{"id":1049694,"date":"2026-01-18T08:32:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T08:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=486729"},"modified":"2026-01-18T08:32:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T08:32:45","slug":"rewatching-the-2004-spike-tv-video-game-awards-a-true-time-capsule-of-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/rewatching-the-2004-spike-tv-video-game-awards-a-true-time-capsule-of-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewatching the 2004 Spike TV Video Game Awards, a true time capsule of gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Snoop
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Game Awards is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. But for a full decade before The Game Awards, there was another, rowdier game-honoring awards show produced by Geoff Keighley: the Spike TV Video Game Awards. Just like the modern-day Game Awards, Spike\u2019s show aired live, but it was on an actual television channel, without a Twitch chat to accompany it. It had skits. It had a celebrity host; in 2004, that was Snoop Dogg. And today it is a high-octane time capsule into how video games were classically marketed side-by-side with extreme sports, Mountain Dew, and lingerie-clad models. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s an incomplete, heavily edited version of the 2004 Spike TV Game Awards on YouTube; sadly, the full version appears to have been lost to time, despite my searching. But in an effort to understand what was gained \u2014 or lost? \u2014 when the \u201cOscars of gaming\u201d fully transitioned into an independent operation divorced from Spike TV, the self-proclaimed \u201cFirst Network for Men,\u201d I decided to rewatch as much as I could. For science.<\/p>\n

The first half of the YouTube video I found, uploaded by a user named PAPAGEORGIO84<\/a>, includes a different Spike TV segment called \u201cThe Ultimate Gamer\u201d in which one lucky guy wins a home makeover for his gaming setup. It\u2019s a similar time-capsule trip but it actually ends up being extremely boring to watch so I skipped most of it.<\/p>\n

The actual awards show starts off with Snoop Dogg doing a skit. Here\u2019s a big thought: Some of the vibes of this old show could stand to return. I for one would love to see Snoop hosting TGAs this year (or really any year). I don\u2019t know that the \u201cCyber Vixen of the Year\u201d award should get a reprise this year (or, again, any other year\u2026 ever), but TGAs could use a host like this.<\/p>\n

\"Snoop<\/p>\n

In the cold open, Snoop\u2019s playing golf, complete with an argyle sweater vest, on one of those miniature home office golf sets. This is to set up Peak 2004 Famous Athlete Tiger Woods walking out of a nearby trailer wearing a fur coat, gold necklaces, and a fedora over a black toque. They both look adorable in their respective \u201cswitched\u201d outfits. Tiger Woods then wonders aloud if PGA Tour stands for \u201cPimp Golf Association.\u201d Then he points at the camera and tells us to game on.<\/p>\n

In the theater, attendees are treated to a CGI version of the rapper Ludacris greeting the Video Game Awards crowd. Luda is surrounded by other CGI dudes, whom he starts beating up. (This is probably a promo for a Def Jam game; he was in several of these in this time period.) Then, of course, we get IRL Ludacris out on stage, performing \u201cGet Back.\u201d There\u2019s a live drummer, bassist, and guitarist accompanying this; Wikipedia tells me this is a rock remix of the song featuring Lazyeye. Rap-rock was huge during this time (although it usually didn\u2019t feature people who could rap well). The performers do not <\/em>play a shortened version of the song. They fully complete the track. The audience applauds, and then it\u2019s time for\u2026 somehow, another musical performance? The early-2000s hip-hop energy and undiluted joy in this show is honestly exhilarating compared to the formality of current TGAs.<\/p>\n

\"Ludacris<\/p>\n

In a voiceover, Snoop rattles off a list of guests who will be appearing, ranging from Lil Wayne to John Madden to Michelle Rodriguez. With equal speed, he then lists off more musical guests who\u2019ll be showing up \u2014 Busta Rhymes, M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce, Sum41, and on and on.<\/p>\n

Before Snoop Dogg actually comes out on stage, radio maven Funkmaster Flex appears behind a turntable setup, serving as his hype man, introducing him as \u201cthe biggest rap star of all time.\u201d Snoop Dogg enters wearing a vest over a button-up shirt with jeans and a fedora. \u201cVideo games are blowing up so crazy right now,\u201d Snoop says into his handheld mic, \u201cYou know what I\u2019m saying? Spike TV wanted me to have a co-host. At first I was like, hell nah. But then I realized who they had in mind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Snoop Dogg then introduces\u2026 himself. Again. But now he\u2019s CGI and on a secondary screen. The CGI Snoop tells us, \u201cReal people are played out, fool.\u201d Snoop points out that there\u2019s one thing real people can <\/em>do and he uses a remote to turn off the CGI Snoop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Snoop then introduces an award that is amazingly called \u201cBest Performance By a Human Female.\u201d There is an accompanying \u201cHuman Male\u201d award as well. In the previous year, 2003, this award was just \u201cBest award for a Human\u201d \u2014 2004 is the first time it got divided up by gender. (2003 was also the first-ever version of this awards show, by the way.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing I love, it\u2019s human females performing for me,\u201d Snoop says. \u201cWhich \u2014 ladies?\u201d He gestures to the ceiling, from whence two Victoria\u2019s Secret angels descend on wires. Snoop thrusts the mic into the face of one of the two women, who mechanically intones a line about the awards themselves, which are: \u201cThe Vector Monkey \u2014 awesome, isn\u2019t it? It makes all those other award show trophies look like junk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"<\/figure>\n

This is around where I\u2019m remembering why I and so many other people did not <\/em>like this awards show at the time; it\u2019s not all fun musical performances, sadly. There is lots of talk of how bad the Vector Monkey statue looks.<\/p>\n

As I half-watch the clips of the nominees for Best Performance By a Human Female, Idiscover that there\u2019s actually a separate Voice Actor category, and that the Best Human Female category appears to refer only to characters who were modeled after specific human beings (albeit not necessarily with mocap tech). For example, one of the nominees is Jennifer Garner for her performance as Sydney Bristow in a 2004 Alias<\/em> video game. The Vector Monkey goes to Brooke Burke for her performance as a character named Rachel in Need for Speed: Underground 2<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Who the hell is voting on these awards? Here\u2019s the answer (according to a Spike TV press release reposted on thefutoncritic.com<\/a>): \u201cWinners for the Spike TV Video Game Awards were determined by votes from Spike TV’s Advisory Board, made up of a group of gaming industry experts, and consumer voting [\u2026] More than 4.6 million gamers and Spike TV viewers logged on to cast their votes for their favorite games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulsing techno music plays as Brooke Burke takes the stage, delivers a two-sentence acceptance speech, then books it. I will learn, as the show goes on, that this short \u201cspeech\u201d length is standard across all winners and categories. Immediately afterward, Funkmaster Flex yells into his mic, \u201cAnd now, hot girls read cheat codes!\u201d <\/p>\n

We get treated to a clip of a woman wearing only underwear reciting part of a cheat code in a sultry voice. The audience is mostly silent during this part until a couple of people titter awkwardly. It\u2019s grim.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/figure>\n

Next up, BMX rider Mat Hoffman walks out with pro skateboarder Bam Margera. Did you know that there was a Mat Hoffman\u2019s Pro BMX<\/em> game in 2001 and a sequel in 2002? Margera, meanwhile, made regular appearances in Tony Hawk games. The pair read some jokes off the teleprompter about fake, hyperbolic injuries they\u2019ve incurred in their respective sports, then Hoffman tells us it\u2019s time to announce the winner for Most Addictive Game, \u201cfueled by Dew.\u201d This was a fan-only vote, Margera reminds us, before name-dropping Virgin Wireless Mobile (because, uh, you have to use the internet to vote? Sure).<\/p>\n

The most addictive games included City of Heroes<\/em><\/a>, which gave me a nice nostalgia surge, Donkey Konga<\/em> (of all things), The Sims 2<\/em>, Katamari Damacy<\/em>, and Burnout 3: Takedown<\/em>. They don\u2019t announce a winner, and at this point I realize that the voting is going to happen live during the show itself. There are no Twitch drops during this show because we still have seven years until the livestream service is invented.<\/p>\n

Funkmaster Flex then introduces \u201cthe next generation of sports superstars,\u201d Bobby Crosby (who had appeared in MLB 2005<\/em>) and Freddy Adu (who was in FIFA 2005<\/em>). Their staged bit is that Bobby is too busy playing games on his PSP to read his part on the teleprompter. Apparently, the PSP had only just come out in Japan, and \u201cthis one\u2019s the only one in the country.\u201d Freddy makes a joke about selling it on eBay and runs offstage with it. Bobby takes over reading the nominees for Best First-Person Action, including some absolute all-timers like Half-Life 2<\/em>, which actually loses out to Halo 2<\/em> (Half-Life 2<\/em> does win other awards later in the show). There\u2019s also Unreal Tournament 2004<\/em>, Far Cry<\/em>, and Doom 3<\/em> in this category \u2014 a truly stacked year for FPS games.<\/p>\n

Michelle Rodriguez and Ron Perlman are there to accept Halo 2<\/em>\u2019s award, which feels like a surprising amount of star power even by today\u2019s standards. Also present: Bungie composer Marty O\u2019Donnell (because\u2026 sure?). Ron Perlman fires off a one-sentence acceptance speech in which he gestures to his character on the splash screen and says it\u2019s \u201cthe best I\u2019ve ever looked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next is time for Tony Hawk, who is not in attendance to talk about a Tony Hawk game, but rather to hype up Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas<\/em>, which is one of the games in contention for the big GOTY prize at the end of the night. Each of these nominees will apparently get a little hype cycle throughout the show.<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n

Hey, and now it\u2019s time for, as Geoff Keighley would say, a \u201cworld premiere\u201d exclusive. Snoop returns to introduce a trailer for The Godfather<\/em> video game adaptation. In looking up how this game did, I learned that James Caan lost out on the 2006 Spike TV Best Supporting Male Performance award to James Gandolfini who appeared in The Sopranos: Road to Respect<\/em>. The early 2000s were all about gangster prestige game adaptations. In any case, the 2004 trailer is mostly just a cutscene featuring James Caan in CGI form. The tagline? \u201cAn offer you can\u2019t refuse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat game looks mad crazy,\u201d says Funkmaster Flex, before introducing boxer Roy Jones Jr. to talk about some nominees for best driving game. Once again I am baffled that the career of the person introducing the award has absolutely nothing to do with the nominee(s) they\u2019re talking about, but that\u2019s probably due to the types of content that aired on Spike TV (extreme sports) and not really about the video games of the era. These were the gettable celebs!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anyway, Best Driving Game is sponsored by the Pontiac GTO. After the clip reel of nominees, an actual Pontiac GTO rolls up in front of the stage. Its driver hands a copy of Burnout 3<\/em> to Roy Jones Jr. who holds it up and announces it as the winner. Alex Ward, the game\u2019s director of design, comes onstage to accept the award with DJ Stryker, a Spike TV mainstay who also appeared in the game as himself. Alex Ward notes while accepting the award that \u201c78 people made this game,\u201d a number so specific that it genuinely endeared him to me. Short as it was, this moment felt like an actual acceptance speech as opposed to just a two-sentence quip, for once.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\" \"\"<\/figure>\n

Funkmaster Flex then introduces his \u201cnew favorite actor,\u201d Giovanni Ribisi, who was in Call of Duty<\/em> (as in, the very first Call of Duty game ever, titled simply that, back in 2003). Ribisi immediately hands off to Sum41, performing \u201cNo Reason,\u201d which apparently appeared in NFL Street 2<\/em> so that\u2019s why they\u2019re at the show. The 2004 Spike TV Video Game Awards is inspiring me to coin a music genre called \u201cgamercore\u201d that is made up of every musician who has appeared onstage at this event.<\/p>\n

After a commercial break, Funkmaster Flex introduces Danny Masterson by saying, \u201cWhile his castmates were off dating Lindsay Lohan and Demi Moore, he was playing video games.\u201d This was, reportedly, not all that Masterson was doing during this time period<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Masterson appears to be chewing gum before introducing one of the Game of the Year nominees, which is Half-Life 2<\/em>. Instead of being a trailer for the game, this spot includes interviews with various anonymous gamers (I assume, anyway, since none of them get chyrons). The first one says \u201cI like Half-Life 2 <\/em>because it\u2019s a continuation of the original Half-Life<\/em>.\u201d It sure is, buddy. It sure is! Another guy tells us that it is \u201cin fact mandatory to replay every level.\u201d I mean, it\u2019s not. But I get it.<\/p>\n

Funkmaster Flex then reads one of the more horrifying jokes of the night off the teleprompter: \u201cShe\u2019s the star of the upcoming movie Alone in the Dark<\/em>, and I know every guy in here wants to be alone in the dark with her.\u201d Yikes! <\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/figure>\n

Anyway, it\u2019s Tara Reid. We get a cutaway to a bunch of guys in the crowd full-on hooting and hollering at her. Reid introduces Best Song in a Video Game, which is actually a lineup of pop songs that were licensed for games as opposed to tracks that are original to the games in which they appear. The winner is \u201cAmerican Idiot\u201d by Green Day, which appeared in Madden NFL 2005<\/em>. A new classic gamercore track. The idea of a Green Day song in a Madden game winning an award for Best Song in a Video Game is making me feel disconnected from reality and the normal meanings of words.<\/p>\n

Steve Schnur goes up to accept the award alongside part of Green Day; Schnur\u2019s job is listed as \u201cExecutive in charge of music\u201d at EA (this appears to still be his same job<\/a>, 20 years on). Clips from Madden play in the background, because this is an award honoring a Madden game, technically. It\u2019s hard to make out the bandmates in this low-res video, but I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s bassist Mike Dirnt who elects to talk into the mic, holding up his hand to show off what he calls \u201cgamer gloves\u201d (they appear to just be regular black leather driving gloves, not even fingerless ones or anything). He then holds up his Vector Monkey and says, \u201cThat is one funky monkey. Mmm.\u201d Again, this is the standard length and tone of this event\u2019s acceptance speeches.<\/p>\n

\"Green<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s time for Lil Jon and the East Side Boys. They\u2019re not performing a song, though, they\u2019re actually just introducing \u201cthe world premiere performance\u201d of Snoop Dogg\u2019s song \u201cLet\u2019s Get Blown.\u201d Pharrell sings backups on this one so he\u2019s here too. Snoop walks out and the crowd loses it. A couple of seconds pass. \u201cCan we get the music?\u201d Snoop asks. Nothing happens. \u201cWell, can y\u2019all play it? Come on,\u201d he says. The musicians behind him finally start and it\u2019s not entirely clear to me if that was an intentional delay or not.<\/p>\n

What happens next is lost to time, but the YouTube rip picks back up with members of Papa Roach running through multiple awards at once, which is very modern-day Game Awards of them: We get Best Fighting Game, Best Action Game, Best Graphics, Best New Technology, Best Handheld, Best Mass Multiplayer Game, and Best Cyber Vixen of the Year (featuring a custom-made video clip of the winner, Rayne from BloodRayne 2<\/em>, who thanks the voters). <\/p>\n

I\u2019m realizing I have barely any time left in the video that I\u2019m watching. My personal grand finale before the YouTube video cuts out is JC Chasez, of NSYNC fame, who comes out to introduce a highlight reel for Game of the Year nominee Burnout 3: Takedown<\/em>. (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas<\/em> takes home the big prize, but I was not treated to anyone at Rockstar accepting their Vector Monkey.)<\/p>\n

\"Snoop<\/p>\n

The main thing that\u2019s changed in 20 years is that flagrant, in-jokey misogyny isn\u2019t a part of The Game Awards anymore, and I need everyone to understand how grateful I am for that cultural shift because\u2026 I\u2019m about to admit that I do think something else was lost when The Spike TV Video Game Awards died and the modern TGAs rose up from the ashes.<\/p>\n

The wooden but well-intentioned joke-telling on the part of slightly uncomfortable celebrities reminds me more of the Oscars than the current-day Game Awards do, at least from the vantage point of making up the pieces of a show that has decent pacing and a sense of humor about itself. In between lowering Victoria\u2019s Secret angels onto the stage via wire and telling a downright disturbing joke about Tara Reid, this show also managed to get mics in front of more women than multiple iterations of the modern-day Game Awards. (I have no possible moral justification for the poor woman who read off a cheat code in her underwear, though.) It\u2019s also undeniable that by featuring hip-hop and punk rock artists of the era, the show ended up with a far more diverse lineup of famous, entertaining guests. If the teleprompter jokes had been just a bit better written, I would have had to write an article about how this show was legitimately decent.<\/p>\n

There is plenty of shit to laugh at here. Bleach-blond spiky hair, \u201cgamer gloves,\u201d Mountain Dew \u2014 these are the trappings of a bygone era. But I have to admit, this show was also just plain fun to watch. It absolutely helped that it wasn\u2019t stacked to the gills with back-to-back advertising for upcoming games. Instead, it was a show that was designed to be an entertaining romp celebrating 2004 in gaming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m sitting here thinking about how the best part of Half-Life 2<\/em> is the fact that it was a continuation of Half-Life<\/em>. I can\u2019t deny that.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Game Awards is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. But for a full decade before The Game Awards, there was another, rowdier game-honoring awards show produced by Geoff Keighley: the Spike TV Video Game Awards. Just like the modern-day Game Awards, Spike\u2019s show aired live, but it was on an actual television channel, without a Twitch chat to accompany it. It had skits. It had a celebrity host; in 2004, that was Snoop Dogg. And today it is a high-octane time capsule into how video games were classically marketed side-by-side with extreme sports, Mountain Dew, and lingerie-clad models.  There\u2019s an incomplete, heavily edited version of the 2004 Spike TV Game Awards on YouTube; sadly, the full version appears to have been lost to time,…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1049695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1049694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nRewatching the 2004 Spike TV Video Game Awards, a true time capsule of gaming | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Game Awards is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. 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