The Game Awards have notified the world about their nominees for Best Action Game, and the reactions are mighty from the players’ side. No lie, the reactions are truly battlefield-like, as every supporter of a game serves their case. It’s like observing a war going on in the digital world, with Ninja Gaiden 4, Doom The Dark Ages, and Hades 2 as the main players, and to be honest? the buzz is a little bit contagious.
So the question is why this category? The Game Awards allowed players to choose from among the nominees the action game that should win, and the participation was heavy. The deciduous giants of the past are getting back their place on the gamers’ list, the new ones are being acknowledged and even getting into serious debates about the borderline between action games and others. It is a chaos, a noisy chaos, and that is exactly why gaming communities are so diverse and interesting to observe.
Now let us take a look at the main contenders that keep coming up in the comments. Ninja Gaiden 4 appears to be the clear winner, as dozens of players are saying it will be the winner with no doubt about it. One person has put it in a way: ‘Ninja Gaiden 4 and it is not even close.’ The discussion flows like this, people one more time tell it, and again and again they add the same words, like ‘period’ and ‘of course,’ to emphasize how obvious their choice was. It seems that the followers of Ninja Gaiden are long-standing, and they are not going to keep quiet about it.
Contrarily, the faction of Doom The Dark Ages is not at all ready to throw in the towel. A gamer gave support to their claim through an illustration: ‘doom the dark ages. I found the gameplay really engrossing. Fast though eternal might be, still many people don’t like it as much as eternity because it isn’t that fast but I enjoyed it a lot. It’s different but in a good way.’ That is quite clever actually, it points out to the differences with the previous games but at the same time it is really appreciative of the new one. Another user simply stated they had ‘the most fun with Doom the Dark Ages,’ which to be truthful? That right there is the essence of gaming.
The Hades 2 supporters are not backing down either. Several of the responses simply stated ‘Hades 2 baby!’ or ‘Hades 2 all the way!’ letting it be known that the sequel from Supergiant Games has indeed made a significant impact. It is rather intriguing to see a roguelike game receive such a great amount of love in the action category, but when considering the fast and tight-paced action in Hades 2, it definitely seems reasonable.
Things have definitely heated up by now. Some players are bringing up things they think have been overlooked in the nominations. One of them wrote ‘The true action game of 2025 got snubbed @PlayKhazan,’ while others thought that games like Dynasty Warriors and Absolum should have been on the list instead of some shooters which may not even meet the ‘pure action’ criteria. A few gamers are even questioning whether some FPS titles should be considered for the category, with one being very vocal and declaring ‘the reason is that 99% of the panelists that vote for this show were eliminated in 20 minutes.’ Ouch, that’s some serious criticism right there.
The amazing part is that there are still players that support the less popular games. One gamer went for Shinobi Art of Vengeance: ‘I’m sure it won’t win, but I’m begging you, at least, to recognize Shinobi Art of Vengeance. You all want Sega to make more games besides Sonic and Yakuza, right? Then you have it. Please prove to them that we want them to keep doing it.’ This is the kind of loyalty that could actually have a major impact and shift the direction of future game development, and it is really nice to see that gamers are using such discussions to back the games they love most.
The conversation gets a lot more complex as soon as you think about the different values that the various gamers attach to action. Some gamers give precedence to the fighting mechanics and the difficulty level, and that is the reason for Ninja Gaiden’s reign. Others want more experimenting with the established formulas, thus the support for Doom. And so it happens that Hades 2 gets the push from those who see the merging of genres as a very cool aspect. There is no right answer here, and that is what makes these discussions so intriguing.
Going by the enormous number of times Ninja Gaiden 4 is mentioned, one might think it is a done deal. However, award ceremonies can be very unpredictable, and the actual votes cast might not reflect the same sentiments that prevail in social media interactions.
