The National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers announced the winners of the 2005 NAViGaTR Awards today, bestowing honors in 48 categories.

The awards are presented by the National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers Corp., a non-profit media organization with over 1,200 voters honoring the best of the interactive entertainment industry in the fields of art, technology, and production for calendar year 2005.

Like last year's Game of the Year winner, Shadow of the Colossus won five awards, including Outstanding Animation in a Game Engine, Character Design, Game Design, Graphics, Technical, and Game of the Year.

Guitar Hero and Psychonauts won 4 awards each, while God of War, Resident Evil 4, and We Love Katamari each won 3 awards.

Wrapping up the multiple award winners were Dragon Quest VIII, Indigo Prophecy, and Jade Empire with two awards each.

Top Publishers

With 5 awards for Shadow of the Colossus, 3 awards for God of War, and one award each for Gran Turismo 4, Jak X: Combat Racing, and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, Sony set a publishers' record with 11 awards in a single year. The record was previously held by Ubisoft, which won 10 awards for the year 2003.

Publishers Capcom, Majesco, and Red Octane won 4 awards each, while Activision, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Namco won 3 awards each. Atari, Nintendo, and Square Enix each won 2 awards.

Top Developers

Sony developed eight out of its eleven winning titles. Other top developers include Capcom (Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry 3), Double Fine (Psychonauts), Harmonix (Guitar Hero), and Namco, all of which won four (4) awards. The only other developers to win more than one award were Bioware (Jade Empire), Level 5 (Dragon Quest VIII), and Quantic Dream (Indigo Prophecy), all of which won 2 awards.

Since the inception of the NAViGaTR Awards, Sony has won the most awards as a developer with 16 to date. Rockstar follows with 15 awards, stepping ahead of Konami's 14 awards-to-date as a developer. Other top developers to date are Nintendo and Ubisoft (12 awards each), Square/Square Enix (11), Namco (9), Capcom (8), Electronic Arts, Harmonix, Sucker Punch, and Valve (6 each), Bungie (5), and Bioware, Double Fine, id Software, and Team Ninja (4 each).

Top Individuals

Six individuals won multiple awards this year. Fumito Ueda won 3 awards for his work on Shadow of the Colossus, more than any other individual, while Ueda's collaborators Masanobu Tanaka and Atsuko Fukuyama each won 2 awards. John Tam won 2 awards for his work on Guitar Hero; Tim Schafer won 2 awards for Psychonauts. Keita Takahashi also won 2 awards for We Love Katamari.

This year, Atsuko Fukuyama, Bruce Oberg, Fumito Ueda, and Hajime Sugiyama earned a third, fourth, or fifth NAViGaTR award in their respective careers, thus taking their places among a group of only twenty-three people to have won three or more awards to date.

The complete list of award winners is as follows:

The Winners

• Game of the Year: Shadow of the Colossus
• Game Design: Shadow of the Colossus
• Game Classic Revival Conker: Live & Reloaded
• Game Music or Performance: Guitar Hero
• Game Orig Action: God of War
• Game Orig Adventure: Indigo Prophecy
• Game Orig Children's: Lego Star Wars
• Game Orig Fighting: The Warriors
• Game Orig Racing: Jak X: Combat Racing
• Game Orig RPG: Jade Empire
• Game Orig Sports: Mario Superstar Baseball
• Game Sequel Action: Battlefield 2
• Game Sequel Adventure: Resident Evil 4
• Game Sequel Children's: We Love Katamari
• Game Sequel Fighting: Fight Night Round 2
• Game Sequel Racing: Burnout Revenge
• Game Sequel RPG: Dragon Quest VIII
• Game Sequel Sports: World Soccer Winning Eleven 8 International
• Game Simulation Game: The Movies
• Game Special Class: Lumines
• Game Strategy: Civilization IV
• Graphics Technical: Shadow of the Colossus
• Animation Cinema: God of War
• Animation Engine: Shadow of the Colossus
• Art Dir Cinema: We Love Katamari
• Art Dir Engine: God of War
• Camera Dir Engine: Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
• Character Design: Shadow of the Colossus
• Control Design: Guitar Hero
• Control Precision: Gran Turismo 4
• Costume Design: Devil May Cry 3
• Direction Cinema: Psychonauts
• Innovation Game Play: Nintendogs
• Innovation Tech: Guitar Hero
• Lead Performance in a Comedy: Richard Horvitz, "Psychonauts"
• Lead Performance in a Drama: Thomas Jane, "Gun"
• Song Collection: Guitar Hero
• Sound Editing in a Game Cinema: Resident Evil 4
• Sound Effects: Call of Duty 2
• Supp. Performance in a Comedy: Sherrie Jackson, "Psychonauts"
• Supp. Performance in a Drama: John Cleese, "Jade Empire"
• Lighting/Texturing: Resident Evil 4
• Original Musical Score: Dragon Quest VIII
• Original/Adapted Song: "Katamari on the Swing," We Love Katamari
• Use of Sound: F.E.A.R.
• Writing in a Comedy: Psychonauts
• Writing in a Drama: Indigo Prophecy

The NAVGTR voting body represents a broad spectrum of mainstream and specialist media that cover video games.