I’m not sure why it even needs to be asked, but MTV Multiplayer’s Stephen Totilo posed the following question: “Can a small game be Game of the Year?”

He describes small games as titles for the Nintendo DS, web browsers, iPhones, and XBLA games. Presumably, he also includes games for WiiWare, PSN, mobiles, PSP, Tiger Handhelds, and other portable devices in that category.

I doubt Totilo thinks small titles should be banned from GOTY lists — after all, he picked a Tower Defense game as his 2007 GOTY — but he does suggest that there’s “no way” something like WarioWare could stand against console games like Resident Evil or Grand Theft Auto.

I’m not going to go into all the reasons why handheld titles or small games have every right to be considered as Game of the Year material, as I have to update one of the four “small games” sites I manage in a few minutes (really, I should have just tigga-plz’d this post).

Instead, I’ll ask, “Why should we exclude any kind of game at all when deciding what we feel is the best game of the year?” And if you’re going to exclude small titles to get a list that best fits your idea of what an enjoyable game is, why stop there?

Why not exclude 2D games? Or non-Western games? Or independently developed games? Or games without video cut-scenes? Or games created with a budget less than a million dollars? Or games that aren’t sequels?

Eventually, if you add enough restrictions, you can get a Game of the Year list that looks just like Spike TV’s!*

See also: Why Zombie BBQ’s zombies are better than Left 4 Dead’s zombies

*LittleBigPlanet being the exception

tags / mtv multiplayer / small games / spike tv / stephen totilo / ec