AirAttack 2 Alto's Adventure Badland 2 Dandy: Or a Brief Glimpse Into the Life of the Candy Alchemist Downwell Galactic Nemesis Horizon Chase Lara Croft GO Particle Mace The Executive ------------------------------------------------- More that I wish I could fit on the list: Apocalypse Meow Bean Dreams Blokshot Revolution Cavernaut Flop Rocket Jump'n'Shoot Attack Mos Speedrun 2 Mr Jump Nubs' Adventure Piloteer Planet Quest Pocket Mine 2 Race The Sun Rex Rocket Shooty Skies Skiing Yeti Mountain The Room Three You Must Build A Boat
iOS originals: 1. Downwell 2. Horizon Chase 3. The Executive 4. Prune 5. The Room 3 6. BADLAND 2 7. Implosion 8. Shadowmatic 9. Space Marshals 10. Lara Croft Go Ported from PC: 1. Don't Starve 2. Her Story 3. Transistor 4. This War of mine 5. Geometry Wars 3 6. Legend of Grimrock 7. Door Kickers 8. Dust: An Elysian Tail 9. Fearless Fantasy 10. Dungeon of the endless
Another great, great year for iOS gaming. Fantastic iOS originals and ports all-year round, but had to pick my personal top-of list. So here goes, in no particuler order: Dust: An Elysian Tale - Even though this port has been toned down a notch in terms of visuals, it is still one of the slickest looking games on the appstore. Combine that with the perfection provided by its metroidvania structure, fantastic RPG elements, and smooth and deep combat/combo and platforming mechanics, and it's a formula deserving a spot on my list. Implosion - Might not be on everyone's list, but this is one of the games that no one can hate once they play it. This is, IMO one of the appstore's masterpieces, and easily deserves a spot in my list. The most fluid combo systems are pretty hard to achieve, and Implosion boasts that as just one of the game's fantastic features. A friend of mine found it hard to believe this is on mobile. Space Marshals - Dual stick shooters are usually one-trick-ponies in terms of gameplay mechanics, but Space Marshals is one of the few dual stick shooters that is done so well it didnt even feel like one. Massive content, great mechanics, fantastic controls and control options, and great visual and audio presentation makes this one of my favorite titles on iOS. Marvel Future Fight - i normally despise freemiums. I play the ones i like, and delete them in a week the most. Not MFF. Been playing it since release, and it's generous enough for me to keep playing it, and enjoyable and massive enough to deserve a spot in my list. The only freemium collection game that reminded me of how i loved the very first Shin Megami Tensei title i played years ago. Heroes & Castles 2 - Ever since Beta, through all the changes and additions, this is easily one of the most massive iOS originals ever. It's a genre salad that works so perfectly, it's an auto-include into my list. The game balance in multiplayer may still need some tweaking, but the experience of hacking and slashing orcs, goblins, the undead, and beasts, as you defend your castles, towns and settlements, as well as attacking enemy bases, is highly satisfying, as you develop multiple classes with the game's no-limit equipment and skill system. AirAttack 2 - .Decluster Zero was supposed to be in this spot, but the longer i played AA2, i had to push .Decluster Zero down. One look at the game, and i cried inside at how unbelievably beautiful the game was. As i played it, the progression system and the controls turned out perfect, and that... Is how games get added to my GotY list. Race The Sun - basically replaced my Boson X playtime since i got this. Any game that does that deserves to be included to my list. The slick presentation, the perfect one-more-go formula, the smooth game progression, and the spot-on controls guaranteed its spot on my 2015 cream of the crop. Lara Croft GO - In a messy pool of blocks, letters, numbers, gems, candies, and whetever icons the pixels can form, Lara Croft GO easily stands out in the Puzzle genre. It's so good, Lara Croft GO doesnt even feel like a puzzle game, and translates the relic hunter perfectly into this genre. Add in the Square Enix level of polish, and GotY-material it surely is. Shadowmatic - one of the most relaxing, yet most satisfying games i have played. It's like playing a rubik's cube without knowing the formula, but more attainable than completing the cube. The serene presentation, the fantastic and naturelle controls structure, and the realistic shadowplay mechanics, easily drive this towards being one of my favorite games on the appstore. Evoland - when it comes to charm, this game took me by surprise. Everything the game offered is the standards and stereotypes of why i love RPGs so much. The game itself is a story, an experience, and a nostalgic trip through the birth and evolution of RPGs as we know it. The game perfectly chose the simplest of the RPG mechanics to highlight this entire journey through the genre's evolution rather than create a complicated game to complement what the game tries to achieve. The evolution of the controls, the life system, the sounds and music, the visual styles, everything is a story... And Evoland tells the story PERFECTLY, and i dont think there's a better word to describe it. Been a really difficult task filtering a top ten for this year, as we have tons of fantastic games in the different genres that has blessed our mobile devices. Im just a little sad considering there's only one twitch-type minimalist game that really wow'd me this year like Wave Wave, Super Hex, Impossible Road or Duet did, and that is Kayos, but it wasnt enough to push it to my A-list considering its similarities to one of those in the list. That said, here are my honorable mentions which almost made my top ten games of 2015 list. Horizon Chase Downwell Planet Quest Tap Titans (yup, a clicker almost made my list) Hero Emblems Sproggiwood Adventure Time Game Wizard Quest Keeper (prefer this over Pac-Man 256 or any of the "Crossy Froggers") Transistor (this one is easily my 11th) Kayos .Decluster Zero Corridor Z The Executive Card Crawl Cheers! Psience
Puh, too many good games this year, but I will try in alphabetical order: iOS originals: Alto's Adventure Battlestation: Harbinger Card Crawl Donsol Downwell Horizon Chase Mos Speedrun 2 Space Marshals Spider: Rite of the shrouded moon Trigonarium PC/Steam: Crowntakers Don't Starve Dungeon of the Endless Dust: An Elysian Tale Geometry Wars 3 Legend of Grimrock Sproggiwood Tallowmere This War of Mine Transistor Honorable mentions: Astrå Chain Link Pro 2 Chesh Dark Echo Decluster Dig a Way Fearless Fantasy Galactic Keep Gunbrick Her Story Hopiko Implosion Lifeline Potatoman seeks the troof Power Hover Rust Bucket Ryan North's To be or not to be Sage Solitaire Skiing Yeti Mountain Spl-t Sword of Xolan And ca. 50 more games...but no Landsliders
Word. I see how Land Sliders could be in some people's lists (even at the top), but it was pretty surprising to me that the TA doods collective ranking gave it the top spot.
Horizon Chase Planet Quest Nubs' Adventure Super Happy Fun Block Starseed: Origin Cavernaut Tiny Dangerous Dungeons Ryan North's To Be Or Not To Be Attack The Light - Steven Universe Light RPG Trigonarium Honourable Mentions Blockshot Revolution Drop Wizard Atomic Pinball Collection Jump'N'Shoot Attack Trigonarium Hitman: Sniper Piloteer The Executive Shibuya Grandmaster Hopiko Jump Jack There are a bunch of well received games that I simply haven't had the time to play including The Room 3, Transistor, Dust, Spider et al but I'm more than happy with my top 10 in what has been a great year for iOS gaming. Many thanks to all who contribute to making Touch Arcade the great site that it is.
Here are my nominations in no particular order Hero Emblems Space Marshals Particle Mace Implosion - Never Lose Hope Heroes and Castles 2 Geometry Wars 3 Don't Starve Dust: AET Templar Battleforce Badland 2
Today is the last day for nominations, please post your GOTY nominees or make any list edits today... poll will be up sometime tomorrow.
There are only 37 people that nominated, really makes me sad, it's dying off this whole game of the week and year stuff.
GoTY 2015 Nominations The problem is that I've spent most of 2015 playing Hearthstone, which is 'not a 2015 game'; I've probably got 10 times as many hours in that as everything else put together. But I'm nominating anyway, although I can't claim I've properly overviewed the field. And FTP games like Hearthstone release major updates within the same game, whereas paid for games like (example) The Room release them as whole new games. Similarly, TA gave a five star review to The Addams Family, which is a 'new' table sold as IAP within Pinball Arcade; the game engine is the same and the table is but a shadow of the actual 1992 table. It's hard to see any way in which that or The Room 3 is a new game, but Hearthstone's League of Explorers isn't. This 'new material in old bottles' stuff is rampant throughout iOS gaming these days. Ahem. Anyway; new games I have really liked this year, in no order: Don't Starve (I have barely scratched the surface but it's ever so good) Prune (but maybe more of an art project than a game) Attack the Light (really charming and fun Steven Universe spinoff) Landsliders (I seem to like this much more than most of you!) Fallout Shelter (played obsessively until it fell apart in the end game; needed a tidy finish) You Must Build a Boat (played obsessively until it ended tidily; this is how you should do it!) Sproggiwood (Another barely scratched the surface, lovely though) Downwell (forum favourite) Storm Casters Ultra (played obsessively for a good while and then ran out of content; cf Fallout Shelter and YMBAB) Does not Commute (became too hard for me half way through; perhaps I should read the stories online somewhere?)
I agree Roger. I just posted a reminder thread in the General Discussion forum when I saw that today was the last day to nominate. I am not good at voting in GOTW threads myself because most weeks I only buy one game, or none at all, but GOTY is different. Surely most people can list 10 (or fewer) games that they liked a lot over the whole year? I love seeing what everyone is voting for. I don't even care so much about the result, as I care about seeing everyone's top 10 lists. I had the same problem, but I'd say it's a good problem to have And it's just a fun forum thread, it's okay if next week you decide that you should have included or excluded a particular game anyway. I liked thinking back about this year in iOS gaming and remembering the great games I played this year.
yep - i love all these lists. It often makes me go back to games I've bought but not tried properly yet. Like a few above some of the games I've played most this year are old ones - pixa and GTA3 (with a controller) being my main ones and attempting to beat Guise's very old score on Goatup to no avail at all. I don't spend as much time on TA as I used to, mainly because even my backlog of games is embarrassed of it's backlog, but TA and the TA community are second to none, and whilst I haven't done much leaderboard chasing in 2015 it's always great to see the familiar game centre names on those leaderboards. Haven't seen Guise's or Deckard's Top 10s yet. I hope they're incoming. All the very best to all in and around TouchArcade. It has actually been a very good year - apart from Game Center poking things right in the eye. Incurve for the win.
