspective. A few years ago, 50 Cent: Bulletproof, a game that was slandered and despised by critics and fans alike, was nominated for Game of the Year. Again, 50 Cent: Bulletproof gets a Game of the Year mention, Super Mario Galaxy 2 (or 1 for that matter) gets nothing.

All of this bias for western games these days is sickening. I grow impossibly tired of bald space-marines, crime-riddled cities, post-apocalyptic futures, and quote/unquote “realistic warfare.” And yet, these same old M rated titles continue to get lavished with praise (and sadly, not just from the Spike TV Awards), while people seem to ignore any great imaginative Japanese title that gets released. People even slander the Wii as nothing more than a console exclusively for casual gamers, and seem to purposefully turn a blind eye to all the (bountiful) quality titles on said console. Because in the increasingly juvenile gaming community, people have deluded themselves into thinking that blazing guns and spurts of blood are what constitute quality games.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is a game that is explosive with imagination. With a single stage showcasing more ideas than most western games in their entirety. And, like all the best Mario games, there is an overwhelming sense of optimism that accompanies it. Its sheer imagination is, in itself, something poetic.

It seems Nintendo games are to video games what animated films are to movies. Both in the senses that they both have a timeless appeal and magic about them that their more contemporary counterparts lack, and that they both victimized by unfair biases of the creatively ignorant.

People seem to undermine the sheer artistry of imagination itself. Certainly all of these convoluted sci-fi plots and shoot-em-ups lack the simple yet indescribable beauty of bringing a smile to one’s face simply by being what it is.

If I were to be a part of a video game award committee, I would vote for the games that I feel presented the most enthralling game design. But it seems the people who are in charge of these things focus solely on whatever games appear to be the “coolest” amongst the most juvenile of gamers.

Other games nominated for Best Wii Game that have no mention anywhere else are Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Metroid: Other M and Donkey Kong Country Returns. Other M has received some mixed reactions, so that’s not much of a shock, but Kirby’s Epic Yarn has been heralded for its originality and striking visual design and DKCR has received immense pre-release praise, already being hailed as one of the best platformers ever.

Bet they are relegated solely to “Best Wii Game.” They get no recognition in other categories. The E rating, the cute and likable characters, and the fact that these games are made in Japan prevents them from receiving the recognition they deserve due to heavy and unashamed biases for M rated, violent western titles.

And again, I repeat that the saddest thing about all of this is that these Spike TV Awards are accepted as “the awards for video games.” Tragic really. The video game medium is without a true and honest award show. The Spike TV Video Game Awards serve as nothing more than yet another means for people to point their fingers at the entire video game medium and accuse them of juvenile idiocy.

I dream of a honest video game award ceremony in which any great game can get recognition for the artistry of  their designs, and not play heavy biases for whatever overhyped western games are released. But as it stands, a dream is all that is.