TouchArcade's "Best of the Rest" 2015 Picks

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by Boardumb, Dec 31, 2015.

  1. Boardumb

    Boardumb Administrator
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    Now that our GotY and Best Games of 2015 have been decided, I figured some people might find it interesting to see our process of selection and to list all the games that didn't quite make the cut. First of all it should be said that this is NOT an exact science by any means, and there are some VERY excellent games that didn't make it into our Best Of coverage. So if you didn't really find anything interesting about our Best Of list, you'll no doubt find tons of gems by combing through the massive list below.

    So this is how I came up with this year's list, and it's how I do it every year. I go all the way back to our Best Of lists from last year, and go through every page of TouchArcade from that point onwards all the way up to present day. It's roughly 170+ front pages to go through. I do this partially because I'm insane, but also because there are some really great games that for one reason or another just don't get reviewed by us, so I don't like just relying on looking at all the 4-5 star reviews for making these lists because there's too much potential for great games to be missed. Also many times very well-loved games don't get a super positive review from one of our reviewers because they personally didn't dig it, and that shouldn't preclude that game from being in consideration. I also actually go through every single Out Now post from the entire year too, just to see if anything stands out and to be thorough.

    Doing all this, which takes many hours spread across several days, gives us a massive, unwieldy list of really good games. From that point I just kind of go through the list and pick out things that I think were the real standouts of the year. I go through that main list several times over to make sure I've gotten everything, and the second list that this results in is also quite large but much more manageable than the initial list. Then it's really just hunkering down and deciding what stays and what goes based on a myriad of factors. When I finally have my list of 25-ish, I pass it on to the rest of the TA crew and ask if anybody has anything they feel should be added, or if they feel especially strong about any of those games NOT being included. This year there really was no objections to the original 25.

    Out of that 25, I felt that Land Sliders and Downwell were the two real standouts, though really you could make an argument for any of the games on the whole list. I know a lot of people were shocked at our pick of Land Sliders for GotY, and if that describes you then you'll want to listen to our podcast this week as we really go into detail in how it ended up as our pick. The pick for which one was GotY and which was Runner Up ultimately came down to Eli and myself, as we're the only two full-time editors of the site. In the end Land Sliders came out on top, and as I said we go into detail on why that is on our podcast if you're interested.

    Anyway, that's the lengthy, mind-numbing, but somehow cathartic process of whittling down the best games of the year. Without further ado here is the "Best of the Rest" in alphabetical order, followed by a list of ports/multiplatform games from the year, which we singled out for a possible feature that never ended up happening but I'm also too lazy to just cram them back into the main list. Also it's kind of helpful seeing all the ports and multiplatform stuff in one place, but it's not a very refined list so you'll find stuff in the big list that should qualify as port or multiplatform but isn't listed as such, and that's why.

    Ok enough babbling here's the list:

    BEST OF 2015
    AG Drive
    AirAttack 2
    Alto's Adventure
    Badland 2
    Call of Champions
    Chaos Rings 3
    Does Not Commute
    Don't Starve: Pocket Edition
    Downwell
    Dust: An Elysian Tail
    The Executive
    Furdemption
    Galactic Keep
    Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved
    Her Story
    Horizon Chase
    Implosion - Never Lose Hope
    Land Sliders
    Lara Croft GO
    Pac-Man 256
    Prune
    The Room Three
    Sorcery! 3
    Space Marshals
    Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon
    This War of Mine



    BEST OF THE REST 2015
    A Day in the Woods
    A Good Snowman is Hard to Build
    A Study In Steampunk: Choice By Gaslight
    Active Soccer 2
    Afterpulse
    Agent A: Puzzle in Disguise
    Alchemic Dungeons
    Alphabear
    Angry Birds 2
    Anodia 2
    Aralon: Forge and Flame
    Arcane Towers
    Atomic Pinball Collection
    Attack the Light: Steven Universe
    Auro
    Avernum 2: Crystal Souls
    AZZL
    Beast Quest
    The Beggar's Ride
    Beneath the Lighthouse
    Blokshot Revolution
    Blockwick 2
    Blocky Highway
    Cally's Caves 3
    Capitals
    Card Crawl
    Cavernaut
    Champion Of The Gods
    Code of Arms
    Coors Light Super Refresh-Men
    Cosmonautica
    Craft the World - Pocket Edition
    Crowntakers
    Cube Koala
    Dandy: Or A Brief Glimpse Into the Life of a Candy Alchemist
    Dark Echo
    Dark Fear
    Dashy Crashy
    Dead Effect 2
    .Decluster
    .Decluster Zero: Bullet Nocturne
    Devious Dungeons 2
    Diabolical
    Digfender
    Digit & Dash
    Divide By Sheep
    Dragon Hills
    Drop Wizard
    Drylands
    Dungeon Hunter 5
    Dungeon of Madness
    Earthcore: Shattered Elements
    Edge of Oblivion: Alpha Squadron 2
    The Enchanted Cave 2
    Endless Sniper
    Evel Knievel
    Fallout Shelter
    Fantastic Plastic Squad
    Fatal Fight
    Fearless Fantasy
    Final Fantasy: Record Keeper
    Five Card Quest
    Five Nights at Freddy's 3
    Five Nights at Freddy's 4
    Flop Rocket
    Football Manager Classic 2015
    Football Manager Mobile 2016
    Football Manager Touch 2016
    Forever Lost: Episode 3
    Fragger 2
    Gamebook Adventures 12: Asuria Awakens
    Give It Up! 2
    Gods of Rome
    Grayout
    Groove Planet
    Guardian Sword
    Gunbrick
    Gunslugs 2
    Hanger World
    Heroes and Castles 2
    Hero Emblems
    Hero Fighter X
    Heroki
    Hitman Sniper
    Hopiko
    Imps in Tokyo
    Impulse GP
    Into the Dim
    Ire: Blood Memory
    Jelly Reef
    Kindo
    Lamp and Vamp
    Last Horizon
    The Last Warlock
    Lettercraft
    Lifeline
    Loot and Legends
    Lost Within
    Lowlander
    Magazine Mogul
    Magic Touch: Wizard for Hire
    Marvel Future Fight
    MicRogue
    Midnight Star
    Minecraft: Story Mode
    Monkeyrama
    Mortal Kombat X
    Mos Speedrun 2
    Mr Jump
    Need for Speed: No Limits
    Neko Atsume
    Nono Islands
    Nubs' Adventure
    Operation Dracula
    Order and Chaos 2
    Pancake - The Game
    Paper Monsters Recut
    Particle Mace
    PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist
    Piloteer
    Pixel Dungeon
    Planet Quest
    Platform Panic
    Please, Don't Touch Anything
    Pocket Mine 2
    Potatoman Seeks the Troof
    Power Hover
    Progress To 100
    The Quest Keeper
    Radiation Island
    Radical!
    Radical Rappelling
    Rayman Adventures
    Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville
    Roid Rampage
    Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
    Runeblade
    Rush Rally
    Rust Bucket
    Ryan North's To Be Or Not To Be
    Sage Solitaire
    Samurai Blitz
    Seek: Find Your Friends
    The Sequence
    Shadowmatic
    Shibuya Grandmaster
    Shooting Stars
    Shooty Skies
    Sid Meier's Starships
    Silly Sausage in Meat Land
    The Silver Bullet
    Skeletomb
    Ski Safari 2
    Skiing Yeti Mountain
    Skylanders SuperChargers
    Sling Kong
    Sneaky Sneaky
    Snowboard Party 2
    Soda Dungeon
    Spirit Lords
    SPL-T
    Splendor
    Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions
    Starseed: Origin
    Storm Casters Ultra
    Stormblades
    Subterfuge
    Super Boys - The Big Fight
    Super Dangerous Dungeons
    Super Happy Fun Block
    Super Sharp
    Swap Heroes 2
    SwapQuest
    Sword of Xolan
    Taichi Panda
    Tales from Deep Space
    Tallowmere
    Tap Titans
    Templar Battleforce
    Terminal Velocity
    Test Chamber
    Til Morning's Light
    Tiny Dangerous Dungeons
    Tiny Rogue
    The Trace
    Trick Shot
    Trulon
    Ultimate General: Gettysburg
    Vietnam '65
    Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade
    Warhammer 40K: Deathwatch - Tyranid Invasion
    Wizards and Wagons
    WonderCat Adventures
    Worms 4
    Wrassling
    WWE 2K
    WWE Immortals
    Xenowerk
    You Must Build a Boat
    Zodiac
    Zombie Panic in Wonderland DX


    PORTS/MULTIPLATFORM
    Adventures of Pip
    Agar(dot)io
    Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
    Desktop Dungeons
    Don't Starve Pocket Edition
    Downwell
    Dragon Quest V
    Dragon Quest VI
    Dropsy: A Point and Click Hugventure
    Ducktales: Remastered
    Dust: An Elysian Tail
    Evoland
    The Deer God
    Dragon Fantasy: The Black Tome Of Ice
    Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
    Fatal Fury Special
    Final Fantasy VII
    Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
    Garou: Mark of the Wolves
    Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions
    Goat Simulator MMO Simulator
    GoatZ
    Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
    Gods Will Be Watching
    Grim Fandango Remastered
    Guitar Hero Live
    Halo: Spartan Assault
    Halo: Spartan Strike
    Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD
    I Am Bread
    Legend of Grimrock
    Lost Horizon
    Lumino City
    Octodad: Dadliest Catch
    Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
    Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
    Race The Sun
    Rex Rocket
    Scribblenauts Unlimited
    Sproggiwood
    This War of Mine
    Transistor
    Ys Chronicles 1
     
  2. RHess00

    RHess00 Well-Known Member
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    Well I just want to thank you for putting all the time and effort into this list. It shows how passionate you guys are about iOS gaming. You could have just picked some big name games out of the air and been done with it. This is exactly why I am Patreon supporter.

    Oh and good idea putting this in the forums. There will be much less moaning and complaining about what's on or not on the list.
     
  3. Kenan2000

    Kenan2000 Well-Known Member

    Nov 25, 2013
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    Sigh,Scribblenauts Unlimited is in the list (which has been released recently) while Cataclysm - Dark Days Ahead was not even reviewed.Too bad,it deserves to be in the list,one of the best ports of 2015 for sure.
     
  4. Exact-Psience

    Exact-Psience Well-Known Member

    Jan 12, 2012
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    Well, what i see here, is solid proof that iOS gaming is far from dead. Cheers!
     
  5. ashmike3

    ashmike3 Well-Known Member

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    Wise.
     
  6. Red1

    Red1 Moderator
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    Pleased to see 'The Sequence' included in Jared's list. Such a clever game, with hours of game-play and so nicely presented. Still got some of the final levels to complete and it won't leave my device until that's happened.
     
  7. lucky4u1986

    lucky4u1986 Well-Known Member

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    I will call it best list of 2015. a great list of games. it shows your hard work.
     
  8. lena

    lena Well-Known Member

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    #8 lena, Jan 1, 2016
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2016
    Thanks for sharing this list. It's great to recognize so many games and I'm with Exact-Pscience: it shows that iOS gaming is far from dead.

    I don't want to moan about missing games, but I noticed that Mos Speedrun 2 was missing and that was surprising to me. I guess that's another proof for how iOS gaming is far from dead and how brutal the competition is: you can be a really great game, get a 5 star TA review, and still not be considered one of the top 200 or so games of the year.
     
  9. Jayg2015

    Jayg2015 Well-Known Member

    Jan 5, 2015
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    If I look all the games up, add links for download, app info to make them accessible , would anyone or lots of anyone's like to help with adding genre, small descriptions, ect ?
     
  10. vectorarchitekt

    vectorarchitekt Well-Known Member

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    I think "Crossy Maze" snuck out too late to make it onto this list. An excellent game, despite the title.
     
  11. thumbs07

    thumbs07 Well-Known Member

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    not sure how I missed active soccer 2
     
  12. Andy C83

    Andy C83 Well-Known Member

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    Over the Rainbow
    I don't think this "best of the rest" list includes the games that made it into the front page "favourite games of 2015" articles, where Mos Speerun 2 was featured as one of Jared's picks. :)
     
  13. lena

    lena Well-Known Member

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    Ah, that's good to know! I haven't read all the front page articles, I got the impression this article was "best of the rest" that didn't make it in the top 25 that was linked here. I'm glad to hear that Mos Speedrun 2 did get some end-of-the-year recognition.
     
  14. Boardumb

    Boardumb Administrator
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    Yep, what Andy said. I had pulled some games out to make my personal favorites list and forgot to add them back in :eek: I've added the missing games to the "Best of the Rest" list in the OP and also added our Best Games and Game of the Year list too just for completion's sake.
     
  15. Dankrio

    Dankrio Well-Known Member
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    No love for Tales From Borderlands?????
     
  16. Boardumb

    Boardumb Administrator
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    That actually came out in 2014, but it's a tricky one too because it released in December but because it's episodic it would be hard to really judge it based on just the first episode. It would probably be fair to consider games like that for the year when the final episode comes out and the game is complete, but I don't know. It definitely was put in a tough spot because of the time that it launched!
     
  17. Dankrio

    Dankrio Well-Known Member
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    Oh, I see. I could swear that it was released on 2015.

    Great game.
     
  18. thumbs07

    thumbs07 Well-Known Member

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    I maybe wouldn't recommend since having got. Or at least wait on a sale.

    On the otherhand, would recommend: Dandy. Chuffed to bits since getting that one. Nice quality little alternative shoot-emup.
     

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