SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 5 — Android users have 20 titles to pick from in sampling Google’s games of the year, sorted into four categories: Casual, Competitive, Indie, and Innovative, with PUBG Mobile winning Fan Favourite Game and overall Game of the Year.
The pocket-portable edition of last-person-standing action game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is the Google Play store’s official Best Game of 2018.
It was also one of five named in the Most Competitive category, alongside realtime strategy Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realm War, fighting game Dragon Ball Legends, multiplayer versus Badland Brawl and street racer Asphalt 9.
At the other end of the intensity scale, The Sims Mobile mixed with four more in the Best Casual Games grouping.
The life sim rubbed shoulders with match-3 franchise iteration Candy Crush Friends Saga, wizarding school adventure Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (despite early fan upsets over aggressive use of microtransactions), tap and release journey Orbia, and hidden object detective mystery Murder in the Alps.
Independent studios got a showcase through the Best Indie Games set, the card game tie-in for a hit TV series Reigns: Game of Thrones, comprised of serene dune-surfer Alto’s Odyssey, puzzles Cube Escape: Paradox and Returner 77, and retro-style role playing adventure Evoland 2.
And wordless, pictorial adventure Goroga, colour restoration puzzle Umiro, single-player team shooter Hero Hunters (which also has a battle royale mode), casual battle royale Battlelands Royale and choice-and-consequence story Life is Strange were named Most Innovative.
PUBG Mobile won Fan Favourite Game on the Google product blog while Clash Royale was named User’s Choice Game of 2018 within the Play store.
Popular PUBG rival Fortnite, which uses a similar battle royale formula but swaps realism for soft-edged caricature and more obvious silliness, was completely absent from the round-up, by virtue of having avoided distribution on the Play store altogether.
Instead, it is available as a direct download from the game’s website (or, in China, not available at all; by contrast, PUBG offshoot PUBG Mobile was developed under licence by a Chinese studio).
Apple released a Top Games Chart of 2018 which had Fortnite at its peak, several places above PUBG Mobile, as part of an App Store Best of 2018 rundown. — AFP-Relaxnews
