The Golden Joystick Awards have been around since 1983, as one of the longest-running video game awards in the industry. Back in inaugural ceremony, a game called Jetpac took home the Game of the Year award, and titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario 64, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild have been named number one since. The Golden Joystick Awards 2021 winners have been announced, but this year a new category was also added, and Dark Souls was chosen as the winner.
Dark Souls is now a 10-year-old game, but the impact the title has had on the gaming community and the industry at large is hard to deny. While 2009's Demon Souls was the first of the "Souls" games, many would argue that the popularity of the series exploded with Dark Souls in 2011. With the Golden Joystick Awards being a "people's choice" award that is entirely voted on by fans, Dark Souls was able to take home an incredibly prestigious prize of Ultimate Game of All Time.
To celebrate 50 years of video gaming, going all the way back to 1971's Computer Space, the Golden Joystick Awards added two special awards this year. The award of Ultimate Hardware of All Time was given to the PC, which makes sense given the fact that fans have been enjoying gaming on the platform for decades. Meanwhile, the title of Ultimate Game of All Time was awarded to Dark Souls.
In a Twitter statement and an article published by Yahoo Japan, Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki said that he was "deeply moved by the award" (according to Google Translate). Miyazaki said that it is unbelievable to him that fans voted for his game among all of the nominees. He thanked everyone at FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment, as well as the fans for their ongoing support.
Dark Souls is an unabashedly difficult game, but completing the challenge comes with a true feeling of satisfaction. Fans have voted for Dark Souls as one of the more frustrating games ever in the past, just as fans now voted for Dark Souls as the Ultimate Game of All Time. It is a game that appears to have only grown in popularity over time, as the Souls genre has continued to influence the industry as a whole.
There were some other titles hot on the heels of Dark Souls in terms of the voting. The winner received 12%, but 1993's Doom was at 11% and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild received 10% of the voting. Games like The Last of Us, Minecraft, Street Fighter 2, Tetris, and Halo: Combat Evolved were also nominated, as generally they are considered some of the best video games of all time. It certainly wasn't a runaway, but Dark Souls can forever stand tall as the winner of the Golden Joystick Awards Ultimate Game of All Time.
Dark Souls is available for PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.