Brain Training has won this year's EIFF Edge Award, beating the likes of Fahrenheit, Electroplankton and Guitar Hero. Announcing the winner at last night's industry gathering, Edge editor Margaret Robinson gushed, "We're delighted that Brain Training won - it's a great ambassador for gaming and proves that the instincts for making rewarding and entertaining software that Nintendo has honed for decades can be applied in entirely unexpected ways."
This year, Edge also ran a mobile game award, which was claimed by InfoSpace's innovative party-'em-up, Dirty Sanchez. Designed to be played in the pub and passed among mates, the title presents a series of challenges and dares to increasingly inebriated players. As Robertson pointed out, "it could only have worked on a mobile" - which is more than can be said for most mobile titles.
So, two resolutely mainstream games with unorthodox scoring systems, both offering a series of challenges that rely little on typical gaming skills such as hand-eye coordination or lightning reflexes. Casual is so in.
