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Nintendo and Mario dominate E3 2017 Game Critics Awards

They’ve captured our hearts

Super Mario Odyssey - Mario throwing white top hat Cappy
That’s a fancy-looking Cappy in Super Mario Odyssey.
Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Samit Sarkar (he/him) is Polygon’s deputy managing editor. He has more than 15 years of experience covering video games, movies, television, and technology.

Nintendo and its most famous Italian plumber swept the main categories of this year’s Game Critics Awards, the honors given by the world’s foremost gaming publications to the best playable games of E3.

The top three awards all went to Nintendo Switch titles. Super Mario Odyssey won the Best of Show award and Best Console Game, while Best Original Game went to Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. In addition, those two games were the only ones to win in multiple categories — Kingdom Battle also took the Best Strategy Game honor, and Odyssey won the hotly contested Best Action/Adventure Game award over strong competitors like Assassin's Creed Origins and Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

Nintendo led all publishers with four awards; the company was only nominated in five of the 17 categories. (The company’s lone loss came in the Best Fighting Game field, where Arms — which launched the day after E3 2017 ended — was defeated by Arc System Works’ Dragon Ball FighterZ.) Bandai Namco, Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Ubisoft each won in two categories.

You can check out the full list of winners below, and compare them to the nominees, which were announced Monday.

Best of Show
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo for Nintendo Switch)

Best Original Game
Mario + Rabbids Battle Kingdom (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft for Nintendo Switch)

Best Console Game
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo for Nintendo Switch)

Best VR Game
Lone Echo (Ready at Dawn/Oculus Studios for PC)

Best PC Game
Destiny 2 (Bungie/Activision)

Best Handheld Game
Metroid: Samus Returns (MercurySteam/Nintendo for Nintendo 3DS)

Best Hardware/Peripheral
Xbox One X (Microsoft)

Best Action Game
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus (MachineGames/Bethesda Softworks for PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Best Action/Adventure Game
Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo for Nintendo Switch)

Best Role Playing Game
Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom (Level-5/Bandai Namco Entertainment for PC, PS4)

Best Racing Game
Forza Motorsport 7 (Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft Studios for PC, Xbox One)

Best Fighting Game
Dragon Ball FighterZ (Arc System Works/Bandai Namco Entertainment for PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Best Sports Game
FIFA 18 (EA Vancouver/Electronic Arts for PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)

Best Strategy Game
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft for Nintendo Switch)

Best Family Game
Hidden Agenda (Supermassive Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment for PS4)

Best Online Multiplayer
Star Wars Battlefront 2 (EA DICE/Motive/Criterion/Electronic Arts for PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Best Independent Game
The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti (Beethoven & Dinosaur/Annapurna Interactive for PC, Xbox One)

The next level of puzzles.

Take a break from your day by playing a puzzle or two! We’ve got SpellTower, Typeshift, crosswords, and more.

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