The titles to receive the award in the "Games of the Year" and "Indies" categories at the Japan Game Awards 2006, run by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA, Chair : Yoichi Wada, Location: Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo) have been chosen.
The Grand Award in the category of "Games of the Year," selected from games published in Japan between 4/1/2005 and 3/31/2006 goes to two games: "Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?" (Nintendo Co., Ltd.) and "FINAL FANTASY XII" (SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.)
*2003 was the only other year in which two titles received this award.
In the Indies category, which considers games not yet released, the award was given to "5-second Kappa" by the Jolly9, Kyushu University.

"Future" category awards ceremony: 9/24 (Sun) "TOKYO GAME SHOW 2006" Event Stage (11:30 - )

http://awards.cesa.or.jp/english
Inquiry: info@cesa.or.jp

The "Japan Games Awards" selection committee (chair: Takeshi Yoro, Professor, Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University) chose two titles to receive the Grand Award in the "Games of the Year" category from released titles that both symbolized the best of last year's game industry and stood as suitable representatives of all games released that year.
"Dr Kawashima' s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?" for the Nintendo DS tested calculation skills, reading, and writing to energize brain activity in a way no game has attempted before, in effect paving the way for a new genre of games, and scoring a big hit with middle-aged and senior gamers. On the other hand, "FINAL FANTASY XII" revealed a stunning level of quality with the most impressive graphics in the series to date, a massive playing world, superior storytelling, seamless battle scenes, and expertly orchestrated music, garnering an incredible amount of support in the general vote.

In addition, "Animal Crossing: Wild World" received the Best Sales award for passing the 2,510,000 sales mark in the target year, and Nintendo's "Nintendogs (Dachshund & Friends, Shiba & Friends, Chihuahua & Friends)" won the Global award for a Japanese game, while "World of Warcraft" by Blizzard Entertainment won the Global award for a foreign-produced game.

Garnering comments like "I felt much more familiar with English," and "I had fun studying!" Nintendo's "English Training: Have Fun Improving Your Skills" was awarded a Special Award for broadening awareness of the "edutainment" genre, while Capcom's MONSTER HUNTER PORTABLE was also recognized in this category for its demanding cooperative play and synergy with platformer MONSTER HUNTER 2 (dos), giving newcomers to online gaming a taste of a new world.

In the Indies category, which targets games not for sale, the Jolly9 team of Kyushu University's "Five Seconds Kappa" was chosen for the Grand Award. This action-puzzle game features a kappa water spirit as a hero with a special power: he can turn back time by 5 seconds. Using his power to cooperate with himself of 5 seconds ago, he employs various tricks to get past enemies and claim his favorite cucumber snack. The unique game system that lets the player manipulate time itself to join their past image, and the highly strategic brain-teasing action were all highly marked by the committee.

To determine winners in the "Future" category, which targets games sold in the near future, a general vote will be held at the Tokyo Game Show 2006 site for those games on display at the show. On Sunday 9/24 at 11:30 the winners will be announced on the Tokyo Game Show 2006 event stage.

Our committee will be producing award stickers to place on the game packages of winning titles and posters announcing the winners for distribution to game software retailers. Together with increasing the visibility of the Japan Game Awards, we hope this recognition will boost sales of the awarded games. Through the Japan Game Awards, we hope to spread the word about the joys of computer entertainment, and foster the development of the game industry.

Japan Game Awards logo and design data can be downloaded from the URL below by entering your ID and passward:

URL: http://awards.cesa.or.jp/logodata/awards10.lzh (Lzh compression)
　　　http://awards.cesa.or.jp/logodata/awards10.zip (Zip compression)
ID: awards10
Password: awards10