Features

The Pocket Gamer Awards 2011: The Finalists

And the nominees are...

The Pocket Gamer Awards 2011: The Finalists
|
Update: We have now announced our Pocket Gamer Awards 2011 winners.

Welcome to the latest Pocket Gamer Awards. 

Below you'll find our wonderfully long list of finalists, judged to be the best batch from all the games reviewed on Pocket Gamer (or released) between January 1st and December 31st 2010.

To keep things relatively fair, we've split the formats: iPhone and iPod touch, mobile (which includes Java, Android and WP7), iPad, and handheld (PSP and DS/DSi, effectively).

Having narrowed down our choices of the finest examples of portable gaming of 2010, we'll now crawl back under our rock to argue the merits of each finalist.

Winners – to be decided by pitting PG team members dressed up as the nominees against each other in 18th century style pistol duels – will then be announced next week at the GDC 2011 event in San Francisco (thanks to the support from our sponsor, Papaya, purveyor of a rapidly growing and rather swish Android social games network).

We'll also announce the winners on the site. No need to go to GDC just for that.

Next week, in fact, is a busy one because we'll also be launching the Pocket Gamer Readers' Choice Awards, where you can vote on your favourite title of 2010 across the same formats. But more on that later.

For now, have a look through the following list and let us know if you agree or not in our comments section. But play nice, eh? Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Even wrong people.

The Pocket Gamer Awards 2011: iPhone & iPod touch


Game of the Year finalists

Carcassonne (The Coding Monkeys)
Chaos Rings (Square Enix)
Cut the Rope (Chillingo)
Dark Nebula, Episode 2 (1337 Game Design)
Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick)
Infinity Blade (Chair/Epic Games)
N.O.V.A. 2: Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance (Gameloft)
Real Racing 2 (Firemint)
Sentinel 3: Homeworld (Origin8)
Ultimate Spider-Man: Total Mayhem (Gameloft) Check out our Top 10 iPhone and iPod touch Games of 2010 feature.

Best Action/Arcade Game finalists

DoDonPachi Resurrection (Cave)
Infinity Blade (Epic Games)
Mirror's Edge (EA Mobile)
Samurai II: Vengeance (Madfinger Games)
Ultimate Spider-Man: Total Mayhem (Gameloft)

Best Casual/Puzzle Game finalists

Cut the Rope (Chillingo)
Depict (Makeshift Games)
Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick)
Push Panic (Appular)
Puzzle Quest 2 (Infinite Interactive)

Best Adventure/RPG Game finalists

Broken Sword: Director's Cut (Revolution Software)
Chaos Rings (Square Enix)
Dungeon Hunter 2 (Gameloft)
Rimelands: Hammer of Thor (Crescent Moon Games)
Scarlett and the Spark of Life (Launching Pad Games)

Best Strategy/Simulation Game finalists

ANNO Dawn of Discovery: The Harbor (Ubisoft)
HISTORY Egypt: Engineering an Empire (Slitherine Software)
Nobunaga's Ambition (Tecmo Koei)
Plants vs Zombies (PopCap Games)
Sentinel 3: Homeworld (Origin8)

Best Sports/Driving Game finalists

Let's Golf! 2 (Gameloft)
Madden NFL 11 (EA Mobile)
PES 2010 (Konami)
Real Racing 2 (Firemint)
Reckless Racing (EA Mobile)

Most Innovative Game finalists

Cut the Rope (Chillingo)
Fastar! (Ratloop)
Real Racing 2 (Firemint)
Silverfish (Chaotic Box)
They Need to be Fed (YoYo Games)

Best Freemium Game finalists

GodFinger All-Stars (ngmoco)
Kingdom Conquest (Sega Mobile)
Lil' Pirates (Capcom Mobile)
Smurfs' Village (Capcom Mobile)
We Rule Quests (ngmoco)

Best Developer

Chair Entertainment
Firemint
Fishlabs
Gameloft
IronMonkey (EA Mobile)
PopCap
Zeptolab

Best Publisher

Chillingo
EA Mobile
Gameloft
ngmoco
Square Enix


The Pocket Gamer Awards 2010: Mobile



Java Game of the Year finalists

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (Glu Mobile)
Army Men: Mobile Ops (Connect2Media)
Build-a-Lot 2: Town of the Year (Glu Mobile)
Downtown Texas Hold 'em (EA Mobile)
Ferrari GT 2: Revolution (Gameloft)
Final Fantasy (Namco Networks)
Mega Tower Assault (Gameloft)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (Gameloft)
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (EA Mobile)
Zuma's Revenge (PopCap Games)

Android Game of the Year finalists

Angry Birds (Rovio Mobile)
EVAC (Hexage)
Everlands (Hexage)
Flick Kick Football (PikPok Games)
Galcon (Exozet Games)
Guns'n'Glory (HandyGames)
Let's Golf 2 (Gameloft)
MiniSquadron (Grey Fin/Supermono)
Reckless Racing (Polarbit)
Zenonia (Gamevil) Check out our Top 10 Android Games of 2010 feature.

Windows Phone 7 Game of the Year finalists

Bejeweled LIVE (PopCap Games)
CarneyVale: Showtime (Microsoft Game Studios)
Flight Control (Namco Bandai Games)
Glow Artisan (Microsoft Game Studios)
Glyder: Adventure Worlds (Glu Mobile)
I Dig It (InMotion Software)
ilomilo (Microsoft Game Studios)
Max and the Magic Marker (Microsoft Game Studios)
OMG: Our Manic Game (Microsoft Game Studios)
Zombies!!! (Microsoft Game Studios)

Best Action/Arcade Game finalists

CarneyVale: Showtime [WP7] (Microsoft Game Studios)
EVAC [Android] (Hexage)
MiniSquadron [Android] (Grey Fin/Supermono)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction [Java] (Gameloft)
Ultimate Spider-Man: Total Mayhem [Android] (Gameloft)

Best Casual/Puzzle Game finalists

Blokus [Java] (Gameloft)
Glow Artisan [WP7] (Microsoft Game Studios)
ilomilo [WP7] (Microsoft Game Studios)
Slice It! [Android] (Com2uS)
Zuma's Revenge [Java] (PopCap Games)

Best Adventure/RPG Game finalists

CSI Miami: Episode 2 [Java] (Gameloft)
Final Fantasy [Java] (Namco Networks)
Glyder: Adventure Worlds [WP7] (Glu Mobile)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 [Java] (EA Mobile)
Zenonia [Android] (Gamevil)

Best Strategy/Simulation Game finalists

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties [Java] (Glu Mobile)
Build-a-Lot 2: Town of the Year [Java] (Glu Mobile)
Galcon [Android] (Exozet Games)
Game Dev Story [Android] (Kairosoft)
Mega Tower Assault [Java] (Gameloft)

Best Sports/Driving Game finalists

Ferrari GT 2: Revolution [Java] (Gameloft)
Homerun Battle 3D [Android] (Com2uS)
Let's Golf! 2 [Android] (Gameloft)
Pocket Racing [Android] (Measured Software)
Reckless Racing [Android] (Polarbit)

Most Innovative Game finalists
Game Dev Story [Android] (Kairosoft)
Glow Artisan [WP7] (Microsoft Game Studios)
ilomilo [WP7] (Microsoft Game Studios)
Impossible Level Game [Android] (HyperBees)
Mega Tower Assault [Java] (Gameloft)

Best Developer

Hexage
Gameloft
HandyGames
Exozet
Southend

Best Publisher

Digital Chocolate
EA Mobile
Gameloft
Glu Mobile
HandyGames


The Pocket Gamer Awards 2011: iPad



Game of the Year finalists

Dominion HD (Chillingo)
Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials (MumboJumbo)
Mirror's Edge for iPad (EA Mobile)
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge (LucasArts)
Osmos for iPad (Hemisphere Games)
Scrabble (EA Mobile)
Small World for iPad (Days of Wonder)
Spirits (Spaces of Play)
World of Goo (2D Boy)
Zen Bound 2 (Secret Exit)

Check out our Top 10 iPad Games of 2010 feature.

Best Action/Arcade Game finalists

Mirror's Edge for iPad (EA Mobile)
Perfect Cell (Mobigame)
Samurai II: Vengeance (Madfinger Games)

Best Casual/Puzzle Game finalists

Osmos for iPad (Hemisphere Games)
Spirits (Spaces of Play)
World of Goo (2D Boy)

Best Adventure/RPG Game finalists

Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Remastered (Revolution Software)
Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials (MumboJumbo)
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge (LucasArts)

Best Strategy/Simulation Game finalists

Buccaneer Blitz (Namco Bandai Games)
Dominion HD (Chillingo)
Small World for iPad (Days of Wonder)

Best Sports/Driving Game finalists

Madden NFL 11 (EA Mobile)
Real Racing HD (Firemint)
Reckless Racing HD (EA Mobile)

Most Innovative Game finalists

Osmos for iPad (Hemisphere Games)
TowerMadness HD (Limbic Software)
Scrabble (EA Mobile)

Best Developer

Hemisphere Games
LucasArts
Revolution Software

Best Publisher

Big Fish Games
Chillingo
EA Mobile


The Pocket Gamer Awards 2010: Handheld



PSP Game of the Year finalists

Ace Combat: Joint Assault (Namco Bandai Games)
Age of Zombies (Halfbrick)
Dante's Inferno (Electronic Arts)
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Half-Minute Hero (Rising Star)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (Square Enix)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Konami)
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Konami)
SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Valkyria Chronicles II (Sega) Check out our Top 10 PSP Games of 2010 feature.

DS Game of the Year finalists Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (Capcom)
Alice in Wonderland (Disney Interactive Studios)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Glu Mobile)
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (Square Enix)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West (Nintendo)
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (Ubisoft)
Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver (Nintendo)
Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo)
Super Scribblenauts (Warner Bros)
WarioWare D.I.Y. (Nintendo)

Check out our
Top 10 DS Games of 2010 feature.
Joao Diniz Sanches
Joao Diniz Sanches
With three boys under the age of 10, former Edge editor Joao has given up his dream of making it to F1 and instead spends his time being shot at with Nerf darts. When in work mode, he looks after editorial projects associated with the Pocket Gamer and Steel Media brands.