Game of the Year 2014 - Pocket Gamer staff favourites

So, hopefully by now you've read our Game of the Year articles and heard what we think are the very best iOS, Android, 3DS, and Vita games of 2014.

That's what we think as a website, based on review scores and internal arguments. But what about our individuals picks? Forget scores. Forget aggregation. What if you forget all that and just pick your favourite?

That's what I asked the fine ladies and gentlemen who contribute to Pocket Gamer. And most of them replied. Here then, are the favourite games of 2014, from the people who keep the PG gears grinding.

Plus, you can see who is the best and worst at keeping to a 100 word limit. Spoiler: everyone is terrible.

Mark's the editor of Pocket Gamer and keeps the good ship PG floating in the right direction. He likes dusty old NES cartridges and pretending that new games don't exist. What's a PS4?

I'm a Nintendo fanboy. The first step to getting better is to admit you have a problem, right? I collect retro cartridges, own every Nintendo console, and have spent waaaay too much money already on Amiibos.

So Super Smash Bros is the game for me. This barmy, bouncy, fast-paced, and super-slick fighter features characters from every Nintendo franchise, from Mario and Zelda to Wii Fit and Duck Hunt.

Every little scrap of the game is some winking reference to the company's storied history, or some heartfelt tribute to one of gaming's truly great institutions. I play it for the fighting, but I'm secretly only sticking around to unlock those gorgeous little trophies.

Harry makes sure we weigh in on all the big releases, and plays more mobile games than the rest of us put together. He plays some kind of music with his band. Probably country and western

It's been a ridiculously good year for mobile gaming. Almost every week a new game has popped up on the App Store or the Google Play Store that has made us go "wow". Picking a favourite out of all of those has been really difficult.

I probably should have gone for Wayward Souls, which got only the second Platinum Award I've ever given, but I've decided instead to plump for the mobile game I've played the most this year - Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on iOS.

It's a brilliant conversion of a ridiculously addictive ARPG, and I can honestly say one of the best multiplayer experiences I've ever had.

Sure, you might need an MFi controller to get the most out of it, and it is a grind of the highest order, but the communal cheer that went up every time my hunting party brought down a huge electric chicken dragon never failed to put a smile on my face.

Chris writes news for Pocket Gamer and has a knack for finding the weird little indie games that makes mobile so much fun to cover. He has the attention span of a concrete block

I'M CHOOSING SOCCER PHYSICS.

No other game this year has had me bent double on the floor in hysterics. Not only that, but Soccer Physics even had my non-gaming mum in stitches, asking to play another match against me again and again. So it seems that it doesn't matter if you're not a fan of playing games or football, there's something universal in it that connects with people, and brings them together.

It's just so silly: one button to control two people, jumping only, slipping on grass and ice. It's hilarious. Although it can be played competitively if you want, the real fun is found in all the unexpected mistakes you're bound to make.

Chloi is our resident American and is writing news stories while everyone else is in bed, dreaming about cats. She's particularly fond of indie games and anything you can play in nanosecond increments

I played a lot of Threes! and Crossy Road this year, but I think the game that stood out the most for me was Desert Golfing.

In its attempt to embrace the bland, it hit a lot of strangely interesting notes. Maybe it’s the purity of its play: how it revolves around patience and precision, minus the fluff and polish. Maybe it’s the way it can starve you of visual stimuli until one level, hundreds of holes in, you run into a rock and suddenly it’s the most fascinating thing there is.

It’s a weird game. Mobile doesn't get a lot of that, so it was nice to see.

Peter is editor of our sister site AppSpy, and you'll hear him on our YouTube and Twitch channels. He's the most enthusiastic and upbeat man in the gaming industry and I once saw him hoot with laughter while being crushed to death by a fridge

Tiny Realms is a great step forward for the evolution of strategy games on mobile. Its genetic foundation is Clash of Clans to be sure, with the usual loop of resource gathering, base building, and PvP. However, woven into its DNA is enhanced tactical options in battle, smart post-match unit options, a complex MMO mode, and a rich lore.

TinyMob's debut is a boot in the ass for the strategy management genre, a true competitor to Supercell's behemoth, and just a superb game in its own right that we're still playing and covering over on AppSpy.

Danny is our social media man. He's basically the Shakespeare of tweets. He also writes about handheld games, appears on Twitch, and - this is not a joke - has the SEGA logo tattooed on the side of his head. Again, not a joke

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call is an overhaul of the original Theatrhythm, which injected over four times as many tracks and two hefty modes.

The Quest Medleys mode in particular has me completely hooked. I'm trying to generate Chaos Maps that I can tailor to include only my favourite songs and extra prizes on each stage, then share them with anyone I StreetPass.

Somehow, the generous amount of songs available led me to grab every piece of DLC from the store, and it's still not enough for my apetite.

Building perfect teams for different types of stages still delights me, and with so many spells and stats to play with I can see myself playing this through 2015… or at least until Theatrhythm Dragon Quest!

Rob keeps us knuckleheads in line, and is the managing editor for all the sites at Steel Media. Some might call him a melancholic grump, but he has a soft and gooey centre when it comes to his daughters, Game of Thrones, and the history of canals in the northern hemisphere

I came very close to making Bitcoin Billionaire my game of the year, not only to upset my puritanical colleagues but because I genuinely did have a blast for the fortnight or so that I spent pawing at the screen in a rat-shock stupor.

But even a contrarian streak as wide as mine couldn't deprive Threes! of its rightful place in this end of year round-up.

Asher Vollmer's universally acclaimed, universally plagiarised puzzler is a masterpiece of understated design, with calming pastel colours, big bold tiles, artful muzak, and a host of quirky vocal contributions from various indie developers.

Its novel puzzle mechanic is bizarre and perfectly judged, using squares, numbers, and rules to create something oddly fluid and organic, where you feel as much as think your way to success.

Threes! should have been for iOS what Tetris was for Game Boy, but the game's massmarket thunder was stolen by thieves. If you downloaded 2048 or one of its ilk this year, it's not too late to make amends – delete it, buy Threes!, and Father Christmas might just put you back on his good list.

Matt is one of our freelancers and writes about all the 3DS and Vita games that I can't be bothered to play. We pay him in the gold coins from Mario and I don't think he's noticed yet

It seemed a little cheap to feature a pair of remastered PS2 games on our list of Vita's best games this year. But, for my personal handheld game of 2014, I couldn't ignore the brilliant God of War Collection.

There's more to God of War than the raging slaphead who adorns the cover - its magnificently-realised world of Greek mythology has a great deal of personality, even if Kratos doesn't.

Compiling two of the best action games money can buy, this collection runs like a dream on Vita, and is perfect for anyone wanting to test the handheld's impressive power.

Everyone's got a niche, and for Matt it's strategy games. We have a motto at PG: if the game's got a hex grid, a six hour tutorial, or nazis, give it to Matt. The motto could do with some work

My favourite game this year was unquestionably Hearthstone, a game I spend an inordinate amount of time complaining about.

The explanation is simple: it’s the same reason that drug addicts complain about crack. It’s a game that’s consumed my year, eaten my spare time, seen me sneaking in surreptitious plays while I’ve been washing up, or hollow-eyed at 2am on a work night.

It’s a fiendishly perfect blend of bite-sized strategy, long-term planning and the bottomless addictive qualities of earning gold for “free” card packs, a triumphant first for Blizzard on the iPad and a game I wish I’d never started playing. Almost.

Craig's a freelancer for PG and is obsessed with all things Apple. Like, the company that makes Macs and not the fruit. Though, Craig is also known to enjoy a Granny Smith when he thinks no one's looking

Every mobile platform needs 'its' puzzle game. For a long time, the iPhone’s was Drop7, but Zynga presumably lost the source code down the back of the sofa, and so now we have Threes!, by Sirvo.

Beautifully simple, Threes! is really nothing more than shuffling tiles about a four-by-four board, merging them together to create tiles with higher and higher numbers. (Still, the best puzzle games are usually simple. See: Tetris.) But it has real character, buckets of charm, just enough randomness that every game is different, and yet not so much that it’s overly dependant on luck.

After many months, I managed to wean myself off of Threes!, thankful there was no means of skipping through the early stages, and no stats to show progress over time. Both were added in a recent update, and I’m addicted again. I may need help. (But only after this game).