As the author of the long-running (almost decade and a half) Top Indie PC Games of the Year awards article series, I am inaugurating a new, parallel awards feature for games for the iPad. My rationale is simple: the explosion of game releases on the iPad makes the platform unique in that, unlike consoles, the Macintosh, and non-Apple mobile devices, the quantity and quality of iPad games are now comparable to those on the personal computer. Indeed, the 2012 release of the iPad retina display has stimulated an outpouring of games with improvements in graphics and gameplay.

To perform my evaluation of the contenders, I downloaded and played hundreds of iPad games with descriptions or trailers that showed significant promise. For the best of these, I then obtained and evaluated the full versions of the games so that I could see exactly what players would be purchasing. I noticed two advantages for customers of iPad games over computer games. To buy iPad releases, you pay a lot less than for most PC releases, and to play purchased iPad games, you face no pesky requirements for any form of Wi-Fi or cellular access (unlike Internet-based DRM for PC games).

I have divided my 20 winners into three categories: iPad Originals, Resurrected Classics, and Real-Life Replicas. Most of the games—which come from all over the world—were first released in 2012, although a few were released earlier but received significant upgrades in 2012. In selecting the winners, I rewarded games that have gameplay that benefits most from the special control capabilities of the iPad (most natural with tilt, touch and swipe features); and with graphics that are not significantly compromised by the compact screen real estate.