Nintendo honoured for innovation

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has honoured Nintendo with five Interactive Achievement Awards, including 'Outstanding Innovation in Gaming' for Wii Sports. The hugely popular Wii title won three awards, while The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? each took home honours.

The awards were presented the night of February 8 at the academy's annual 'Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain' summit in Las Vegas. The awards are among the most respected in the interactive entertainment community.

"These awards, granted by a group of our industry peers, demonstrate that it's possible to please both new and experienced game players," says Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. "To see honours given to games as varied as Twilight Princess, Wii Sports and Brain Training tells us the industry hungers for new ideas and great games. We believe both Wii and Nintendo DS are specifically equipped to deliver those experiences."

Nintendo received 19 nominations in 11 different gaming categories, and came home with five awards. The complete list of Nintendo's Interactive Achievement Awards is as follows:

- Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Wii Sports

- Outstanding Achievement in Story and Character Development: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

- Outstanding Achievement in Game-Play Engineering: Wii Sports

- Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: Wii Sports

- Handheld Game of the Year: Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? - Nintendo.