Yahoo! Games: Best of 2006 Awards

We scrutinize all of last year's releases and hand out the Best of 2006 honors.

By YVG Staff

Best Casual Game
Most Innovative Casual Game

Most Innovative Casual Game

NOMINEES:

Westward

Developer: Sandlot Games

This Wild Wild West-inspired game successfully blends elements from real-time strategy computer games (such as Warcraft and Command & Conquer) with a good story, clever writing, memorable characters, and attractive graphics. It's up to you to decide the fate of brave settlers as you set up camp in the untapped west of the 19th century, harvest resources, and build a thriving community. Sandlot Games' Westward is a fun and fresh western-themed strategy game that is extremely difficult to put down.

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Kudos

Developer: Positech

To quote Monty Python, "and now for something completely different," British game makers, Positech, deserves some major "kudos" for its refreshingly fun game that can best be described as a turn-based life simulation. In this highly unique game, you first choose a male or female avatar, such as the 20-year-old goatee-donning Scott, an unhappy waiter at Happy Snacks restaurant. Depending on your cash flow, free time and number of friends, you must choose after-work activities, advance your career and education, and earn Kudos, a kind of currency that reflects your social standing.

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Cute Knight

Developer: Hanako Games

If you can get past the cheesy name of this game, Hanako Games' Cute Knight is an innovative 2D anime-style Japanese role-playing game, which stars a young orphaned girl who, upon her 18th birthday, is visited by a fairy godmother-like deity. The message? Find out her purpose in life before her 21st birthday. And so she makes her way to a nearby town to develop skills, take on work and make certain moral choices that will shape her future. To fully customize the experience, gamers can choose from many options, be it dance lessons, cooking classes or warding off nasty monsters in dungeons using might or magic. While a bit repetitive, Cute Knight is fun for serious RPG fans and newbies alike.

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Aveyond

Developer: Amaranth Games

Though this kind of fantasy role-playing game adventure is usually found in more traditional PC and console games, Amaranth Games' Aveyond dropped a bomb on the casual gaming scene with its incredibly deep RPG that could take more than 50 hours to complete. But despite its intimidating length and wealth of options, Aveyond is easy to sink your mouse into. Inspired perhaps by early Zelda and Final Fantasy games, the game is viewed from a top-down perspective as you take on more than five dozen non-linear quests and side-missions. Aveyond is an instant classic.

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Fish Tycoon

Developer: Last Day of Work

There's nothing fishy about Fish Tycoon, Last Day of Work's addictive virtual pet and business simulation, where you play as a pet store owner who must breed, grow and sell fancy fish. A secondary goal is to find seven magic fish that have mysteriously disappeared from the island of Isola, and return them to their natural habitat. Similar to Last Day of Work's Virtual Villagers, Fish Tycoon runs in real-tine, so after you log off and return, smaller fish may become bigger (and other good and bad surprises). This fun pet simulation includes hundreds of fish species, plus you can also click the Screen Saver tab for a virtual aquarium on your desktop. Great fun!