This article is for an analysis of which games are likely to win GotY awards at the majority of gaming journalism sources, and my own personal GotY thoughts as per my tastes. Feel free to discuss this in the comments.
For this year, in my opinion Uncharted 2 is set to win all the GotY awards from the usual sources, the hype-train for it has been immense and the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. The only thing I could see happening is Modern Warfare 2 creating an upset and stealing the show. It's got a bit of a wildcard element, in being on track to achieving some record-breaking sales numbers, but some of the major sources may not appreciate the PC version fiasco, as evidenced by the PC version getting lower review scores on average to the console versions, which are reviewing pretty well.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii also has a shot, I think. It's too early to tell how it's going to review overall, but NSMB on the DS sold like crazy, and Mario has that iconic name brand; he's the Mickey Mouse of gaming, as it were. Adding multiplayer to the tried and true 2D Mario formula was definitely a gambit, and we'll see if it pays off. It may be too little, too late in the minds of reviewers, though, what with LittleBIGPlanet also being a platformer with 4 player co-op but also featuring online play, which NSMBW lacks.
At the time of writing this, I haven't played Uncharted 2 yet because I haven't even beat the first Uncharted, so I can't really give a personal opinion of it (I'm not even sure I'll get around to beating both of them before the year is over, lol.)
As for my personal GotY picks, Borderlands might end up being it for me. I'm very fond of good co-op games, especially ones that fall into my friend's lines of interest, so a co-op oriented FPS with RPG elements was just what the doctor ordered. It has a slight Diablo/World of Warcraft feel to it, and I feel like takes the best elements of those kind of games and the best aspects of campaign-oriented FPSes, and blends them seamlessly.
I'm very much confident that MW2 is gonna impress me. MW was easily my favorite console FPS this gen, and MW2, from what I've heard, just builds upon what made MW great. (Warhawk, a TPS, was also extremely good, imo, as far as console shooter games go, but I ended up forgetting about it, since new DLC kept coming out for it, and I didn't wanna keep shelling out the cash for it since I don't play online shooters all that often.) I'll post my impressions later.
I'm very hyped for NSMBW. Back in the day, 2 player in the Mario games was the old-fashioned "take turns" style, SM64 and SMS both lacked multiplayer, and SMG's multiplayer barely counts as multiplayer, so I'm very excited at the prospect of 4 player co-op in a 2D Mario game. NSMB for the DS was fun, don't get me wrong, but it didn't really "wow" me at all, and it was pretty easy, so I was a bit pensive at first, but after watching some NSMBW gameplay trailers, it looks worlds above NSMB for the DS in the gameplay department, imo. I had felt like NSMB for the DS had a lot of potential, with how it integrated some aspects of the 3D games into a 2D Mario, but felt like it was ultimately wasted potential, but NSMBW could be great with those mechanics, and much to my delight, I hear NSMBW is actually going to be a bit challenging.
As before mentioned, LBP already had 4 player co-op in a 2D platformer as well as an online component, which NSMBW lacks, but while LBP did some really innovative and interesting things with physics and the level's environment, I think NSMBW could end up out-performing LBP when it comes to the more basic elements of a 2D platforming game, and that would probably quickly overshadow the issue of there being no online component in NSMBW. Besides, much more people bought Wiis with local multiplayer in mind than people who bought PS3s did, as people much more often tend to buy PS3s and 360s for single player and online play; in fact, a lot of shooter games this generation have online but no splitscreen modes.
I also really enjoyed the Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 ports with online play, but I don't really consider ports when I'm thinking of GotY material, especially since the Japanese Dreamcast version of MvC2 had online play, so it's not a strictly new thing.
(For review score sourcing, refer to
gamerankings.)
Now that I have played pretty much every major 2009 release, my pick would be New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Other games this year outclass it in things like graphics, storytelling, and online modes, but when it comes down to it, I just had the most fun with NSMBW. The co-op was great, and it did an excellent job of trying new things without straying too far from it's roots. I didn't think I'd end up saying this, but I'd rank it right up there with Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.
Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2 did end up being great like I had anticipated, though.