But did it really take away from more deserving entries?
I do think that there is a lot of unfounded elitism being shown by all quarters in objecting to the nomination. I just played the game again for the first time since it initially made the viral rounds, and I do believe that it does indeed deserve recognition.
The game is not just a 'joke', the level of polish it shows is actually extremely high.
After clicking to start, your character is shown dropping into the level. This establishes the importance of the character, and as players are expecting a character, they then associate this character with the one they are to control.
The artwork used on the tileset is simple, but it is very well drawn, and creates a consistent feel. The simple addition of shadow creates an illusion of depth, and when combined with the player character, helps the player understand that this is a sidescrolling game, rather than say, a freescrolling game upon a map viewed from above.
They take a novel approach to a title screen. It is not displayed upon loading the game, but rather once you have entered the game. Notice how this polish mirrors the techniques often used in the film industry. Opening credits are also displayed at this stage, in a non-disruptive manner (they don't obscure the action, and do not stop the action).
One failing of the game is that it does not immediately tell you the controls, you are assumed to be familiar with the standard keyboard settings for games. Interestingly, however, trying WASD will teach you the throw axe command, and also direct you to the arrow keys. WASD tends to be the preserve of less casual gamers, and as such they are likely to take more notice of the axe action.
Music does not start until you begin moving. This hints at a sensible design concept - a paused-until-playing start to a level. The background music is again of a good quality, and helps to set the theme. The ominous nature alerts you to a struggle ahead, and the undertone of the strings hints at exploration.
As you move along the tunnel, tutorial information is given. The first message "there is a boss at the end of this tunnel" sets the scene well. Note how no information is given about the length of the tunnel, or what to expect from the tunnel itself. An easy to read font is used.
The second message "you can't hurt him with your weapons" will cause different reactions in the 'hardcore' and 'casual' players. If you immediately found the axe action, you will expect instead that you will have other uses for the axe. If you immediately used the cursor keys, however, this line hints that there is in fact a weapon, and players are likely to experiment to find one.
At this point, the tunnel turns upwards, indicating that some method of vertical travel is possible. This teaches you to jump, the most essential action in the whole game, and crucial to being able to complete it. Shortly after there is a drop downwards, which further reinforces the information from the start of the level (that there is gravity - you can fall, and falling does not do any damage). Although you may think this obvious from the start, many games over the years have had mechanics such that the entry to the level teaches you something which is patently false when actually playing the game.
At this point, progress forward along the tunnel is helped by the positioning of the third line of text, being just at the edge of the screen. Advancing to view this, you discover "To kill him you have to burn the rope above", which tells you that you will need to climb upwards somehow when facing the boss. At this point, the player is also introduced to a new mechanic - burning - which they do not have any more information about at this time.
The subsequent drop is higher than you can jump. This helps reinforce the sense of progression, and prevents the player getting stuck going back and forth over the same opening section. The next message is a simple "Have fun!", which establishes that this is an enjoyable, rather than challenging game. It helps reduce frustration when faced with the boss that is difficult to kill.
At the end of the tunnel, you come to a large room. The prior mention of "at the end of the tunnel" helps the player the realise that this room will likely contain the boss. This is instantly reinforced upon entering the room by the door behind shutting, a boss health meter appearing, and new music starting. The music is again fairly well polished, the base line giving a little tension, but the main theme being positive, empowering the player. At this point, we also see two new features, a window and the torches on the wall. The windows add further to the polish, fitting in with the tileset and breaking up the monotony of the rear wall. The torches are also visually fitting, and players are likely to be curious about them, given the earlier comment about 'burning'. However, they are also likely to assume that, given the window's apparent background status, the torches are background decoration.
The boss name itself helps - "grinning colossus". 'Grinning' is a positive action that typically we humans find a happy thing, however it is also associated with madmen. 'Colossus', on the other hand, is an imposing and fearful word.
On encountering the boss itself, it shoots at you through its eyes. The reactions upon your character being hit by these indicate to the player that being hit is bad. Interestingly, there is no actual game mechanics issue with being hit, however players are likely to want to avoid this. Similar reactions are in place when you hit the boss. The black colour of the boss is a traditionally fearful one, and the simple art style used not only continues to fit appropriately with the world, but also is a little comical, helping the player to enjoy the experience, rather than to feel that this is purely a dangerous challenge. When you throw an axe at the boss, an impact sound is played, indicating that it does hit the boss. The health bar (and its lack of response) helps reinforce that axes do nothing.
If you climb up the platforms in the middle, you are shown that the windows are background pieces only, and find the chandelier and associated rope. You discover that these are background pieces, and that you cannot stand on the chandelier. The need to deal with the boss is reinforced by the symmetry of the room, and the lack of any apparent escape route.
Using your jump atom of knowledge, you proceed up one of the segments at the side. It is difficult to avoid the torches, but this is possible. Complete exploration shows you that no other items exist in the arena, and so you are likely to then try hitting a torch (avoidance is likely if a player is an experienced gamer, since torches have in some games been items that harm you).
On hitting a torch, you gain a flame on a stick. This flame does not last forever - you have to reach the rope within a certain period of time. Jumping whilst holding the flame shows you that jumping will not put it out, making your possible routes to the rope suddenly open up (since you might know that you need to jump to reach it).
Hitting the rope causes the rope to burn, and the chandelier to fall. There is perhaps another aspect of parody here - the boss can be lured away from the centre, but when the chandelier falls, he moves back - forced defeatablity due to bad design
The death animation again fits, they have smoke sprites in use, and sound effects. The boss's health bar falls, further reinforcing that you did it right.
The song at the end, and the ending video are again very well polished. The song does break the 4th wall, making this in some respects more of a meta-game. The line "but how are you going to spend the rest of this da-ay" is quite telling and appropriate, I felt. The song helps the player feel like they accomplished something, and it also works to 'wake' them from the experience.
This would have likely gone viral without all the polish. Plainer graphics, no axe action, no sound effects, an even simpler environmentally-defeated boss, and a far worse song at the end would have all worked just fine to make this viral.
What the nomination of this game shows is that to be nominated, games do not have to be long, or feature massive amounts of fancy content. What matters is quality gameplay (which this actually does have) and a good level of polish.
When I look at some the games it is against, I simply cannot understand the fuss that is being made over this nomination. The Graveyard is another game in the category, and that is simply about walking forward and sitting down (and if you pay, you get the chance at dying!). And some highly innovative games have still gone forward.