TouchDown - issue 6

By Nigel Wood, UK
for www.touchgen.com

Published: December 24, 2009

Well, 2010 is soon upon us, and good’ole Santa will be visiting us tonight while we sleep. I hope you’ve all been good boys and girls.

The last year has certainly been good for us iPhone and iPod Touch owners, it looks like that momentum won’t be slowing down into 2010. They’ll no doubt be updates to both the iPhone and iPod Touch later in the year, and then of course there is the news that Apple will be holding a press event in a month from now. Many hope it will be the unveiling of their tablet device. It’s been rumoured for some time that it will be running a version of the iPhone OS, and there have been whispers that a selection of developers have been asked to created larger screen size versions of some of their Apps and Games. Exciting times ahead indeed!

In anticipation for this we have added button in the navigation for the iTablet (or whatever it will be called). So when news begins to trickle out of Apples tight lips, we’ll begin populating the site with iTablet specific news. You’ll also notice an Android button. It’s not set in stone yet, but we are looking into bringing game reviews for Android users too.

Around this time it’s common for game sites to look back through the past year, and highlight the best of the best games we’ve played. We are no different, and much like last year, we will be posting the TouchGen award winners.

The nominations are:

Best Action Game 2009

Galaxy on fire
Terminator Salvation
Gangstar
DOOM Resurrection
NOVA

Best Arcade Game 2009

CS.One
Space Invaders Infinity Gene
iDracula
Pac-Man Championship Edition
Mini Squadron

Best Casual Game 2009

Zen Bound
Ramp Champ
Touch Pets Dogs
Monopoly
Moonlights

Best Card/Board Game 2009

Let ‘em Ride Pro
Solitaire City
MotionX Poker Quest
Monopoly
3 Card Pro

Best First Person Shooter 2009

NOVA
Call of Duty: World at war – Zombies
Eliminate
Doom classic
Modern Combat: Sandstorm

Best Music Game 2009

Beat it!
Rock band
Guitar Rock Tour 2
Mevo and the Grooveriders
Tap Tap Revenge 2

Best Platforming game 2009

Soosiz
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor
Sway
Toki Tori
Rolando 2

Best Racing Game 2009

Real Racing
Asphalt 5
ATV Offroad
Need For Speed Shift
Jet Car Stunts

Best Puzzle Game 2009

Super Juicy
Peggle
Color Cross
iBlast Moki
Puzzle Prism

Best Sports Game 2009

Tiger Woods
Anytime Pool
Madden NFL 2010
Baseball Superstars 2010
X2 Football/Soccer 2010

Best Strategy game 2009

Defender Chronicles
Star Defense
Geo Defense Swarm
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Robocalypse

Best RPG 2009

Hybrid: Eternal Whisper
Ravensword
Sword of Fargoal
Zenonia
Inotia 2

Best Graphics 2009

Zen Bound
NOVA
Real Racing
Need For Speed Shift
Modern Combat: Sand Storm

Best online Multiplayer 2009

Home Run Battle 3D (Baseball Sluggers)
Call of Duty: World at war – Zombies
Eliminate
NOVA
Modern Combat: Sand Storm

Best Studio 2009

ngmoco
Chillingo
Gameloft
Gamevil
EA

Best Indie Developer 2009

Secret Exit
Josh Rosen
Firemint
Crescent Moon Games
Godzilab

Biggest Surprise 2009

Jet Car Stunts
NOVA
Enviro-bear 2010
Doodle Jump
iBlast Moki

Game of the year 2009

Jet Car Stunts
NOVA
Real Racing
Space Invaders Infinity Gene
iBlast Moki

We will announce the winners in the next few weeks. If you have a particular favourite game we havn’t mentioned, let us know in the comments below.

With that I bid you farewell and a merry christmas (if you do christmas that is). Updates will most likely be slim over the holidays but feel free to drop by. Thanks for your continued custom over that last year, and be sure to continue next year. iPhone and iPod Touch gaming is still in it’s infancy and there’s certainly more to come.

UPDATE: CLICK HERE FOR THE WINNERS!

Review disclosure: Any games reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note: the resulting review score is never impeded by this fact, all opinions are that of the TouchGen reviewer and not the developer. This is in keeping with our O.A.T.S oath. Read more about O.A.T.S here

14 Comments on "TouchDown - issue 6"

Will on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 2:04 am

Great nominations, though I’m kind of shocked Illusion Labs wasn’t nominated for best dev. I think Meteor Blitz and Spider deserved some nods as well.

WilhelmR on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 4:01 am

Was hoping to see Wolfenstein RPG, Backbreaker football, and Enso Dot around, but nothing.. kinda sad :/

I agree with pretty much all the nominations, love that zen bound, enviro-bear and Fargoal made it

Hope Real Racing wins!
Merry Christmas

legend.inc on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 5:15 am

No Edge??!!!

legend.inc on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 5:26 am

Anyway the winners for me are (in order of the nominations above)-
Galaxy on fire
Space Invaders Infinity Gene
Zen Bound
Monopoly
NOVA
Beat it!
iBlast Moki
Real Racing
Peggle
Baseball Superstars 2010
Geo Defense Swarm
Ravensword
Zen Bound
Eliminate
Gameloft
Josh Rosen
NOVA
NOVA

Torbjorn Kamblad, Sweden on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 5:27 am

My favourite puzzle games of 2009 didn’t make it but I still play both: Drop7 and Alchemize. Other than that a great roundup.

Worst game of 2009 nomination:
Eminem Relapse
http://www.touchgen.net/eminem-relapse-review

Nigel Wood, UK on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 10:32 am

EDGE (or now EDGY) was released in 2008

WilhelmR on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 1:34 pm

I bet there’s gonna be a “Best Port” category next year :]

Torbjorn Kamblad, Sweden on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 2:07 pm

For 2009 the best port was Driver in my opinion.

Raoupp on Fri, 25th Dec 2009 4:58 pm

Nah, the best port was Doom Classic.

Will on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 3:15 am

Might want to change that iTablet button to iSlate.

legend.inc on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 9:41 am

@nigel yep, you are right. my bad.

Nigel on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 11:57 am

I don’t think it will be called iSlate. Despite Apple owning the trademark. I’ll probably have to eat my words though… hope not!

Torbjorn Kamblad, Sweden on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 12:07 pm

So confusing with multiple Nigels…:)

Tim on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 1:57 pm

Good list, but I do think Meteor Blitz deserves a mention.