GameSpot has been presenting their nominations for their Best of 2005. While it didn't get nominated for Best Action/Adventure Game (where the competition is fierce), Midway's Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks WAS nominated for Most Surprisingly Good Game under their Special Achievement awards! From the article:

At GameSpot we make every effort to approach each new game without any preconceptions about its quality. But in some cases, a game will surprise us with how good it is, which makes us realize that we weren't really expecting much from it, for one reason or another. Maybe the game seemed generic at first glance, or maybe the concept seemed too gimmicky. Oftentimes, the odds are stacked against a game from the outset. Movie-licensed games, for instance, have a long tradition of being, well, garbage. Some genres simply have a reputation for being too unwieldy for or inaccessible to the average gamer. The sleeper is the one that rises above any preconceived limitations and proves itself to be truly great, which is exactly what these five games have done.

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Considering that every other Mortal Kombat game that didn't focus solely on one-on-one fighting absolutely tanked, and the developer's previous work included duds like Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style and Backyard Wrestling, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks was a real long shot.

The awards will be announced on Tuesday, December 20th, at 5:00 PM PST. To see the list of nominees for this award, click here. To see the main GameSpot Best of 2005 page, click here.

Our thanks to forum/chat member DECEPTION for the heads-up on this news story!



UPDATE - Tuesday, December 20, 2005 – The winner of the award was announced earlier today, and the winner comes as no surprise to this site. Let's have a round of applause for Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, who won the award in this category!
To see the rest of the choices as well as the video explanation behind their decision, click here. Our thanks to MK Online forum member DoctorDrewX for the tip on this update!