2003 Video Game Awards hosted by SpikeTV
Posted December 31, 1969 by Tim Bradshaw
Las Vegas, Nevada,
a.k.a. Sin City, was the spotlight of attention for the gaming
industry?and not the gambling one.
Madden NFL 2004 won Game of the Year |
Airing Thursday December 4th, 2003
(but filmed live a week earlier), SpikeTV hosted the
first annual Video Game Awards. With an opening performance
by Bubba Sparxx after Madden NFL 2004 was announced
as the Game of the Year, the most anticipated new awards
show of the year was off to a start.
|
| What better station to air
the Video Game Awards than the first television station
for men, SpikeTV? Why hadn't the idea come up before? |
 |
One disappointment was that there were no
acceptance speeches, and the nominees weren't announced either.
A lot of big publisher names in the industry were seen for
the winners (such as EA, Activision, Atari, Microsoft, etc.)
but what happened to the smaller names? I guess we'll be seeing
an indy video game awards show sometime in the future.
|
With a good mix of artists from different
musical genres such as Bubba Sparxx, P.O.D., Andrew
WK, DMX, and Kelis, the show remained similar to other
awards shows with big performers, and performances.
The mixing of artists also showed that all types of
people play video games, even Lil Kim who said "Meet
me online" for anyone who dares challenge her in
Madden NFL 2004.
|
Bubba Sparxx performs for the show's
opening
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2003 VGAs in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas |
Every awards show had to start somehow,
what better time to start a video game awards show than
now? And what better place than the MGM Grand in Las
Vegas? For all those doubters of the success of the
show, there was certainly a large crowd. And you thought
you were among a minority? Looks like everyone plays
video games, and loves them too!
|
David Spade hosted the 2003 Video Game Awards
with a host of beautiful women
If it wasn't the cool videos
and awesome musical performances that caught people's attention
and kept them tuned in to the first annual Video Game Awards
show, it was certainly the almost unlimited supply of gorgeous
babes and stars like Jenna Jameson, Pamela Anderson, Jamie
Presley, Lil Kim, among many others. Though I think we can
all agree, David Spade was the perfect host for the show.
Looking at one of the cool awards for
the show |
And I think we can also agree that
most gamers out there don't mind seeing the natural
beauty of women, especially at a Video Game Awards show.
With hot girls, good performances, an awesome host,
what more could the first game awards show need? What
could make it any better? Oh right, the awards and winners!
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With the help of the Raiderettes, the
awards for each category were announced throughout the
night. The first award announced was Game of the Year,
which went to Madden NFL 2004.
One big shock was Best Game Based on
a Movie, taken by Enter the Matrix. It was up against
Star Wars and Return of the King.
|
Enter the Matrix won Best Game Based
on a Movie
|
Accompanied by a skateboarding
and bike performance on a half-pipe in the middle of the audience,
the award for Best Sports Game was won by Tony Hawk's Underground,
with Tony Hawk there to accept the award and say a few words.
Best action game went to True
Crime: Streets of LA. I don't think there was any question
about that one, with fighting, driving, and shooting all mixed
into one brilliant game that makes even Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City look bad.
Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach
Volleyball took Best Animation, and well-deserved too. CG
animations shouldn't look that real!
With NASCAR Thunder 2004 winning
Best Driving Game and Def Jam Vendetta winning Best Music
in a game, Electronic Arts took home three awards.
| With the announcement
of Best Fighting Game won by WWE Smackdown: Here Comes
the Pain, there was a live match between RAW's Chris Jericho
and Rey Mysterio of Smackdown. To top it off, Trish Stratus
and Victoria entered the match and had a "cat fight"
(and ended up stripping down to their underwear for the
audience). |
Ironically, the couple from Smackdown won...
|
Check below for a full list
of the winners, and talk about what you thought of the show
in our forums!
The 2003 Video Game Awards hosted by SpikeTV,
The First Television For Men
Thanks go out to Forrest Morgan for taking the screenshots
for GamePlasma.
The Winners
Click a link to take you to the PlasmaFile for each game
to get info, reviews, previews, and/or screenshots!
Talk
about the 2003 Video Game Awards in our forums!
