Spike VGA 2009 Wrap-up: The awards, the trailers, the premieres

by Griffin McElroy on Dec 13th 2009 5:00PM

As you can probably tell by looking at our front page, last night's Spike Video Game Awards show was a pretty prolific source of gaming news. From the big reveals of games like Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, to new trailers for Crackdown 2 and Halo: Reach, to ... well, the actual awards, it was a pretty busy night for all parties involved.

We've collected all the stories, trailers, and winners of each award in this post to prevent you from hunting through our archives -- or our hateful, hateful liveblog -- to find what you're looking for. You'll find them all listed after the jump!
Trailers & Reveals

Batman Arkham Asylum 2 announced at the VGAs
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 revealed, intense
Tron Evolution premieres at VGAs, coming Holiday 2010
Halo Reach gameplay premieres with multiple Spartans (and some ladies!)
True Crime in Hong Kong revealed at Spike VGA
First gameplay footage of Medal of Honor revealed
Deadliest Warrior video game announced during VGAs
Crackdown 2's VGA trailer invites you to 'blow #&$^ up' with it
Spec Ops: The Line VGA trailer is serious business
UFC Undisputed 2010 trailer reminds us of MJ, makes us sad
Green Day: Rock Band trailer unveiled, songs will be exportable
Get sandy with the first Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands footage

Award Winners

Game of the Year: Uncharted 2
Best PlayStation 3 Game: Uncharted 2
Best Wii Game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Best Xbox 360 Game: Left 4 Dead 2
Best Handheld Game: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Best PC Game: Dragon Age: Origins
Best Multiplayer Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Best Action/Adventure: Assassin's Creed 2
Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 3
Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter IV
Best Music Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
Best RPG: Dragon Age: Origins
Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Best Team Sports Game: NHL 10
Best Individual Sports Game: UFC 2009 Undisputed
Best Independent Game Fueled by Dew: Flower
Best Downloadable Game: Shadow Complex
Best Voice in a Video Game: Jack Black (Brutal Legend)
Best Cast: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Best Performance by a Human Male: Hugh Jackman (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
Best Performance by a Human Female: Megan Fox (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
Best Downloadable Content: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Best Graphics: Uncharted 2
Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero
Best Original Score: Halo 3: ODST
Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show: South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play
Studio of the Year: Rocksteady Studios
Most Anticipated Game: God of War 3

Reader Comments (157)

I'm so glad Modern Warfare only got Multiplayer and Shooter.

As deserved.

Looks to be fair overall. Shout out to Rocksteady. Batman really came out of left field, glad they got he studio award.

As happy as i am for rocksteady Valve should of got that award. Their support (free support) for games like TF2 is awesome.

Valve wouldn't get it-they've been irritating their fanbase a bit too much recently, what with two Left 4 Dead games in two years, while we still don't have a Portal sequel or HL2: E3...

As much as I love Valve they didn't do anything groundbreaking this year. I like L4D2 but it's not anything unexpected, and they've always given us nice freebies. In general I think Valve is the best studio, but if you look at just this year it hasn't been the best.

Rocksteady deserved studio of the year because they came out of NOWHERE and gave us an amazing game. They also released the first licensed game that I've ever seen that was clearly a game first and a cash-in second.

"console", There is your problem. Blame MS certification.

also:

Complain about HL3 not coming out
Complain about Portal 2 not coming out
Complain about Left 4 Dead 2 coming out to soon

This makes no sense. There is no pleasing the brats.

The only legitimate complaint is the PS3 guy, but you should get Valve games for PC anyway.

insert random thought here:

Why do people not want Valve to put out a sequel so fast, but you never hear a "boycott" about Call of Duty. Yes, I know it's a different developer but it's still the same engine/franchise/story/offering.

Valve fans are spoiled and just don't realize it. Sure the console guys have reason to complain a little but anyone who plays valve games on PC has no room to complain.

The only one I really didn't like was Best Voice. Should have gone to Nolan North or someone. Not Jack Black. That was Spike BS.

Graphics and Best PS3 game? I would have been happy with either Killzone 2 or Uncharted 2.

Gotta say...I'm not sure Left 4 Dead 2 really deserved Best 360 game. Any of the other three would have been better.

I agree. Nolan North deserves some props. I enjoy L4D2 but not best 360 game. Ahh well, just the VGA's lol.

Nolan North doesn't deserve it because he does nothing to change his voice he sounds exactly the same in most of his games.

@Solace - that has nothing to do with any one individual effort. His performance in U2 was easily the best this year.

I liked Jack Black in Brutal Legend. He definitely put his stamp on that game and I enjoyed his over the top ridiculousness. However, I haven't played U2 so I can't comment on that.

Oh yeah, because Jack Black so didn't sound like...Jack Black playing Jack Black. At least Nolan North gives character in his voice.

Neither Nolan North or Jack Black changed their voices for either game, and both did a commendable job for their voiceovers.

Uncharted 2 is the big winner, its been a long time coming for Naughty Dog.

when they went upstage I dont know if I heard "You rock" or "You suck"

The fact that they awarded Megan Fox anything other than a kick to the face pretty much sums up what's wrong with the spike VGAs.

Yeah, that's disgraceful. Were Emily Rose or Claudia Black even nominated? Claudia Black easily should have won that (she had more to do dialogue wise than Emily Rose in U2).

Megan Fox? Really?

Even more weird was they gave her the award but didn't get her to walk out and relate some moronic story to transit into the award (see: Tony Hawk).

Olivia Wilde was pretty smokin', though. I wasn't aware she was involved on any gaming projects.

These "Performance by a Human" categories are the only ones that really bugged me this year. It seems that "human" means "star from other form of media", but then again Jack Black was in the "Best Voice" category so who knows?

Megan Fox =/= Tomb Raider

Pointless.

Uh but these awards were given based off votes.

"Best performance by a human female" for the VGA means the ability to show cleavage while crouching in low cut jeans, not acting.

Claudia was the announcer and I'm surprised she was able to restrain herself from just screaming curse words into the mic when Megan won that.

Looks like most of the best games for each console got covered nicely. Although I do feel Critter Crunch reserves some kind of attention too.

Nothing gaming was said on behalf of nintendo. They got an award for their annual best mario of the marios game. So sad.

I thought the VGA's were a huge ladle of turd nugget gravy... I disagree with almost all the winners, lol.

Granted that's my opinion, and the VGA's are awards based on opinions lol. Mazel Tov to the winners, I guess.

Well this year the winners were decided by the public, you went to their site and voiced your opinion. So it seems you're not angry at the VGA's, just your fellow gamer.

Actually I didn't vote... unfortunately... But yes actually... You're very right! DAMN YOU FELLOW GAMERS!

Then a White Kid Said,

This year? The Spike VGAs are based on public opinion EVERY year.

What happened to not caring about the VGAs?

Probably because the antics were calmed this year, there were some good reveals and trailers, and the awards made sense?

Things would be different if Uncharted 2 hadn't won GOTY.

All we need is Darth changing his icon to a soldier one and we're set for....WAR!

I stopped watching after the first.
Still dont know why madden had won goty but lost in best sports game =/
just felt like a big publicity event since then

Funny, because all I heard was people complaining about how their favourite game wasn't going to win, so they won't watch the show or care. Now, all of a sudden they are going back on their own statements.

Love to see the hypocrisy.

I tuned in at a random time, and thought it was some MTV awards show. Why were the girls dressed as weird animals with tails and such? Were they triyng to appeal to furries?

You sure throw that word around a lot. Bitter much?

We had a reason to be skeptical. Way too many good games have been screwed over the popular ones in the past.

so what's your point? Are trying to make yourself look like a douche by calling people out over the VGA's? We have every right to criticize the VGA and the winners but you look like a complete tool commenting about how no one cares about the VGA's.

You guys criticized the "winners" before the show even aired. You didn't know who was going to win.

I'm glad Uncharted 2 won so I'm not bitter. But it is funny.

"Funny, because all I heard was people complaining about how their favourite game wasn't going to win, so they won't watch the show or care. Now, all of a sudden they are going back on their own statements.

Love to see the hypocrisy."

Can you prove this? Please give a link to one of these earlier, hypocritical comments.

No, we expected the fanboys to all vote for Modern Warfare 2, due to it's popularity, despite the fact that it was in no way the Game of the Year.

How many times have I said it was good that Uncharted 2 won GOTY?

The irony.

The VGA's were actually better this year then before, there were still some bad moments that slowed the show down for example Steven A Smith aka biggest ass in sports and that horrible band but the reveals were good enough to surprise most of us. The awards weren't all about popularity as they have been before either. The VGA isn't the most valid VG award show in the mind of gamers yet I suppose but it's all we have as gamers that's we can watch on TV and most recognized by the main stream audience.

It's really only getting any credible attention this year because of the reveals, though I think that most of the reveals are pretty damn meh.
The awards are still completely boggus and moronic in my opinion.
Let's be honest, the general public is very often completely off the mark on this kind of thing. Generally large groups of people are extremely stupid, especially when they flock somewhere on the internet.

am i the only one surprised that MW2 didn't win best everything, or even GOTY, and if megan fox won an award for best voice acting, i'm gonna start playing my games on mute

It changed things up a little bit, but it's not like the mechanics changed drastically in terms of what the individual player can do.

maybe in 2011, but not here. Honestly, mw2's like COD4.5.

I don't take the spike VGA's seriously, but at least there were some weak trailers too.

Nearly everything is a sequel. :( And all the big game announcements were sequels too. I'm really looking forward to the next big jump forward in games. This year just wasn't it.

Bah Humbug! those games were sequels to games i considered 'next gen', Assassin's Creed 1 was most people's first glimpse at to what 'next gen' really means and Assassin's Creed 2 nailed everything that the first promised

I love how people complain about the VGA's and don't say which games should have won. And you honestly are complaining about a voice acting award? Nobody cares about that award and complaining about it is even more pointless. I agree with all the winners. But if anyone disagrees, please tell us which games should have won.

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Spike VGA 2009 Wrap-up: The awards, the trailers, the premieres

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