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If you pop over to the iTunes store, most likely you’ll be greeted by a banner for Apple’s just-launched ‘Rewind 2009′ feature, where they reveal – in their words – ‘The Best of the Year in Movies, Music, TV and Apps’.  Leaving aside everything other than the apps, let’s take a closer look at their picks:

It has been broken down into two categories, Best of 2009 and Top Sellers, and then split again into Games and a catch-all Apps heading.  The list also changes according to your region.  In the US iTunes store, Sims 3 heads up the top sellers, with other big names such as Assassin’s Creed, Need for Speed, Sonic, Rock Band and Peggle all within the top 12.  In the top selling apps, both MobileNavigator and TomTom appear in the top five, joined by MLB.com’s app, Textfree Unlimited and Golfshot: Golf GPS.  Nice to see the excellent ColorSplash in there too.

The top sellers contain the expected big name titles, but is oddly missing well known popular titles such as iFarm, however it all goes downhill when you take a look at the Best of 2009.  Of the 30 apps, just five are free, which is a poor show, but it gets worse over in the games section where just two are free.  The games list feels oddly unimaginative too – no Battle Bears or Boxhead for example – and repeats too many of the top sellers to function as a recommendation tool.  Over in the apps, Colorsplash returns and Tweetie 2 deservedly gets a mention, but SmackTalk!?  Amusing, yes.  Best of 2009?  Not really.

So, is the Rewind 2009 list anything other than a cynical marketing exercise?  Take a look for yourselves here and see what you think, then if you don’t agree with any of Apple’s choices, tell us a few of your best of 2009 picks instead.