If seasons had personalities, summer would be bombastic and carefree - the Ferris Bueller of seasons. It's the time of year that begs you to go on new adventures, take chances, and meet new friends. We associate a lot of things with different seasons, like music, movies and books. But what about video games? Surely there must be an equivalent to your 'Summer Fun Time Jams 9' playlist within the video game world?

Well good news everyone, there absolutely is. Summer isn't quite here yet, but, if you're like me, you take every opportunity to roll out the welcome mat in anticipation the greatest time of year. So kick up your feet, pour yourself a tall glass of lemonade, and get ready for a list of the best games to get you stoked for summer.

Few games embody everything that is summer better than Animal Crossing. Even when your little village is covered in snow and sadness, there is something so inherently beachy about the relaxed pace that Animal Crossing saunters along at. It's the fact that, despite having breezy tunes and graphics so cuddly you can feel them, Animal Crossing captures summer in its gameplay as much as its aesthetic. Days spent gardening, fishing, or just idling chatting with friends - all of these perfectly represent what we associate with the season.

Animal Crossing finds a way of making work feel like pleasure, and then punctuates that with a sprinkling of social gatherings like fireworks festivals and bug catching contests. If winter is the time of year to shut off all ties and hole up in your house in front of the TV, summer is the season to get out there and make some new friends. And Animal Crossing is just bursting with friends.

Grease's Summer Nights, summer flings, and the 1967 Summer of Love all make one thing perfectly clear: summer is the season for romance. And what game captures all those tingly feelings better than Persona 4? By the time summer rolls around in-game, you're likely exhausted from keeping up with school, relationships, and - oh yeah - solving a murder. But just under half way through your year in Inaba, summer arrives and gives you a well deserved rest.

Everyone has fond memories of their summer vacations, and Persona 4 deftly taps into that nostalgia to remind us all of our younger years. Days spent at the beach, breezy nights hanging out with friends, and that blossoming romance with the cutie you've had a crush on since the semester started; it's all there and waiting to tug at your heartstrings. Just like in real life, you relish the extra free time summer vacation provides. And when the start of a new school year looms only days away, you'll remember the dread we were all filled with as the greatest two months came to a close.

This one is a bit obvious, don't you think? While some of the entries on the list have a bit of nuance to how they evoke the feeling of summer, Super Mario Sunshine is as bold as a mojito. A major departure from the more vanilla flavor of Mario games, Isle Delfino is a gorgeous resort community begging to be explored.

Not only that, but Mario's FLUDD is basically a giant Super Soaker - what else do you need? All Super Mario Sunshine is missing at this point is freezie pops so delicious you'll gladly suffer the painful cuts on your mouth just to have one.

If you've never had the opportunity to go to a beach and build a sand castle, stop what you're doing, close this article, and do whatever it takes to make that happen. I don't care how much a plane ticket costs, just do it.

You're back? Amazing, yes? Building sand castles is the official pastime of summer, and Minecraft is basically one big virtual sand castle. There is something so serenely mesmerizing about building something piece by piece. Before you know it, hours have melted away like the ice in your iced tea, and you're left with a sense of accomplishment. Turn off survival mode and let your creativity take you on a journey. Minecraft, like summer, is the the perfect opportunity to pick a direction and strike out on your own path. Who knows where your feet will take you?

The summer without a body of water to spend it with is a tragedy. Millions of people travel every year just to make sure that doesn't happen. For one second, let's pretend that you find yourself in a position in which you are unable to soak up some sun before a great blue sea. What do you do? You play The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, of course!

Nintendo's charmingly cartoony take on Zelda is the perfect game for those desperate to cool off from the blistering summer sun. An endless ocean, a world teeming with vibrant characters, and an absorbing quest as good as any book all make for a perfect way to kill a long weekend.

Harvest Moon and its spin off, Story of Seasons, could probably be found on the winter, spring, and fall equivalents of this list with how easily they evoke those seasons. But the first summer of a new game is always the most special.

There is a sense of community that begins building around summer, as the game finally begins to let go of the reins and let the player drive. You begin to feel more at ease with your farming routine, become more comfortable chatting with the villagers, and best of all, your love interest. But Harvest Moon also deserves recognition for not only capturing the feel of summer, but the sounds too. Walks through the forest to collect delicious fruit are accompanied by chirping cicadas, singing birds, and some of the catchiest music you've ever heard.

Those of you living in climates that are unsavory for large portions of the year will no doubt appreciate the moment you can drive with the windows down, letting the brisk air cool you off. It's the ultimate sign of summer's approach. Burnout Paradise is that moment captured and programmed into a video game.

It's the kind of game that you can sit down with for an hour and accomplish absolutely nothing yet still have a great time. Driving and crashing around the urban sprawl of Paradise City is a joy in itself, and the game's soundtrack perfectly complements every moment. So roll down those windows, step on the gas, and t-bone that semi truck at 90mph. You can thank me for it later.

Studio Ghibli and Level-5 have proven themselves masters at painting with emotion. With an almost careless ease, the two studios brought the world of Ni No Kuni to life in rich detail. The characters are imaginative and fun, and the world is enchanting. All of this culminates in a game that is as hard to leave behind as a summer vacation.

Ni No Kuni is the video game equivalent of a road trip. You pile in for an adventure, and, from the window of your car, you see a whole world beyond your doorstep pass by. For many, it is that moment that you begin to understand just how small you are, but as Ni No Kuni is quick to teach you: even the smallest of things is capable of greatness.

If this list didn't inspire you to start working on your 'Summer Fun Time James 10' playlist and dust off your flip-flops, I just don't know what will. Whether you love or hate it, summer is well on its way, and for those of you looking to get an early start the games on this list are a perfect way to help get you in the mood. Of course, I'm sure you probably have your own ideas for what gets you all riled up for barbecues and days spent lounging around in open fields. So what are you waiting for? Slip and slide your way into the comments and let us know what your favorite go-to games are for capturing that summer spirit!

Summer's nearly here, and you're no doubt wanting to take a break from the humdrum tedium of your daily routine. What you need is a vacation. Maybe you're dreaming of a sun-soaked beach that lulls you into a state of blissful relaxation with its swaying palm trees and churning waves. Or perhaps you're picturing a mountain retreat; a quiet, serene place to unplug and enjoy some self-reflection. Video games can offer these kinds of exotic getaways, you know - but they usually turn out to be a lot less tranquil than you might hope.

Virtual vacation spots seem prone to becoming the epicenter of some harrowing catastrophe, ruining all those plans for leisure activities in the process. So whatever you do, don't book a flight to one of these resorts if you cherish your summer vacation. Or hey, maybe you like to live a little bit dangerously - in which case, these perilous retreats will ensure that you spend every minute of your time off really appreciating the value of life itself.

This dolphin-shaped tropical paradise has it all: friendly natives, gorgeous beaches, and local agriculture that produces fruit the size of your head. But even when it's not being terrorized by a translucent vandal and his giant paintbrush, or running rampant with ink-infested wildlife, Isle Delfino would still be a questionable vacation spot. For starters, there's Corona Mountain, a live volcano that could ostensibly bury the entire island under a blanket of molten lava at any time. And Hotel Delfino, which is pretty much the only tourist lodging in town, is lousy with the hostile spirits of the dead. You're also very likely to get sprayed by an Italian plumber's back-mounted hose for absolutely no reason, which is a guaranteed day-ruiner.

Checking in to the Lakeview Hotel seems like the start to a quiet, relaxing stay in the foggy little town of Silent Hill. You've got a gorgeous view of the scenic Toluca Lake, with Maine's majestic forests in one direction and a short walk to the Lakeside Amusement Park in the other. But if you leave your room to refill the ice bucket in the middle of the night, you might encounter some rather psyche-scarring scenes. Interiors covered in rust and grime; guests who look like walking piles of skin moaning as they shamble through the halls. Maybe you should've paid attention to all those TripAdvisor reviews that complained about otherworldly horrors and the guilt-induced revelations that come with them.

Are you an affluent caucasian who some might label as a 'grade-A douchebag'? Do you enjoy flying like paper and getting high like planes? Then you should never, ever visit the Rook Islands, because you will almost assuredly end up as the ransomed captive of some deranged modern-day pirates. I know it's tempting, what with the jet ski rentals, scuba diving through picturesque reefs, hang gliding lessons, and the ultimate finale: skydiving from 12,500 feet, with a full view of the gorgeous archipelago. But I assure you that the hard landing isn't worth it, because you'll probably get picked up by . Also, he's definitely going to confiscate your phone.

Theme parks always heat up during the summer, when school's out and the sun is shining. But Horrorland seems to be trapped in a state of perpetual night, looking a bit like Universal Studio's Wizarding World of Harry Potter if it revolved around R.L. Stine's brand of kid-friendly creepiness. Attractions include Werewolf Village, where children are constantly getting trapped in meat lockers, and a 'Coffin Cruise' through the moat of a castle lorded over celebrity vampires: Jeff Goldblum and Blue Velvet's Isabella Rossellini. Best of all, the price of a single admission effectively becomes a lifetime pass, since Horrorland has the power to magically warp you back onto its haunted fairgrounds should you ever escape.

Golden sand, crystal blue skies, fluffy white clouds. Zach Fair isn't able to appreciate any of these idyllics sights on the beach of Costa del Sol, because he's too busy fending off hordes of overgrown sea worms. What should be some much-deserved RR for this elite SOLDIER operative always seems to break out into a battle on the coast - though Zach doesn't mind, seeing as it's a reprieve from the relative boredom of his chaperoned holiday. And because Shinra's exclusive resort wasn't built with combat in mind, Zach's forced to use a retracted sun umbrella as a sword. If anyone's genuinely enjoying themselves on this trip, it's those gamers who swoon at the rare sight of Zach's shirtless six-pack.

The road to a terrible vacation is typically paved with good intentions. Alan Wake's a best-selling author who's stuck in an unproductive rut, and his wife Alice thinks a trip to the remote mountain town of Bright Falls will help him break through his writer's block. Clearly, Alice has never seen The Shining or Secret Window. Within an hour of arriving at Bird Leg Cabin on Cauldron Lake, the couple's trip descends into shadowy madness, with Alice getting mysteriously abducted and Alan slowly losing his mind on account of a Dark Presence. All that being said, Alan did finally sit down and write that novel he was thinking about, so... mission accomplished!

At face value, this verdant island off the coast of Papua New Guinea seems to be the destination that'll live up to your most luxurious vacation fantasies. Imagine: sunbathing at the five-star Royal Palms Resort during the day, and enjoying the expletive-riddled rapping of star performer Sam B. at night. Of course, you'll need to turn a blind eye to the crime and gang violence that runs rampant in the nearby city of Moresby, and the fact that there's an Alcatraz-style prison island (surrounded by live mines) not too far up the coast. Also, the indigenous tribes have been practicing for generations, which eventually leads to one of those pesky zombie outbreaks that plunges all of Banoi into bedlam. There's nothing like being at zombie ground zero to put a damper on your paid time off.

Welcome, welcome! Let me show you to your room; don't mind the cultist messages scrawled in the walls. And here we arrrrrrRRRROH MY GOD A BEAR! IT'S EATING ME! IT'S EATING ME ALIVE!

A new Deus has dawned, a day of augmented cyber soldiers and gruff, goateed blokes stabbing each other with rulers. Yep, there's a brand new Deus Ex game on the way. It's called Mankind Divided, and it's great. Well, probably. It certainly looks good. The last game in this illustrious series, 2010's Human Revolution garnered plenty of praise for its inventive gameplay and amusing array of gadgets. These so-called 'augmentations' allowed users to tackle their objectives in almost any manner they saw fit - with the obvious exception of those damnable boss battles.

Still, these 'augs' were pretty damn great, oftentimes feeling more like traditional superpowers than feasible, albeit highly futuristic technologies. The difference between the two is that one day we may very well see the latter in action. All the toxic goo in the world isn't going to grant you powers, but mad-eyed Mr. Science just might. So, what on earth are we going to do with all of these abilities? Help one another? Hah, this is humanity we're talking about. I'll bet we're going to utilise these sci-fi marvels the same way we use everything else: moronically. Here's just a few examples…

What it's actually for - Handling tense negotiations. The social enhancer allows agents to subtly read and react to their target's non-verbalised intent. Optional pheromone release creates a more suggestible enemy.

How we'd misuse it - Convincing people to buy time-share condos and shady pyramid schemes.

What it's actually for - Cluster bombing an agent's immediate vicinity, thereby preventing them from being overcome.

How we'd misuse it - Massively overreacting to the threat of wasps.

What it's actually for - Reducing minute bodily movement, allowing for a steadier aim when firing a weapon.

How we'd misuse it - Hustling pub patrons out of their hard earned cash.

What it's actually for - Arm-mounted stabbing weapons, capable of eliminating numerous targets quietly.

How we'd misuse it - Pushing ourselves up in bed.

What it's actually for - Lugging around large amounts of mission-vital kit. Improves the strength of cybernetic arm prostheses.

How we'd misuse it - Hording huge quantities of useless tat/ carrying all 20 bags of shopping in at the same time (without inadvertently amputating your fingers).

What it's actually for - Keeping track of troublesome guards/ pinpointing a particular target. Ties in to cranial and visual enhancements.

How we'd misuse it - Obsessively stalking your ex/ crying deeply.

What it's actually for - Temporarily masking an agent's movements. Users are rendered effectively invisible.

How we'd misuse it - Pretending to be poltergeists, re-enacting the ending of Ghost.

What it's actually for - Non-audible verbal communications, grants live access to mission handlers, and all without giving away an agent's location.

How we'd misuse it - Gossiping and/or thoroughly badmouthing the person sat next to us without their knowledge.

What it's actually for - Displays the enemy's forecast of an agent's last known position.

How we'd misuse it - Keeping track of our house keys and/or wallet.

What it's actually for - Prevents injury from falling/ heals other wounds.

How we'd misuse it - Repeatedly throwing ourselves down the nearest staircase, for kicks.

What it's actually for - Spotting mission-specific resources and/or enemies, allowing an agent to effectively see through obstacles.

How we'd misuse it - Filthy voyeuristic escapades. Not me though...

What it's actually for - Shifting heavy objects/ creating impromptu barricades.

How we'd misuse it - Hurling loved ones into the deep end of a swimming pool.

What it's actually for - Creating unconventional entry points, allowing the agent to outfox an entrenched opponent.

How we'd misuse it - Knocking down derelict houses/ accidentally destroying listed buildings. Generally costing the local council a fortune.

This weekend, Mad Max mania comes to a head. - won't be out until this September.

But don't worry - there are plenty of games out there to help you satisfy those cravings for all things anarchic and high-octane. If you didn't know, the Mad Max films have , and the series' unique atmosphere has had a sizable influence in the realm of gaming. While you wait to play as the real Max Rockatansky, you ought to check out these titles inspired by George Miller's movies in a variety of ways. Spoiler: some of them don't even involve cars.

This 2011 shooter-racer hybrid from id software is currently the closest thing we have to a game set in the Mad Max universe (ignoring the best-left-forgotten NES game). Besides all the futuristic bits about cryogenic freezing and nanites, Rage's depiction of the desert wasteland that was once Earth feels just like the gritty, unrelenting world of the films. Everywhere you look, there's another homage: muscle cars and dune buggies covered in scrap metal and animal bones, maniacal bandits who terrorize (and sometimes feed on) other survivors, even a deadly metal boomerang that can lop off body parts just like in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Drive angry.

If not for the cel-shaded aesthetic, the Borderlands franchise would have the edge over Rage as the go-to video game simulacrum of Mad Max. The first two games feature more traditional sun-baked badlands, populated primarily by masked Psychos who would fit right in with those Mad Max savages. But I'm going to give the edge to , given how most of the denizens of Pandora's moon speak with an Australian accent, just like the casts of the first two Mad Max films. No matter which game you choose, hopping into an Outrunner or Moon Buggy with a co-op buddy and mowing down bandits is always a rip-roarin' good time.

Were it not for the Mad Max films, gaming's car combat genre probably wouldn't even exist. And while there are a decent number of vehicular deathmatches to choose from, like the Vigilante 8 games or Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012, I consider Twisted Metal: Black to be the pinnacle of the genre. The dark, horrific atmosphere in Black is just as gritty, brutal, and dystopian as Mad Max's world, complete with poor sods chained to cars (much like Lord Humungus' ride in The Road Warrior). Combatants all have a reckless disregard for the value of human life, and the automotive mayhem maintains adrenaline-pumping speed throughout each match. If you've got a PS3, I highly recommend you snag this PS2 Classic ASAP.

The original Mad Max is all about the roaring choppers, and no series does motorcycle combat as well as Road Rash. Even though being the first one to cross the finish line is your primary goal, the action really revolves around punching, kicking, or clobbering your competitors with blunt objects as you all weave in and out of traffic. If you don't feel like dusting off your PS1, N64, or (god forbid) 3DO to play the classic versions, you'll definitely want to check out , a spiritual successor to Rash on Steam Early Access.

Pick any Fallout, really - all of them perfectly capture the feeling of wandering alone through a post-apocalyptic desert, scavenging and killing to survive. You won't do a whole lot of driving (unless you fix up a Corvega in Fallout 2), but the tradeoff is Dogmeat, a loyal canine companion just like the one at Max's side in The Road Warrior. Body armor comes in the form of whatever you can find and safely strap to your body, and chems will keep you fighting at a long-term, irradiated price. If only you could sustain yourself on cans of Dinki-Di dog food.

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is a bit of a weird one, what with the chainmail-clad Tina Turner and tribes of disheveled, primitive kids. But one of the most memorable bits is the subplot with Master Blaster, the symbiotic pairing of a small, arrogant man (Master) riding a hulking, metal-masked brute (Blaster) who together keep the lights on in Bartertown. This design was taken wholesale for 's Ferra and Torr, with the slight adjustment of a little woman as the piggy-backer instead of a man. Granted, Ferra is much more suited for battle than Master, as she'll happily bum-rush opponents with her razor-sharp claws or literally bore her way through their chest cavity like a human cannonball.

If you can't fathom the thought of jumping from the roof of one speeding car onto another, you probably won't last too long in the Mad Max universe. But there's a safe way to train up before the inevitable apocalypse: play the Pursuit Force series, a pair of obscure PSP games about police officers who leap between moving vehicles with reckless abandon. These games are action-packed and gloriously campy, with your character pulling up alongside enemy vehicles and diving into the driver's seat like it's no big deal. Though the superior sequel Extreme Justice is sadly locked to the PSP, the original game is available as a download for PS Vita - just be ready for some merciless difficulty spikes.

Bullets are pretty hard to come by in the post-apocalypse, so Mad Max characters typically rely on more traditional means for deadly projectiles: metal bolts and arrows. Most road warriors fire their volleys with compound bows, but some elite baddies make use of miniature crossbows - perfect for puncturing flesh and tires alike with one hand while you steer with the other. If you're looking to simulate the act of dealing ranged death with adorably small ballistics, Dishonored has the best handheld bows in gaming (or wrist-mounted, if you're playing the Daud DLC).

Lastly, let's pour out a little gasoline for the fallen Auto Assault, which was basically the Mad Max MMO before it was shut down in 2007. Instead of killing boars and rats, all the battles took place between tricked-out vehicles, with combat that let you aim your guns and hit your nitro boosts in real time. Sadly, much like modern civilization in the Mad Max movies, Auto Assault will only live on in our memories. Whichever of these aforementioned games you choose - or others, like the spectacular wrecks of Burnout, or the car-riding possibilities of Just Cause, perhaps - we'll get through the wait for the forthcoming open-world Mad Max game together.

It's actually happening. Universal Parks and Resorts has announced that it will be teaming up with Nintendo to make , which is undoubtedly the most exciting thing you'll hear today (even those of you who just won the lottery). Nintendo games and theme parks both play to our wildest childhood fantasies, so the thought of Nintendo properties being brought to life as thrill rides and roller coasters is like 200cc turbo fuel for our imaginations.

Hearing the news got us so amped up for what could be possible that we had to share our ideas with you. With all the beloved properties in Nintendo's stable, mixed with the proven concepts from the world's most famous theme parks, there's so much potential for delightfully familiar attractions. Universal or Nintendo, if you're reading this: please use any and all of these ideas as you see fit.

Mine carts, people. Mine carts. No one game company has done more for the most noble of platforming transportation than Nintendo. When everyone else said mine cart levels were old-hat in the early ‘90s, Nintendo thumbed its nose and showed that it was just everyone else’s mine carts that were the problem, delivering in Donkey Kong Country the finest banging, clanging, freewheeling thrills ever seen in a video game. Later, when everyone else said platformers themselves were old-hat, Nintendo thumbed its other nose, and dropped Donkey Kong Country Returns, with a whole damn world of mine carts.

Nintendo knows that mine cart levels are amazing. It knows that a good mine cart level is the closest you can get to riding an amazing, lethally exciting roller coaster without leaving your house. In fact it knows that a good mine cart level is better than any roller coaster that exists, because it doesn’t have to deal with sensible physics or health and safety legislation. And now Nintendo has access to real roller coasters. The boundaries of human recreation have just been smashed clean off.

Another on-rails attraction, this one is more sedate than that Donkey Kong roller coaster, but equally awesome. Before you start, everyone is given a few lures and one Pokeball to throw as they seek to get the highest score in a photography competition. Everyone's given a digital camera with an LCD viewfinder, and then you sit in your cart and try to get a great photo of a Pokemon. At any point, you can throw your single Pokeball. And if it hits a Pokemon, you get a plushie of that Pokemon when you exit the ride.

Everyone submits three pictures to be analyzed when the ride is over and the highest score wins the visitor in question a prize. And, of course, everyone can buy a print-out of their photographic masterpieces with the park's Gold Coins currency. Oh, and the winner? They get a download code for a rare Pokemon for their 3DS game. Yes, this is the best thing ever.

Recreating the climatic finale from 1994's Super Metroid, Escape from Zebes 4D follows intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran as she launches her final assault on the pirate base Tourian and Mother Brain. The ride is presented from Samus' point-of-view, and all the seats in the theater shake and jostle as she leaps through the base shooting down Metroids and dodging the automated defenses. And you know every time a Metroid gets blasted viewers get sprayed with a bit of water (aka Metroid goo).

Suddenly, the lights go out, and Mother Brain rises up in her full, horrific glory. Seeing this beast recreated with modern visuals makes you pine for a modern Metroid game not developed by Team Ninja. The rainbow-colored lights of the boss' hyper beam are blinding, but then the adorable baby Metroid intervenes. We all know what happens next, leading to Samus' mad dash back to her battleship. It's all explosions and sirens and shaking - so much shaking - as the entire planet gets ready to burn out in one fiery blast.

The thing about theme parks is that they’re great to visit in summertime - which also means it’s usually really, really hot outside. What better way to cool off than by embracing your inner Inkling and drenching equally toasty opponents with squirt guns as you run around a giant, colorful map? Much like a lasertag arena, the Splatoon Park would let you participate for a select amount of time, running around and getting everyone as wet as possible.

To make it really authentic, each player gets a white shirt to wear and chilled colored water to use in their gun. You can’t really declare true victory until everyone on the other side is absolutely dripping with your team’s colors! It’s ok if you “accidentally” shoot members of your own team, by the way. Hey, Florida in July is hot!

You step into the car, ready to spend a lovely day touring through the Mushroom Kingdom with your cheerful guide, Captain Toad. Toad is eager to show you all the gems he collected during his recent adventure, but before he can so much as throw a turnip, a giant bird comes and plucks him up, spiriting him away. You speed up to give chase, careening past sights like question mark blocks and flagpoles, bouncing up the cobblestones to Peach’s castle before being knocked onto a go-kart racetrack by a wayward Chomp.

The bird flies by with a shrieking Toad as you break through the wall of the track and go over a waterfall to find yourself riding through the streets of Pianta Island. Mario flies by with FLUDD to help push you back on course, but an untimely swipe by a laughing Bowser instead sends you flying into space! You swoop and swirl around the planets of Mario Galaxy until helpful lumas get you back on track for Earth. You return to the Mushroom Kingdom in time to see Toadette bonk the bird on the head and rescue Captain Toad. Quite a wild ride, indeed!

Venture into Mii Plaza and discover a disturbing and vivid recreation of a classic virtual Nintendo world - in real life! Lifelike human avatars will shamble about awkwardly as you enter, ready to greet you in a “streetpass.” Simply walk up to a near-person, yell out your name and, before they’ve even responded, tell them what game you’ve been playing recently, even if it’s “Settings.”

The twist: Some REAL people are embedded in Nintendo’s lifelike near-person Mii actors. If they act convincingly and polite enough, they may be set free as a reward.

Step into larger-than-life version of a world that looks mysteriously like our own and explore alongside Captain Olimar and friends. Rather than being a finite ride with a beginning and end, the Pikmin Explorer Zone would be more like a playground filled with giant strawberries, cellphones, and other household objects strewn around a lush forest crawling with all manner of animatronic creatures.

Slide down a giant cereal box. Explore massive caves. And watch out for the bulborbs! Best of all, stuffed Pikmin stashes are strewn around at various stations, letting park goers grab the miniature plant people by the handful and chuck them at various hazards and enemies in order to solve light puzzles. Your targets will even react to your attacks, complete with sound effects!

The F-Zero games have a reputation for being so fast, they'll make your eyes stream with tears and/or blood. Blinking is a surefire way to crash and burn, sending you careening to the back of the race, never to catch up to your future-car competitors. And F-Zero GX on the GameCube is the fastest of them all, with ludicrously punishing difficulty to boot. Ergo, it's perfect for a roller coaster specifically engineered to make attendees feel like they're flying so fast, their bone marrow is going to liquify.

If Universal wants to save some money and reduce the risk of bodily harm, it could utilize the kind of brain trickery seen in Star Tours, where hydraulics tip and shake your seat to match the motions on a gigantic 3D screen. Perhaps a hologram of Captain Falcon could serve as your at-the-helm guide, Falcon Punch-ing his way into your heart with witty banter. But it'd feel like a wasted opportunity not to go all-out with a strap-in roller coaster, with the kind of stomach-obliterating launch speed of Six Flags' Kingda Ka ride.

When you're a parent at the end of their rope, taking your kids down to Goofy's Playhouse (formerly known as Goofy's Bounce House) is the reprieve you've been so desperately needing. It's not so much a ride as a dumping ground for energetic youngsters, which is a win-win: children get to literally bounce off the walls in a room that can accommodate their tiny, frenetic bodies, while parents can wait outside and rest their old bones for a spell.

Of all the cute and cuddly characters in Nintendo's roster, none can match the elastic, inviting fluffiness of that pink puffball Kirby. Picture, if you will, a house that transports tykes to Dream Land, with rooms themed around the wooly warmth of Kirby's Epic Yarn or the pastel prettiness of Kirby's Dream Land 3. And here's the kicker: the structure itself could be one gigantic Kirby in his classic suck-'em-up pose, with his vacuous mouth serving as the door. The mental image of kids excitedly filing into Kirby's black-hole stomach is priceless.

What better way to experience The Legend of Zelda's Hyrule that to walk around its environments with your own two feet? Take a location like the Lost Woods and the adventure makes itself. When you enter the Lost Woods maze, the sights, sounds, and music would instantly transport park-goers to the mysterious land of Hyrule. Just think about it. It could be like a scavenger hunt. You need to navigate the maze to pick up keys, unlock some gates, and traverse obstacles, and avoid enemies like Deku Scrubs that shoot foam balls at you.

Best of all, the maze could be set up so that you have to follow the sound of the , making the experience feel exactly like exploring the forest in Ocarina of Time. Fail to follow the music, and you get led down a path that takes you to the entrance of the maze. It could totally work!

One of the most meta bits of the Disney theme parks is the concept of Hidden Mickeys. They're like UFOs: even if you've never spotted one yourself, you've surely heard of the concept, and you hope to catch a glimpse of one yourself someday. For the uninitiated, Mickey's iconic three-circle, head-and-mouse-ears silhouette is all over the park, nestled away in backdrops, paintings, and all manner of ingenious hiding spots. For the Disney diehards that've been to Disneyland a hundred times, tracking down all the Hidden Mickeys becomes an attraction in and of itself.

Everyone knows that when it comes to iconic individuals, Nintendo's president and CEO Satoru Iwata ranks just below Mickey Mouse on the global recognition scale. So why not borrow Disney's idea and litter the Nintendo park rides with hidden emblems of Iwata's bespectacled face? Please understand, this would not exclude the possibility for Hidden Fils-Aimes as well.

There are plenty more amazing concepts for Nintendo and Universal to tackle - Luigi's Haunted Mansion, Flying Koopas, Jurassic Plessie River Ride, Spinning Yoshi Eggs, an Animal Crossing-themed coffee shop called The Roost Cafe (or Brewster's), and a Hotel Mario just outside the park grounds.

While you've got Nintendo on the brain, check out the our suggestions for . If you're as stoked by this announcement as we are, channel that gleeful excitement into more suggestions in the comments below. That way, you can tell your friends that you called it when your ride idea becomes a reality.

Whether you'd like to wade into battle with Captain America's shield, have the acrobatic ability of Black Widow, or smash everything like the Hulk, it's possible to step into your favorite hero's shoes. But rather than expose yourself to gamma radiation or invent an invincible suit of armor, you can just play video games. The Avengers have shown up in plenty of games, allowing you to play the part of the hero. Want to become your favorite superhero? Well, I've gathered together some of the best representations of each Avengers: Age of Ultron hero in games, right here.

Captain America is the greatest soldier that ever lived. He's got the conscience of a saint, and the strength and skill to take on just about any supervillain you could throw at him. If you really want to get the feeling of what it's like to be Cap from the movies, Captain America: Super Soldier is where it's at.

In Super Soldier, you play out Cap's World War II days as he battles Red Skull and his army of technologically advanced super soldiers. I'm not going to lie, Super Soldier isn't the most polished comic book-based superhero game you'll ever play. However, it does have a strong Batman Arkham series-style combat system at work that makes battling Hydra goons a blast.

If playing the star spangled Captain isn't your jam, there's always the Avengers’ most popular member. Yes, Iron Man has had his own movie tie-in games and he has been in a few side-scrolling beat 'em ups, but none of those games make the billionaire, playboy, philanthropist timidating or fun to play than in the Marvel vs Capcom series. Tony Stark is all about the glitz and the glam, and what better way to embrace that part of the character than in a flashy, fan service-flooded fighting game.

Even if Tony Stark seems to be wearing a bulky, inflexible, robot suit, he's just as quick with face busting punches and kicks as the next super-powered fighter. Iron Man uses a ton of his signature gadgets and attacks in his moveset, from his uni-beam chest blast to shoulder missiles, but the most memorable one is definitely his Hyper move. When activated, Iron Man pulls out a massive proton cannon that fires an energy beam that covers half the screen.

If you want to be a real beefcake superhero, you want to play as Thor. The god of thunder is right up there with the most powerful heroes to ever sign up for the Avengers team. He has a hammer that only he can pick up, the power of lightning at his fingertips, and strength to rival the Hulk. But as with Iron Man, Thor's console movie tie-ins haven't been the most well received. Surprisingly, you can get the most satisfying thunder god action on the Nintendo DS.

Thor: God of Thunder on the DS is a movie tie-in game based on the Marvel movie universe, but it takes place before the events of the first Thor movie. It's a simple brawler with a thoroughly entertaining combat system, memorable boss encounters, and some pretty impressive characters and environment art. The game is a little bit retro and totally kick ass - not unlike Thor himself.

When you want to play a game as the indestructible, incredible Hulk, really all you want to do is jump over buildings and smash everything in sight. After all, "Hulk smash," is what the big green guy does. The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction lets you do that, and it's the best thing ever.

Ultimate Destruction is an open-world game that gives you free reign to explore and demolish an entire city. You can leap over tall buildings, throw cars into attacking helicopters, and weaponize ripped appart vehicles as you fight off Hulk Buster robots and the military's tanks. No other Hulk game makes you feel like a gamma ray-powered monster like Ultimate Destruction does. Even though the game came out two console generations ago, this title is still the best Hulk experience you're going to get.

Thanks to Scarlett Johansson's version of Black Widow in the Marvel movies, the Russian spy has become one of the more popular Marvel superheroes. Now we just need a game that stars the Avengers’ most dangerous secret agent. But that hasn't happened yet, and to this day Black Widow has only been a side-character or included on massive rosters like that of the Lego Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel Ultimate Alliance games.

If you want to jump in on the action as Black Widow, Lego Marvel Super Heroes does the character justice. The Lego titles give plenty of attention to every character on the hero rosters, and Black Widow is no different. In Lego Marvel Super Heroes, you have all of the neck snapping, acrobatic combat moves, high-tech gadgets, and weapons you see Black Widow use in the movies.

Like Black Widow, Hawkeye hasn't shown up in games as much more than a support or side character. Poor Hawk Guy doesn't always get all of the respect that he deserves. With his pinpoint accuracy, arsenal of you-name-it arrowheads, and quippy personality, it's a wonder why he hasn't had his own game yet. But, if you want to play as Hawkeye, you'll want to check out Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 not only lets you play as Hawkeye, you can level him up to earn skills that allow you to fire electrified, ice, and armor piercing arrows. Plus, there are four costume types to choose from. So, you can dress in outfit ranging from the classic purple costume, to the Ultimates look (which is very close to the movie costume).

If you have the hankering to fight supervillains as the entire team of Avengers, the Marvel Ultimate Alliance series is what you're looking for. You can assemble a group of superheroes from a roster of dozens of upgradeable Marvel characters with alternate costumes - including just about every character mentioned in this article. You even get an attribute bonus if your group consists of all Avenger members.

There are also classic side-scrolling brawlers such as Captain America and the Avengers which is one of the few chances you can actually choose to play as the Vision - a newly-added character in the Marvel movie universe. That's all I have for you this time true believers. Were there any other outstanding Avengers games I missed? Let me know in the comments below.

Royal sons in games have much more variety in their lives than in the real world, where they just sell corned beef and pies in tins. Grocery joke for you there. We’ve seen princes puffed up with noble quests, ousted princes fighting for their birthright, orphans unaware that they’re even princes – even digital doppelgangers of Buckingham Palace bluebloods (as in 8-bit butler sim Flunky). On the whole they have it better than gaming’s princesses, who rarely get to do more than sigh, shrug and be kidnapped. Let’s seek an audience with some of the good eggs and bad lads of royal bearing…

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Even the most virtuous saint can have a sinister streak. The important part is whether or not you actually act on those dark impulses. That's one of the things that make video games so interesting - you can have fun exploring your meaner instincts without worrying about hurting anyone, going to jail, or destroying anything important. But just because you're in a safe, digital environment, doesn't mean that there aren't any consequences to your actions.

Even when games give you carte blanche to run wild and destroy everything, there's still a good chance that the developers have snuck in some kind of morality to, erm, 'nudge' you in the right direction. Whether that means sending an army after your to punish you for your transgressions or just killing you outright, these games make a point to teach you a lesson for your evil, evil ways.

This is classic video game punishment that still has the power to mentally scar anyone who dares attempt it. Attacking those innocent, feathery Cuccos that appear throughout Hyrule will cause them to swarm after you in a frenzied rage, and the only way to get them to stop is to leave the current area. It's a staple of the series, appearing in games like A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and even spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors. Luckily, one or two hits won't set them off - you have to be incredibly deliberate in your quest to draw their ire.

Samus Aran may not talk a lot, but she's generally considered a good, kind-hearted person, always showing up to save the day when duty (or a few dollars) calls. But Metroid Prime 3 lets you take a few potshots at one of its few NPCs milling about near the beginning. You can't actually hurt them, but if you keep it up, a little turret drops down to defend them from your senseless aggression. Blow that turret up, and another, stronger one drops down to replace it. Destroy that one, and an even bigger turret shows up, and .

Shadow Warrior takes the "retribution against animal cruelty" to a whole new level. Most of the creatures you can eviscerate in the 2013 reboot deserve it, as the only thing that doesn't want to kill you outright are some bunnies you'll see milling about and… *ahem* getting amorous with each other. Try to interrupt their lovemaking by shooting them, however, and suddenly these innocent rabbits start hunting you down with lightning-quick speed while heavy metal blares in the background. Lesson learned.

No one likes a team killer, but Conker's Bad Fur Day's will actually call you out on your indiscretions. Take out too many of your own teammates, and you'll be branded a traitor. Soon, you'll find that there's nowhere to hide, as your AI compatriots will hunt you down until someone finally kills you. The final insult comes as they shout things like "Fucking traitor!" as they pump you full of lead.

The Badi Dea (say it fast) is a Star Destroyer that originally showed up in the classic space-sim X-Wing. The name is a hint; you're supposed to run away from this behemoth as fast as you possibly can, before it and its endless waves of fighters shred your ship to bits. But in the semi-sequel TIE Fighter, the Badi Dea is one of your allies - unless you decide to take out one of the ships you're supposed to be protecting. Apparently, the Empire considers this to be treason (with good reason), and sends the Badi Dea after you. It won't stop until you've been pounded into so much space dust.

Many games don't like it when you attack animals with wanton cruelty, but Metal Gear Solid 2 is one of the few to actually try to make you feel really guilty about it. Once you first climb out of the depths of the Big Shell and into the sunlight, you'll notice that the sky is filled with seagulls - who are more than willing to take a crap on you if you stand in one place for too long. If you spend too much time getting revenge by shooting them out of the sky, you'll get a call from the Colonel and your girlfriend Rose, asking you, in so many words, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" You can't even save your game until you apologize to Rose. You know what you did.

Half of the fun of those old King's Quest games was trying to outsmart the text parser by typing in random stuff and seeing if the game would do something with it. In some situations, it actually would - usually with hilarious results. If you walk into the church in King's Quest 2 and , the game actually throws up its hands in disgust. "Anyone who would kill a man of the cloth doesn't deserve to play this game. Therefore, we will end it," the game reads, promptly killing you dead on the spot. A simple "no" would have sufficed.

Consider this the home stretch before all the new hotness. As April comes to a close and we look back on the first third of 2015, it's clear that gaming has been a bit too reliant on remasters and rereleases this year. With exciting, big-budget sequels like just on the horizon, the wait can be almost unbearable - but the best games of April 2015 can help ease the pain. Time flies when you're having fun, so we're told.

Every month, we look back at the best games of 2015 thus far, sorting out all the must-plays from the rest of the recent releases. That way, you know what to prioritize before you're inundated by all the other amazing . So, without further ado, here's what you should be playing right now to tide you over until next month.

It takes a lot to make a fighting game appeal to the masses. You need slick graphics, excellent presentation, and the kind of depth that'll ensnare those highly skilled players who people want to watch. has got all that, and more. While the Fatality finishers still pack in more gore than you can shake a disembodied limb at, MKX brings a lot of new, refreshing ideas to the table that really make this fighter stand out.

For starters, there's the variations mechanic: every combatant has three unique movesets to choose from before each fight, letting character loyalists mix things up and giving the roster a wildly diverse variety of playstyles. You'll also have a blast playing through the elaborate story mode, which introduces a swath of likeable newcomers while imbuing familiar faces with . The online play still has a few kinks that could be worked out, but fans of the Mortal Kombat series - or fighting games in general - will have one hell of a time with MKX.

Of all the re-releases that have come out this year, .

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D is massive, sporting one of the most interesting locales ever designed. Its sprawling swamps and rolling hills - all set on the backs of two titan-sized dead gods and filled with beasts both great and small - are practically begging to be conquered. While its lush, verdant landscapes lose a little luster and detail on the smaller screen, what you trade in graphical quality you gain back in portability. Being able to take an adventure of this magnificent scope with you wherever you go is a technical marvel. Don't miss it.

somehow manages to be diamond tough and lovingly tender at the same time, balancing out its demanding difficulty with a story that'll practically yank your heartstrings right out of your chest. Playing this open-world platformer puts you in a wondrous state of conflict: the tight controls inspire you to run free throughout the lush world, but the sheer depth of the beyond-gorgeous backdrop art makes you want to stand still and gaze at the environment for hours.

The protagonist Ori is such a cute li'l critter that it's hard to watch the fuzzball die again and again while you struggle to overcome the many deathtraps and spike pits in this treacherous forest. But you'll get over any bruises to your ego, so long as you remember that you're the one responsible for plunking down checkpoints before delving into the trickier bits. The degree of challenge here may rattle anyone without an affinity for hardcore 2D platformers, but Ori's dazzling presentation has a universal, heartfelt appeal.

You’ve probably heard that is really hard. You might've heard it’s really easy. The reality lies somewhere in between. Yes, it sends an army of writhing, fanged, flayed, terrible, tormented beasts your way, beasts only someone bragging about their perceived gamer cred would ever deem a pushover. But it teaches you how to deal with them expertly, their unique attacks and defenses and behaviors, building you up until you look and feel like a great gothic badass. And when you do, you'll have earned it.

In streamlining some of Dark Souls’ complexities (the weight system, magic attacks, a few character skills here and there), Bloodborne gains a rawer sense of immediacy, with vital combat that require relentless attacking sans the comfort blanket of a shield, and unpredictable bosses that force you to develop reflexes alongside your already honed skills of pattern memorization. Oh, and the world. That mystifying, atmospheric, intricately hewn world. Developed for PS4 from the ground-up, the enigmatic Yarnham looks like a beautiful waking nightmare.

If you've yet to succumb to monster hunting fever, you might wonder what all the fuss is about. Plenty of games let you battle vicious beasties and craft fancy gear - but few can develop the kind of player investment and cooperative dedication typical of Monster Hunter. For the uninitiated, is a great way to educate yourself on its gloriously addictive ways. Not just because it's the most beginner-friendly entry in Capcom's hit series - it's also the best Monster Hunter game yet.

Gathering materials and killing harmless herbivores is really just a build-up to something greater: downing fearsome creatures after incredibly demanding battles that require true mastery of your chosen weapon. Series vets are already familiar with MH's captivating gameplay loop of fighting and looting, but the new Charge Blade and Insect Glaive playstyles offer entirely unique ways to test your prowess. If you're looking to start or join a dedicated hunting party - preferably with an expert as your guide - Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate offers the kind of adventure that can hook you for hundreds of hours.

Majora's Mask is... well, it's a bit weird. Instead of following the familiar formula that Zelda games have stuck to for years, Majora's Mask asks that you play the same three days over and over again, trying to make the world a little bit brighter each time. It's certainly strange, and more than a little stressful - but taking the time to learn its rhythm opens up one of the most intriguing and creative Legend of Zelda games ever made. Perhaps that's why, 15 years and a 3DS port later, it feels even better than ever.

Much of that feeling is thanks to the improvements found in this portable version of the N64 classic. The updated Bomber's Notebook makes tracking numerous sidequests a painless process, boss design has been retooled to make things teresting, and additional save points help make portable adventuring much more palatable. Plus, New 3DS owners even have some improved camera control with the C-Stick. Whether this is your first time playing through those ominous 72 hours or your hundredth, is a master quest that stands the test of time.

Grim Fandango is, without a doubt, one of the most unique video games ever made. The quest of an undead travel agent as he attempts to atone for his sins is a love letter to film noir greats like Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon, but it also transcends its influences to be something truly original. And with , you'll finally get to play this lost classic on your PlayStation 4, complete with (some) updated graphics and a fantastic re-recording of the original score.

Grim Fandango is also one of the most uniquely frustrating games ever made, and the Remastered edition only serves to highlight its many game-ruining bugs. Whether it's glitching out a puzzle, clipping you through a wall, or just flat out crashing, Grim Fandango Remastered actually seems buggier now than it did 17 years ago. Make no mistake: Manny's journey is still definitely one worth revisiting - just remember to save your game. Often.

sounds kinda ridiculous at first - it's literally a remastered HD version of a rebuilt SD version of the original Resident Evil. Turns out the joke's on us, though, because that's all we really needed to enjoy the survival horror staple all over again: the HD Remake gives all the main characters and the Spencer Mansion an enticing facelift but keeps the little quirks that make Resident Evil awesome/a total headache/undeniably unique.

You'll still need to manage eight (at most) inventory slots, and you'll still need to keep your distance from downed zombies - or preferably burn them on the spot. The most major change is the new default control scheme, which makes it handle more like a modern fixed-camera game, but you're free to select the old 'tank' controls if you want. With modern conveniences where it needs them and good old weirdness where it doesn't, Resident Evil HD Remake is a near masterpiece… of unlocking.

Those are some of the games that made their mark in 2015, but they won't be the last. Stay tuned to this page to see what will are the best games for every month this year. Only time will tell!

For formation on 2015's releases, be sure to check out our list of the .

If you're reading this, it may already be too late. As of April 29th, 2015, P.T. - the playable teaser for the - will be gone from PSN, presumably forever. This tragic loss (especially for those who have never, and now may never, play it) exemplifies the most terrifying drawback of the digital distribution methods we've grown to love. When a downloadable game gets delisted, it effectively ceases to exist for anyone who doesn't already own it.

But P.T. isn't the only great game to be struck down by a delisting. PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade, eShop, and Steam have all discarded their fair share of games, typically because of red tape like unrenewed licensing agreements. And while some of those exiled titles are no great loss, the following delistings may throw you into a state of deep despair upon realizing all the games you could have been enjoying if only you had acted sooner. If you bought these when they were available and still have 'em saved to a hard drive somewhere, thank your lucky stars. If you don't, then things are about to get very emotional.

Now nowhere to be found on: XBLA, PSN

I'll kick things off with the one I hate myself for missing the most. Scott Pilgrim is a comic-turned-film that's heavily inspired by retro gaming culture, and The Game channeled all that nostalgic energy into a four-player beat-'em-up with a sublime 16-bit style. The audio-visual department was every geek's dream, with an art team lead by the stupidly talented and a delightfully blippy soundtrack from renowned chiptune band Anamanaguchi. I've realized too late that I'd quite like to take the fight to Ramona Flowers' seven evil exes, but it seems Ubisoft wasn't too keen on renewing this license at the end of 2014. That pretty much leaves 'moaning in powerless agony' as my only remaining option.

Now nowhere to be found on: XBLA, PSN

A few years after comics giant Marvel was acquired by Disney, there was a sort of great purge for online storefront items related to its iconic superheroes. Notable losses include Deadpool and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but the delistings that hit the hardest for fighting game fans were Marvel vs. Capcom Origins, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and all the brilliant DLC for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The former two games (three, if you factor in that Marvel Super Heroes was bundled into Origins) still exist in increasingly rare disc form, but MvC3 characters Jill Valentine and Shuma-Gorath have completely faded into the aether of lost DLC, along with all the downloadable costumes that really packed in the fan-pleasing references. By choosing not to renew its fighting game licenses with Capcom, Disney took me for a ride, alright... a ride into utter sadness.

Now nowhere to be found on: XBLA

This was less of an actual downloadable game and more of a fun social experiment. Based on the game show of the same name, 1 vs. 100 is the ultimate in unfair odds, where a lone player (given the Neo-esque title of 'The One') must answer trivia questions correctly in the face of 100 people who desperately want to see The One get it wrong. The main attraction was the Live Show mode, complete with an on-air host (with their own Xbox Avatar) doing color commentary, as well as interviews with folks like Major Nelson and prizes that were worth actual money. After two 13-week 'seasons', Microsoft called it quits, and 1 vs. 100 became forever lost to time. For many gamers, it'll probably be the closest they'll ever come to taking part in a bona fide game show. But hey, there's always the abysmal DS version (hosted by none other than Bob Saget).

Now nowhere to be found on: Steam

In case you didn't know, Outrun 2006 is among the , it's pretty damn difficult to argue. For a while, Sega's sunny convertible racer was available for download on Steam, with the kind of crisp textures that the PS2 and Xbox versions could only dream of. Alas, Sega's lapsed Ferrari license prevents any future downloads of Outrun 2006 (or its sequel, Outrun Online Arcade). The game's still out there, but these days, asking someone to buy a physical disc for an old PC game is like telling a millennial who can't find a movie on Netflix to just borrow the DVD from their local library. Yes, they could do that, but will they? Probably not.

Now nowhere to be found on: XBLA, PSN

Back in the '90s, Konami brought the ruckus when it came to quarter-munching arcade beat-'em'-ups. Whether you were playing alone or in a dedicated co-op party of four, bopping bad guys in X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Simpsons Arcade Game was nothing short of glorious. All three of these classic tie-in brawlers eventually made a comeback with downloadable ports - and all three have now been banished to the void of expired licenses, never to be renewed. If you had the foresight to snatch these up when they were available, please invite me over some time so I can relive all those happy arcade memories. I'll bring pizza!

Now nowhere to be found on: 3DS eShop

I warn you, this delisting is just inexplicably mean, and may cause The Legend of Zelda fans who missed out to weep the bitterest of tears. Nintendo had good intentions on this road to hell, deciding to celebrate the Zelda series' 25th anniversary with a free gift. An amazing one, at that: a DSiWare port of Four Swords, the four-player co-op adventure full of inventive puzzles and friendly griefing among the color-coded quartet of Links. Best of all, the local multiplayer is wireless, without any pricey link cables necessary. The Anniversary Edition was available at no charge from September 2011 to February 2012, then again during the first month of 2014 - but if you didn't download it during those timeframes, it's now completely unobtainable. Does Nintendo not realize how many people would happily pay money for this port, if only it would let them?

Now nowhere to be found on: XBLA, PSN

It's all about the timing with this particularly unfortunate delisting. After Burner Climax is in the same boat as Outrun 2006: a SegaAM2 arcade classic given a faithful reboot in three lush dimensions. Amazingly, Climax retains the same blazing mach speeds of its predecessors, as you gun down legions of enemy bogeys from your sleek jet fighter. To avoid renewing licenses with real-world aircraft companies, Sega announced in December 2014 that it would be pulling Climax from online storefronts on Christmas Eve, of all days. Then, in a shocking twist, the game suddenly disappeared a week ahead of schedule, with no explanation given. For those prospective buyers who thought they would have more time, it was like the horrifying inverse of an early Christmas present from Sega.

Now nowhere to be found on: XBLA

This one holds a special place in my heart for being the first XBLA game I ever downloaded. All you have to do in this simple 3D platformer is guide a marble to a goal as fast as possible, utilizing power-ups and momentum-accelerating trickery to cut corners and improve your time. It's just as devilishly addictive as Super Monkey Ball, but with larger, more forgiving levels and 100% fewer simians. In a cruel twist of fate, developer GarageGames retains the rights to the Marble Blast engine but not the games themselves, so Ultra got ejected in 2011. The good news is, a PC port is (somehow) . The bad news is that all those stunningly impressive leaderboard replays of the best times (and some oh-so-satisfying Achievements) are gone forever.

Now nowhere to be found on: 3DS eShop

A generation of gamers will always associate handheld gaming with Tetris for the original Game Boy, since it came bundled in with Nintendo's landmark portable system. Those 8-bit visuals have the power to practically transport you back in time, so nostalgia surely played a part in Tetris' popularity on the 3DS Virtual Console market. But all that reminiscing came to a screeching halt when Ubisoft acquired the legendary puzzle license to make Tetris Ultimate, putting the kibosh on eShops sales of Tetris Axis and Tetris for Game Boy in the process. Boo, I say.

Now nowhere to be found on: XBLA, PSN

There've been plenty of casualties when it comes to digital versions of excellent tabletop games, with winners like Catan, Lost Cities, and Risk: Factions all getting the boot at one point or another. But nothing could sting quite as much as the delisting of Uno, the fast, easy-to-grasp card game that typically induces bouts of excited yelling. Not only could you play Uno when all the participants lived in different states - there was also the option to put custom house rules into effect, or spice up the deck with themed DLC (including some Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix goodness). And here's the kicker: the whole shebang cost less than an actual deck of Uno cards. Now it's gone. Excuse me, I... I need a moment.

Game advertising is all but inescapable these days, with promotions for big franchises taking up space in everything from mall kiosks to thousands-of-dollars-per-second Super Bowl ads. It's gotten to the point where even those who don’t really play games still have some familiarity with the sequel-laden mainstays that you and I know so well. But even amidst all the hype trains and ridiculously expensive marketing campaigns, some entries in the most universally recognized game franchises are all but forgotten to time.

There's been plenty of discussion about the , but many of those hail from Japanese franchises that might not register with players from other parts of the world. So instead, here are the most delightfully obscure games from the most recognizable Western-made franchises on the market. Mention these to your parents, siblings, friends, teachers, whoever; you'll see their eyes light up in understanding when you say the series name, only to shift to utter befuddlement when you reach the actual title.

As you'll soon find, some of these little-known games have been buried under layers of history, from the days before the brand name blew up. Grand Theft Auto 3 is really when the masses started paying attention to Rockstar's brand of open-world crime sprees, so the original top-down GTA from 1997 is already pretty obscure. Even fewer people have played GTA: London, 1969, a UK-themed expansion pack that adds the entire series' only real-world location to the base game. Then, on top of all that, sits GTA: London, 1961, an expansion pack to the expansion pack. It's enough to make your head spin.

So, is it any good? Since there's barely any plot to the early GTA games, London, 1961 can't offer the same level of backstory-revealing goodness as later spin-offs like Liberty City and Vice City Stories. But if you just want to add some more content to your retro car thieving, then you might as well enjoy the extra missions added in this bit of PC-exclusive freeware.

Contrary to what Activision would like you to believe, not every Call of Duty game is an instant best-seller. Black Ops: Declassified was put in a pretty unenviable position, releasing as a PS Vita exclusive on the same day as . That meant that it targeted a demographic that largely prefers its military FPS action on consoles, if they even owned Sony's struggling handheld system to begin with. Of course, it certainly doesn't help things when your game is horrendously buggy, has broken AI, and gets critically panned for boasting a single-player campaign that can be completed in less than an hour.

So, is it any good? No, unless you're a diehard CoD lore buff who's desperate to know what kind of mass murdering went down between the events of Black Ops and Black Ops 2. If Declassified has taught us anything, it's that CoD's speedy gameplay was never meant to accommodate touchscreen controls, and having two colons in your game titles looks a bit silly.

Kratos is a legend among gamers, known far and wide for his ability to be unreasonably angry at all times and turn any violent action into a quick-time event. Excessive bloodshed and gore has always been crucial to God of War's brand of combo-centric combat, so you might wonder how all that could possibly work on a tiny, narrow screen. God of War: Betrayal aimed to find out, plopping the Ghost of Sparta onto Java-compatible flip phones in a time before Apple's App Store even existed. Though the action shifted from 3D to 2D, there were still plenty of mythical monsters to slice through and execute with carefully timed button presses.

So, is it any good? Depends on your expectations. It's certainly a bit strange to see Kratos reduced to a dinky pixelated sprite, and the lack of music or sound effects beyond the occasional, singular drum beat makes the brutal beatdowns feel about as epic as a stroll through the library. But given the limitations of the Java engine, it's impressive that Betrayal still manages to retain the pace and flow of God of War combat on a 2D plane, even if you're mashing the 'OK' button instead of Square.

Over 30 years later, stacking blocks and making them disappear in Tetris still hasn't gotten old. The formula is almost too perfect, since any attempts to jazz it up usually end up feeling convoluted or gimmicky. That didn't stop the N64-exclusive Tetrisphere from trying, taking the basic tetromino-dropping gameplay and wrapping it around a giant orb of colored blocks. In addition to the procession of shapes, you can also use an array of unorthodox puzzle power-ups like magnets and ray guns to bore to the center of the Tetrisphere a little quicker. And for whatever reason, you've got a bunch of bug-eyed androids to keep you company (none of which seem remotely Russian).

So, is it any good? Yes, actually. Having to manipulate pieces in a 3D space bends your brain out of its Tetris comfort zone, and there's a lot more blocky real-estate to cover in search of the perfect fit for your current piece. Also, the techno-rave soundtrack is pretty rad.

The Madden NFL series spans a whopping five console generations and counting, which is pretty staggering to think about. And at the same time that the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo were getting annual Madden sequels starting as early as 1990, only one entry in the series ever made it to the Turbo Duo console. To understand why, ask yourself: did you or anyone you know even own a Turbo Duo? If you answered 'yes', then you might also be familiar with that GI Joe reject . But what was I talking about again? Oh, right: 16-bit Madden on an unpopular console that tried implementing disc drives just a bit too early.

So, is it any good? Not unless you're a sucker for FMVs peppering all the sluggish gridiron action, including such riveting live-action scenes as the game-opening coin toss (complete with slow zoom on the quarter) and three-second-long endzone celebrations. But I can safely say that there is no greater virtual representation of John Madden than .

The Sims is one of the most successful game franchises of all time, delighting players with just the right mix of mundane suburban life and godlike power (including, but not limited to, trapping your Sims in the bathroom until they die). For those who prefer the chibi style of character design in something like MapleStory, there's MySims, a spin-off full of super-deformed denizens to occupy your virtual dollhouse. And beyond that is a series of spin-off spin-offs that have nothing to do with domestic life. Instead, these games involve minigame parties, kart-racing, kid-friendly espionage, or - in the case of SkyHeroes - full-on aerial dogfighting and races through mid-air checkpoints.

So, is it any good? Heck yeah. For my money, I'll always go with a goofy, colorful flight combat game over something that aims for photorealism like Ace Combat, especially if it can tap into the nostalgia of Star Fox and Diddy Kong Racing. Plus, those little customizable jet fighters are just adorable.

A full year before Uncharted: Fight for Fortune turned third-person action into a surprisingly fun card game, Assassin's Creed took a stab at the world of CCGs with the Recollection app on iOS. The game itself is actually just called Tactics, to be exact: a real-time duel where players summon Animus memories instead of casting spells. Despite there only being three main areas on the board, the strategy is quite complex, since you'll be micromanaging your agent cards to vie for territory control all while a day-cycle timer constantly ticks down. Outside of the matches, there's also plenty of opportunity for creative deckbuilding, given the sizeable 200+ card pool.

So, is it any good? Yes. Like any CCG, this game makes its money through in-app purchases used to buy card packs, so stay away if you can't use your virtual wallet responsibly. But for any AC fan craving a strategic change of pace, Tactics (alongside all the other supplementary concept art and cutscenes in Recollection) makes for an impressively worthwhile companion app.

You can't make it ten clicks through the internet without someone cracking a (very likely weak) Half-Life 3 joke. But everyone's who's clamoring for fresh, unfamiliar content in Valve's seminal FPS series should take it upon themselves to seek out the little-known Half-Life: Decay. It's understandable that PC-centric players might've missed it, since this expansion was developed exclusively for the PlayStation 2 port of Gordon Freeman's first interdimensional escapade. Here's the thing: instead of controlling Freeman on his lonesome, Decay is actually a co-op campaign starring two female scientists - Colette Green and Gina Cross - that occurs parallel to Gordon's adventure during the Black Mesa Incident.

So, is it any good? Most definitely. Defending yourself against Xen aliens and the military clean-up crew is just as fun with a buddy by your side, as reinforced in Half-Life 2 - and unlike Alyx Vance, this player-controlled teammate doesn't have to deliver dialogue that awkwardly dances around the fact that you never speak. And Decay's emphasis on two-woman, first-person puzzles almost seems like a precursor to Portal 2's co-op. Plus, there's a secret mission that lets you can play as a Vortigaunt. Oh yes.

Alas, Silent Hill fans, I come bearing tragic news, for the highly anticipated , we've decided to put aside the Silent Hill that could have been to think about those that could still totally be.

Here we've listed the developers who could create chapters in a Silent Hill anthology, whose unique talents could play to what makes Silent Hill so beloved and unforgettable. If we say it loud and long enough, it's entirely possible that this could exist. Just keep running toward the light in the gloom.

Alan Wake is a perfect template for a bite-sized Silent Hill experience. Remedy intimately understands how geography can impact mood, turning the pine forests of the US northwest into an oppressive landscape for Alan’s nightmares. They also understand how to adapt horror to an episodic format, sustaining tension throughout short levels, bringing the unease to a creepy crest at the very end. And in both Alan Wake and American Nightmare, Remedy showed they can blur the line between realities, twisting our perceptions and short-circuiting our expectations.

All of that experience is reason enough to wish they’d take a crack at a Silent Hill experience, but it’s the terrifying Mr. Scratch that seals it. Most of Silent Hill’s enemies are creeping, unknowable things, but Mr. Scratch, the dark embodiment of Alan’s ego, is all the more terrifying because he’s so recognizable. He simply gives into the impulses that we all have - to take what we want, shove others out of our way, and shape the world to our own specific liking. It would be intriguing to explore a relationship with a denizen of Silent Hill that’s as charming as he is disturbing.

Here's the thing with Silent Hill, it needs to be really freaking weird. That's what I adored about the series' early entries: each one took something familiar - a hospital or a shopping mall - and made it hostile and alien. These games didn't feel like anything else out there, and that unfamiliarity is what made them so scary. When thinking about who could do the bizarre atmosphere of Silent Hill justice, one name jumps to the top of the list: Grasshopper Manufacture.

With a track record that includes Lollipop Chainsaw and No More Heroes, Grasshopper Manufacture and Goichi Suda have a special brand of strange that permeates everything they touch. They've dipped their toe in the horror genre before with Fatal Frame IV. This would be their opportunity to dive headlong into the dark side and make it their own. It would be crass, it would be stylish, and it sure as hell wouldn't feel like any other Silent Hill game - and that's the point. If there's one thing PT demonstrated, it's that you can break the Silent Hill mold and still have a horror game that captures our imaginations.

The Evil Within was easily one of the most contentious games of 2014, and even now the gaming world is divided on whether it's the second-coming of Resident Evil or destined for the bin. But if developer Tango Gameworks did one thing right with this grotesque action-horror, it was coming up with an exceedingly scary concept and pushing it to the limit. If that passion could be redirected into a subtler narrative that's just as frightening, a Tango-directed Silent Hill could be the unsettling child of the horror genre's two greatest rivals.

While The Evil Within (Tango's only gaming endeavor thus far) focused heavily on action sequences, it was arguably at its best when you were simply walking around a house, poking at fresh brains and trying to discover the mystery behind the specter that's relentlessly hunting you. It also knows how to make the immortal stalker concept work, with Boxman exhibiting all the terrifying immortality of Pyramid Head with an extra helping of gore. Perhaps most importantly, Shinji Mikami and his team are adept at realizing their vision with grace and focus, so a Silent Hill game from them would almost assuredly strike at the heart of what makes the series tick.

You might've heard of a PS1 rarity by the name of LSD: Dream Emulator. It's not so much a game as it is a first-person simulation of an acid trip that oscillates between surreal weirdness and full-on terror. Without any goals or direction, you simply wander through 32-bit renditions of disconnected dream sequences, completely unsure of how your surroundings will react to your presence. Ask anyone who's plunged headfirst into this madness (or ), and you'll see just how often things take a turn into deeply disturbing territory. It gets to the point that the player feels like they're being strangled by paranoia and disorientation.

Don't be deceived by the crude graphics; LSD is capable of some truly skin-crawling stuff, like walls inexplicably plastered with creepy face textures, or is still up, so anything's possible.

People often (incorrectly) reduce Gone Home as to nothing more than a "walking simulator", but you know what? There's nowhere that Fullbright's brand of environmental design and exploration would be more at home than the sleepy burg of Silent Hill. Gone Home already toyed with player expectations, building up suspense and horror through simple audio cues, deft storytelling, and a crushing sense of loneliness - a Fullbright Silent Hill game would simply ratchet up those feelings tenfold.

If you're playing Silent Hill for the combat, you're playing the wrong game. Instead, a Fullbright-developed Silent Hill would drop the player into the derelict city long after the horror has since passed - though the evidence of the atrocities committed by its inhabitants still lingers. You'd explore abandoned buildings, reading notes and taking in clues, piecing the story together as you wander through the city's haunting streets. And then… the fog rolls in, and the real terror begins.

Between working on Danganronpa and the Zero Escape series, developer Spike Chunsoft knows how to inject a poignant sense of despair, dread, and (most of all) helplessness in their games. Silent Hill thrives on these emotions. It wants to instill them deep within your psyche, often without you even realizing it. The thematic harmony at work between game and developer makes Spike Chunsoft a natural fit for this long-running horror franchise.

And on a more pragmatic note, what's the one thing people complain about when they complain about Silent Hill? The gameplay. By design, Silent Hill games feel clunky, which is sort of the point but people still don't like it. If Spike Chunsoft were to transform Silent Hill into a visual novel, that awkwardness would be eliminated and you'd be free to focus on all the creepy environments and brain-teasing puzzles. It also allows for a greater focus on narrative, which is important when your backdrop literally runs on the inner turmoil of its characters.

Though From Software is best known for making you want to throw your game system out the window when you lose to that one boss for the tenth freaking time, the company is equally versed at building a living story from vague whispers and hints. Though you could charge through Dark Souls or Bloodborne without ever learning their lore, players that pay close attention can discover frightening and fascinating worlds hidden just out of sight. Silent Hill is all about the horror of what could be lurking beyond that impenetrable fog, so From Software's unique brand of subtle dread would be perfect for low-visibility terror.

Much like other Silent Hill games are built upon subtle clues that can go ignored if you don't pay attention (heck, P.T. has a full story to it that some players never notice), From Software is adept at hiding hints of story in every facet of a game, from to item descriptions to the structure of the world itself. While the company has never done a psychological horror game the likes of Silent Hill, it wouldn't be too tricky to scale back its action-focused elements to hone in on atmosphere. After that it's familiar, lamp-lit territory. The true question is whether From Software could scale back its desire to make you suffer under crushing difficulty instead of just deep-seated fear, but I bet it could pull that off. Just this once.

The Apple Watch (not the iWatch, despite what everyone has called it at least once already) is out now. You can buy it. But lots of places will tell you that you shouldn't. They'll tell you it's a pointless waste of money, is over-priced, too fragmented to be iconic and doesn't really do anything that your iPhone can't already do. Especially if you tie your phone to your wrist.

Well, not me. In fact, I don't even need to tell you what I think of it because video game characters have already got theirs. In fact, you can read exactly how they justified this mega-luxurious purchase over the following slides. They're almost certainly bound to fully convince you that it was worth the money.

"Pika! Pika-pi! Chuuuuuuu. Pikachu! Pika-chu. Chuu chuuu Pi. Pika-pi piki-pi, Pikachu. Piki-chu, pika-chu, Pika-pi Pikachu! Pika. Chu. Chuuuuuuuuuuuuu."

...which I am reliably told translates roughly to: "The diminutive battery life doesn't affect me personally, dear fellow. I can charge it while I wear it thanks to my body's natural abundance of contactless energy. Also, when you die, I will feast upon your soul."

"This Apple Watch is pure gold for a man of business like myself. In fact, I bought the version that is pure gold because it's just so bling. It's befitting of my status as the man in control of Grove Street and its surrounding area."

"And if anyone starts disrespecting that status and trying to take control of one of the areas in my portfolio, there's this thing called 'taptic feedback'. I just get a discreet tap on my wrist to let me know that some remedial action is required in a specific area, if you know what I'm saying. It doesn't yet tell me how many stars I have on my Wanted Level, but it's still early days."

"Right, so I'm killing all these great big beast things, yeah? Makes sense that I should only do that for as long as I actually have to. Apple Watch lets me listen to my partner's heart-beat in real-time."

"See, in my case, it's more about the lack of it. As long as I know my partner's heart isn't beating, I know I have to keep repeatedly stabbing stuff in the brain. It's amazing really, but there's an app for that."

"The Apple Watch is amazing. I actually paid for the developer SDK so I've developed an app that lets me see my HP, MP and shout recharge time on that gorgeous three-bar clockface – you know, the one that the official health app uses? Yeah, like that. It's so freakin' sweet."

"I also enchanted my Apple Watch so it lets me breathe underwater. Hmmm? Whats that? What do you mean, it's not waterproof? Aww man… I can't take it underwater? You can't change enchantments can you? Son of a…"

"The Apple Watch is invaluable in my line of work. With taptic feedback I can feel the arrival of new mission information or commissions silently without giving away the communication with a buzz or tone. And with the Apple Watch on my wrist, I'm actually able to see messages coming in while I'm in the middle of an existing job. Whether I'm using cheese wire, a knife or just good old-fashioned bare hands, I simply have to tilt my wrist while completing my contractual obligations and I can read the message."

"By the way, need anyone... you know? No? OK, well, you know where to find me. Just tap me up. Man, I love this thing. No, don't touch it. Touch it, you die. Simple. Have a lovely day, though. Your hair looks nice."

"I spent all my Shiny Coins on an Apple Watch and I have to say, I'm really glad I did. Everyone asks to see it, so I'm happy to let people try it on. It makes me feel big. The Sapphire Glass display is pretty much indestructible, which is useful when you get stabbed with sharp objects all day long like I do. I can also keep a count of my Blood Echoes, vials and how far I've strayed from the nearest lantern using the Health app."

"I actually convinced pretty much everyone in Central Yarnham to get one, but they're not so happy. I hear them through the walls, ranting about the battery life and how they have to put it on charge every night: 'This is a curse… this is a damn curse!' That's what they say. They took it really badly and now they send me Apple Watch scribbles showing a stick man being burned on a fire or disembowelled or something. Sometimes both. Someone even sent me a note that said 'reeks of hipster'. That was pretty foul. It's totally worth it, though. I love Apple stuff."

"This thing's great! It's a real hit with the ladies and a great way to start a conversation. It's like a woman magnet on my wrist. I must say, however, I think mine is broken. The Health App keeps saying that I've gone running for, like, 100 miles every day, and yet my elevation change and distance traveled are always negligible.

I swear, I haven't been running at all. I've just been sat in front of my PC, doing, y'know, internet stuff. They replaced it for me once already, but the new one's just the same. Weird. I still love it though."

If you like scaring off potential lovers by turning your bed into a sea full of stuffed animals, then have I got the list for you. Video game land is filled to the brim with critters ripe for shrinking down into huggable plushie form, so I’ve collected a list of the very best so you can remind your crush that you’re also a gamer /thank you very much/ as they slowly back out the door.

From Mud Crabs to Piranha Plants, here are the ten most unusual, yet massively desirable video game plushies you can buy right now.

This handsome beast has been “scientifically engineered for maximum huggability and affection.” He also talks.

Lovingly: take my money.

You can .

Just look at that round squishable face! Those beady little eyes! Those pathetic little wings! Who wouldn’t want this spherical yellow chubster taking up all the room in their bed? Your partner can sleep on the floor.

You can .

Not only is this friendly monster adorably fuzzy, he also acts as a handy storage device. His gaping maw opens up at a terrifying angle, gifting you with plenty of storage space for your beard clippings.

You can .

Those cold, dead eyes have seen a lot of unspeakable things. This Silent Hill series memento totally won’t murder you in your sleep…

You can .

Bethesda really know how to make a good plush. They’ve got so many great additions that it’s was too difficult to narrow it down to just the Elcor, so here’s a cuddly Mud Crab that you can prop up on the shelf next to him.

You can .

Nintendo does an incredibly strong line in huggable things, but this toothy little bastard chomped the rest of the competition. Just don’t get your fingers too close to his mouth.

You can .

Always there for you in your darkest hour, the companion cube is a classic that will never let you down… unless you’re near an open flame.

You can .

The chick transforms into an egg. Nothing more needs to be said.

You can .

They missed a trick by not making this out of velcro, but at least you won’t have to worry about being rolled into a ball of miscellaneous household objects any time soon.

You can .

Ok, so the pig’s vacant stare freaks me out even more than meeting the gaze of an Enderman, but this colourful menagerie would be right at home in anyone’s collection.

You can .

When you live in a country that seems to get every game by default, it's easy to take things for granted. Sure, we've had a history of congresspeople attempting to demonize video games, but our self-regulating ratings board is surprisingly lenient compared to countries like Australia or Germany, who decide what games consumers can and can't purchase. Plus, if a game ever leaves Japan, there's a damn good chance it's going to come stateside before other territories.

Except for when it doesn't. There are quite a few games that got fully translated into English, though for whatever reason, didn't make it outside of Europe - or hell, even Japan. North America is massive in comparison to other English-speaking territories, and maybe trucking games cross-country just to sit on store shelves doesn't make a lot of sense. Whatever the reason, make sure you brace yourself for disappointment (or prepare to shell out the cash for region-specific hardware), because these are some of the teresting games we North Americans are missing out on.

Here it is, folks: one of the few Zelda games that will never make it to North America. OK, well, technically it's starring everyone's "favorite" 40-year-old human fairy, Tingle. Even though you're not playing as Link, it still feels like a Legend of Zelda game in many ways. There's an overworld to explore, dungeons full of puzzles to solve, and tons of rupees to snag.

In fact, rupees are an important part, because they're not just a currency you can use to purchase items and haggle with Hyrule's inhabitants - they're Tingle’s health bar too. Run out of cash and it's lights out for our green-tighted hero. This game probably could have had an honest shot here, if not for the fact that pretty much everyone thinks that Tingle is one of the creepiest characters Nintendo's ever made.

Remember Hotel Dusk: Room 215? That Nintendo DS game that looked like it came right out of an ? Well, its now-defunct developer Cing actually made a sequel a few years later that was fully translated and released in Europe.

Last Window: The Secret of Cape West continues the story of Kyle Hyde, the police officer-turned-delivery man as he unravels yet another mystery. According to reviews, Last Window is supposed to be just as good as its predecessor, filled with memorable characters and a unique graphical style, but the text-heavy adventure is perhaps a bit too niche for North American audiences. Much like...

Oh look, another Cing joint! This time, it's a sequel to the the DS adventure game Trace Memory (or, as it's known in Europe, Another Code: Two Memories). Trace Memory plays out like an interactive storybook, with some brisk puzzle-solving to keep things interesting. You play as a young Ashley Mizuki Robbins, as she explores the mysterious Blood Edward Island, looking for clues as to the whereabouts of her missing parents.

Unfortunately, some pacing issues and a lack of replayability led to middling reviews, which ultimately doomed its sequel, Another Code R, from ever seeing the light of day in North America - which is a shame, because it's largely an improvement over the original in many ways. It didn't help that the sequel was a Wii game, and by the time it finally launched, the Wii's software sales all but dried up for anything that wasn't a Mario game.

Here's another Nintendo-published Wii game that would have likely tanked in North America. If you're wondering why this game sounds familiar, you probably recognize it from Nintendo's E3 2006 presentation. Nintendo revealed the trailer for Monolith Soft's bonkers action title, then never spoke a single word about it. That's right: the same studio responsible for sprawling JRPGs about robots and swords and robot swords also worked on a QTE-laden survival game in which massive earthquakes and tsunamis wreck a coastal city in North America.

Nintendo quietly released Disaster: Day of Crisis abroad in October, 2008, but poor sales and middling review scores ensured that we'd never see the once-promised game grace our shores. It's weird that a game as gung-ho-America as Disaster: Day of Crisis would never get released here, but it's nothing compared to...

. Before crushing our souls with games like Bloodborne, From Software loved making mech games, like Chromehounds and Armored Core. But none of them compare to the sheer jingoistic audacity of Metal Wolf Chaos. Vice President Richard Hawk usurps the Oval Office from current president Michael Wilson (relative of Woodrow Wilson, naturally). How does he attempt to regain control of the White House? By piloting a giant mech, that's how. Eventually the two battle in space - because of course they do.

While its menus are in Japanese, the entire game is dubbed with gloriously terrible English voice acting, and it's pretty easy to figure out how to press A to America without having to study a second language. It is a crime we never got a localized version - it could have been video gaming's Team America: World Police, and there's no way translating everything would have taken longer than a Coca-Cola and apple pie-fueled fortnight.

Oh dear, this one is going to break more than a few hearts. Phantasy Star Online was an action-packed MMORPG for the Dreamcast released in 2000, a time when hooking your console up to the internet was a strange concept. Despite a relatively complicated set-up process compared to most modern-day online console titles, it garnered a decent cult following over its lifespan.

So of course fans were excited to hear that a full sequel would make its way to PC and Vita… and have continued to wait patiently for the game to ever make it to the West. Currently, Phantasy Star Online 2 is only out in Japan and the Pacific Southwest, but if you're willing to jump through some hoops, you can actually that will translate nearly everything for you. The fact that Sega hasn't done anything to block its use might as well be confirmation that we'll never get it.

The SNES is arguably one of the best JRPG machines on the planet, and North America actually got a fairly surprising amount of them, all things considered. But there's one in particular that stands out as one of the finest we'll probably never get to play: Terranigma.

Terranigma is the third entry of a loosely connected trilogy, developed by Quintet, the studio who brought us classics like ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, and Illusion of Gaia. In many ways, Terranigma is Quintet's magnum opus, a combination of complex religious themes and action-RPG concepts introduced in prior titles. So why didn't we get it? Turns out Enix wasn't doing so hot in the US, and had closed its North American subsidiary shortly before its localization was completed. That didn't stop Nintendo from taking it and publishing it on its own - but only in Europe and Australia.

If this article seems particularly Nintendo heavy, it's not because I'm bashing them. They just happen to make a habit of putting in a ton of work to make games readable by a Western audience then not releasing them in their largest English-speaking territory - or simply not releasing them at all. Case in point: Mother for the NES.

In Japan, what we refer to as EarthBound is known as Mother 2, the sequel to the original Mother game released in 1989 on the NES. Plans were set in motion to make Mother available to a Western audience, and the game was fully translated into English, until Nintendo of America decided (for whatever reason) that releasing it would be commercially unviable. Lucky for us, someone found a prototype and dumped the ROM files online, where it has since been dubbed EarthBound Zero by those who have come across it by less scrupulous means.

Mother 3, a game which many believe to be the finest (and most heart-wrenching) in the series, has been . Of course, Nintendo still has no plans to officially bring this title to the West, despite constantly taunting us with the inclusion of Mother 3 hero Lucas in Super Smash Bros. Sigh.

Being part of a creatively-driven fan community is a fantastic experience. Everyone shares a common passion - be it a movie, book, or game - and channel that energy into something constructive. Some people make art, others create music. And a few bring all those creative efforts together into something massive. Each entry on this list features a fan-developed game years in the making. Years spent toiling away in the developer's free time, hundreds of hours fueled by all-consuming fandom. And then poof all that work was undone.

The threat of a cease and desist letter hangs heavy over the heads of all fan developers working with someone else's creation. It is the Sword of Damocles, the Eye of Sauron, the all-powerful force that at any moment could shut the project down - but so often waits until the last minute to do so. Here are seven lovingly crafted fan games sunk by such letters.

It's only natural fans would want to spend more time exploring one of the Super Nintendo's most beloved JRPGs. While Chrono Trigger had an official sequel - Chrono Cross - it wasn't the direct sequel some wanted. Enter Kajar Laboratories, the fan-driven developer behind , an extensive ROM hack that looked and played just like the original. Set five years after Lavos' demise, Crimson Echoes finds the original cast on a new adventure involving alternate timelines, reptilian AI, and a resurrected king from the past. These plot points help set up the events of Chrono Cross, thus bridging the gap between the two games.

And here's the worst part: the game was cancelled just weeks before its release. After five years in development, Crimson Echoes was officially shut down in early May of 2009, mere weeks before its planned release date. By this point, the game "35 hours of gameplay and 10 separate endings" along with some new modes and other extras. Basically, everything you could have wanted from a Chrono Trigger 2.

The extensive fan-community surrounding My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is one of the most creatively-driven communities out there. So it should come as no surprise that - between all the music, artwork, and movies - a few fan-made MLP game have popped up as well. Fighting is Magic was a 2D fighting game from MANE6 who hoped to marry the spirit of My Little Pony with the high-speed action of Capcom's Vs. series. The result was a light years away from anything you'd find on MUGEN.

And here's the worst part: Fighting is Magic got hit with a cease and desist letter shortly after helping raise over $200,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. In 2013, the organizers behind EVO on their Facebook page to determine the eighth game in their fighting game tournament lineup. Fighting is Magic was on that list, and drummed up a fair amount of support, but that didn't save it from getting shut down shortly thereafter.

Kids and adults the world over have been capturing pocket monsters for almost two decades, and yet we still don't have an official Pokemon MMO. In 2009, a small team of independent developers sought to fix this glaring omission with Pokenet. Players were able to battle, train, and level up their Pokemon, even though the game was still technically in beta. In essence, it looked like a really crowded version of the Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen games, with dozens of trainers wandering the Pokemon wilderness.

And here's the worst part: Pokenet was shut down on April Fool's day. What kind of a sick joke is that? Plus, if you do a simple search for 'Pokemon MMO' you'll discover Pokenet isn't the only Pokemon MMO in town. So why did it have to be canned while all these others live on? Your guess is as good as mine, and mine is 'bad luck'.

This one is a real heartbreaker. After eight years toiling away on their own time, Spanish developer Bomber Link finally released Streets of Rage Remake. This massive game was a glowing tribute to an arcade classic. It contained over 100 stages, 19 playable characters, and a 76-song soundtrack remixed by five different musicians. It was a beast and, according to the developers, designed completely from the ground up. According to , "It does not use reverse engineering nor a single line of code from the original games. It's all based on visual interpretation."

And here's the worst part: Not only did Sega can this glowing endorsement of their own franchise, they shut down their own as well. A video of a prototype Streets of Rage remake hit the web in 2012, courtesy of developer Ruffian Games. The footage shown was of a playable demo thrown together in six weeks. It was all for naught, however, as the project was apparently scrapped for unknown reasons.

The story of this fan-developed Metal Gear remake helps highlight just how arbitrary the whole cease-and-desist process appears. In 2014, a fan-developer Outer Haven announced it was halting development on its remake of the 1987 classic, Metal Gear. This came as a bit of a shock after the same developer just a few months prior announced that they had received Konami's blessing to move forward with development. For Pete's sake, they even got David Hayter himself to supply some voice work for their trailer. These guys were dedicated.

And here's the worst part: they had the green light from Konami, or so they thought. Originally, the developers and are working on a new game that's Metal Gear-free.

Super Mario 64 is one of the most beloved 3D platformers of all time, and a testament to Nintendo's skill at game design. Even so, if you want to play the game today there are only a few ways to do so. Developer Royston Ross offered a new alternative earlier this year with , a high-definition remake of the Bob-omb Battlefield using the Unity game engine. You could even play it in your browser. But after about a week in the spotlight, the game was taken down at Nintendo's request.

And here's the worst part: the entire thing was a tease within a tease. Not only did we get a very limited taste of the Bob-omb Battlefield in HD - remember, it wasn't up for long - that stage in itself was a tease of a fully realized Super Mario 64 HD, something that should really be in our lives. I guess we'll just have to make due with our $10 ROM dump on Virtual Console.

What's especially odd - and/or maddeningly frustrating - is that the likelihood of a company issuing a cease and desist letter appears almost arbitrary. Why did Pokenet get singled out as the PokeMMO to axe? Why did a remake of a Super Mario 64 stage get shut down when there are hundreds of Mario 64 hacks and remakes out there? And here's the big one: why is there not an industry-wide standard covering this sort of thing?

Look at Valve: they embraced the fan-developed, HD . If all companies required all fangames to be shut down, that would be one thing, but instead it appears the decision hinges on the personal whims of the companies themselves.

So I say embrace the creativity. These fangames are a testament to the rabid devotion of their communities; not to mention an excellent source of good PR. You don't build a loyal community by stifling its creative efforts.

For as long as there have been video games there have been systems in place to ensure that those video games do not continue on unabated. After all, what good is a truly endless experience, an interaction without incentive? Once the initial novelty wears off, what then? Without the likes of the humble health bar to affirm our actions, to measure our gaming greatness, we'd all be utterly bored by now.

Health bars - hidden or otherwise, are as vital to gaming as the lifeblood in Zelda's HUD hearts are to Link. They come in many forms, measuring our proximity to defeat in everything from blood to - well, everything listed here. Yes, you see as games have evolved, so have our means of measuring our ability - or not - to play them well. New stories, worlds, tasks and design ideas have forced the noble health bar out of its comfort zone and demanded that it adapt, to measure all kinds of different successes and failures in a plethora of new contexts. All pretty much hit you with restart hammer when depleted, but it's not the destination that matters, it's the journey. Thusly, today's big list of things looks at just some of the many, highly intriguing alternatives to the classic life bar. Whatever you do, don't let 'em hit zero.

They say that 'the heart wants what the heart wants', and what the heart wants most of all is not to implode out of sheer bloody terror. An EKG, or electrocardiogram device, measures the rate at which that most vital of vital organs operates. It's also rather useful for telling medical professionals when to start beating on your chest like an angry ape. Fear Effect uses the machine's iconic pulsing symbol in lieu of a regular health bar, with enemy attacks serving only to increase its rapidity. Green is good, blipping along at a steady rate, whilst red and yellow represent a state of declining health.

Players can enhance their chances of survival by 'calming down' the protagonist - either by way of stealthy play or through the completion of in-game puzzles. Failure to do so will effectively cause your avatar to suffer a massive and fatal heart attack. We're not exactly sure where science stands on the whole 'death by fright' debate, but it's a fair bet that the game's lithe leading lady hasn't been wolfing down any deep fried mars bars lately, so it can't be her cholesterol to blame…

If only every individual came complete with a sanity meter. It'd certainly make relationships a whole hell of a lot simpler. Knowing your ditzy misfits from your grade-A nutters is an evermore-essential skill. With access to the heady world of online dating, the average person's exposure to amorous lunatics has increased exponentially. This sort of thing should be a default widget on everyone's profile.

Video game sanity meters have been around for quite a while now, though few are held in such high regard as that which appears in Silicon Knight's Eternal Darkness. The concept proved to be so darn popular in fact that Ninty even opted to copyright it, presumably so that they could accurately gauge lost Metroid fans' continuing levels of despair. Unlike many of the entries on this list, ED's meter isn’t an outright replacement for the health gauge, though failure to top up your 'mental mana' will cause all sorts of freaky disturbances to appear, eventually leading to your death. Contributing factors include being spotted by an enemy, or witnessing a terrifying event. Thank God nobody asked the protagonists to play Too Human then…

If there's one fatal flaw in the whole 'average everyday hero' trope then it's this: real people tend to be absolutely bloody awful at handling pressure. Heroes undergo great pains to achieve their ends, overcoming fear itself in the name of goodness, truth and the philanthropic spirit. Real people smash up their keyboards and scream highly specific grievances at their pets. See the difference? A hero's courage isn't for everyone. Some folks have it, most don’t. Where the likes of Nathan Drake can happily laugh off a good dozen-or-so near-death experiences (seriously, did he piss off Death from the Final Destination franchise?) most of us would sooner be reduced to an amorphous wailing wreck.

So it's rather refreshing to find a game in which our avatars actually do the same. Capcom's Clock Tower 3 even includes a 'panic meter', which fills up any time that the lead character of Alyssa encounters one of the game's many monsters. Unlike the aforementioned sanity meter however, this mechanic can actually cause lil' Ally to become damn near-uncontrollable, as she sobs, stops, trips and outright refuses to listen to reason i.e. 'use your health potions' or 'hide over here'. Sounds about right to me.

Lawyers, as a rule, tend not to lack for self-confidence, though honesty is another matter entirely. (*He says, before being sued for 18 quintillion dollars*). It's interesting to note then, that the Ace Attorney franchise isn't so much concerned with the protagonist's self-assurance as it is with the confidence he can inspire in others - namely both judge and jury. Likewise, prosecutor par excellence Miles Edgeworth requires the absolute truth in order to claim victory. Talk about Opposite Land... Still, these concepts remain vital to the series' success, forcing players to really do their homework in order to succeed, as opposed to when playing more, shall we say, 'accusation-happy investigators'. Alright we're talking about you Cole Phelps. You'd never have worked it out on your own.

Also known as the 'penalty meter', these gauges reflect how far the player is from earning him or herself an instant failure. Rather than 'dying' outright, the presiding judge will instead order the player to simply shut up, thereby preventing any additional evidence from being exposed. Lack of facts means a lost case, no matter how well things were progressing up to that point. Penalties can be incurred in a number of ways, though most relate to proper lawyering faux-pas - i.e. presenting irrelevant information, causing numerous interruptions or generally wasting everyone's time.

How ironic that a game as maddeningly frustrating as Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde's NES 'adaptation' should include its very own 'anger meter'. Perhaps they ought to have stuck one on the front cover, next to a shot of that man's head exploding in Scanners. 'Anger level: Dome Blaster'. As it stands, the game's actual anger meter measures how many hits Dr. J - no, the other one - can endure before morphing into his alter ego. Once changed, Hyde can only revert to his human form by defeating scores of enemies, lessening his anger with every successful kill.

The aim here is to help either persona to reach the church. Jekyll is on his way to get married, while Hyde appears to be terested in battling floating demon heads. J sidles to the right, overcoming the usual assortment of church-goers' woes - namely attack dogs and laxative-gulping birds, while H shuffles his way to the left, fighting off all manner of hell spawn in the process. While the game does boast an additional health bar, most folks aren't really likely to notice, so busy will they be slamming their skulls into the TV in vexation.

A solitary 'health bar' shared between as many as four cack-handed friends? What could possibly go wrong? Rock Band's crowd meter is all about giving the people exactly what they want - good music, played in time, with a minimum of drug-induced tirades, prissy refusals to play or other such rockstar-related nonsense. Failure to keep the tunes coming results in your immediate death.

No wait… you're just made to start all over again, like the world's crappiest cover band freaking out at a high school talent show. Potential hits to the meter include everything from missing big notes to the police happening upon that one dead groupie at the back of your tour bus. No, not really. You'll have to wait for Rock Band 4 for that...

Ah the morality meter. What better way to adjudge ethical integrity than to plot the entirety of human experience along a single, simplistic gradient? "Have you been a good boy this month Mr. Manson? Well then I guess we can let those nine most recent murders slide. After all, you are a level 87 paragon". I hope that no one's actually taking their cues from these sorts of things, paying off the occasional genocide by helping a couple of ducks to cross the road.

So, what exactly is a morality meter doing on this list anyway? Surely those things are so far removed from the typical health bar as to warrant their own article? Well yes, for the most part. While it's true that ethical flubs seldom result in an outright failure, some games do choose to punish players long before the alternate endings roll in. Take the Adventures of Robin Hood for example, an MS-DOS game that for some strange reason allows players to turn a man a legendarily benevolent man - so altruistic he's practically an adjective for charity - into a right old greedy bastard. Accordingly, the townspeople could also play against type, by stringing up this bizarro Robin of Loxley by his neck. You didn't see that in the Kevin Costner film.

Despite being named as a 'Sanity Meter', Fahrenheit's unique take on the concept is really more akin to a 'stress gauge'. If the likes of Amnesia and Eternal Darkness can be considered 'straight horror', then this cult hit is more of a twisting and atmospheric thriller. Everything from guilt, to grief, to outright physical revulsion can cause the game's main players to lose stability, edging them ever closer to complete mental collapse. In short, where sanity meters are perfect for measuring shocks, scares and unbearable tension, a stress gauge instead assesses the slow decline of an everyday office worker. That is to say: everything up to and including their big, monitor throwing rage quit.

Interestingly, or should I say rather morbidly, the game doesn't shy away from displaying the results of these overloaded stress meters. Depending on the protagonist being played, as well as his or her current situation these outcomes can include suicide, arrest, job loss and even committal to a mental asylum. Ouch.

Oh, Twin Peaks – you keep breaking our hearts.

We were devastated when the show was cancelled back in 1991, so the news that David Lynch and Mark Frost were working on a new season of the surreal murder mystery was one of the delights of 2014. Alas . Whether that will hold remains to be seen – Showtime are keen to tempt him back – but right now we're very, very sad.

Still, it's known that the scripts (all penned by Frost and Lynch) exist and it seems likely that a third run will happen, with or without the Man With The Hair From Another Place. And if it does, there are some questions that we'd like answered... Spoilers for the show and Fire Walk With Me from here on in.

This is our main concern. The TV series ended on the mother of all cliffhangers, with plucky FBI agent Dale Cooper trapped in the Black Lodge and his doppelgänger – actually the demonic Killer BOB – running loose in the real world.

Now, Fire Walk With Me obliquely suggests a way that Cooper might be released (“My name is Annie. I've been with Laura and Dale. The good Dale is in the Lodge, and he can't leave. Write it in your diary.”) and you can bet that Harry would cotton on that something was wrong with his BFF, but it's all very vague. We need to know that our very special agent escaped somehow. And we want to know what BOB's been up to while wearing his face...

Related to that last point, we can assume that Killer BOB will be back in some shape or form. He's the show's primary nemesis – a force of evil who moves from host to host. So while it's sad that we won't see former set dresser Frank Silva again (he passed away in 1995), the character can still appear by wearing the face of one of the people he has possessed. The question is, which one?

Coop is obviously a possibility, though we hope they don't go down that route for too long. It's perhaps more likely that we'll see BOB in the form of Leland Palmer. As the person who murdered Laura, it would make sense. Plus, we know that Ray Wise is likely involved in the new series, and also that he's very good at playing bad.

A bomb went off in “Beyond Life And Death”, apparently killing Andrew Packard, Pete Martell and Audrey Horne. But did any of them make it out alive?

Jack Nance (Pete) and Dan O' Herlihy (Andrew) have both passed away, so that kinda rules out their return. But Audrey presumably survived – she was one of the show's most popular characters, after all. She has to come back.

The same goes for her dad, Ben (played by Richard Beymer). Last time we saw him, his head had been split open by Doc Hayward. It'd be a damn shame if that was the end of Twin Peak's most venal businessman.

But that raises another question. Assuming that Ben did live, which version will we see in season three? The selfish manipulator, or the carrot-munching environmentalist he later became.

Twin Peaks without Laura Palmer is inconceivable – just look at how the show floundered after her killer had been revealed in season two. The character is the key to the entire series: an apparent innocent with some dark secrets. Tellingly, when Lynch returned to this world with Fire Walk With Me, he made sure the film was all about her.

Sheryl Lee has indicated an interest in returning to the role, but the question is how? Not only is Laura dead, but so is her identical cousin Maddy. Now the obvious answer is that we'll probably see her in the Red Room again, which makes sense. Perhaps she's been keeping Coop company all this time. That said, the fact that her spirit will have aged probably needs to be addressed...

This is one of the most hotly debated areas in Peaks lore, and one of the most intriguing loose ends.

In Fire Walk With Me, Laura obtains a ring bearing the mark of the Owl Cave, which has some connection to the Lodge Spirits. The ring passes from Teresa Banks (dead) to Laura (dead) and then to Annie (still alive – just). In The Missing Pieces (the deleted scenes from Fire Walk With Me) we see that it was taken from her by a nurse. So what happened to the ring, and what was its purpose? Who made it? Does it protect its wearer from possession by BOB, or make them more of a target? Hopefully we'll find out more about this next year...

It seems unlikely that we'll see ever rock's greatest chameleon reprise his role as FBI agent Phillip Jeffries. But then again, stranger things have happened – not least the likely return of Twin Peaks

Whatever, his brief scenes in Fire Walk With Me are tantalisingly weird, adding time travel to Peaks' already stacked roster of strange occurrences. It was intended that Jeffries would be a central part of future films or episodes, but the commercial failure of Fire Walk With Me scuppered that. Perhaps now he can be and we'll finally find out more about Judy...

Assuming that both Coop and Audrey are in the show, and not possessed by an evil spirit or, y'know, dead, then will we see them rekindle (or even just kindle) their budding relationship? It was called to a halt in the TV series because Kyle MacLachlan felt it would have been inappropriate for an FBI agent like Coop to start dating a high schooler. A fair point, though Sherilyn Fenn disagreed with the decision back in 1992, saying “I think Kyle blew it, because Dale and Audrey were so great together”.

Well, that wouldn't be a problem any more. Perhaps it's time for the two to give things a shot. That said, things were going pretty well with Annie (Heather Graham) before the last couple of episodes, so maybe he's all settled down with her. Assuming, of course, she survived and that BOB hasn't murdered her in the intervening years.

Twin Peaks is full of strange subplots and odd ideas that were probably never intended for the sort of deep analysis they've received over the last 25 years. Aside from all the big plot stuff, here are a few more of the things we'd like answers to:

How's Annie? Will Donna Hayward be played by Lara Flynn Boyle or Moira Kelly? Did Lucy and Andy ever sort their tangled love-life out, or is Dick Tremayne still being a nuisance? Was Josie ever released from the door knob? Is Chester Desmond still in the Lodge? Is Invitation To Love still on the air? Who, exactly, put the fish in the percolator? Did Little Nicky grow up to be the Antichrist? What has the Pine Weasel been up to for the last two-and-a-half decades?

Few things are as likely to annihilate your sense of immersion as a big cheesy accent showing up somewhere it isn't welcome. A shrill Californian squawk might serve in the GTA series, but in the grubby, Game of Thrones-alike fantasy genre - not so much... Immersion is a precious thing, difficult to build, yet all too easy to tear down. Thankfully, video games as a medium appear to be getting better and better at this sort of delicate world-building, creating believable, atmospheric environments brimming with vibrant characters and rich traditions.

One sure-fire method of raising any game's level of immersion is to create its very own language. Some are simple, swapping out a letter here or adding an alien slur there, while others boast fully functioning fictional dictionaries. This list takes a good long look at 12 of these fantastical tongues, from the silly to the downright strange. Enjoy.

Boasting more colourful language than an irate sailor, The Legend of Zelda series represents a veritable linguist's playground. That's because the franchise plays host to a good half-dozen different tongues, each of which pertains to a distinct era or species. Hylian represents the dominant lingo, having transitioned from a simple 'logographic' alphabet - wherein a symbol (or 'logo') stands for each word - into several further forms. The series' time-twisting hijinks make any concrete analysis of their relationship difficult, with subsequent entries only serving to deepen the confusion.

For example, both Ocarina and Majora's Mask employ what is known as the 'Old Hylian' lingo, while Wind Waker advances the timeline to include a more 'contemporary' take i.e. 'Modern Hylian'. It's said that native speakers of one cannot understand the other, though both are loosely based around the same real life alphabet - that being the Japanese 'katakana' or 'kana', a 'syllabic' form in which individual characters represent syllables, rather than letters, e.g. 'pa' rather than 'p' and 'a'. So far, so strange, though not nearly as odd as the decision to switch to a Latin basis for Twilight Princess, a game in which Hylian reads more like a fancy English font. Oh, and the characters who actually speak Hylian? None of their witterings can actually be translated. They may very well be speaking gibberish. Confusing, isn’t it?

Ever wanted to know your name in Hylian? Maybe you fancy writing a few foul-mouthed codes to your friends? Check out .

Dovahzul or 'Dragon-speak' is the unofficial name given to the language of the Dragons, comprising a 34-character alphabet, including both syllables and individual letters. As the foremost speakers of the tongue (select humanoids can also utter it), Dragons developed their alphabet through a series of runic markings, scratched directly into the rock with their claws. As such, most 'letters' appear to include some combination of scrapes and dots, the latter of which are formed by the thumb or 'dewclaw' of each beast.

In addition, certain combinations of these words are known to elicit powerful magical effects named 'shouts' or 'thu'ums',and are essentially the Dovahzul equivalent of a verbalized spell. Interestingly, Dovah lacks any proper punctuation, though being able to scream peeps off the side of a mountain is likely punctuation enough. If you'd like to know how to 'Thu'um, shake, shake, shake the room' or are simply planning on spicing up your next baby's birth certificate, check out this exhaustive beginner's guide, .

It seems as though Simlish has been around for an absolute age - so much so that you'd expect a good number of people to be speaking it for realsies, ala Klingon or Game of Thrones' Dothraki. Sadly for fans of fictional - and therefore largely useless - lexicons Simlish has never been properly transcribed. That's because it's essentially gibberish, made up on the fly by its suite of voice actors and with a minimum of input from the folks back at Maxis. Despite not operating on any kind of internal logic, certain phrases have been retained over time, though they're largely given meaning through context - i.e. an avatar's current predicament and/or frantic gesturing - rather than some legitimate basis in linguistics.

Interestingly, Simlish was originally going to involve Native American elements, though the studio eventually abandoned that plan in order to shoot for a greater sense of depth - after all, the game could only handle so many words - while constant repetition and simple translations might have ruined that aura. Yet despite its status as a nonsense tongue, fans of the series remain singularly committed to piecing together a working alphabet, using throwaway letters scattered throughout the series as reference. Sadly, all their efforts eventually came to naught when The Sims 4 introduced a whole new alphabet, one that remains riddled with inconsistencies. Curse you, language!

Compared to many of the entries on this list, not much is really known about Panzerese as a language. As the brainchild of one Yukio Futatsugi, project developer and ardent linguist, it contains trace elements of everything from Russian to classical Greek and even Latin, though oddly enough no apparent German (Panzer itself comes from the German word for 'armoured cart' or 'tank', while the game's sequel bares the German number 'Zwei').

For all of the series' popularity, it remains unclear whether Futatsugi developed an entire alphabet for his language, though given the man's fondness for Wings of Honneamise - an anime movie that utilises its own fictional lingo - some sort of basic consistency, perhaps in the form of scrapbook dictionary, is likely.

When developing a fresh new language to appear in your video game - particularly one that you intend to implement sans-subtitles - then it's important to remember to keep things simple. Maybe not captain of the football team simple, but simple nonetheless. Perhaps the fastest path to achieving this end is to employ what’s known as a 'substitution cipher' - a simple 'swap this for this' deal, usually with all of the vowels and consonants kept together, otherwise it all starts to sound like Klingons at an orgy.

Final Fantasy X's Al Bhed dialect is one of the better-known examples of this technique cropping up in gaming, with player character Tidus effectively learning the lingo as the game goes on. The odd thing about Al Bhed as a language - y'know aside from all of native speakers looking like Prodigy members - is that it's letters looks like an overly stylized Latin alphabet, which would be fine and all, if not for the fact that it's a substitution cipher. A ought to look like Y, L like an M etc. Fancy making a head start on this year's tax return, but don't want to give those mean-eyed bean counters an easy ride? Why not write it in Al Bhed?! Go ahead!

...

Where the gibberish of the Sims serves to add a spark of personality to an otherwise vacant cast of characters, the unnamed language of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons has to achieve a much larger feat. That is, to communicate a wide spectrum of emotions, from the highest highs to the lowest lows. And no, drowning one of your ungrateful Sims doesn't count.

The titular siblings embark on quite the adventure, one in which neither English nor relative silence would suffice. The eventual compromise is a gibberish text, inspired by game director Josef Fares' Lebanese heritage, so while the words themselves may be nonsensical, much of the pronunciation is rooted in authentic linguistic roots.

Developed by the awesomely named Wolf Wikeley - a linguistics expert based in Alberta, Canada, just a stone's throw away from BioWare HQ) - Tho Fan represents the language of choice for much of Jade Empire's powerful aristocracy. Originally envisaged as a mere servant's tongue, Wikeley's words were later repurposed, their courteous and deferential tone now standing for the effete mannerisms of the ruling class. Though designed to sound distinctly Far-Eastern - certain pronunciations reflect both Chinese and Japanese speech - Tho Fan remains largely separate from these real world tongues, establishing its unusual cadence through the atypical use of tenses.

Boasting an extensive 2,500 word vocabulary, Tho Fan represents one of the more fleshed out examples on this list, with Wikeley's good work later rewarded with the opportunity to design four more languages in Dragon Age: Origins. Sadly, it appears that no Tho Fan alphabet or translation guide has ever been released.

Technically speaking, Nier's Ancient Language doesn't really deserve a place on this list. That's because it's been borrowed (largely), from a little known language created way back in the 16th Century. Known as the 'Celestial' or 'Angelic' alphabet, this unusual lexis was put together by one Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. It's intended use: to communicate with the angels. Yes, that's right, angels. I guess old Heinrich really needed to get 'a grippa'… right… guys?

A mishmash of Hebrew and Greek influences, Celestial text appears throughout the world of Nier, oftentimes in conjunction with the use of magic. However, the tongue is never actually spoken, or at least not as it 'ought' to be. The game's soundtrack, for example, includes many alien languages, though none with any discernible linguistic logic. Simply speaking, they're all babble, put together at the request of the game's developer by vocalist Rebecca Evans. Here, .

Fancy formulating a few Nintendo-approved slurs? Maybe your current will and testament is a little too easy to alter? Whatever the case, be sure to check out this .

Pronounced 'dunny', this complex language belongs to a people of the same name, a race of powerful wordsmiths able to imagine new lands into being. They represent a distant cousin of humanity, and are capable of living upwards of 300 years each. Their language appears everywhere throughout the world of Myst, forming the foundation of many of the game's puzzles. The D'ni alphabet is composed of 35 phonetic sounds, each of which is represented by a unique fictional letter and box-shaped numeral.

Need to know your name in D'ni? Too bad it's a prickly little language, but you can still translate the odd word or two thanks to .

Designed by Team Ico member Kei Kuwabara, Yorda's language utilises 26 runic symbols, each with a corresponding letter in the Western Latin alphabet. Each symbol takes the form of a simplistic doodle, representing a creature, feature or action that starts with the same letter in English. For example, the symbol for 'A' bears the picture of an ant, while 'H' displays a stick figure in hiding. In the case of the letter 'I', the rule is bent in a phonetic direction, including as it does the picture of an eye.

Translating Yorda's tongue requires the player to marry each symbol to the corresponding English letter, before flipping that around to translate again into Japanese Romaji (a simpler, Latinized version of the Japanese alphabet). Simple, right?

Though the Covenant faction is made up of several different species, the Sangheilis' status as its warrior elite - mankind's word for the genus - has ensured that their language achieved dominant status. Those races that display difficulty in speaking the tongue are fitted with personal translation devices. The language appears to place proper nouns - representing the subject of a pronouncement - at the start of each sentence, so "How's it hanging Chief?" becomes "Chief, how's it hanging?" and so on. The Sangheili appear equally capable of transcribing their tongue in both Forerunner text and the more angular, Covenant scripts.

You remember the bits at the end of Police Squad where everyone would freeze frame except for one guy? That's exactly what the passenger in the back there must feel like in the HD port of Crazy Taxi. With all the conversion staff's names making the credits roll way longer, the old 'beckoning to the camera' shot stays on the screen way too long. A passenger hops in, then starts tapping Gina on the shoulder asking why they're not going anywhere. Eventually, she drives off. Into a wall.

Clearly, we were never supposed to see that bit. The original credits sequence was a finite length, so all the 'strings' were hidden behind the scenes. But it got me wondering: What else can we all see in games that we were never supposed to? This is my pick of the forbidden fruit...

Note: A previous version of this feature was posted in April, 2014 but has since been updated.

The developers of Skyrim made a secret room full of awesome. Sadly for console gamers, this room is only accessible in the PC version of the game. And that is a pity because it's got everything in it. All the weapons and enchanted versions of them. And all the armour too. In fact, one box in the room contains so many items, you need a massively high-spec PC just to open it. The list alone will crash lesser machines. That's some serious loot.

How to get it: You need to open up the 'console' prompt by pressing ~. Type in "coc qasmoke" (without the quote marks) and you're in! You're now stuck there forever unless you also use the console to teleport to a different location because there's no exit door. So type "coc rivertown", for example, and you'll arrive at Rivertown, over-encumbered with all your new loot. Yes I appreciate that was Oblivion's wording. I used to be an adventurer too, you know. Before I took... (*gunshot*)

Restricted-area demos of unfinished games are always goldmines for anyone seeking extra tidbits of information that hasn't officially been revealed. There was a trick in the original Saints Row demo that allowed you to use a car to get past the demo's boundary… and you know what? The Final Fantasy XV demo suffers from the exact same problem!

How to get it: Simply jump into the path of a car as it drives through the demo's perimeter barrier. Do it correctly, and you can get out of the intended area and into the (unfinished and incomplete) world beyond. And there, you'll be able to get up close to the dinosaurs you could previously only see in the distance, and even find a massive titan (pictured), among other things you weren't supposed to see just yet.

Apparently, there are several pies hidden throughout Dragon Age: Inquisition. Whether you're supposed to find them or not is debatable. The developers responsible have said they didn't expect anyone to find them quite so soon. Graham Kelly, environment artist at BioWare Edmonton, said on YouTube: "It is.... The Lord of the Pies. I may or may not have hidden some of his smaller flock around the rest of Skyhold."

How to get there: Sometimes the scenery doesn't load correctly in Skyhold, allowing you to step through a door and fall through the stonework, where you end up in a glitchy area underneath the castle. There, you can see the Lord of the Pies, biggest of all the hidden pies in the game. Yes, really. Look, it's wearing a top hat. It vanishes when you get too close. It's got its own music, too, which does suggest you're meant to find it… but there's no way to get there 'officially'. It isn't meant to be seen... although I think the team hoped it would be.

There are loads of extra areas dotted around Destiny. They're not supposed to be accessible, but if you know where to go and what to do, you can glitch through walls and into new areas. Many are simply empty, full of half-finished scenery. But some areas are actually functional. There are enemies, collectibles (dead ghosts you can actually revive) and even never-before-seen foes like this Ultra Captain.

How to get it: While it's a glitchy process, you can follow videos like if you want to get there for yourself, but keep in mind that tricking your way into non-official content runs the (small) risk of Bungie thinking you're a hacker and blocking your account. It's entirely likely this is actually content that was held back for release as part of a future DLC package, so you'll surely be able to play it 'properly' soon. Still, look at that Ultra Captain. Oooo.

This is brilliant. Gothic 2, like pretty much every RPG, gives the impression of a greater world beyond the boundaries of the game through its lore and conversational references. But then, should you manage to somehow get outside of the wall that surrounds the playable area, it's all revealed as being a sham by this single notice. By a 'mighty alien dwarf', which likely refers to a development team member of relatively minor physical stature.

How to get there: Follow the long river down from the old ruins and the stone dragon until it ends at a wall. This wall can be climbed (with practice and regular saving). Once you're over, there's not much to see or do, although there is a cave full of ostensibly dead NPCs. They're actually living NPCs who have travelled from the Valley of Mines to the Khorinis. During the transition, the game's programming 'kills' the first instance and sends it to the cave, before creating a new instance of the NPC that continues to live. You can loot the old versions' corpses. Waste not, want not.

A secret, looped version of the totally normal water level 2-2 is not very exciting. UNTIL you give it a name like 'World -1', which gives it such amazing mystique, it will go down in legend as one of the greatest secrets ever seen in a video game. Maybe that works for everything? Maybe I should call myself 'Minus Justin Towell'... There, my charisma and legendary stats have just skyrocketed. Incredible.

How to get it: Jump backwards through the wall (yes, it is possible) at the end of World 1-2 and enter the first pipe. Having circumvented the regular Warp Zone message, you are sent to the wrong level. Minus World, baby!

This strange area is full of what looks like a playschool's recreational apparatus. Coloured blocks with numbers on them, walls at various angles... it's all just part of the developers' creation process, allowing them to test out new moves for Sonic and set his jump height and acceleration instead of loading a whole level every time. Trouble is, they didn't take it out.

How to get it: There is a convoluted method of jumps too complex to list here, but the simplest way is to play the PS3/360 HD port and pick up a Chao Garden Key while playing as Eggman in his final stage. At the end of the level, you'll find yourself here. Simple!

Sonic isn't the only platform character to have a test level left in his game. Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine both have them too. This one is the second of two in the DS version of Mario 64, allowing you to test out your jumping, character hats and everything else. But all it does is make me realise how flaky DS' polygonal 3D is. Crikey, that's primitive. Hooray for 3DS, eh?

How to get it: On the PAL version, use an Action Replay to input this code, then hold Select while you load an existing save file:
94000130 fffb0000
02097360 00000000
d2000000 00000000

Pre-release versions and developer/journalist hearsay suggested there was another multiplayer level hidden away in Goldeneye on N64. It was then totally denied by Rare, but that didn't stop people trying to find it. Eventually, they did--and it only took six years! Well done, all concerned. But Oddjob is still banned. Shame the level is barely textured, hardly playable and essentially broken. See and hear it in 'action' .

How to get it: You'll need an Action Replay cartridge and the following code:
8005883E FFFF 8005883F FFFF 80058840 FFFF 800588A5 FFFF
800588A7 FFFF 800588AA FFFF 800588AC FFFF 800588AF FFFF
800588B1 FFFF 800588B4 FFFF 800588B6 FFFF 800588B9 FFFF
800588BB FFFF

Before you get all excited, this has long-since been patched out of GTA Online. But, for a time, gamers could revisit the snowy landscape of North Yankton in online multiplayer simply by tricking the game into keeping the area loaded from the prologue mission. It appeared in the sky in the south-east corner of the map, but was totally accessible with a helicopter.

How to get it: As I say, you can't get to it any more. Meh. But explains the sequence of trickery that was required, which is still well worth a look. If only to see (ahem) the world's biggest beaver.

A city filled with the wrong graphics, the wrong collision detection, glitchy (surprise) visual stability and floor that often isn't the floor, actually acting like water instead. Obviously it's completely broken and was never intended to be a place you could visit during normal play. But you can!

How to get it: The trick is to get out of the Safari zone while its step limiter is working. Get into the Safari zone, try to leave but then say you want to stay. Then save your game, reload it, exit the zone, tell the guy at the desk you don't want to play, then head to Cinnabar Island (or some others) and surf until your steps are up. Boom! Glitch City.

Maybe at this point, we should be more surprised to see 3D games that don't have a test room ostensibly hidden away yet easily activated with an Action Replay/Gameshark. But still, it's amazing to see familiar Kiddy Link running around colourful boxes like a kid who's gone on holiday but wants to spend the entire time climbing around in the play area. "Come on, Link, we're going to the beach! You love the beach! Oh fine, stay here then, ya little sod..."

How to get it: Fart on a donkey, whistle Saria's Song while staring into the center of a waning moon and then hold Z while the game loads. Nah, I'm just kidding. Get an Action Replay and input the code ZY1N-AGX5-MMCY0 94HP-XPKH-WQXF7 3Z3C-ZZVX-C21YN 1X90-8QQU-REZG3. Though that is just one test level. There are loads more .

OK, so it doesn't have any textures aside from the racers and it may be whiter than a polar bear who hasn't seen the sun all winter, but that is the Mario Circuit from Double Dash on Gamecube. It's just one of several unfinished tracks hidden away in Mario Kart DS' code. But you can actually drive on it, which is pretty awesome.

How to get it: You guessed it! Action Replay time. Use the code 023cdcd8 00000002 020484a0 d0002a00 020484a4 e0052321 and there it is.

I just *had* to end the article with this one, even though we've had an entry from Mario Kart already. There is no way anyone anywhere would see this by chance. Those numbers and letters up there are used as memory filler (all memory needs to hold data of some sort), but if you squint a bit, you can see that they act as ASCII art and show the Super Mario Bros sprite version of Mario.

How to get it: Um... you just have to look at the picture above. I'm not sure you needed this section on this slide, to be honest. But you're very welcome all the same.

Yeah, that weird white-eyed child is a deleted boss from Mother 3. The developers removed it probably because it shouldn't be viewed by anybody, ever. Having trouble sleeping? Looking at that thing will not help. Having trouble staying awake? Problem solved! Ye gads...

And if you're looking for more, check out .