TouchArcade Game of the Year 2017: 'Death Road to Canada'

This has been a truly incredible year for iOS gaming. We started with a list of hundreds of fantastic titles, whittled that down to a Top 100 Best Games list, and then started the day off with a short list of eight games in consideration for TouchArcade Game of the Year: Splitter Critters [$2.99], Data Wing [Free], Gorogoa [$4.99], GRID Autosport [$9.99], Cat Quest [$1.99], Reigns: Her Majesty [$2.99], Death Road to Canada [$10.99], and Arena of Valor [Free]. On this week's episode of the podcast, we walk through all of these games and what made them so special before eventually hashing out what was going to win what. Normally, we reserve the video version of the podcast for TouchArcade Patreon backers, but since this is a special event that only comes around once a year, we figured that we'd just put the video up for everyone to see. If you're at all curious about these additional titles, or the reasoning that went into what games won and why, definitely check this out or listen to our Podcast on iTunes:

 

GAME OF THE YEAR: DEATH ROAD TO CANADA

I'm not sure what kind of witchcraft is enchanting both Rocketcat Games and Madgarden, but it seems like the monkey's paw wish they made years ago is still paying off with their ability to flawlessly release game that push every single one of our buttons. Back in 2014 we awarded Rocketcat Game of the Year for Wayward Souls [$6.99], and this year we are happy to announce that our 2017 Game of the Year is Death Road to Canada.

We absolutely loved the game in our review back when it was released earlier this year. It was the game to beat, and while many games came close, nothing dethroned Death Road to Canada. The roguelike gameplay of completely random games and the absurd events that would transpire made trading tells from your time on the Death Road just as fun as playing the game itself. Additionally, a barrage of updates has pulled us right back into Death Road to Canada multiple times throughout the year. The game was among the most popular titles on our forums as well.

 

RUNNER UP: CAT QUEST

One thing we really loved about our 2016 Game of the Year, Crashlands [$6.99], is how it took a fairly complicated genre and made it unbelievably approachable. The Gentlebros' Cat Quest [$1.99] is dripping with similar magic, and is both a super lightweight RPG you can just play for a few minutes at a time which also features loads of depth if you're looking to explore it. Great touch controls, a ultra cute art style, and perfectly paired music all come together in one of the top must-play experiences of the year. (And our forums also agree!)

 

HONORABLE MENTION: SPLITTER CRITTERS

With our top two picks being pretty deep in the gamer-y games category, we also wanted to give a special nod to the best iOS puzzler of the year, Splitter Critters [$2.99]. When we first saw this at PAX it was obvious that Splitter Critters was either going to win tons of awards or it'd just be totally under the radar. Thankfully, they ended up winning all sorts of things including an Apple Design Award. As we explain in our review, gameplay involves making tears (or splitting) in the game world to then rearrange those pieces of the level into a way that allows your Lemming-like little blue aliens to reach their space ship. The base game was amazing, and then they updated it to support ARKit, turning one of the best puzzlers of the year into the best AR experience we've seen yet. Folks on our forums also really dig it.

For more end of the year coverage of the best games of 2017, be sure to check out our top 100 best iOS games list, as well as these personal top tens that we've been drizzling out over the week:

Also, if you'd prefer to listen to our Game of the Year discussion in the form of an audio podcast, here's all the links to do that:

iTunes Link: The TouchArcade Show
Stitcher: The TouchArcade Show via Stitcher Radio for Podcasts [Free]
RSS Feed: The TouchArcade Show
Direct Link: TouchArcadeShow-336.mp3, 83MB

Thanks a ton for sticking with us all through 2017. It's been a wild year filled with amazing games, and we really can't wait to see what 2018 has in store for us. Something tells me 2018 is going to be filled with lots of mobile games, but that's just a hunch.

🤔 Like this article?

We pride ourselves on delivering quality, long-form articles like this one instead of the SEO-driven click bait that is slowly taking over the internet. Unfortunately, articles like these rarely generate the traffic (and as a result, the ad revenue) of listicles, cheat guides, and other junk.

Please help us continue producing content like this by supporting TouchArcade on Patreon, doing your Amazon shopping by first visiting http://ift.tt/2pHr7VS, making one-time contributions via PayPal, and/or sending Bitcoin to 1Bodu89YrJKBLwS8y8tVF4XyQ5b2dR2cnK.

 

Komentar

Posting Komentar

Postingan populer dari blog ini

‘Franz’ is a Strange Mashup of Texting-Based Adventure and “Angry Tamagotchi” from the Makers of ‘Pathologic’ and ‘Knock-Knock’

Gambar
That is quite a headline, but, Franz is the kind of gaming experience that can’t be easily summarized. It’s an ambitious and unique new project from developer Ice-Pick Lodge, who made their name with the open-world horror FPS Pathologic and have also dabbled in mobile with their truly weird survival horror title Knock-Knock Game , which we reviewed back in 2014 . Ice-Pick has grown to become a fan-favorite developer due to their somewhat twisted and unconventional take on developing and storytelling, and “twisted and unconventional" are two extremely apt descriptors for their upcoming title Franz . What even is Franz ? I guess if you had to summarize, Ice-Pick describes it as “a hybrid between an SMS novel and an angry version of tamagotchi" but it also seems like the type of thing that doesn’t really have anything else before it to compare to. You can watch a very cryptic teaser trailer just below followed by a fascinating behind-the-scenes video where the game’s art dire...
Baca selengkapnya

SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘Pawarumi’ Review, ‘Dragon Quest’ Hero Approaches ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’, Today’s New Releases, the Latest Sales Information, and More

Gambar
Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for July 31st, 2019. I managed to spend half of my birthday sick in bed, but I got a sweet birthday cake from my wife and some nice Spider-Man loot, so it’s hard to be upset. In today’s article, we’ve got a review of the recent shoot-em-up release Pawarumi , summaries of today’s trio of new releases, some tasty news bits, and a bunch of cool sales to dig into. Let’s roll into it! News ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ Now Features the Hero from ‘Dragon Quest’ I actually got a prediction right for once! Praise me! Anyway, you probably already saw this, but during yesterday’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate video presentation about the latest DLC character, players were treated to the news that the Hero from Dragon Quest would be dropping later that day. That means he’s available right now! There are other Dragon Quest -related items that have been added to the game alongside him, like new Mii Fighter costumes and such. If you...
Baca selengkapnya

SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL!’, ‘Moero Chronicle Hyper’, and Other New Releases, Ridiculous Amounts of Sales, and More

Gambar
Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for Monday, April 29th. You may have noticed that there was no SwitchArcade on Friday. I had a bit of a medical emergency and it just wasn’t possible to put anything together. Sorry! But I’m okay now, and as such I’ve decided to catch up on everything I missed. No news or reviews today, but watch for those to make their returns tomorrow. Let’s catch up! New Releases Panty Party ($14.99) I still can’t believe this is a real game that exists and is available on the Nintendo eShop. But here we are. Take control of one of a large variety of flying panties and use your special abilities to attack the enemy panties. That sentence describes a real video game. Given that the game is rated E10+, you probably shouldn’t expect anything too provocative here. Rather, it’s a sort of absurdity that you play just to see stupid-looking situations. And you can even play four-player split-screen, provided you can find three friends that w...
Baca selengkapnya