Advergames dominate Webby Awards mobile game category

Another day, another perplexing mobile games award shortlist. The prestigious Webby Awards have a dedicated mobile section, including a category for mobile gaming.

The link is here, although you need to register first to gain access. Anyway, five games/sites are up for the award, which is pretty US-centric.

They include Cellufun's WAP site and the Nickelodeon Mobile portal, but also three branded mobile games: a Tetris clone produced for DHL, a football game for Nike, and a bottle-cap matching iPhone puzzler for Dr Pepper.

It's not exactly inspiring, however good those games are (and lord knows, there are enough Tetris clones and match-three puzzlers out there already that aren't promoting a brand).

Maybe I'm being too harsh on advergaming, but it's a strange mix of nominees that doesn't exactly reflect innovation in the mobile games industry (Cellufun aside).