It’s that time of year again – time to find out what you readers think is the Arcade Game of the Year for 2011 happens to be. There are three polls to vote in, they will close after three weeks. As for why not just have me pick a favorite and pass that off as a story, I suppose I could do that but I prefer to see what you the readers think about the subject. This poll does verify via IP – there were accusations on our last poll of stuffed votes but it was just an effort on both sides to get out the vote. Looking at the logs doesn’t show anything unusual aside from high interest in voting.
As for my opinion, I’m happy with what this year has brought us – I still look forward to further improvements but overall I think that we are seeing better choices now than a few years ago. If you look over the list there is a greater variety in the styles of games and I have always seen that as a good thing. I’m also fortunate to have had a chance to play a majority of games listed – there are a couple of exceptions with the likes of GunLord and Elevator Action Death Parade. I’ll keep my choice under wraps for now but I am interested in seeing where this all goes.
This list excludes cabinet re-releases unless the game was dramatically changed by that. But going from standard to deluxe generally doesn’t do that but we will include 3D re-releases since those often add additional features beyond a 3D screen.
This reflects the list we have for Arcade Releases for 2011. In case you want to see what we know about so far for 2012, hit up our page on Arcade Releases for 2012, which will be updated throughout the year as new announcements are made.
Your Choice for Arcade Game of the Year 2011?
- DJ Max Technika 3 (PentaVision Global) (43%, 223 Votes)
- Dirty Drivin‘ (Specular Interactive/Raw Thrills) (23%, 119 Votes)
- Darius Burst: Another Chronicle (Taito) (9%, 44 Votes)
- Pac-Man Battle Royale (Namco) (6%, 30 Votes)
- Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition Versus(Taito/Capcom) (4%, 18 Votes)
- Pump It Up Fiesta 2011 EX (Andamiro) (3%, 15 Votes)
- Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Arcade (Sega) (2%, 11 Votes)
- Let’s Go Island 3D (Sega) (2%, 10 Votes)
- BlazBlue Continuum Shift II (Aksys/Taito) (1%, 6 Votes)
- Elevator Action: Death Parade (Taito) (1%, 5 Votes)
- Virtua Tennis 4 (1%, 5 Votes)
- Operation G.H.O.S.T. (Sega) (1%, 5 Votes)
- OTHER (There are always a few games up-in-the-air) (1%, 4 Votes)
- FrightFearLand (Taito/GlobalVR) (1%, 4 Votes)
- Let’s Go Island (Sega) (1%, 3 Votes)
- TouchFX/Fruit Ninja FX (Adrenaline Amusements) (1%, 3 Votes)
- Last Hope: Pink Bullets (NG:DEV TEAM) (0%, 2 Votes)
- Infinity Blade FX (Chair/Epic Games/Adrenaline Amusements) (0%, 2 Votes)
- GunLord (NG:DEV.TEAM) (0%, 1 Votes)
- Golden Tee LIVE 2012 (Incredible Technologies) (0%, 1 Votes)
- Friction (Friction Game Studios/Coast To Coast Entertainment) (0%, 1 Votes)
- Dido Kart 2 (InJoy) (0%, 1 Votes)
- Over The Top (Andamiro) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Project X-Pher (InJoy Motion Corp) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Flight Control FX (Firemint Games/Adrenaline Amusements) (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 510
Loading …Continue past the post break for the Asian Market Arcade game and Pinball game polls.
Now for the Asian Market version – again since game selection is quite different it may as well have a poll of it’s own.
Your Choice for Arcade Game of the Year 2011 (Asian markets)?
- Beatmania IIDX 19 LINCLE by Konami (22%, 49 Votes)
- Dirty Drivin’ (Specular/Raw Thrills) (22%, 48 Votes)
- Jubeat Copious by Konami (8%, 18 Votes)
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2 by Namco (7%, 16 Votes)
- Dance Dance Revolution X3 by Konami (6%, 13 Votes)
- Mushihimesama 1.5 (Cave) (5%, 10 Votes)
- Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4 by Namco (December) (4%, 9 Votes)
- Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX by Taito (3%, 7 Votes)
- OTHER – Because there is probably something missed (3%, 6 Votes)
- DrumMania V8 by Konami (3%, 6 Votes)
- Initial D Arcade Stage 6 AA by Sega (3%, 6 Votes)
- DrumMania XG2 by Konami (2%, 5 Votes)
- Pump It Up Fiesta 2011 EX by Andamiro (2%, 5 Votes)
- Pac-Man Battle Royale by Namco (2%, 5 Votes)
- Aquapazza – Aqua Plus Dream Match (Examu) (2%, 4 Votes)
- Power Truck (Wahlap/IGS) (1%, 3 Votes)
- Deadstorm Pirates 3D by Namco (1%, 2 Votes)
- Music Gun Gun 2 by Taito (1%, 2 Votes)
- Last Hope: Pink Bullets by NG:DEV TEAM (0%, 1 Votes)
- Let’s Go Island 3D by Sega (0%, 1 Votes)
- Hello! Pop ‘N Music by Konami (0%, 1 Votes)
- Haunted Museum II by Taito (0%, 1 Votes)
- Spica Adventure by Taito (January 24th) (0%, 1 Votes)
- Steel Chronicle by Konami (December) (0%, 1 Votes)
- Storm Racer (Wahlap) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Chaos Code by Sega (0%, 0 Votes)
- Dido Kart 2 by InJoy Motion Corp. (0%, 0 Votes)
- Sega Card Gen by Sega (July) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Winning Eleven 2012 by Konami (December) (0%, 0 Votes)
- WCCF IC 2010-2011 by Sega (0%, 0 Votes)
- Dragonball Zenkai Battle Royale by Namco (0%, 0 Votes)
- Topspeed City 3D by Golden Dragon (0%, 0 Votes)
- Chess Association Tenkaichi 2 by Konami (0%, 0 Votes)
- Sonic Blast Heroes by Taito (February) (0%, 0 Votes)
- Jigsaw World Arena by Annex / Alta (0%, 0 Votes)
- Project X-Pher by InJoy Motion Corp (0%, 0 Votes)
- Project Cerebus by Milestone (0%, 0 Votes)
- Maximum Tune 3D by Namco (0%, 0 Votes)
- Love Touch by Injoy (0%, 0 Votes)
- Love Plus Arcade by Konami (0%, 0 Votes)
- Koihime Dream Arcade Edition by Annex (0%, 0 Votes)
- Kickthrough Racers by Taito (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 219
Loading …And of course, your pick for the 2011 Pinball Game of the Year, all from Stern. Next year will certainly be interesting once there is some competition going on in this area for the first in a long time.
Pick your 2011 Pinball Game of The Year
- Tron Legacy LE (32%, 25 Votes)
- Tron Legacy (23%, 18 Votes)
- Transformers Decepticon/Autobot (14%, 11 Votes)
- Transformers (12%, 9 Votes)
- Rolling Stones (8%, 6 Votes)
- Transformers LE (6%, 5 Votes)
- Rolling Stones LE (4%, 3 Votes)
Total Voters: 77
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Oh boy, here we go again with weighted votes for the rythem games. When viewing the results of these polls, one must remember that the arcade music game fan sites usually have a thread in their forums with a link to go vote for guess what, music games. Hence why DJ Max and Rerave type games will get the top ratings. But beyond that, with the non rythem games, I think it gives a good reflection of peoples opinions.
i’m sorry that the other games don’t have a larger community?
And right on cue: here come the rhythm voters.
Hey Shaggy, please note that dirty drivin’ is in full worldwide release, including Asia! According to the test reports I’ve seen, it’s one of the top earners in China these days! Bill M., well worth a look for your locations too!
That’s right, I forgot – it’s now been corrected!
cool so what’s the final version like compared to the test prototype? does it still have the crank handle to launch an attack or activate an item? it be a shame if they got rid of it as I found that feature to be cool when it were testing at hollywood bowl arcade 🙂
The version is basically indistinguishable from the test prototype. The crank was moved from the seat to the dash for reliability and ergonomics but otherwise it’s the same game!
Andrew – You can watch a video clip of the final release version of Dirty Drivin’ in full HD resolution on our YouTube channel here:
I can’t seem to be able to vote for the Asian and pinball polls. They show the results so far and no radio buttons or option for voting.
Thanks for bringing that to my attention – for some reason they closed themselves but I have re-opened both polls so you should be able to vote on them now.
would like to have seen WAHLAP’s two games up there (power truck, storm racer) will have to wait for next year!
I could not confirm that they are in fact shipping? Was told that it was just a handshake deal for them to appear at the show but no deal has been made on an actual release. I cannot find either game mentioned on Betson’s website
It has been near impossible to get a straight answer on the status of the WAHLAP releases – the team at the Chinese developer sent images and info on the releases for a pieces we are writing for EDGE – but details on distribution outside of China has proved sketchy.
I would say that now that certain parties have seen how strong the game could be they are concerned and are re-negotiating contracts – there could be a second reason however!
I did include the games as a part of the Asia GOTY vote, so not all is lost. Hope they figure out what they are going to do with the games soon.
I’m surprised all the fighting games aren’t completely dominating the polls. :O
You forgot Mushihimesama 1.5 for the Asian market.
Thanks for the heads-up, it has been added
DIRTY-DRIVIN’ IS A CLEVER TITLE-NAME FOR THIS CREATIVE, COOL and EXCITING, FUN and FAST MOVING GAME! PLAY IT and YOU TOO WILL BE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT! AN AWESOME and SUPER COOL WAY TO EXPERIENCE A HOT DRIVIN’ RIDE!!!
Shaggy – What are you going to do next year to prevent “ballot stuffing” of the voting results? Cannot believe that Dirty Drivin’ is the #1 pick for all video games released in 2011 in both Asia and the USA !!
These polls log via cookie and IP address to prevent repeat votes on the same computer and even the same network from what I’ve been testing. I suppose the only way to really prevent anything is to not do a poll and just pick my own although at the same time I like seeing what support there is out there for certain games. In regards to Dirty Drivin’ some of that has to be genuine support as even if every Raw Thrills and Specular Interactive employee voted for the game it wouldn’t crack 40 or so. Same thing with DJ Max Technika 3 – not many employees to vote for it but a strong community of DJMT fans willing to vote. I’ve noticed that Darius is picking up support as I see a couple of threads from fan forums out there linking to the post. The polls are open until January 11th, so who knows how it will end up by that time.
Who actually likes Dirty Drivin’? I’m under the impression that the average person who would even sit down at a Raw Thrills game is an infant 3-5 year old sitting in their dad’s lap, a 6-11 year old boy, zany teenage girls, and various other generic American stereotypes of Americans who really don’t give a damn about arcades.
These kind of people don’t care enough about arcade games or gaming in general to find out about some poll to vote for them. They’d rather talk about Battlef*** vs. Call of S*** and give some uneducated opinion about why they think they know what they’re talking about.
At least Technika is being voted for by PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY LIKE THE GAME. I can’t see how anyone can debunk the opinion that Dirty Drivin’ targets the arcade uninterested western community with its over-the-top chaotic driving antics (because we love Need For Speed, Fast’n’Furious, and Cruisin’. F***ing marketing.
As some commenters have pointed out, games like Technika and Rerave have communities who are willing to spread the poll and VOTE. I’m thinking that Dirty Drivin’s votes are coming from people who only have an interest in selling the damn thing. So what if Technika has a fanbase that is willing to loyally throw themselves at a game? Isn’t that what popularity is supposed to be about?
I didn’t even hear about Dirty Drivin’ until the damn thing showed up at my arcade, and here’s the thing: NOBODY PLAYS IT AT ROUND 1 ENTERTAINMENT LOS ANGELES.
Wow… That’s an awful lot of hate over a meaningless website poll.
Enjoy your heart attack.
Also, I’m pretty sure Arcade Heroes’ own Adam Pratt would disagree with your tirade:
https://arcadeheroes.com/2011/09/08/getting-to-know-dirty-drivin-and-specular-interactive/