After some heated competition during the Xbox Live Arcade Awards, The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers has walked away with the title of Game of the Year for 2008. The awards, having been chosen by the public themselves rather than some preappointed council, were held via the Dashboard, where gamers could vote on each title in the running via a quick and easy ballot. Though Castle Crashers walked away with the definitive honor, it was also graced with Best Co-op Mode and Best Original Game. Not bad, not bad!

Castle Crashers didn’t completely steal the spotlight – Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (that’s a mouthful!) walked away with three awards – Best Versus Mode, Best Graphics, and Best Remake. As for the rest of the winners, three different titles took home their respeective honors: Braid took Best Innovation, Portal: Still Alive was awarded Best Single Player, and the dubious A Kingdom for Keflings was gracced with the Best Family Game.

Congratulations to The Behemoth for taking home the user-voted award! Frankly, I’m tickled pink that it wasn’t a clean sweep for indie darling Braid, as I racked up plenty more hourse in Castle Crashers than the ten minutes I spent with Braid to know that its story and gameplay weren’t doing it for me. Well, to each his own. In any case, congratulations to all the winners!