WK does it again at lame Video Game Awards

I actually sat through the Godawful Spike TV Video Game Awards in its entirety. This was partially because I wanted to support anything videogame-related on television no matter how bad, and also because Andrew WK was set to perform. I'll talk about the former in a second.

As for Andrew... just when you think you've seen him do it all, he shows up to the VGA's in a damn wheelchair with a broken foot.

I'm sure most of the crowd sat there wondering who he was, why he was in a wheelchair, and what he had to do with videogames.

But anyhow, WK managed to give off his usual spastic performance with only three useable limbs, rocking out so hard that his wheelchair was rolling all over the place. He did half of "Tear It Up," half of "Party Hard," and then the intro to "Get Ready to Die." If you manage to catch the repeat, the WK portion is worth watching... but that's about it.

Ah yes, the rest of the show. Well, I give Spike TV credit for a few things. First, for having the balls to do a videogame awards show. Second, they advertised the hell out of this thing. I saw billboards, magazine ads, and nonstop TV ads. Finally, they got the stars to turn out, making it appear "cool" to play games to the masses.

Now, the bad. The biggest problem was how awkwardly the show was run. There were no "nominees," they just sort of handed out awards. That in itself really didn't make much sense.

Presenters came out and said quips and then didn't even bother introducing things, which was mighty strange. All of the bits and jokes fell flat horribly. There was one funny Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic spoof, and the lifetime achievement award given to the dot from Pong was funny, but that's literally all in a two hour show.

And talk about a total lack of knowledge of what's good in the videogame industry. Awards were given to Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Nascar Thunder, True Crime, and WWE Smackdown. Now, none of these are horrible games (except perhaps DOA Volleyball), but I can say for sure that WWE Smackdown is not the best fighting game to come out this year. It isn't even a fighting game! Wrestling games are their own genre because they play nothing like fighting games.

And the best game of the year? Madden 2004.

YOU GOT DAT MADDEN?!

Alright. Madden is an established series. This year introduced the revolutionary franchise mode. It's consistently the best selling football game every year. Yes, all of this is true.

Best game of the year?

Please. First, ESPN NFL Football (aka NFL2K4) is a better football game. It's online for both PS2 and Xbox, it plays more accurately, and the 2K series has outperformed Madden since its inception.

Second, look at the well-recieved games that came out this year: Zelda: Wind Waker, SSX3, Tony Hawk's Underground, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Knights of the Old Republic, Metroid Prime, Freedom Fighters, Command and Conquer Generals, Max Payne 2, DF: Black Hawk Down...

Well, I could keep going, but it seems as though Spike TV has some sort of arrangement with EA and also something against Nintendo, who won no awards for Zelda or Metroid.

Regardless, its still fun to see someone dubbing horrible lines over a cutscene from games like Freelancer or Splinter Cell on national TV, even if there is a total lack of humor. Lets just hope next year, if there's a show next year, they iron out the wrinkles.