With the exploding popularity of Baldur's Gate 3 which is likely to sweep game awards this year it seems we are seeing a renewed love for the tactical rather than the action RPG, the latter which has dominated gaming over the past decade. However, this puts Soulslike games in a difficult position. Should Elden Ring or Lies of P compete with a game like BG3 for RPG of the year? Seems ridiculous as these are entirely different types of games. Soulslike games are fundamentally action games with RPG elements but literally everything most people like about them and what made them revolutionary are their action elements, not their RPG elements. That said, the relatively small number of Soulslike games means that having a separate category for them would perhaps be too much, in the same way there aren't enough Roguelikes or Metroidvanias. So perhaps something the lines of Challenge Game of the Year? Which would reward what makes Soulslikes memorable and also include other games inspired by their difficulty like Hollow Knight or Cuphead. It would also clear the RPG category for more typical games of that genre.
Just thinking out loud here...
The old NES Batman was fabulous, especially in a system where almost all movie adaptations were cheap cash grabs.
For SNES I'd say Aladdin and the tough as nails Star Wars trilogy, especially 1 and 3 (2 was just too annoyingly difficult)