DDNet Game of the Year Awards 2015! Apple TV Game of the Year

This year – 2015 – has been one of the finest years for games ever. The new console really hit their strides, and we saw some superb games really start to leverage the power that they offered. At the same time, the independent developers really started to break out and produce games that are creative and artistic, but every bit as refined as the finest of the AAA-titles.

Every year we run a series of awards, celebrating the finest games that we’ve seen across each platform, and a number of key categories (art, narrative, sound, and so forth). Each day we’ll unveil the winner, as well as the key runner’s up, one category per day.

What were your favourite games of the year in each category? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

First up is the Apple TV game of the year. The Apple TV is, of course, a very new “console,” and so the raw content that is available on it is quite thin, but we’re already starting to see the potential of the device. To us, it looks very much set to take the same role under the TV that the Nintendo Wii enjoyed – a console people would bust out for the family multiplayer fun, while still having enough serious content to also keep more hardcore players hooked.

Note; for this category we’ve picked games that are either exclusive to the Apple TV or added significantly important other features for the Apple TV version. Games like Transistor and Oceanhorn are brilliant games on the big TV, but don’t add much over what you already get on the iOS version.

Highly Commended

SongPop Party

Everyone loves a good multiplayer quiz game, and SongPop Party immediately leaped to the top of our charts. With 26 odd categories of music, there is something in there for everyone to show their expertise in music, and with up to six people able to play at once (everyone needs an iPhone with a companion app to operate as a controller, but that’s it), it’s the perfect party game. Being free-to-play certainly helps, too!

Beat Sports

The first high profile exclusive to the Apple TV, Beat Sports is a brilliant little rhythm game, from the genre mavericks at Harmonix. Gorgeously charming visuals and clever music combine with some tight gameplay, in the same vein of Nintendo’s own Rhythm Heaven series. This one also has a superb little multiplayer mode that will really test each player’s sense of rhythm. Nothing is more satisfying than out-grooving a buddy.

Winner

Crossy Road

I know it’s a simple little endless Frogger clone, but Crossy Road is one of the best iPhone games because it is so well refined, so gorgeous and charming, and so incredibly addictive. Crossy Road on the Apple TV does more than just blow the experience up for the big screen experience (though that would be more than enough in its own right). No. For this version of the game there is now a two player mode, and I can tell you now, nothing is more entertaining than using your duck to push your buddy’s squirrel into the path of a speeding train. The DDNet team has lost many, many afternoons and evenings to this game. That it comes from Australia is a nice bonus, too.