Conventions exist in gaming with good reason--people like and accept them. Sure, innovative games are always desirable, but there's also something to be said for those games that execute tried-and-true concepts extremely well. Besides, there's room for innovation even within the context of an existing genre.

For our genre awards, we recognize the most popular styles of gaming and select the five best examples of each one across all platforms. So we put all types of game systems on the same footing here, in order to bring you a clear-cut picture of who the best of the best really are.