Evidently the Japanese rewards season starts late. While all the American gaming publications practically announce their game of the year awards before the year is over, Famitsu, Japan's foremost gaming magazine, wait s almost a full four months to release their winners. Wait, you mean they give those end of year games a chance to percolate and actually get played through possibly more then once? This makes absolutely no sense at all! Awards should be handed out as near as possible to the holiday seasons so that judgments are made entirely on pre-release hype.

So after giving the games all this time to actually be played, what have they come up with? Well there is a hell of a lot more Nintendo love on the list. How about Wii Music getting an award for greatest innovation? Not many Westerners are going to agree with that one. I can't read moonspeak, but I'm guessing these awards only go out to Japanese game developers, since there is a World-wide Award that went to Grand Theft Auto. That would explain a lot of the missing big name games on the list. Then again Japan has very different gaming habits than America does so it could just be they love these games more. 

Game Of The Year
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G

Most Valuable Person
Hideo Kojima

Game Character of The Year
Snake

Game Company of They Year
Capcom

Special Awards
Rookie Title Grand-Prize
The Last Remnant

Innovation Grand-Pize
Wii Music

High Quality Grand-Prize
Metal Gear Solid 4

Best Seller Grand-Prize
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G

Awards In Excellence
Racing Game Prize
Mario Kart Wii

Multi-Play Game Prize
Super Smash Bros. Brawl

All Generation Prize
Pokémon Platinum

Communication Game Prize
Animal Crossing: City Folk

Adventure & Puzzle Prize
Professor Layton and The Last Time Travel

Masterpiece Prize
Dragon Quest V

Character & Action Game Prize
DISSIDIA Final Fantasy

Role Playing Game Prize
Tales of Vesperia

Dramatic Prize
428: In a Blockaded Shibuya

PlayStation 2 Game Prize
Persona 4

World-wide Prize
Grand Theft Auto IV