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PSNStores 2012 Game Of The Year Awards | PSNStores

PSNStores 2012 Game Of The Year Awards

Posted by on January 7th, 2013 | 3 Comments | Tags:

After hours of debating and a week’s worth of votes, we are finally ready to announce our Game of the Year winners. For a first time this year, we are also including a Reader Choice Award that members of the PSNStores community voted on.

I do have one thing to say that may sadden a few of you. There will be no Game of the Year Podcast, The thing is there were 7 of us in on the discussion this year and it would have been a mess to edit. Because of the lack of a podcast, we do have some snippets to see how we came upon the decisions though. Enjoy!

Amy

Chris: Out of all the games I got to play last year, Amy was by far the worst of them all. From broken gameplay to subpar graphics it really was just terrible.

Honorable Mentions: Deep Black, Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale

Sonic 4 Episode 2

Brad: Sonic 4 was supposed to be the bastion of a new Sonic renaissance. Instead, it was more broken than its predecessor and this entry ended the series after 2 tiny episodes.

Honorable Mentions: Wake-up Club (missing in action), The New PlayStation Store

PlayStation Webstore

Nick: Most of us would say anything is better than the “new” experience Sony has forced upon us all with the new PlayStation Store, but Europe was fortunate to get just that with the web version of the new PlayStation Store. It’s really good, and now we can only hope it comes to North America and our PS3s.

Honorable Mentions: The Walking Dead, Treasures of Montezuma Blitz

Leon The Chamleon

Brad: When playing Awesomenauts, the editors usually fought over who got to be our beloved Chameleon, Leon the Chameleon. He now joins the ranks of Whity the Dolphin. Give us your cheese.

Honorable Mentions: Frobisher, Fake Sylvester Stallone (Expendables 2 Game)

Pid

Curtis: Pid’s soundtrack is consistently great throughout the entirety of the game. From tracks like “The Butler” all the way to some smooth Jazz there’s something in here for everyone to enjoy. It proved challenging not to keep this soundtrack playing throughout my day weeks after the game’s release.

Honorable Mentions: Journey, Double Dragon Neon

Journey

Nick: Journey is a shining example of what an artsy emotional game should look like at its very best. Not all games need to look this good, but they can all look to Journey when they need inspiration.

Honorable Mentions: The Unfinished Swan, Pure Chess

Tokyo Jungle

Chris: Tokyo Jungle’s story was a big surprise. While you had to dig/grind to get access it, it truly is one of the greatest parts about the game. Without spoiling it, they do find a way to explain the disappearance of man. And yes it is as crazy as you think it is.

Honorable Mentions: Sine Mora, Knytt Underground

Awesomenauts

Brad: The PSNStores editors’ love of playing Payday the Heist had to contend with another great multiplayer title this year: Awesomenauts. There are ‘nauts to match any play-style you might have. Hopefully we will see some patches and characters in the coming year. Steam parity please.

Honorable Mentions: Journey, MotorStorm RC

Okami HD

Eric: I’m the resident Dreamcast fanatic at PSNStores.com, so whenever a DC game gets touched up and rereleased, I get to play it to see how it’s improved. This year, however, the best HD remake didn’t come from SEGA. Though JSR looks great and NiGHTS is as whimsical as I remember it being all those years ago, Okami HD takes the cake as the best HD remake.

Honorable Mentions: Jet Set Radio HD, NiGHTS Into Dreams… HD

Lights, Camera, Party!

Eric: You can find LCP on my GOTY honorable mentions list. Chris and I first played the game at PAX a year and a half ago, and when it released I was happy to get my hands on it. I literally hosted a Lights, Camera, Party!… party. I invited a bunch of friends over and we all had a blast playing the best WarioWare game on PSN (next to Frobisher Says, of course).

Honorable Mentions: PixelJunk 4AM, Okami HD

Frobisher Says!

Eric: This is the best game since Welcome Park to show off the Vita’s capabilities. It’s packed full of wacky minigames that require you to think fast. The game’s pass and play multiplayer modes are fun and user-friendly, and relatively cheap DLC packs more content into an already fabulous game. It’s also hilarious. That’s the bottom line, ’cause Frobisher Says so!

Honorable Mentions: Bullion Blitz, Treasures of Montezuma Blitz

Velocity

Andrew: Velocity combined a fun teleportation mechanic, tight controls, and a great soundtrack to create a unique and content filled entry in the shump genre that shows with the right developers amazing things can be created for the Mini’s platform.

Honorable Mentions: Nom Nation, Wizorb

Susume Tactics

Chris: PSP games were pretty few and far between this year, but Susume Tactics was a great real-time strategy game that many probably missed out on. And yes I know this game came out ages ago in Japan. It offers up a retro art style with music to complement it.

Honorable Mentions: None

Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender

Curtis: Aqua Kitty not only features an amazing premise for a game but it also includes truly fantastic gameplay. In a platform that contains over a handful of quality titles this was the one that sold me on PSM.

Honorable Mentions: Rebel, Surge

Sound Shapes

Andrew: Sound Shapes offers fun and challenging platforming with a soundtrack that not only sounds good but is shaped by you playing the game. The Vita’s touch screen makes the perfect canvas for creating truly amazing levels that is sure to keep the community thriving for a long time to come.

Honorable Mentions: Retro City Rampage, Knytt Underground

LittleBigPlanet

Curtis: LittleBigPlanet has continued to improve off of its initial concept in numerous ways since the original’s release in 2008. LBP Vita has given us what we consider the ‘definitive’ LBP game. Not only is it a great version of LBP but it truly feels at home on the Vita.

Honorable Mentions: PlayStation All-stars Battle Royale, Gravity Rush

Tokyo Jungle

Chris: Tokyo Jungle was one of the most exciting games released last year. I know I sunk something like 40hrs into the game and to this day I still come back to it. What other PSN game can you fight a dinosaur with a Pomeranian wearing a school girl outfit? Yup, only Tokyo Jungle.

Honorable Mentions: Journey, Dyad

Rock Band Blitz

Andrew: Rock Band Blitz is a fun arcade take on the Rock Band franchise that puts score chasing with your friends as its focus with great asynchronous multiplayer and social features. It also takes advantage of the games/DLC that you have purchased in the past to give you the most play for your buck.

Honorable Mentions: The Walking Dead, NFL Blitz

Sound Shapes

Chris: Sound Shapes is a fantastic game on not one but two platforms. It offers up some of the best platforming and musical gameplay with visuals that seem to match every moment. There is also a great community behind it producing incredible stuff. Sound Shapes will continue to grow in 2013 and we really can’t wait to see and hear all of the great stuff coming.

Honorable Mentions: Velocity, Tokyo Jungle

As I mentioned above this year we also held a tournament to crown a Reader Choice winner. You can view the bracket here if you want to see the road each of these games took to getting to the finals.

Journey

Journey took 80% of the votes in the finals match versus The Unfinished Swan. Sound Shapes squeaked out a victory over the Walking Dead with 52% of the votes to win a Runner-up spot.

Honorable Mentions: The Unfinished Swan, Sound Shapes

Also here is a list of all the games we gave an Editor Choice award to this year:

The Pinball Arcade, The Walking Dead, Retro City Rampage, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD (Vita), Rock Band Blitz, Nom Nation, Journey, Pid

Knytt Underground, Papo & Yo, Velocity, Sound Shapes, Dyad, Awesomenauts, Retro/Grade, Tokyo Jungle

Closure, NFL Blitz, Treasures of Montezuma Blitz, Frobisher Says