International Mobile Gaming Awards 2009

Top 25 smartphone games selected from 150 entries.

News by GamesIndustry International Contributor

Published on Jan. 25, 2010

Marseille, 25 January 2010. An international panel of 20 specialists has selected the 25 best new games for smartphones and regular mobile phones in the 6th annual International Mobile Gaming Awards. The selection was made from more than 150 entries spanning 36 countries, including the USA, Japan, China, the Netherlands, and France.

Stills and videos of the nominated games can be seen at www.imgawards.com.

According to the IMGA, 60% of all entries were iPhone applications, as opposed to 16% last year. Other platforms included Java, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Android, Maemo, and Linux.

The number of entries from North America doubled, although the most innovative games came from Europe.

The games, which can all be previewed at www.imgawards.com, cover an extremely rich spectrum of genres, from well-known titles like Glu's Glyder 2 and Nokia's Ovi Maps Racing to the low-tech avant garde location-based game Ulrike and Eamon by Blast Theory and the innovative casual puzzle game Ancient Frog Junior.

One of the jury members commented:

“The overall quality of entries has improved. There was a large pool of "really good" games to choose from. Graphics design, storyline and quality of marketing assets have improved tremendously.”

The winners of the Awards will be announced on 15 February at GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the official IMGA Ceremony. Eight prizes will be handed out, including the prestigious IMGA Grand Prix.

These Awards will be handed out at GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Ceremony will take place in the heart of App Planet, the Congress’s exhibition entirely dedicated to mobile games and apps, located in Hall 7 of the Fira Barcelona. App Planet will host more than 120 exhibiting companies and the GSMA expects between 3,000 and 5,000 mobile application developers to visit App Planet over four days.

The nominees:

Excellence in Design

Castle Warriors, GameResort LLC., USA

Twin Blades : The Reaping Vanguard, Press Start Studio, France

Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior Digital Legends Entertainment, Spain and India Games, India

Mike V: Do or Die – Skateboarding, Ratrod Studio Inc., Canada

Ancient Frog Jr., James Brown, New Zealand

Excellence in Connectivity

Iplay, Fabrication Games, Sweden

Krazy Kart Racing, Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH., Germany

Sniper Vs. Sniper, Com2uS, USA

Eliminate Pro, fortyseven communications USA

Age of Heroes Online, NOMOC Publishing ltd., Ukraine

Excellence in Game Play

MiniSquadron, Tak Fung, UK

Homerun Battle 3D (Android), Com2uS, USA

Inotia 2: A Wanderer of Luone, Com2uS, USA

Ovi Maps Racing, Nokia, Finland

Glyder 2, Glu Mobile, USA

Best Real World Game

Mister X Mobile, by Deutsche Telekom AG, Laboratories, Germany

Dark Orbit Ground Forces (as a game on GPS MIssion Pro), by Orbster GmbH, Germany

Ghost Patrol (as a game on GPS Mission Pro), by Orbster GmbH, Germany

Ulrike and Eamon, by Blast Theory, United Kingdom

Gbanga Santa, by Gbanga by Millform AG, Switzerland

Best Casual Game Award

Labyrinth 2, by Illusion Labs, Sweden

Angry Birds, by Rovio, Finland

3D Rollercoaster Rush, by Digital Chocolate, USA

I'm Destroyer, by Colorme (Beijing) Info Tech Co., Ltd. China

Wire Way, by Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH, Germany

About the IMGA

Created in 2004, the competition has become the Mobile Entertainment Industry’s leading showcase for groundbreaking innovations, exceptional quality, and new trends in mobile entertainment, whether made for iPhone, Flash, Symbian, Android, Microsoft, Java, Linux, BREW, or any other platform.

From October 15-January 18, developers could submit their games online at www.imgawards.com and compete in an international arena with top studios and individual developers from all over the world.

The Awards are sponsored by Euroméditerranée, ARM, NAVTEQ, Texas Instruments, and GetJar.

Awards will be given out in the following categories:

• Excellence in Design

• Excellence in Connectivity

• Excellence in Game Play

• Best Real World Game

• Best Casual Game Award

The following awards will also be presented:

• The International Mobile Gaming Grand Prix

• Operators’ Choice Award

• People’s Choice Award

Solely focused on the rapidly growing application developer community, App Planet at Mobile gress will bring together the many critical elements of the broad mobile application ecosystem together in one location. The inaugural App Planet event will feature application developer conferences; an interactive exhibition; the App Lounge for networking and business development activities; a dedicated, day-long conference programme on industry trends in mobile applications; and the Apps Garage, which will showcase cutting-edge GSMA initiatives in the mobile applications space. App Planet will host more than 120 exhibiting companies and the GSMA expects between 3,000 and 5,000 mobile application developers to visit App Planet over four days.

Full information on App Planet is available at

http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/exhibition/app_planet.htm

For more information about Euroméditerranée:

www.euromediterranee.fr

For more information about ARM

www.arm.com

For more information on NAVTEQ

www.navteq.com

For more information about Texas Instruments:

www.texasinstruments.com

For more information about GetJar

www.getjar.com