The game awards is the most prestigious segment of the Tokyo Game Show, taking the spotlight from all the game announcements and discussion panels. Out of all of the games from 2019 to the beginning of 2020, ten games where awarded the Award of Excellence from various Japanese developers and publishers. Every game that was given an Award of Excellence is later put in the running to receive the Grand Game of the Year Award, something that every developer aims to get.
The games to receive this award are: Ring Fit Adventure from Nintendo, Pokemon Sword and Shield from Nintendo, Persona 5 from Atlus, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim from Vanillaware. Death Stranding from Kojima Productions, Fire Emblem: Three Houses from Nintendo, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne from Capcom, Yakuza: Like a Dragon from Sega, Nioh 2 from Team Ninja and finally, Animal Crossing: New Horizons from Nintendo.
All of the games that were given an Award of Excellence came from genres across the whole spectrum of gaming. The judges respected the variety of games that came out and were selected, even games like Death Stranding that the judges are expecting to define a new genre in the future. While all of the games that were excellent in their own right, only one game was able to take home the Grand Game of the Year award.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons was given the Game of the Year Award. While Animal Crossing: New Horizons was the most casual game in the above listing and the first casual game to be award Game of the Year in awhile, Animal Crossing: New Horizons gained a lot of popularity and recognition for bringing friends together while Japan was still under lockdown with stay at home orders.
The Tokyo Game Show also has Awards given out to indie developers, Games with unique design, and an award for games developed by people under 18.