The award season is upon us, so what better time than to reflect on the still-warm year that was 2011? Much happened on the hardware front, with one Nintendo console releasing for the first time, another announced, and two more graciously entering their final days. But this is purely about the games, and some of the sharpest and most experienced gaming minds (aka, the rowdy bunch of hooligans that run this ad-hoc establishment) have convened to decide which were the very best titles of last year.

There were no long or short lists as such for the voting process. Rather, it was a purely democratic process from the outset, whereby any game that released on a Nintendo platform in Europe in 2011 was eligible for any award (apart from blatantly inaccurate entries. No-one was silly enough to vote for a single-player game in the multiplayer award, although Iun did need explaining what a "graphics" was. Worry for that kid.) Remakes and re-releases were out, but original, downloadable games on the eShop, DSiWare and WiiWare were very much in.

So without further ado, we present the winners and very honourable losers of the 2012 N-Europe Golden Reggie awards.

Graphics are important; there's no point denying it. The visuals of a game are central to its leaving a lasting first impression on us. However, we've come a long way this generation in learning that the race to achieve photorealism is not the only method to yielding appealing graphics. As the votes proved, 2011 in particular was a year where style won out on Nintendo systems.

Runner(s) up: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Perhaps going with a more stylistic look was the rational choice for Zelda on Wii. Nintendo knew they couldn't wow us with realism on the humble system, but the focus on a more colourful, impressionist aesthetic really did pay off. Shigeru Miyamoto likens the style of Skyward Sword to a Cézanne painting. Rendered on a decent TV, it has a clean charm that at times blows us away at Super Mario Galaxy proportions.

Winner: Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)

The reveal of Kirby's Epic Yarn's style is probably one of the most vivid memories of E3 2010. The entire game is stitched together like a patchwork of different fabrics, and it blends in scarily well with Kirby's cutesy style, considering the game was originally meant to be based around a new character. Kirby's Epic Yarn released at the very start of 2011 in Europe, but the fact that it was so convincingly voted as the winner of this category is a testament to its visual achievement.

Honourable nominees: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)

Audio is consistently the most overlooked aspect of making a fantastic game, which is odd � no doubt all of our most powerful memories of classic gaming moments are inherently tied to the aural experience. The award for Best Audio Design goes to the game whose sound department deserves particular acclaim; either in virtue of its music, sound effects, or dare we say it, voice acting.

Runner(s) up: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Koji Kondo's musical achievements are of note every time a Zelda game comes our way, but the melodies of Skyward Sword seemed even more pertinent with the coinciding of the 25th Anniversary Symphony Orchestra. From Fi's Theme to the classy introduction track, and from the sounds of the Great Sky to the genuinely touching Romance Theme, Skyward Sword is a reminder of why the series can sell out theatres.

Winner: Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

Engage The Enemy. You Will Know Our Names. The night-time theme to Satorl Marsh. Players of Xenoblade Chronicles will testify to these pieces of music being the very best of what epic video games can offer. It's no secret that the score of the game was a monumental development effort, with Monolith Soft contracting much help from dedicated music studios. And let us not forget the voicework. European players can choose to listen to the original Japanese voices, or switch to a full and an incredibly fine British dub. The whole package would make Xenoblade Chronicles a worthy winner of this award any year.

Honourable nominees: Bit.Trip Flux (WiiWare), Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii), Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)

What exactly is it for a video game to be 'fun'? Arguably it is in the reward we get from performing the tactile actions that allow us to 'beat' the game. It boils down to that horribly vague concept of 'skill'. Thus springs this fairly loose category, but our team pretty much instantly understood the point of the Best Action Game. Nominees will be ones which pushed our coordination to the limit, all the while remaining downright fun to play.

Runner(s) up: Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)

Who knew timed jumps could make for such a fun experience? Nintendo did, ooh, twenty six years ago, and Super Mario 3D Land proves they're still the best at it. It's really quite remarkable how no other franchise has come close to the slick, tactile platforming of the mainline Mario series, though perhaps other studios have now just formally decided the Big N can't be topped.

Winner: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Whether Nintendo was right to fully implement motion controls into its most revered series is something with will be debated across the internet for generations to come, but Skyward Sword unanimously taking this award should make clear our official stance on the matter. It was a risky move; one that no doubt required the ripping off of many pages of the Zelda formula. Out go many familiar items, in come plenty of weird and wacky ones, all to make the best use of Wii MotionPlus. There are certainly areas for improvement, but none of us can deny that Skyward Sword is just so damn fun to pick up and play. Violently.

Honourable nominees: Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS), Kirby's Adventure Wii (Wii)

It would be trite to say the Best Non-Action Game award exists solely to contrast our previous award. The DS revolution and the dawn of downloadable games may have put the more easy-going, non-action titles into the spotlight, but these sorts of games have always existed proudly in our industry; from the JRPG craze of the nineties, through to Pokémon and modern day MMORPGs � the realm of non-traditional, non-'skill' based experiences are certainly not occupied by casual puzzle affairs for your elders.

Runner(s) up: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS), Pilotwings Resort (3DS)

A left-field sort of game before it even came out � what's the best way to describe Ghost Trick? Zack & Wiki meets Geist, from the people who developed Phoenix Wright. You play as a ghost who can manipulate objects in order to trigger weird, wonderful and brain-bending situations. It's a wacky affair that will often make no sense, yet it's still one of the most satisfying games you'll ever play.

And remember the hunger for a Piliotwings sequel on Wii? You wouldn't have thought it ever existed given the fairly muted response to this 3DS launch game. Still, it made its way into the hearts of the N-E team to earn its runner-up place for this award. It might be a fairly modest package, but Monster Games did a fine job of evoking the fondly-remembered Pilotwings experience.

Winner: Pullblox (3DS Download)

One of the latest games of last year, but easily one of the best. If Pullblox is a sign of things to come from the 3DS eShop, then Nintendo may have just nailed what it should be all about. The game is a classic puzzle experience: no time limits here � it's just you and the challenge. The aim is to push and pull blocks in a large structure in order to create a path for you to reach the top. It's simple but devilishly difficult. Most importantly, it's the very epitome of 'pick up and play'.

Honourable nominees: Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call (DS), Nintendogs + cats (3DS), Pokémon: Black & White (DS)

Back to a nice, not-so-abstract award, where we look to praise the development studio whose 2011 input we feel has lifted them above their counterparts. It should not matter that some studios don't have the capacity to put out as many games in a single year as others � one's choice for Best Studio is surely guided by a single game which convinced us of the human quality behind it.

Runner(s) up: Monolith Soft

With Xenoblade Chronicles garnering so much praise from all corners of the gaming scene, it's only correct to acknowledge the real effort behind it. There are certainly worse development environments than being a Japanese, Nintendo-owned studio, but the game elucidates some real flair at Monolith Soft. A few eyebrows were raised when Nintendo purchased them not too long ago. They've quickly become one of their most promising studios.

Winner: Nintendo EAD

A contentious choice? Perhaps. Nintendo's EAD team is vast, and the sheer amount of talent on board means several large-scale games can be simultaneously crafted in the same building. But it would still be churlish to discount the company on this basis � Nintendo stands as a strong development house because of the unwavering quality of its output. With 2011 giving us Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and Skyward Sword, the real surprise is just how consistently fantastic the developer is.

Honourable nominees: Level-5 (Professor Layton) Intelligent Systems (Pullblox), Capcom (Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective)

No-one likes a corporate apologist, but we shouldn't forget that it's the work of publishers that ensures we get to actually play the best games of the year. The winner of Best Publisher is the company whose decisions have put us in the best stead to enjoy quality titles on our Nintendo systems.

Runner(s) up: Electronic Arts

Okay, so the runner-up for this award might seem arbitrary, but EA made a very important move last year. For the first time ever, CEO and millionaire John Riccitiello made a personal appearance at Nintendo's E3 conference during the Wii U talk. The appearance was brief and uninformative, and yielded only hints that the companies were working closely on something related to online networks. But if EA is on-board with Nintendo's new console already, we might see some unprecedented third party support.

Winner: Nintendo

A shoe-in, admittedly, but surely deserved nonetheless. Perhaps there is no better way to express the fact than to remind the reader that eight out of nine of our game awards have gone to Nintendo-published titles this year. We gave an unprecedented five games a perfect score this year, and four of them were first party games. That isn't even including the likes of Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, Pokémon or Professor Layton � all of which came to us under the banner of Nintendo. Add in unlikely confirmation of European releases of The Last Story, Pandora's Tower and Inazuma Eleven 2, and perhaps Nintendo is once again figuring out how to be cool.

Honourable nominees: N/A

As much as we all love pleading for sequels, it's worth reflecting on some of the new faces that joined us in the year. The award for Best Original Game goes to the title that cannot lay claim to being part of a pre-existing franchise; and whether that game provides the brightest beacon of hope for the emergence a new quality franchise, or simply shows the best example of unassuming originality, it certainly leaves us wanting more developers to try something new.

Runner(s) up: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)

From Officer Bailey's panic dance to a talking lamp called Ray, there isn't much in Ghost Trick that you wouldn't call 'original'. Ghost Trick's charm may have been overlooked by way too many, but it certainly struck a chord with those who experienced it. There are absolutely no signs that Capcom intends to continue the series, but even if it remains a one-off, it'll always be one of the best games on DS.

Winner: Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii)

Get that cynicism out of there: Xenoblade Chronicles is to all intents and purposes a non-franchise game. Given the 'Xeno' prefix purely as a token honour to creator Tetsuya Takahashi, the game has widely been praised as the greatest JRPG of the generation. Mixing vast and beautiful open landscapes, immense and free-roaming enemies, gorgeous vista, a terrifically complex real-time battle system and an epic, twisting storyline � it's a formula that all developers would kill to pull off, but Monolith has pulled it off with more care and flair than any other example in years.

Honourable nominees: MotoHeroz (WiiWare), Pullblox (3DS Download), Freakyforms (3DS Download)

Another gloriously vague and subject award. Everyone likes to do an award for 'Best Game No-one Played', so we've gone our own way with Best Game Few Played! Okay, it's the same thing, but at least our version can be taken literally. Some of the obvious names that spring to mind for this award were more successful than others, so there's a balancing act to be made between how good the game was and how under-appreciated it ended up being. The winner is probably the game which was most disproportionally over-looked, but there's one thing to take away from this award, it's that you'd do well to chase down every one of the nominees.

Runner(s) up: Go Vacation! (Wii)

A surprise runner-up, but Go Vacation! clearly curried enough favour with Team N-E to warrant recognition. The sports/resort formula may have been done to death on Wii, but as a spiritual follow-up to the hugely decent We Ski, Go Vacation! succeeded in bringing some class to the genre and the platform late last year. The archetypal sleeper hit.

Winner: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)

Releasing in January on a system that was due to be succeeded in two months � Ghost Trick had pretty much everything going against it. We wish we could say it ended up being a real success story for Capcom and DS, but performed about as well as you'd expect from a 2D, animated, Japanese quasi-adventure-mystery title. In Japan, the game ended up getting a quick iOS port, which may be a damning indictment of the direction of the genre. If you all go out and buy Ghost Trick now, perhaps YOU can send a message and make a difference...

Honourable nominees: FAST: Racing League (WiiWare), Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii), Samurai Warriors: Chronicles (3DS) Pro Evo 2012 (Wii), Dead or Alive: Dimensions (3DS)

A few years ago, the award for multiplayer would have been easy � the very concept was solely encapsulated by playing a game with your friends in the same room. Nowadays, there are so many different ways to interact with other players: local multiplayer, online multiplayer, online co-operative play, massively multiplayer and even online leaderboards. Any game that utilises any of these is eligible for this award, but the winner will be the game which, to put it simply, brings together players in the most engrossing or addictive way.

Runner(s) up: Pokémon: Black & White (DS), Just Dance 3 (Wii)

It must be difficult to be the one responsible for ensuring each mainline Pokémon game feels fresh. Indeed, it's almost dogma in some circles that the games literally are just rehashes from an earlier time. Fans of the games know better though, and it's clear that the area Game Freak is pushing most in terms of progress is the online sphere. It's more seamless than ever to battle and trade across the net, and with new features like Feeling Check and the Dream World, it's virtually impossible not to feel like you're part of a huge community of fans.

Or you could have something completely different. Is Just Dance's cultural explosion really so surprising? Much was made of the 'quality' of the core mechanics of the first game, but you've got to praise Ubisoft for nailing the niche with the Just Dance name. Get a few friends over, fill yourself up on whatever inebriates you and you too will see just how oddly fun the Just Dance 'experience' can be. A guilty, guilty pleasure for millions.

Winner: Mario Kart 7

You can race locally or online. You can set up your own 'Community' to race friends online with your own rules. You can collect ghost data from players of all abilities to hone your speed skills. SteetPassing other players will give you their personal game data to compare. You can easily match up online with friends, strangers you've raced with before and even those you've StreetPassed. The game sends you new ghost data every day through SpotPass, and online leaderboards are in abundance. It's still surreal for us just how barnstormingly great this Nintendo game's online features are, but then again, Mario Kart has always been the leader in this area. If you need any more reason to be a believer, you're obviously forgetting the N-Europe League.

Honourable nominees: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Wii)

Was 2011 the year Nintendo could start to be proud of its online services? A bold claim, but the spread of quality on offer on its download services speaks for itself. Smaller developers have the potential to lead something of a revolution with Nintendo's newfound competency on the 3DS and (seemingly) Wii U online stores, and if their efforts of 2011 are anything to go by, the future could be very bright indeed.

Runner(s) up: Shantae: Risky's Revenge (DSiWare)

Surprising that this did indeed hit Europe in 2011 � almost feels like it had been languishing in the DSiWare store for longer. Our fanboyish lust for the games of WayForward should be no secret to anyone by now, and games like Shantae elucidate the obsession. With it being on Nintendo's relatively slick 3DS eShop, this Shantae sequel should really get the attention and downloads it deserves. It may be among the priciest titles on the store, but by jove it's worth those pennies.

Winner: Pullblox (3DS Download)

If only all downloadable games could have the quality AND breadth of Pullblox. Its sheer addictiveness is an open secret by now, but many underestimate just how much heat this bad-boy is packing. It has over 250 pre-made levels; about half of those are hair-tearingly hardcore in terms of difficulty. There's also the comprehensive level creator, which makes fantastic use of the QR reader to share levels instantly. It's the best �5.40/�6 you can spend on your 3DS.

Honourable nominees: Freakyforms (3DS Download), Bit.Trip Flux (WiiWare), Zen Pinball 3D (3DS Download), Pokédex 3D (3DS Download)

In the end, there can only be one. Unless we had a tied vote. Which we didn't. So in the end, there was only one.

Runner(s) up: Super Mario 3D Land (3DS)

The Galaxy games must have felt like an impossible task for Yoshiaki Koizumi to follow, so Mario's next 3D entry had to have a different philosophy. The answer was to rein in the platforming back to echo an older formula. To say the game is minimalist would be insincere; rather it harks back to the feel of the Super Mario Bros. Games � it is just about the player, her skill and the level. The game's constraint makes it the perfect marriage for the handheld platform, and that is only meant in a good way. That the game was reportedly developed with just a handful of core staff really does astound.

Winner: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

It was a pretty convincing, democratic victory. 2011 has been a fantastic year for all of Nintendo's platforms, but it seems you just don't knock the king off the top. It took a wait of five long years after Twilight Princess before we got our next fix of epic Zelda goodness, and while we don't ever want to wait that long again, Aonuma's team really did outdo themselves. Skyward Sword does so much to solidify the series' legendary status. Enough in the formula has been tweaked to surprise us at every corner, but the polished adventuring and ingenious puzzles are undeniably 'Zelda'.

The graphics impress to the extent perhaps only the Galaxy games can match, and the soundtrack is up there with the best of the franchise. Set before any of the other games, the story is also allowed to be as whimsical as it likes. Much has been made of Skyward Sword in relation to 'the Timeline', but there's something so individual about its charm that it could easily stand self-contained. All this isn't to mention the nigh-on pitch-perfect implementation of full motion controls. That alone would make any game a worthy contender for Game of the Year, but the fact it's been done with a superlative entry in the Zelda series, well, its rivals probably didn't stand a chance.

Honourable nominees: Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii), Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii), Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)