There are a couple of hours left until 2014, and we, in turn, present our version of the best projects of the outgoing year.
Game of the Year – Galaxy Legend
The Tap4Fun project has almost everything for which both “big” and “social” projects are loved. Building your own base – please; growing tough veterans from “green” fighters – no problem; fast space battles – as much as you want. Plus, a lot of content, PvP, PvE, slots, research, ore mining… In general, the deserved title of the game of the year.
Best Runner – Robot Unicorn Attack 2
The shaft of Temple Run clones in 2013 came to naught. This, however, did not prevent the second part of Temple Run from capturing the tops in January-February. The “throne” of the runners for downloads later passed Minion Rush: Despicable Me from Gameloft. However, none of these projects has won our hearts.
But Robot Unicorn Attack 2 succeeded, in which you can destroy ice giants under Blind Guardians and nostalgic for French comics and Richard Donner’s “Superman”.
Somewhere nearby there was also a beautiful Rayman Fiesta Run. He is far from Rayman Legends, but this does not prevent the project from being one of the most outstanding runners of 2013 (in terms of gameplay, with monetization and the social component, everything is very bad here).
The best port from consoles – XCOM: Enemy Unknown
A year ago, one could not believe that six months after the release on PC and consoles, the project could appear on mobile screens. But the guys from Firaxis did it anyway, releasing the XCOM: Enemy Unknown tactical strategy on iOS in the summer.
This happiness, however, has passed the Russian players, so we also note the soundly ported Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which does not slow down on the third-generation iPad and does not cause rejection in visual terms, unlike the recent Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Best tower defense – Little Bit Evil
In 2013, many strong “towers” were released, including Kingdom Rush Frontiers and Prime World: Defenders. But first of all, Anomaly 2, supposedly shot by Roland Emmerich, has sunk into our soul. The title of “best tower defense” it didn’t work for only two reasons.
Firstly, nothing fundamentally new has appeared in it since the first part. Secondly, we really wanted to highlight the perfectly drawn Little Bit Evil from Crazy Panda.
Best Time Manager – Cat Story
In 2013, there was a great lack of new builders and farms made according to the “old patterns”. Of course, it was possible to drop into Vkontakte or Odnoklassniki, but I wanted to collect carrots from the beds on the tablet. This opportunity was given to Game Insight by releasing an excellent “Cat Story”.
Best Angry Birds – Angry Birds Star Wars II
Four years with us. Sometimes it seems to us that the countdown of the mobile games industry, which we all know, should be conducted not from the appearance of the App Store in 2008, but from the moment of the release of the first part of Angry Birds on December 10, 2009.
Over the past time, the games of the series, unlike the industry itself, have not changed much. We still throw birds at pigs. But now it’s not just “birds” – it’s “those same birds”. At home we have soft toys in the form of them, we drink soda, on which they are depicted, we even use credit cards with them. Birds are everywhere. And in such conditions, of course, it is impossible not to download another part with Angry Birds “cast”.
Special nominations
The kindest free-2-play
In the year of the winning free-2-play, only one mobile project with a similar monetization system was not criticized by hardcore gaming media. It is called Plants vs. Zombies 2 and, in fact, is a great gift from EA, which is not too generous to them. A free project in which there is almost no point in buying an IAP.
The most mimic
A character that evokes sympathy or a smile is a very strong marketing tool in the right hands. The game itself in this case can often take a back seat. However, in the case of Cut the Rope 2 and Clumsy Ninja, namely, they are being awarded the title of “the most mimic mobile games of the year”, this cannot be said for sure.
The most overrated games
Ridiculous Fishing, Badland and Year Walk are good games, but, as it seems to us, they do not deserve the “hype” that is happening around them. If Apple hadn’t singled them out, we wouldn’t have talked about them at all, but everyone is making noise and admiring them.
“Indie” that we like
The name of the game that kept our editorial staff awake at night is written with a small letter, and it is hardly possible to pronounce it if you are not from Iceland the first time. Nevertheless, this is one of the most fascinating strategies of the outgoing year, and at the same time it is an excellent reason to review Kubrik’s “2001 Space Odyssey”. We are, of course, about rymdkapsel.
Games that made a mistake with the platform
Strong projects that, by a strange coincidence, came out for some reason on mobile devices, although they belong on consoles, turned out to be surprisingly many in 2013. The main three are: atmospheric, but a little awkward Republique, stylish Deus Ex: The Fall and “I love Nintendo” Oceanhorn.
Each of them is an expensive, diligently made project by talented developers. The problem is that, it seems to us, their authors do not quite understand that mobile devices require a fundamentally different gameplay than their favorite console projects. The fact that some of them are successfully ported to “mobile rails” does not mean that something similar needs to be done from scratch for smartphones and tablets.
Not free-2-play, but a pity
This, at first glance, strange nomination, we specially came up with for our much-loved Knightmare Tower, the main tragedy of which is that it is not a free-2-play project (and largely because of this, it is not a service game with endless gameplay). A great runner about chopping monsters and saving princesses ends after defeating the boss. And no continuation.
***
It so happened that a huge number of great games were released in 2013. And, of course, we didn’t tell about many of them. Literally now, as we write these lines, we remembered that we forgot to mention the gorgeous Injustice, the excellent D&D Lords of Waterdeep, the wonderful Slayin and Deep Dungeons of Doom. But, as already mentioned, a lot of great projects have come out, we tried to mention the most interesting from our point of view. And what kind of top do you have?