If the Flurry reports at the tail end of 2011, indicating that handhelds are losing out to smartphone gaming, weren't enough to convince, perhaps a cursory glance at the nominees for the Game Developers Choice Awards' best handheld or mobile game of 2011 will give you pause for thought.

Out of the five games nominated, four are mobile games.

Handheld minority

In contention for the award are NimbleBit's Tiny Tower (recipient of Apple US' game of the year Award), Halfbrick's Jetpack Joyride, Epic/Chair's Infinity Blade II and Superbrother's Sword & Sworcery EP.

The fifth game nominated is Super Mario 3D Land, representing the only handheld game.

This collection of titles is the first time that the majority of nominees are mobile-based, which highlights the change of the award's name to include 'mobile' as well as 'handheld'.
Tiny Tower also represents the first free-to-play game to feature on the list.

The full list of awards and nominees are available on the official event website with the event itself taking place on March 7 in San Francisco.