There are a whole lot of apps and games released for the iPhone and iPad every year, so it can be tough to know what’s worth downloading and what isn’t.
We had our own picks for what games were tops in 2011, but app review site Quality Index took a slightly more scientific approach. It gathered reviews from lots of sites all around the web to determine which iOS apps were considered to be the best by critics – and they weren’t always the best-selling apps in the App Store.
Adorning the list are several favorites that made our Best of 2011 gaming picks. QI found that Flick Soccer! grabbed the 10th slot with an average review score of 9.1; the widely acclaimed Jetpack Joyride took ninth with 9.1; puzzler Contre Jour HD was eighth with 9.2; First Touch Soccer came in seventh with 9.2; and Disney’s puzzler Where’s My Water? was sixth with 9.2. (If you’re keeping score at home, you’ll note that Jetpack Joyride also made our list, but it’s the only one ranked 6-10 to do so.)
Grabbing the No. 1 spot wasn’t, as you might guess, the lauded and buzz-heavy Infinity Blade II though, it was strategy game Anomaly: Warzone Earth, an iOS port of a PC game of the same name. Anomaly (also on our list) reverses the formula of tower defense and reworked its game slightly from what appears in the PC version, making for a killer iPhone and iPad title, with great production values and gameplay. It garnered an average score of 9.7
Infinity Blade II, on the other hand, took fifth with 9.3. Slightly above it was the beautiful indie darling Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro with fourth and a 9.3 average. Beating both was World of Goo, another PC port that made its way to iOS in 2011 and made great use of the touchscreen (and also got a 9.3 average). Finally, in second was Amazing Breaker, a brick-breaker like puzzler, with a score of 9.4.
All of the titles are worthy editions to any device’s app library, and each game likely won out among critics because it brings a fresh take to genres in which we’ve seen plenty of clones in the App Store. If you’re looking for new games to play that you might have missed in 2011, grabbing the ones that received the best reviews isn’t a bad place to start. These titles might not have earned as much as Angry Birds, but they all offer something new and interesting.
