2012 has been a muddled year for boxed blockbusters, with several established franchises showing distinct signs of wear and tear, but a triumphant one for digital gaming, thanks to a stellar run of Xbox Live Arcade releases. After due consideration and copious imbibing of energy drinks, we've singled out 10 that you shouldn't miss.

10. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

The quintessential multiplayer-only shooter, reborn for console audiences - and a solid pick for those who consider ironsights to be the work of the Devil. Global Offensive's objective-based modes are classic Counter-Strike, allotting you one life and one life only per round, while new modes Arms Race and Demolition offer faster-paced, comparatively relaxed blasting to help laymen get started. A shortage of unlockables makes this very much a shooter for those looking to master the core mechanics. "Fight your way up the steep learning curve, beyond the sparse, static maps, and those 1200 MS Points will seem like a bargain," wrote our review. "Many, however, will start to hanker after something more complex and fulfilling long before mastering it.



9. Awesomenauts

A funky, well-considered introduction to the generally impenetrable Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, dispensing with the usual genre fantasy archetypes in favour of cowboys and space aliens. Two teams of heroes must knock over each other's bases, aided by a stream of NPC "creeps" which serve as XP-grinding fodder. It's lightning-fast but intelligent stuff, helped along by solid splitscreen support. Matt went nuts for the game earlier this year in the form of several videos, one of which you'll find below.



8. Sine Mora

I know nothing of schmups, but Log fell head over heels in love with this one. "Once you pick up the ways in which it tests you, dicks you around, and emasculates you, it'll be one of the best abusive relationships you've ever been in," he wrote. In what appears to be a masterstroke, enemy bullets shave away seconds from your life-clock rather than damaging your craft. Killing enemies, by contrast, buys you additional longevity. You can find out more, bizarrely, in Log's OXM Breakdown on the subject of gay sex in Mass Effect 3.



7. Quantum Conundrum

"Portal for kids" is one way of putting it, but on the whole, I prefer: "Portal for adults who aren't terrified that playing a game with Nickleodeon production values will make them look childish". Airtight's first Xbox Live Arcade game is also Airtight's finest work to date, a reworking of Valve's lab rat 'em up which sees you mix-and-matching four cartoon dimensions to overcome a wide range of puzzles. The odd fiddly moment with the controls aside, this was a triumph.



6. Trials Evolution

The ultimate local multiplayer game, and a physics-driven platformer that will leave your thumbs begging for mercy. Evolution handles much the same as its celebrated predecessor - it's all about maximising your momentum while keeping your balance - but piles on production values and new environmental conceits, for an experience that's often as spectacular as it is accessible. Our hats go off to the monstrous Gigatrack in particular. The game has enjoyed a long afterlife thanks to a substantial level editor and downloadable player ghosts.



5. Spelunky

This testing, randomised action-platformer doesn't exactly roll out the red carpet for newcomers, but as the artist formerly known as Deputy Editor Mike once put it, "initial infuriation crystallises into solid determination and 1200MP buys you an endless supply of levels against which to test your wits and skills. Just try and resist having one more go - you're doomed to cave." I'm not sure Jonty ever broke through the infuriation barrier, and he played Spelunky every lunchtime for a solid few weeks.



4. Mark of the Ninja

We were expecting Dishonored to resurrect the stealth genre, but Klei Entertainment's obscenely well-made 2D wall-crawler beat Arkane to the punch by months. It's a sleek mix of elements from existing stealth franchises - the unambiguous light/dark split of Splinter Cell: Conviction, the predatory grace and disintegrating AI behaviours of Batman: Arkham City, the distraction techniques of Metal Gear Solid 2. Klei's contribution to all this is a brilliant dynamic aesthetic, which renders distant enemies and locations as pools of angular darkness, speckled with sonar rings. Unmissable.



3. Fez

One of the most intelligent platformers ever created, rivalling Jonathan Blow's Braid in the too-clever-by-half stakes. You play a tiny, cheerful, unkillable man lost in a network of bite-sized puzzle chambers, held together by Zelda-esque doors through the backdrop. Sumptuous pixel art visuals and a masterful chipset score lend the game a familiar but distinct retro ethos. It's an experience that asks a lot, at intervals - besides puzzles which require you rotate the world on its axis to discover hidden areas and objects, there's a bespoke language to decipher - but apply your brain and you'll come away grinning.



2. The Walking Dead

No game narrative - episodic or otherwise, digitally distributed or sold in shops - has ever captured imaginations quite like that of Lee Everett and his charge, the adorable Clementine. "The Walking Dead offers a level of narrative quality that outshines anything else currently available in gaming," opined Matt in our review of the fifth, final and most affecting episode. "It makes the TV series of the same name look dull, poorly paced, and insignificant. These are the most important games released this year, and we simply can't recommend them enough."



1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

It might be a tailored hand-me-down from desktop computing, but there's no way our XBLA game of 2012 could be anything other than Minecraft. Skilfully tailored for console by 4J Studios, Mojang's world creation sandbox refuses to quit giving, the initial brilliance of the terrain generation algorithm bolstered by wave upon wave of free updates - content that, in the hands of another publisher, would surely have been sold separately as DLC. As fulfilling as the game is when enjoyed alone, it's even better in company.



Honorable mentions: Rockband Blitz, Gotham City: Imposters, Shank 2, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Joe Danger: The Movie, Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, I Am Alive, Dust: An Elysian Tail. If you like your titles securely enclosed in cardboard and plastic.

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