Best of E3 2006 Awards

Best Original Game

Awarded for originality and innovation. Show us something we've never seen before!

• Best Shooter
• Best Role-Playing Game
• Best Online Multiplayer Game
• Best Racing Game
• Best Massively Multiplayer Game
• Best Strategy Game
• Best Action/Adventure Game
• Best Original Game
• Special Mentions

Winner: Spore

Best Original Game: Spore (EA)

Will Wright's life simulation, Spore, made a splash at last year's E3 and confidently held onto its title of most original game this time around. Literally, there is nothing out there like Spore. It's ambitious, massive in scope, and a little crazy all in one.

Last year, EA showcased the player's life-creating journey from amoeba to space-faring civilization. This year, there was focus on the sandbox creature creator and interactions with other lifeforms. We also got more of a taste of the game's mind-blowing multiplayer component, which isn't any kind of direct competitive gameplay mode, but rather a means for every Spore owners' creations to populate the larger universe.

There were plenty of contenders this year that did one or two clever things to boost the originality of a tried-and-true formula, but only Spore is concocting a formula from scratch. >>>More info

Runner-ups

Mass Effect: Just when you thought there was nothing new to see in action-RPGs, along comes Bioware's latest. Not only does it break ground in its design, its innovative conversation system impressed us too. >>>More info

Assassin's Creed: Another ground-breaking combination of genres. Factor in sophisticated wall-climbing acrobatics and dynamically reactive crowd to shove your way through, and this was unlike any other action game at the show. >>>More info

Loco Roco: Bizarre and colorful, this puzzler has players tilting the world to maneuver a smiling, gelatinous, blob-thing that diffuses into many parts (and reforms back together again). Definitely one for Katamari lovers. >>>More info