Feature

Townsmen 5 tops PG.biz Quality Index for Q1 2008

Congratulations to HandyGames and Disney

Townsmen 5 tops PG.biz Quality Index for Q1 2008
Our inaugural PG.biz Quality Index caused a stir last week, and we're already incorporating your feedback for the next one, due at the end of this month – including adding at least one reviews site to the scheme.

However, we've been analysing more than just which publisher got what average mark from our five tracked sites during the first quarter of this year. We've also broken out some of the games, to see which have scored particularly highly.

Below is the chart of games reviewed by three or more of the sites in our analysis during Q1 (and to recap, that's Pocket Gamer, IGN Wireless, Mobile Game FAQs, AirGamer and Midlet Review).

It shows that HandyGames' Townsmen 5 (published by Disney in many markets) was the top-scoring title by this metric.
GamePublisherNo of RevsAvg Score
Townsmen 5HandyGames / Disney38.83
Puzzle QuestTHQ Wireless38.53
NowhereIn-Fusio48.43
Sushi ManiaHands-On Mobile38.2
5 Card Slingo PokerI-play48.15
Grey's AnatomyGameloft38.1
Metal Gear Acid MobileGlu Mobile38.1
Brothers In Arms: AoWGameloft38.0
Diamond TwisterGameloft38.0
Super CollapseRealArcade37.93
SWAT Elite TroopsVivendi Games37.93
Gothic 3: The BeginningHandyGames47.9
24: Special OpsDigital Chocolate37.87
Midnight DartsGameloft37.87
Bubble TownI-play37.67
Pub Darts 180Vivendi Games37.23
Asterix: The MovieEA Mobile36.93
Sushi SudokuTwistbox Games36.93
Ratatouille Cheese RushTHQ Wireless36.8
TurokDisney Mobile56.8
FIFA Manager 2008EA Mobile36.7
Happy Tree Friends: Blood MoneyTwistbox Games36.63
Now the caveats. Because we've focused exclusively on the first quarter of 2008, some games haven't made this list because they were only reviewed by one or two sites during the quarter. For example, a game that was reviewed by Pocket Gamer in December last year, then IGN and AirGamer in January wouldn't form part of the analysis.

We'll be building up the Quality Index quarter by quarter from now on, maintaining a running chart of top games to ensure games straddling quarters don't lose out.

Meanwhile, the relatively low number of sites means games can be penalised by a single, considerably lower mark. However, as we increase the number of sites tracked, these kinds of scores should even themselves out.

Anyway, the chart provides food for thought about which games scored well in Q1 2008. Whether they then sold well following their high / middling / low scores is another discussion entirely…
Contributing Editor

Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)