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Infinity Blade II and Jetpack Joyride among 30 contenders for the IMGA 2012

A cavalcade of mobile marvels

Infinity Blade II and Jetpack Joyride among 30 contenders for the IMGA 2012
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Once a year, a jury composed of mobile gaming experts sits around a glorious oak table for a number of consecutive hours to assess the most innovative and exciting developments in the field of mobile entertainment.

Yes, it's International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) time again.

For the 2012 edition of the IMGA, the judging panel has whittled down the original submission list (of 500) to 30. In the view of the jury, therefore, these 30 titles represent the very best the mobile games industry has to offer.

Best of the best

Spanning six categories, the nominees range from point-and-click hits like Telltale’s Hector series to Halfbrick’s disturbingly addictive Jetpack Joyride and AAA blockbusters like the eye-wateringly gorgeous Infinity Blade II.

"We have had an unprecedented response for the year’s awards," Maarten Noyons, founder and CEO of the IMGA, said.

"The 8th IMGA shows a wealth of new ideas and ground-breaking quality coming from studios all over the world."

Cream of the crop

The results will be revealed on March 1st at the IMGA Summit during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The winner of each category will walk away with €100,000 of publicity from IMGA Platinum sponsor ProSieben Sat1 Games, while the overall winner gets an advertising push worth a cool €400,000.

We at Pocket Gamer would like to commend the IMGA judging panel on its excellent choices this year.

In a completely unrelated statement, we can reveal that Steel Media MD Chris James and PocketGamer.biz editor Jon Jordan are both members of the IMGA judging panel.

Completely. Unrelated.

Here is the full list of the IMGA 2012 nominations:

Best Casual Game

CreaVures - Muse Games
Hector Episodes 1-3 - Telltale Games
Jetpack Joyride - Halfbrick
Sprinkle - Mediocre AB
The Blocks Cometh - Halfbot

Best Real World Game

CityRace - Cityrace.me
Flatmates - Flaregames
Meatspace Invasion - C4MProd
NBA: King of the Court - Ogmento
Shadow Cities - Grey Area

Best Sports Game

Bike Baron - Mountain Sheep Inc/Qwiboo
Flick Tennis: College Wars - Rolocule Games
Sports Car Challenge - Fish Labs
Touchgrind BMX - Illusion Labs AB
Trial Xtreme 2 - Deemedya M.S. Ltd.

Best Mobile Social Game

Charadium II - On5
Funpark Friends - Tagplay
Poker Pals - Aspyr Media, Inc.
SpellCraft School of Magic - Appy Entertainment
The Pirate King - Bulkypix

Excellence in Gameplay

Battleheart - Mika Mobile
Contre Jour HD - Mokus Games LLP
Death Rally - Remedy Entertainment
DrawRace 2 HD - RedLynx
Infinity Blade II - Chair Entertainment

Most Innovative Game

Forever Drive - Tak Fung
Kodo - Fabrication Games Europe AB
KuraKuraMaze - Yoshimi Kurihara
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - Capybara Games
WildChords - Ovelin

James Gilmour
James Gilmour
James pivoted to video so hard that he permanently damaged his spine, which now doubles as a Cronenbergian mic stand. If the pictures are moving, he's the one to blame.