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The Pocket Gamer Awards 2011: The Winners

And Game of the Year goes to...

The Pocket Gamer Awards 2011: The Winners
In what's commonly known as GDC's take on The Oscars - in these quarters, at least - sister site Pocket Gamer has just re-re-re-revealed the winners for 2011 in the portable gaming industry and begun distributing the statuettes in earnest.

The Pocket Gamer Awards academy invited members of the assembled press - read: Pocket Gamer staff - to vote on a range of categories, including the ('one they all wanted') Game of the Year.

iPhone/iPod touch

In the iPhone/iPod touch section, Chillingo and Firemint were the main prizewinners, scooping two trinkets each for Cut the Rope and Real Racing 2 respectively.
Cut the Rope collected the Best Casual/Puzzle Game and Most Innovative Game trophies, besting Fruit Ninja in the former and Silverfish in the latter.

Meanwhile, Real Racing 2 swept past Let's Golf! 2 in the Best Sports/Driving Game pursuit and also managed to pick up the top accolade - iPhone & iPod touch Game of the Year.

iPad

Turning to Apple's 10-inch touchscreen, and three star names dominated the Award headlines, beginning with EA Mobile, who took home a hat trick of gongs for Mirror's Edge, Madden NFL 11, and Best Publisher.

2D Boy's award-winning PC phenomenon World of Goo repeated the trick on iPad, beating off the challenge of Osmos - whose developer Hemisphere Games itself amassed a pair of titles - and Zen Bound 2 to earn the distinctions Best Casual/Puzzle Game and Game of the Year.

Mobile

Over in the mobile realm, Microsoft Game Studios put its parent company's recent Windows Phone 7 update woes behind it to celebrate a trio of successes for ilomilo in the Best Casual/Puzzle Game, Most Innovative Game, and WP7 Game of the Year classifications.

Polarbit (Reckless Racing) and Glu Mobile (Glyder: Adventure Worlds and Build-a-Lot 2: Town of the Year) also had cause for celebration, picking up a brace of accolades each despite stiff competition from the likes of Best Publisher (Gameloft) and Best Developer (Hexage).

Handheld

With interest in both the DS and PSP cranked up a notch of late thanks to the Japanese launch of the 3DS and NGP's upcoming debut, the handheld finalists garnered much attention.

Whilst God of War: Ghost of Sparta successfully fended off the other nine contenders on Sony's platform, including Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, to win Game of the Year, Nintendo's Super Scribblenauts wrote - or rather drew - its name into folklore by triumphing in the DS section.

Best Game of the Year

And finally, the big one; the Best Film equivalent, the blue riband - the Pocket Gamer Awards 2011: Game of the Year.

So, without further ado, we present to you the overall champion of the portable gaming world...Real Racing 2.

Congratulations to Firemint and all the nominees. All that's left to say is thank you for reading and tune in same time, same channel next year for the results from the 2012 ceremony.

Here's the full list:

THE POCKET GAMER AWARDS 2011: IPHONE AND IPOD TOUCH

Best Action/Arcade Game
DoDonPachi Resurrection (Cave)

Best Casual/Puzzle GameCut the Rope (Chillingo)

Best Adventure/RPG GameChaos Rings (Square Enix)

Best Strategy/Simulation GamePlants vs Zombies (PopCap Games)

Best Sports/Driving GameReal Racing 2 (Firemint)

Most Innovative GameCut the Rope (Chillingo)

Best Freemium GameLil' Pirates (Capcom Mobile)

Best DeveloperGameloft

Best PublisherEA Mobile

Game of the YearReal Racing 2 (Firemint)

THE POCKET GAMER AWARDS 2011: MOBILE

Best Action/Arcade Game
MiniSquadron [Android] (Grey Fin/Supermono)

Best Casual/Puzzle Gameilomilo [WP7] (Microsoft Game Studios)

Best Adventure/RPG GameGlyder: Adventure Worlds [WP7] (Glu Mobile)

Best Strategy/Simulation GameGame Dev Story [Android] (Kairosoft)

Best Sports/Driving GameReckless Racing [Android] (Polarbit)

Most Innovative Gameilomilo [WP7] (Microsoft Game Studios)

Best DeveloperHexage

Best PublisherGameloft
Java Game of the YearBuild-a-Lot 2: Town of the Year (Glu Mobile)

Android Game of the YearReckless Racing (Polarbit)

Windows Phone 7 Game of the Yearilomilo (Microsoft Game Studios)

THE POCKET GAMER AWARDS 2011: IPAD

Best Action/Arcade Game
Mirror's Edge for iPad (EA Mobile)

Best Casual/Puzzle GameWorld of Goo (2D Boy)

Best Adventure/RPG GameMonkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge (LucasArts)

Best Strategy/Simulation GameSmall World for iPad (Days of Wonder)

Best Sports/Driving GameMadden NFL 11 for iPad (EA Mobile)

Most Innovative GameOsmos for iPad (Hemisphere Games)

Best DeveloperHemisphere Games

Best PublisherEA Mobile

Game of the YearWorld of Goo (2D Boy)

THE POCKET GAMER AWARDS 2011: HANDHELD

PSP Game of the Year
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Sony Computer Entertainment)

DS Game of the YearSuper Scribblenauts (Warner Bros)
THE POCKET GAMER AWARDS 2011: GAME OF THE YEARReal Racing 2 (Firemint)
Look out for the Readers' Choice Awards - open to developers and publishers, of course - later in the week over on the Pocket Gamer site.

With a degree in German up his sleeve Richard squares up to the following three questions every morning: FIFA or Pro Evo? XBox 360 or PS3? McNulty or Bunk?