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With 19% of the final vote and just 3 votes ahead of second favourite, Splatoon - Undertale is the winner of the first ever Official GBAtemp Game of the Year vote.
Don't blame us, you decided!

Undertale Review
GBAtemp GotY Final Round

 

[tarovisions]

Sounds like Starmen.net is gonna become a major clusterfuck... Or maybe it already has.

The sad part is, hardly anyone actually knows this.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

I expected this. Undertale is basically a Mother ripoff, and the Mother series is one of the most overrated RPG series in existence. The plague that is Nintendo fans of course banded together to vote for a game because of "muh nostalgia". Ugh. I can only imagine that shitstorm that will transpire once the FF VII Remake hits shelves.

 

[osm70]

I expected this. Undertale is basically a Mother ripoff, and the Mother series is one of the most overrated RPG series in existence. The plague that is Nintendo fans of course banded together to vote for a game because of "muh nostalgia". Ugh. I can only imagine that shitstorm that will transpire once the FF VII Remake hits shelves.

I played Mother.
I played Undertale.
They are completely different games. Not similiar at all.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

I played Mother.
I played Undertale.
They are completely different games. Not similiar at all.

Remove the atrociously gimmicky bullet-hell battle system and the SMT negations mechanic, it's pretty much Mother/Earthbound. The aesthetic and atmosphere are extremely identical which points Mother being a major inspiration for Undertale. Claiming they're not even remotely the same is clear fanboy denial. That or flat-out ignorance.

 

[TobiasAmaranth]

It's times like these that I'm disappointed in humanity. Normally I'm personally very against all the mainstream OMGTHISISSOAMAZING stuff, because it legitimately isn't to my taste. But when I heard bits and pieces about Undertale, I knew I had to at least give it a try before I encountered spoilers or overly-passionate fanboys who don't know how to express said passion. So I played it. Without tainted input from other people, I played it with a best friend of mine and we both went different routes. Pure pacifist for me, and a neutral route for her because she's not much of a gamer. But she played anyway. And in the end, we both had a wonderful time.

In fact, to me, the game had several moments of "What? Really? WOAH!" because I entered into it without spoilers. Without letting my impressions of the game be ruined by others. I let it be the fresh experience it needs to be in order to shine. That's a near-impossibility if you're someone who frequents Tumblr or Twitter, and I can understand how annoying the game might feel to those that didn't get the chance to play it on their own. A lot of people don't like to feel forced into playing something when everyone else is already acting like goobers about it. But take it for what it is, an emotionally driven game that plays with the meta of what it is to reload, and it's surprisingly good. And personally, as someone who misses when music was actually memorable in games rather than just background filler, Undertale really sets the tone with their music tracks, and so many of them really stick with you. It took almost a month after I finished all the different runs in order for the music to finally shake its way out of my head.

If you have played it and genuinely couldn't get into it, then I won't call you emotionally dead, but hey, at least you tried. If you honestly haven't given the game a chance, however, then my personal request to you is to take a few deep breaths, and approach the game with a clear perception. Stick with it with that open mind, and if you really still hate it by the end of the game and want nothing else to do with it, then fine. But at least you tried.

And while the game drew inspirations from Earthbound, yeahso? It wasn't ripping it off, and really does barely have anything in common with it other than choosing to be emotionally driven and goofy as heck. Even in the future, I don't think I'll be complaining if people make games inspired by Undertale. I'm curious to see what gets made a few years from now.

 

[osm70]

Remove the atrociously gimmicky bullet-hell battle system and the SMT negations mechanic, it's pretty much Mother/Earthbound. The aesthetic and atmosphere are extremely identical which points Mother being a major inspiration for Undertale. Claiming they're not even remotely the same is clear fanboy denial. That or flat-out ignorance.

Fanboy denial?

I like Undertale and I like Mother series. Why would I be in denial?

 

[vayanui8]

It's times like these that I'm disappointed in humanity. Normally I'm personally very against all the mainstream OMGTHISISSOAMAZING stuff, because it legitimately isn't to my taste. But when I heard bits and pieces about Undertale, I knew I had to at least give it a try before I encountered spoilers or overly-passionate fanboys who don't know how to express said passion. So I played it. Without tainted input from other people, I played it with a best friend of mine and we both went different routes. Pure pacifist for me, and a neutral route for her because she's not much of a gamer. But she played anyway. And in the end, we both had a wonderful time.

In fact, to me, the game had several moments of "What? Really? WOAH!" because I entered into it without spoilers. Without letting my impressions of the game be ruined by others. I let it be the fresh experience it needs to be in order to shine. That's a near-impossibility if you're someone who frequents Tumblr or Twitter, and I can understand how annoying the game might feel to those that didn't get the chance to play it on their own. A lot of people don't like to feel forced into playing something when everyone else is already acting like goobers about it. But take it for what it is, an emotionally driven game that plays with the meta of what it is to reload, and it's surprisingly good. And personally, as someone who misses when music was actually memorable in games rather than just background filler, Undertale really sets the tone with their music tracks, and so many of them really stick with you. It took almost a month after I finished all the different runs in order for the music to finally shake its way out of my head.

If you have played it and genuinely couldn't get into it, then I won't call you emotionally dead, but hey, at least you tried. If you honestly haven't given the game a chance, however, then my personal request to you is to take a few deep breaths, and approach the game with a clear perception. Stick with it with that open mind, and if you really still hate it by the end of the game and want nothing else to do with it, then fine. But at least you tried.

And while the game drew inspirations from Earthbound, yeahso? It wasn't ripping it off, and really does barely have anything in common with it other than choosing to be emotionally driven and goofy as heck. Even in the future, I don't think I'll be complaining if people make games inspired by Undertale. I'm curious to see what gets made a few years from now.

I don't think anyone is saying its bad, almost everybody acknowledges that its at least good, but GOTY is a serious stretch, and the fact that it won a best game of all time poll is asinine.

 

[LittleFlame]

hmmm Nintendo fanboy tears it's delicious

 

[Hells Malice]

Remove the atrociously gimmicky bullet-hell battle system

You can say pretty much anything about Undertale, but the one thing it did right was that very neat battle system. It's incredibly fun for boss fights and stuff.
I hated absolutely everything about Undertale, but the battle system (during boss fights) was absurdly fun.

 

[osaka35]

Out of curiosity, do y'all think game of the year is based on how many people liked a game, how many think a game deserved it, or how well the game was built?

the poll basically asked' "yo, if you played any of these games, which one did you like the most?". This doesn't contain any need to compare games you haven't played to games you have played, nor to pick a better constructed game over a crappier constructed game. Just what you personally played and appealed to you. If you want different results, change the requirements or wording of future polls.

 

[LittleFlame]

Out of curiosity, do y'all think game of the year is based on how many people liked a game, how many think a game deserved it, or how well the game was built?

For me it's a mix of how much i liked it and how much it deserved it IMO

 

[VinsCool]

For me it's a mix of how much i liked it and how much it deserved it IMO

Same here.

 

[Hyperstar96]

"B-but it must be because of tumblr or nostalgiafags! There's no way a game I don't like and have never played can actually be good!!!"

That's what you all sound like. I voted for Splatoon but you're all acting like edgy children who despise something only because it's popular.

 

[LittleFlame]

Seriously the amount of hate Undertale is getting in this thread, all i can do is laugh
ha hahahaa ahahahaha
hillarious

"B-but it must be because of tumblr or nostalgiafags! There's no way a game I don't like and have never played can actually be good!!!"

^ Aw man you already summed up exactly what i feel darn you

 

[Foxi4]

That's what you all sound like. I voted for Splatoon but you're all acting like edgy children who despise something only because it's popular.

Popularity has nothing to do with quality, otherwise all the Justin Biebers of the world would be considered all-time classics. Games like The Witcher 3 are truly deserving of awards - they're a pinnacle of years of work, a seamless fruit of the labour of artists and coders alike, they blur the lines between video games and art. In stark contrast, Undertale is a derrivative small-scale Gamemaker production. There is just no comparison here, Undertale is not a "Game of the Year", it's the "Indie of the Week" at best. I can appreciate an Indie production for what it is, but the other picks were just objectively better in every department. Why should we use a different measuring stick for Undertale, because it's an Indie game? No chance.

 

[LittleFlame]

Popularity has nothing to do with quality, otherwise all the Justin Biebers of the world would be considered all-time classics. Games like The Witcher 3 are truly deserving of awards - they're a pinnacle of years of work, a seamless fruit of the labour of artists and coders alike, they blur the lines between video games and art. Undertale, by comparison, is a small-scale Gamemaker production. There is just no comparison here, Undertale is not a "Game of the Year", it's the "Indie of the Week" at best.

Can't judge on Witcher 3, never played any Witcher games tbh but they all look pretty sick, It's a majority vote though not a lot we can do about that
UNLESS people were making fake accounts to vote like they did over on gamefaqs

 

[Foxi4]

Can't judge on Witcher 3, never played any Witcher games tbh but they all look pretty sick, It's a majority vote though not a lot we can do about that
UNLESS people were making fake accounts to vote like they did over on gamefaqs

It's a matter of perspective, not taste. Giving GOTY to Undertale is like giving an Oscar to a backyard film by a no-name director with his cringy family starring as "actors" - it may be well-constructed and fun, but it's not the same caliber.

 

[LittleFlame]

It's a matter of perspective, not taste. Giving GOTY to Undertale is like giving an Oscar to a backyard film by a no-name director with his cringy family starring as "actors" - it may be well-constructed and fun, but it's not the same caliber.

What people liked about Undertale was less the gameplay and more the writing, at least the people i talk to

 

[TecXero]

I wouldn't say Undertale is the best game of the year, but it's definitely the most surprising and easily my favorite for the year.

 

[Foxi4]

What people liked about Undertale was less the gameplay and more the writing, at least the people i talk to

If people liked the writing and not the gameplay then they should buy a book. The other games had excellent writing, excellent settings, excellent sound, excellent graphics and, most importantly, excellent gameplay. Video games are a multifaceted medium and a Game of the Year should tick all the boxes in all departments. Undertale is just another "pseudo-retro" game that's designed to tickle your retro sensibilities - I'm sick and tired of this style. I'll go on a little tangent here because I think I know why people like it - they like it because it's so "retro". Pixelated graphics do not make a video game good, I can't wait till we finally get over this hurdle as gamers, because guess what? Big studios noticed this trend and are now releasing their own pixelated garbage, not because it's a form of artistic expression, but because they know their audience is a bunch of suckers that will gobble this sort of thing up no questions asked. I genuinely fear that this trend will be detrimental to aesthetics in video games. Retro games were pixelated due to technical limitations, not because the artists wanted them to look that way. Praising this style is the equivalent of wearing a moth-ridden and raggedy outfit bought in Goodwill and thinking that it's stylish - it's not, you're just wearing clothes that belong in a different decade. They're not "yours", this "style" doesn't belong to you, you're just appropriating it like a hipster because you've convinced yourself that it means something when it doesn't. To put it bluntly, it's fake. The only thing I see is that your shirt has a hole or two and I suspect that you have moth eggs in your pockets, so I won't invite you to my house - I like my *actual* clothes too much to risk contamination. The same applies to other "pseudo-retro" ideas like the lack of or really simplistic animation, outdated control schemes, distinct lack of modern features etc. - artificially making your product outdated in any aspect does not make it "good", "nostalgic" or "a throwback", it makes it crippled by design, and that doesn't sit well with me.