It's that time of the year when everyone is compiling their best of the year lists, and Apple have just dropped theirs on the App Store. I think you will find the results surprising.
In the category of iPhone games, the winner is Ridiculous Fishing, a game that recieved a high amount of critical praise, and a pretty glowing review from us earlier in the year. Congrats to Vlambeer and his tale of redemption!
Runners up in this category were Simogo's Device 6, and Epoch 2 from Uppercut Games. I'm quite surprised to see Device 6 take the runner-up spot over Year Walk, as it seemed to be talked about a lot more, but there you go. And while we weren't as excited about Epoch 2 as others might have been, a hearty congratulations is in order to this robo-third person shooter.
The iPad category was just as interesting. The winner of the prestigious game of the year trophy was Badland by Frogmind Studios. A well deserving pick that we here at Appspy were anticipating ever since the first news dropped about it the year before.
The runner-ups are not to be outdone however with Xcom: Enemy Unknown and Real Racing 3 selected as just missing out on the top prize. Now Real Racing 3 is steeped in a little contoversy thanks to Andrew's review in the link above, but rest assured he stands by his impressions, and it really didn't impact EA's sales too much at all. As for Xcom, well if you have an iPad and enjoy a strategy game, you'd be hard pressed to find a better example, even though it was released around the same time as Frozen Synapse and Leviathan Warships (which are both excellent as well mind you). Sure the price tag is a little higher than an iOS user might be used to paying, but a game of that quality is worth every cent.
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If you'd like to see what games won some of the more specific categories, or wish to see what books, movies, music, or podcasts won their awards, check out The Best of 2013 on iTunes. It was a great year for gaming, and I'm sure Appspy will have some opinions of its own on what deserved to be game of the year before long!
