Updated with the free games available in August

If you have PlayStation Plus, you automatically get free games for your Sony consoles. Two are made available to download on the first Tuesday of every month for each Sony system. If you haven't been taking advantage of the opportunity to build up your PSN games library at no additional cost, now's a great time to start.

It can be tough to keep up with all of the gratis on the new hardware and the free PSN games inbound for last-gen's PS3 and Vita. That's why we've put together this list (which we'll continually update) with the Instant Game Collection titles coming each month, and those titles from previous months you've sadly already missed (so don't expect them to join the free rotation again anytime soon). Take a look at this month's free PlayStation games, starting with...

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (PS4): Old-school Lara returns to top-down action puzzling in this follow-up to Guardian of Light. This time she can partner with up to three other players, taking on the roles of a fellow treasure hunter and two ancient Egyptian deities made flesh. Together they clear dungeon rooms and solve puzzles, naturally.

Limbo (PS4): It's dark, you're alone, and there's a really frickin' huge spider after you. Limbo starts off grim and stays that way, but its moody world full of tricky platforming and physics puzzles will make you want to see it through to the end.

God of War: Ascension (PS3): We all know Kratos' quest for vengeance began when Ares tricked him into killing his wife and daughter, but that was ten years before the original God of War. Ascension follows Kratos immediately after his revolt from Ares, tracking down the Furies that imprisoned him before he can start his quest in earnest. It also has a pretty unique competitive multiplayer mode.

CastleStorm (PS3, PS Vita): Build a castle for your Viking or knight army, then send out legions of troops as you try to knock down your rival's. You'll have to divide your attention between managing troops and sending projectiles sailing into enemy fortifications if you want to be crowned the victor of this two-dimensional skirmish.

Sound Shapes (PS Vita, PS4, PS3): Sound Shapes' levels all move to the beat, so if you want to make your way to the end of Beck's "Cities," you'll have to feel the rhythm. Not to mention you can make your own throbbing platformer levels with the level editor, which works particular well with the Vita touchscreen.

Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones (PS Vita, PS4, PS3): Use a bounty of new equipment to keep your little goggles-wearing clone alive as he explores the great big facility where he was manufactured. And this probably goes without saying, but don't get caught - it won't end well.

Rocket League (PS4): Picture soccer/football, but instead of a bunch of guys in shorts chasing a ball, they're all customizable futuristic automobiles. And instead of rules about going "offsides" and "not ramming full speed into your opponent and blowing them up" the pitch is sprinkled with regenerating turbo fuel. And the cars can drive on walls and do backflips. Add up to four-player local and eight-player online multiplayer and you're starting to get the idea of Rocket League.

Styx: Master of Shadows (PS4): Play as a grizzled goblin assassin as you scale the Tower of Akenash, giving elves, humans, and other freakish monsters the slip and/or a dagger in the back. Upgrade your arcane abilities to detect foes beyond sight and even create arcane clones to scout ahead or create diversions. This is the prequel to Of Orcs and Men, telling Styx's story before he meets up with Arkail, if you happened to play that one.

Rain (PS3): If you think being a little boy alone in the big city during a rain storm sounds bad, just wait until you try it while you're inexplicable invisible. You can only see your character by his outline in a downpour, adding a unique wrinkle to the soggy adventure - but at least all you have to do to hide from the monsters is stand under a canopy.

MouseCraft (PS3, PS4, PS Vita): Filled with enough cheese puns to cause minor indigestion in the lactose intolerant, MouseCraft is a Lemmings-style side-view puzzler. But instead of turning your three little mouse charges into blockers or bridge builders, you must drop a set array of tetrominoes to bridge gaps and other hazards on their way to a plate of delicious cheese. Also there's a mad scientist cat with a bad German accent.

Geometry Wars 3 (PS Vita): Geometry Wars has some of the most compelling, intoxicating gameplay ever created by human hands. So it's particularly impressive that the third title in the franchise manages to evolve the formula without squashing what made it great, adding three-dimensional, curving levels across an escalating adventure mode. If you haven't already played Geometry Wars 3 on PS3 or PS4, get started on Vita.

Entwined (PS Vita, PS3, PS4): Ah, to be a young bird and fish in love. It will take a pair of steady thumbs to guide Entwined's pair of unlikely soulmates through nine distinct lives full of rhythmic challenges, but once you make it, you'll find them united in the form of a beautiful, powerful dragon. Which sounds way cooler than exchanging rings, to be perfectly honest.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4): Big Boss (aka Snake) is back is his sneaking suit again. To tide you over until the release of (literally), but there are plenty of sneaky scavenger hunts, extra modes, and challenges to overcome in Snake's first open-world environment.

Skulls of the Shogun: Bone-A-Fide Edition (PS4): When ancient warriors die, what do they do in the afterlife? Continue their battles as their skull-faced, post-life selves, apparently. Skulls of the Shogun is a turn-based strategy game that lets you build up your own army of undead samurai warriors, complete with an engaging story of your fallen general uncovering the mystery behind his own murder.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (PS3): Call of Juarez: Gunslinger has everything you could ever want out of an FPS set in the Wild West. There are shootouts, duels, stories of revenge, and run-ins with legendary outlaws like Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, and Jesse James. The arcade-style gunplay puts an emphasis on trick shots and chained combos, making each engagement a challenging battle for your life (and a top score).

Cloudberry Kingdom (PS3): When you hear the name Cloudberry Kingdom, it probably doesn't convey the nightmarish gauntlet of death traps you'll need to navigate in order to progress in this platformer. The procedurally generated levels are jam packed with thousands of spikes, flamethrowers, lasers, and just about any other deadly object waiting to obliterate you. All you can do is hop, skip, and jump from one seemingly safe platform to the next. Good luck.

Super Exploding Zoo (PS Vita, PS4): Don't let the bizarre title deter you; Super Exploding Zoo is not a game about placing explosives in animal cages. Instead, alien monsters are invading a zoo with the intent of capturing all of the eggs and babies housed within. As a herd of angry, exploding animal defenders, you must protect the youngins by charging through the exhibits and destroying every last extraterrestrial.

Futuridium EP Deluxe (PS VIta, PS4): Futuridium is a endless runner, retro shooter, and puzzle game all crammed into one game. This high-speed, psychedelic experience that will put your twitch reflexes to the test. Destroy enemies and blast cubes to build up a massive score multiplier and rise to the top of the leaderboards all to the tune of some hypnotic techno.

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (PS4): If you ever wanted to wear a Mexican Luchador mask and lay the smack down on some bad guys using super powered wrestling moves, here's your chance. Part side-scrolling beat 'em up, and all Metroid-style adventure, Guacamelee takes you through a wondrous and beautiful world based on Mexican folklore. The game is filled with challenging enemies, quirky characters, and complex environmental puzzles that will push your platforming skills to the limit. You don't want to miss this one.

Ether One (PS4): Ether One is a fresh addition to the PlayStation Network. In it, you explore the minds of the mentally ill as you attempt to piece together the significant events of your patients' lives. You'll need to solve complex puzzles as you explore creepy environments all while trying to make sense of some pretty trippy situations.

The Unfinished Swan (PS4, PS3, PS Vita): May's other first person, exploration puzzle game comes in the form of The Unfinished Swan, in which you must overcome a variety of environmental puzzles using paint as you uncover the details of a whimsical fairytale. Discovering the world hidden in the white nothingness is an fascinating experience, making the unique artstyle and evolving world one you won't soon forget.

Race the Sun (PS4, PS3, PS Vita): In Race the Sun, nighttime is not your friend. In fact, you want to avoid the blackness of night so badly that you hop into a rocket-powered ship and chase the sun. As you can imagine, the sun never takes a break from trying to set on you, so this race goes on forever. Avoid every obstacle, collect power-ups, and enjoy the serene soundtrack as you chase that giant, burning ball of gas.

Hohokum (PS4, PS3, PS Vita): There are a lot of games out there that strive to stress you out, but Hohokum is not one of them. In it, you control a flying, snake-like...something. We're not quite sure what it is, but it's friendly and likes to explore. As you cruise around the colorful world, you'll see the environment change around you and strange creatures will hop on you're back for a free ride, letting you all just enjoy the scenery together. It's a nice change of pace.

Murasaki Baby (PS Vita): And to top things off with something a little weird, here comes Murasaki Baby - 2D puzzle platformer set in a nightmarish world with a creepy, Nightmare Before Christmas vibe. In it, you'll need to guide Baby - an innocent and frightening-looking baby with an upside-down head - through some bizarre landscapes as you try to get her back home. Although the baby may just freak you out, it's endearing to hold her hand and guide her past obstacles and enemies with the Vita touchpad.

Tower of Guns (PS4, PS3): Tower of Guns puts you in a tower and lets you shoot up bad guys with lots of guns. Who'd have thought? As you ascend the tower, you encounter a random array of enemies and blow them to smithereens with your projectile launcher of choice before facing the boss at the top. The game is designed for quick gameplay sessions, giving you a chance to scratch that twitch shooter itch, explode things, then move on with your day. What could be better?

Never Alone (PS4): Never Alone is a 2D platformer that's based on the lore of the Alaskan Native people called the Iñupiat. In it, you play as a young girl and her pet fox as they attempt to find the source of an eternal blizzard that threatens her people. The game challenges you to overcome the harsh, Arctic environments filled with vicious polar bears, unstable glaciers, and aggressive natives with only a bola weapon and the help of friendly spirits.

Dishonored (PS3): As the master assassin Corvo Attano, you must uncover and assassinate (or otherwise get rid of) the group behind the murder of Dunwall's empress. Dishonored's open levels give you complete freedom to approach your missions the way you want. Should you sneak your way past the guards using your blink ability to move through the shadows, or jump into a battle head on and brutally eviscerate your enemies with your rat summoning abilities? The choice is yours.

Aaru's Awakening (PS3, PS4): Looking for a platforming challenge that's on par with Super Meatboy's difficulty? Well, give Aaru's Awakening a shot. This beautiful 2D platformer puts you in control of Aaru - a part bear, part bird creature with the ability to air dash and teleport at will. The levels challenge you with complex puzzles that call for precision jumps and nerves of steel as you avoid the environment's deadly traps and monsters.

Killzone Mercenary (PS Vita): Killzone Mercenary has just about everything you'd expect in a console game, only this PS Vita FPS lets you take it on-the-go. The single-player campaign takes you through the events that happened between Killzone 2 and Killzone 3 as mercenary soldiers that fight on both sides of the war. Plus, if you're looking for multiplayer, Mercenary allows for 8-player multiplayer matches with 8 maps and 25 guns. Not too shabby.

Monsterbag (PS Vita): Monsterbag's innocent looking art style sure does well to hide the dark undertones if its world. A bag-shaped monster named V accidentally gets separated from its friend, Nia, and it's trying to get back to her. Unfortunately, the world V lives in isn't too fond of monsters, and any human who catches V in their sights will beat it to death out of fear. As V, you'll need to sneak through the game's puzzles, using your monster powers to distract potential aggressors and get to Nia safely. Oh, and if you don't reach your friend in time, you might trigger the apocalypse.

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - New n' Tasty (PS4): The old alien world platformer has been completely remastered with enhanced visuals, redone voice acting, and brand new cutscenes to bring Abe into the new generation. The side-scrolling platformer once again puts you in the depths of an alien meat processing facility as Abe - the company's once employee of the year.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War (PS4): There aren't many games set during the events of the first World War, but Valiant Hearts breaks new ground with the setting as well as it's emotional storytelling. You play as a variety of participants in the Great War, from a combat engineer to a chef you experience each of the character's personal wartime stories and their relationship with a dog medic named Walt that ties them all together. Adventure style puzzle solving and heartfelt storytelling await.

Papo Yo (PS3): When most game characters encounter terrifying, sharp-toothed monsters, the result is typically a shotgun to the face. Not in Papo Yo. The protagonist, Quico, and his monster must face magically charged puzzles and platforming challenges. Though the in-game environments might be whimsical and bright, there are some dark undertones to the story, resulting in some surprising and touching story telling.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments (PS3): Become the legendary gumshoe as you investigate some of the most criminal violent cases of Holmes' time. you'll need to question witnesses, search crime scenes, and use your power of intuition to see things that no ordinary detective would pick up on. There isn't much hand-holding in Crimes and Punishments. You get the clues, the crime scene, and a lineup of suspects, and you are the one who chooses to pass judgement on the suspected criminal. Be sure to do a thorough investigation. You can just as easily imprison an innocent person as the guilty party.

OlliOlli 2: Welcome to Olliwood (PS4 and PS Vita): If you mashed together an endless runner like Canabalt and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, you would end up with OlliOilli. The sidescroller challenges you to grind on rails and land long manual tricks between your next stunt to build a high score chain. What appears to be simple quickly becomes an exercise in attaining perfection in each level - which totally becomes the most addicting game, like ever.

Counterspy (PS4, PS3, and PS Vita): Inspired by the Cold War's tactical espionage action, CounterSpy puts you in the role of a secret agent working for a neutral organization against two world powers. You're objective is to prevent a nuclear incident from occurring by taking on missions to sabotage and collect intelligence from both sides. The game functions mostly as a Metroidvania-style side scroller, with some third person cover shooting forcing you to take the stealthy approach to completing your missions.

Transistor (PS4): The creators of Bastion have yet another isometric RPG to tickle your adventure bone. Red, a famous singer, gets her voice stolen and, conveniently enough, comes across a talking greatsword (who ends up doing the talking for her). With a mix of awesome magical abilities, action-oriented gameplay, and fascinating futuristic world, Transistor is a game you don't want to miss.

Apotheon (PS4): The Greek mythology-inspired sidescroller is making it's debut on the PS4 for free. You play as a Greek warrior on his quest to climb Mt. Olympus and fight enemies in a Metroidvania-esque world. The game looks to have a Zelda 2 feel to it as you use your sword and shield to block and slash at enemy soldiers and ancient mythological creatures. And then there's the unique, wall-painting art-style that makes for some fascinating environments.

Yakuza 4: If you're a lover of Japanese mobsters, beating people down with martial arts, or getting lost in a plethora of side missions, you can't go wrong with Yakuza 4. In it, you explore Tokyo's underworld. Outside of roundhouse kicking fools in the streets, there are a bunch of activities to take part in like making a "number 1" cabernet girl, developing friendships with NPCs, and training fighters in your own, personal dojo.

Thief: Garrett the master thief makes his first appearance on the new gen systems, returning to the first-person stealth elements the Thief series is famous for. Don't think that you'll be sneaking around snapping a bunch of guard's necks. Garrett is a thief, not an assassin. You're goal is to hang out in the shadows, grab the goods, and escape before anyone knows you were there.

Rogue Legacy: How can a game that's so brutally difficult be such a pleasure to play? Well, that's a rogue-like for you. That's the way it's meant to be played. Every time you die, you aren't brought back to a checkpoint. You lose your progress and get dropped all the way back to the beginning of the game. Rogue Legacy is one side-scrolling challenge that will dig its hooks into you almost immediately.

Kick Finnick: It a puzzle platformer involving a little boy, his pet robot, and a massive rifle. Yes, the kid can use his big gun to blast enemies to smithereens, but it also plays a huge part in his jumping abilities. The recoil from shooting the gun can blast Kick into the air, he gets grappling attachments, and plenty of other gadgets. With a delightful, cartoon aesthetic, incredibly challenging jump puzzles, and everything from bounce pads to teleporters to mess with, Kick Finnick has all the ingredients for an entertaining, 2D adventure.

Infamous: First Light (PS4): Fetch gets her own standalone spin-off in a campaign that bridges reluctant Seattle superheroics and her imprisonment in the Curdon Cay Conduit detention center. You don't need to own (or even have played) Infamous: Second Son to appreciate First Light, but it will give you some new perspective on the city's totalitarian overseers either way.

The Swapper (PS4/PS3/PS Vita): This mind-bending puzzle platformer explores the mechanical and philosophical implications of creating and destroying a near-endless supply of clones to navigate a seemingly abandoned space station. Make sure you take a break from the mentally taxing challenges to appreciate its awesome atmosphere and kitbashing aesthetic.

Prototype 2 (PS3): Infamous isn't the only superpowered open-world series in January's PS Plus lineup. Prototype 2 takes players back to New York for Sgt. James Heller's mutating quest to consume the original game's protagonist Alex Mercer, and he'll use a bevy of stomach-turning new powers to save/destroy Manhattan on the way there. Did I mention that includes a gaggle of gooey, gorey tendrils?

DuckTales Remastered (PS3): WayForward brings the classic pogo-jumping platformer back to life in this updated take on Scrooge McDuck's globe-trotting adventures. Modern amenities like smooth hand-drawn animation and 3D backdrops are nice, but it's the classic challenge that will keep you coming back for another dip in the money pool.

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition (PS Vita/PS3): Return to the days when Duke Nukem was a joker instead of just a punchline with this enhanced version of Duke Nukem 3D and three of its expansion packs. Or take a deeper dive into history with the original version with the classic shooter. Just try not to think about Duke Nukem Forever when you do.

Whoa Dave! (PS Vita/PS4 version coming): The developers of the Bit.Trip series return with a retro-arcade inspired… Ok, retro-arcade inspired doesn't cut it when it comes to Whoa Dave!, which is straight up an old-school arcade game minus thirty years of dust and faded cabinet art. Grab pennies, toss bombs at aliens, and go for the high score!

Injustice Gods Among Us (PS4): Ever wonder if Wonder Woman would take down the Flash in a fight? Who would be the victor of an actual battle between Batman and Superman? Well, you can answer these age-old questions by pitting your favorite superheroes and villains against one another in Injustice: Gods Among Us. It has all of the classic Mortal Kombat-style combat (minus the Fatalities) and a pretty cool story mode to boot.

Secret Panchos (PS4): Okay, Secret Panchos is a spaghetti western-themed fighting game, that you play from an isometric perspective. But instead of punching each other into submission, you have to use your quick-twitch reflexes, and character abilities in a gunfight against up to four players. Each character has distinct personalities and skills - there's the Matador that takes the battle up close, the dual pistol-wielding Kid Red, and the skull-faced Phantom Pancho.

Hitman HD Trilogy (PS3): If you haven't yet gotten into the Hitman series, here's your chance. Take on the role of Agent 47 as you find the most clever and gruesome ways to assassinate your targets. Should you lie in wait and silently eliminate your enemy, or dress in a chicken suit, equip a silenced pistol, and skip on the finesse. The HD collection includes Hitman 2, Hitman: Contracts, and Hitman: Blood Money, so you've got plenty of game to perfect your killing tactics.

Deadly Premonition: Director's Cut (PS3): You play Francis York Morgan, a federal investigator who comes to a small town to investigate the murder of a young woman. But the investigation is anything but routine. The dead rise up as husks of their former selves, Morgan periodically visits mysterious, supernatural rooms in his subconscious, he talks to a character in his head named Zach, and he gets clues by looking into a cup of coffee. Yup, this is a weird one, but if you can get past the wonky controls and funky visuals, you're in for a treat.

Final Horizon (PS Vita): If you've been looking for a tower defense game, look no further. Final Horizon is mixes RTS gameplay with tower defense as you attempt to fend off waves of insect-like space aliens from eating you colonists. Toted as a "2 minute tower defense" Final Horizon is perfect for those quick mobile gaming sessions on the Vita.

Titan Attacks! (PS4, PS3, PS Vita): Aliens are attacking earth and you're the only one crazy enough to stop them. Also, you're probably the only one with a massive tank at your disposal. Titan Attacks! is a classic, arcade-style shooter that challenges you to survive wave after wave of alien spaceships. Like the arcade games of yore, this shooter is all about the high scores, so, survive, upgrade your tank, and keep on blasting those space invaders.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (also on Vita): After making Super Meat Boy, a tribute to the great platformers of old, developer Edmund McMillen's next game added a new, creepy twist on the top down gameplay of The Legend of Zelda. The Binding of Isaac already won acclaim on the PC for its gruesome (yet cute) spin on the biblical tale of Isaac. Rebirth is the just-released redefinition of the title in 16-bit style, primed for console owners to fall in love with the sobbing adventurer.

Steamworld Dig (also on Vita): Ever dream of a title that slams together the item collection of Minecraft, the 2D exploration of Metroid, the puzzle-platforming of Mr. Driller, and the persistence of an RPG? That's Steamworld Dig, the robotic Old West title which first came to PS4 and Vita in March. Now that the cross-buy game will be free, you can finally check out this game for yourself and see if you dig it! (Sorry.)

Luftrausers (also on Vita): If you're in the need for a 2D shoot 'em up, but have less than five minutes to spare, Luftrausers will fit snugly into your tight schedule. Made by Vlambeer, the group responsible for the highly addictive Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers' German accented take on flight immediately flings your craft into the air, tasking players with the risk/reward of constantly shooting to build up score multipliers or stopping your attacks to give your craft a chance to heal. It has a real "just one more turn" property to it that will pull in many that missed this game prior.

Frozen Synapse Prime (also on Vita): First designed for smartphones, this fast paced strategy game has earned a lot of buzz on PlayStation systems. It's a turn-based tactics game, only it goes much faster because your squads and the enemy's take actions at the same time. You need careful logic and observation to win at this one, which is why each hard fought victory feels earned.

Hungry Horde: Among the many noteworthy indie titles on the handheld, this one hopes to bring a new twist to the zombie trope. The first game from the UK dev team Nosebleed Interactive, Hungry Horde has you leading an ever-expanding undead army in a quest for living flesh, and humanity's forces are hot on your zombie heels. It's a race against the clock to take over as much of the apocalyptic town as you can in each stage of the action-puzzler, a bit like Katamari, only with rotting corpses.

Escape Plan (also on PS4): This title comes from some of the same people as Fat Princess, and was an early hit on the Vita, later making its way to the PS4. The black and white puzzler has you controlling two different characters at the same time as you navigate punishing death traps. Despite the dark subject matter, Escape Plan has a grimly funny tone to keep things light. Our garnered a three out of five, which is good enough to justify getting it for free, if you ask me.

Dust: An Elysian Tail: Dust is an indie game that catches your eye with its beautiful art style, then sucks you in with its engrossing combat. The side-scroller puts you in the role of the anthropomorphic hero, Dust, who holds a sentient, talking sword called the Blade of Ahrah. As you progress through the story, you'll earn new abilities, discovering snow-capped mountains and peaceful glades to explore and leveling up into an even more efficient killing machine. It's like Metroid, except with a fox-like ninja protagonist.

Spelunky: Take the difficulty of the most challenging 2D platformers, cover every single level in all manner of deadly traps and monsters, and make the stages randomize every time you die. Sound crazy? That's Spelunky. Whether you're playing four-player co-op or alone, Spelunky will test your platforming skills. But the good news is: it's a blast to play.

DriveClub PlayStation Plus Edition: As a bonus for October, Sony is offering DriveClub's PlayStation Plus Edition. Think of it as an extended demo of the full title. There are 11 tracks to test your driving skills on and 10 cars to race. Plus, you get access to all of the game modes. Not too shabby.

Batman: Arkham Asylum: Start at the very beginning with the first entry in the can't-get-more-Batman-than-this series with Batman: Arkham Asylum. Looks like the Asylum's security staff wasn't able to contain the ingenious criminals ol' Bats has been cramming in there over the years. Only the Caped Crusader has the gumption to go in there and set them all straight. With some of the best combat, stealth, and puzzle-solving gaming has ever seen, Arkham Asylum is a must-play.

Dungeons Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara: Side-scrolling beat-em ups are some of the best old-school entertainment you can get. With the DD: Chronicles of Mystara collection (which includes Tower of Doom and Shadow of Mystara) you get all of the minion-beating action you could want.

Rainbow Moon (PS3 and PS Vita): If you're looking for a good, old-fashioned tactical RPG, you can't go wrong with Rainbow Moon. All of the classic genre tropes are here: a massive world filled with NPCs to chat with, loot to collect and equip, and enemies to battle in a turn-based, strategy combat system. With a 40-hour story campaign plus end game content, Rainbow Moon is definitely worth the price of free.

Pix the Cat (PS4 and PS Vita): Pix is a kind cat. Most felines would jump at the chance to eat a bunch of helpless duckies, but not Pix. A mix between Pacman and Snake, the game challenges you to build high scores by saving ducklings within a time limit. It's a simple concept, but it'll suck you in before you know it.

PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale (PS3, PS Vita): There's just something that's so enticing about getting a bunch of famous characters together and having them beat the crap out of each other. In PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale you can pit characters like Kratos, Nathan Drake, Sly, and Fat Princess against one another in a Smash Bros.-style free-for-all. The controls are easy enough for beginners to comprehend, but it also has plenty of depth for those who want to get a real competition going.

Hoard (PS3): In a lot of medieval game settings, you play as the hero who slays dragons, finds massive piles of treasure, and... saves a princess or something. Not so in Hoard. In this adventure, you are the dragon that's running amok across the countryside. You are the one scaring the local townspeople, burning down castles, and collecting mountains of treasure to add to your ever-expanding hoard. It's nice to, you know, roast heroes for a change.

Velocity 2X (PS4, PS Vita): Velocity 2X is a melting pot of game genres. It's like the developers said, "Let's combine the bullet hell gameplay of a top-down space shooter, toss in some puzzle solving, and hey, why not just drop in a Super Metroid side-scroller while we're at it." The sequel has all of the top-down puzzle shooting from the original title, but now you'll be able to hop out of your ship and take the fight to your enemies on foot.

Sportsfriends (PS4, PS3): If you've got a few friends over at your place and you're looking for something to do, here's an easy solution: turn on Sportsfriends. It consists of several, easy-to-play competitive minigames that are an absolute blast in a group setting. There's a pole-vault dueling game, a sports game the combines fighting, a ball, and goal zones for super intense 1v1 matches, and physical game of tag called Johann Sebastian Joust. Need more party games? Sportsfriends has you covered.

Joe Danger (PS Vita): If the old dirt bike racers from the Excite Bike series were to ever quit racing, they'd probably end up like Joe Danger. The job description is basically the same: Ride your bike down a mile-long track, hit the ramps as fast as you can, and pull off quadruple backflips before you land. Joe Danger's gameplay is reminiscient of the racing classic, but this stunt racer mixes things up with fancy ramps, dangerous traps, and tons of collectibles. If you're looking to revisit old-school racing gameplay, Joe Danger is where it's at.

TxK (PS Vita): Remember Tempest? That old, classic game in which you guide a funny U-shaped ship down some tubes and shoot a bunch of equally funnily-shaped objects? The developers behind Tempest released a new version called TxK. The game is basically Tempest in how it controls and places an emphasis on chasing high-scores, but it just looks a whole lot cooler, as the developers took the arcade classic and infused flashy neon explosions (think Geometry Wars). There's nothing like playing a classic, and with TxK the old-school gameplay is just as entertaining as it was back in the day.

Road Not Taken: In Road Not Taken, you play as a ranger who must venture into a vast, enchanted forest to rescue children who apparently thought it was a good idea to wander out into a snowstorm and get lost. The thing is: stay out in the elements to long and you freeze to death. The game challenges you to move from one screen of tile-based, procedurally generated puzzles to the next by defeating enemies and removing obstacles. Every situation you encounter is a balancing act between the energy and resources you expend and the objectives you want to achieve. If you make too many mistakes or are too indecisive the ranger will pass out in the snow and leave the little kids to their (deserved) fates.

Fez: Fez mixes 3D and 2D elements together to make mind-boggling environments for you to explore. The gameplay employs a mechanic that allows you to rotate the perspective of the camera on 3D objects, which in turn manipulates their 2D layout, creating new paths for overcoming blocked routes. The world is full of tons of secrets to find and challenges to overcome--if you haven't played Fez yet, you're really missing out.

Crysis 3: Crysis 3 takes the jungle environment of the first game, the city from the second, and smashes those two locales together to create a literal urban jungle--overgrown buildings and all. As the protagonist Prophet, it is once again up to you to save the world from the invading alien Seph using the environment to your advantage. This time, instead of trying to escape your enemies, you'll be hunting down your prey with the advanced alien technology and an arsenal of weapons at your disposal.

Proteus: This wide-open world filled with color and music is far from the typical adventure title you'll play on your PS3. Proteus is more of an experience than a game. You're dropped onto an island covered in grass, trees, and different types of wildlife. Nothing seems particularly interesting at first, until you start to interact with the world. Playing with butterflies will make them sing, chasing rabbits will kick up a beat, and the sky will put on a light show as you activate parts of the world and unlock the soundtrack of the wilderness. Woah...It just got really New Age in here. Just go check out Proteus and you'll know what I mean.

Metrico: Platformers are platformers. We've all played them before. Jump on the blocks and don't fall into the pits. That's easy enough, right? But what if a game turned those rules on their head and mixed them around a bit? Now forward makes you jump, jumping makes that platform over there move left, and moving left makes that same platform move right. Sound confusing? That's Metrico: a collection of seemingly simple platforming puzzles that each have different rules. All you have to do is move from one side of the screen to the other. Can you figure it out?

Dragon's Crown: If you like the old-school beat-em ups, Dragon's Crown is for you. It's got all of the hacking and slashing you could ever want plus a few RPG influences in the mix. You can choose your character from collection of distinct classes, each with unique abilities and looks. In fact, the visual style is most likely one of the first things that will catch your eye. The incredibly disproportionate anatomy of the heroes and heroines is a tad excessive, but hey, I can't say that the characters don't look really cool.

Towerfall Ascension: Towerfall Ascension is the ultimate test of timing and skill, and probably the most fun you're going to have playing multiplayer on the PS4. Each player controls an archer in a confined, vertical arena, and is tasked with massacring the competition with precise arrow shots or stomping them on the head Mario-style.

Strider: The classic ninja series returns with all of the sword-slashing, side-scrolling action you remember from the original games. Explore the metroidvania-style world as you slash through enemy robots, battle massive bosses, and collect new gadgets and abilities to become an unstoppable assassin.

Dead Space 3: Isaac Clarke once again returns to the horrors of deep space to chop mutated monstrosities to pieces. This time Isaac is looking to uncover the source of the Necromorph outbreak, but he won't be facing the hideous killing machines alone. Joining the adventure is John Carver, a soldier and optional drop-in drop-out partner that a second player can control with the campaign's co-op feature.

Vessel: This side-scrolling adventure is all about controlling the flow of water, lava, and other types of experimental liquid. As the inventor Arkwright, you must stop fluid machines called fluros (of course) from wreaking havoc across the world. To do that you'll have to make use of the game's liquid simulation to solve various physics and liquid-based puzzles. But you won't just be playing with harmless water as you slosh it around in your pressurized backpack--you'll use molten lava and other properties to make the various liquids melt, change forms, explode, and more.

Muramasa Rebirth: Muramasa is a fantastic adventure that makes a great addition to your game collection--just to look at the beautiful art design for the characters and environments! But there's more to it than the hand-painted visuals. You can play as two distinct characters, each with a unique storyline, and there are a ton of intimidating bosses to overcome. You hack and slash your way across feudal Japan, collecting dozens of magical swords with special abilities along the way.

Doki-Doki Universe: The world of Doki-Doki Universe might just be as odd as its title. The game takes on a hand-drawn aesthetic, with a lanky-armed robot as the protagonist and any number of wacky characters to assist in quests. The robot QT3 has the power to materialize objects out of thin air, which you can use to help characters living on the game's many planets. If you're looking for a slow-paced adventure through a quirky and sometimes bizarre world, you can't go wrong with Doki-Doki Universe.

Pixeljunk Shooter Ultimate: Venture into the depths of various hazardous environments as you attempt to rescue scientists and solve puzzles. This is accomplished through your power to manipulate water and lava, as well as blast through rocks and ice. Pixeljunk games always provide a good time, and Shooter Ultimate is no different.

Trine 2: Complete Story: Stop me if you've heard this one: A knight, a wizard, and a thief go on an epic 2D side-scrolling adventure. No? Well then you clearly don't know Trine, which drops you into a beautifully stylized fantasy world full of mind bending physics-based puzzles and dangerous enemies.

NBA 2K14: Digital Lebron has never looked more like the real life LeBron than in . Aside from the expected competitive ballin' gameplay, 2K14 also adds the new LeBron: Path to Greatness mode. This campaign lets you progress through the pro player's career, and gives you access to new signature skills that boost attributes and abilities.

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time: Want to know where Sly gets his natural sneaking skills and unique thieving abilities? Traveling back in time and meeting the stealthy raccoon's ancestors will clue you in. In , you'll help Sly and his buddies recover the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus by visiting the past and teaming up with Sly's ancien relatives.

Terraria: 2D building games come a dime a dozen these days (and other ), but few of them do the genre justice better than Terraria. You'll explore colorful environments, harvest materials by digging into the ground and chopping down trees, then build whatever the hell you want, whether that be a little hut or a massive stone...erm...obelisk?

Mutant Mudds Deluxe: Mutant Mudds have landed on Earth and their invasion is underway. The fate of humanity now lies with a geeky kid Max, who's armed with a water gun and a jetpack. The jetpack isn't just for hovering over sword-wielding Mudds--the 2D shooter also allows to you jump between the background and foreground of the environment using special launch pads.

Stick It to the Man (available now): Remember those pink sticky hands you get from gumball machines that get really dirty when they touch anything? Well, this platformer attaches one of those to your head and gives it weird mind control powers. Along with the bizarre art style and gameplay, experiencing these wacky characters is enough to warrant the hard drive space in your PS4 to give this one a shot.

Puppeteer (available now): In , you take the role of Kutaro, a lost boy that transformed into a doll, lost his head, and has been imprisoned by the Moon Bear King. The entire side-scrolling adventure is set on the backdrop of a puppeteer's stage, with an ever-transforming environment building up and breaking down as you progress through the beautifully designed levels.

Skullgirls Encore (available now): Skullgirls Encore is a 2D fighter that has similar mechanics to the Marvel vs. Capcom games, but with buxom girls beating each other to a pulp instead of superheroes. The gameplay will have you delivering extensive hyper combos, performing characters assists, and battling other players with teams of up to three female fighters.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 (available now): If you're going to play any sports game, it's probably best to start off with the most recent iteration. PES 2014 offers improved ball control, enhanced physics, and improved player collision over its predecessors, making it the most realistic PES entry to date.

Soul Sacrifice (May 6, to May 13): The third-person action RPG gives you control over a hero that can assimilate the souls of your defeated enemies. You to decide whether to become more powerful in one attribute of your character at the detriment of another. But other than how you level, your decisions can also affect which of your party members lives or dies, so choose wisely.

Surge Deluxe (available now): One of the best genres for on-the-go gaming is the match-three puzzle, and this one's up there with the best of 'em. While most of these puzzle games will have you rotating colored blocks or columns, Surge Deluxe has you connect the colors with a current of electricity using the Vita's touch screen.

Limbo (available now): With giant spiders, pitch black environments, and instant death waiting for you at every step, Limbo's dark world is any child's worst nightmare. You guide a little boy through dangerous levels full of spiky traps and monsters that will impale, squash, and decapitate him with every misstep.

Mercenary Kings (available now): This is a throwback to the days of old-school, side-scrolling shooters, but with the modern trappings of progressive, RPG-esque leveling. Mercenary Kings is a heavily pixelated retro platformer that has you battling intense bosses, earning new equipment, and even crafting your own customizable guns. It's basically everything you could want in a modern Metal Slug-style shooter.

Batman: Arkham City (April 1 to May 6): The ever made available for free on PSN? Not anymore. But even if you missed the chance to get the game for free, it's totally worth throwing down the bills to face Batman's greatest adversaries in an open-world full of goons to pummel and comic book references to gawk at.

Stealth Inc: Clone in the Dark (available now): Platforming, stealth, and puzzles: if these gameplay elements are right up your alley, you definitely want to give Stealth Inc. a shot. A single mistake can mean instant death, but even if it takes you dozens of tries to dodge all of the lasers and killer robots in a test chamber, success is always rewarding.

Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse (available now): If you missed out on the original 16-bit Castle of Illusion in the old days, here's your chance to play through the classic in all new, spiffed up visuals. Turns out, Mickey's quite the capable 2D platformer star.

Velocity Ultra (April 29 to May 27): Top-down shooters are a rarity these days; even rarer is a top-down shooter with slight puzzle elements built into it. Velocity Ultra isn't just the typical bullet hell shooter--you'll have to manage abilities that let you teleport through walls, and fling barrier-shattering bombs in an effort to rescue survivors spread across the levels.

PixelJunk Monsters: Ultimate HD (available now): Tower defense games are some of the you could possibly play. You'll build towers and fend off wave after wave of enemies like any other tower defense games, but once you get hooked, be warned. Time will fly.

Stealth Inc: A Clone in the Dark (available now): All of the stealth action and puzzle solving involved in getting your clone through the Stealth Inc. test chamber levels is also available on the portable PS Vita. And if you happen to have both a PS3 and a Vita you can cross play between the two versions of the game. Not a bad deal.

Dead Nation: Apocalypse Edition (March 4 to April 1): Take on zombie hordes with an arsenal of insane weapons, including machine guns, flamethrowers, and rifles that shoot bolts of lightning. The twin-stick shooter's Apocalypse Edition has enhanced visuals upgraded for the PS4 and includes the Road to Devastation DLC expansion.

Tomb Raider (March 4 to April 1): Lara is back and totally re-imagined. This time the heroine isn't the veteran that was in previous games; she's an inexperienced survivor trapped on an isolated island. All of the expected combat action and environmental puzzles are here and are arguably some of the best the series has seen.

Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut (available now): Every wonder what it would be like to wake up alone to the apocalypse? Well, this is it. Survive the post-apocalyptic world by scavenging for food, escaping dangerous mutants, and staving off insanity while you search for other survivors in this horrifying 2D adventure.

Thomas Was Alone (available now): Thomas Was Alone might just look like an early version of a soon-to-be complete game, but no--the characters are actually just cubes and rectangles. However, don't take that simple aesthetic for granted; by the end of this indie puzzle platformer, you might just feel more attached to that little mute block than most video game protagonists.

Lone Survivor: The Director's Cut (available now): Here's another title that benefits from Sony's cross play feature. You can try to survive the apocalypse on your home console or take your game with you on your PS Vita.

Thomas Was Alone (March 18 to May 20): Thanks to the wonders of Transfarring, Thomas Was Alone has the option to work with Sony's cross play feature. You don't just have to solve all those puzzles on your couch, you can actually bring your game with you on the go.

Unit 13 (March 18 to May 20): This third-person shooter puts you in the standard issue military boots of a spec-ops team as they fight terrorism all around the globe. Players take on missions with varying objectives under specified criteria--like staying hidden for the entire mission--for high scores and mission ranks.

Stay tuned for more updates on all of the free games coming to Sony's Instant Game Collection. We will be adding formation on the upcoming free games as they become available. Are there any games you want to be free in the next batch of PS Plus titles? Let us know in the comments below.

If you want more free games, be sure to check out our list of the

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain finally launches on September 1st, but the number in its title is misleading - The Phantom Pain will actually be the twentieth game in the increasingly sprawling and convoluted Metal Gear universe. If you're just tuning in, it can be difficult to sort through nearly 30 years of tactical espionage action, walking nuclear missile-equipped battle tanks, and hours upon hours of expertly directed cut-scenes - and of course, not all Metal Gears are created equal.

While Metal Gear will forever be series creator Hideo Kojima's brainchild (and the series ), it's also much bigger than one man, spiraling out into countless spin-offs and side entries, each one forming a piece of a much larger story. Some of them are far more important to the overall canon - or simply more fun - than the others, though, so I've taken it upon myself to look back over Metal Gear's entire legacy and rank every single game that made it to the West. If you're looking to catch up on the best Metal Gear games before The Phantom Pain hits or simply want to know the best place to start your descent into Outer Heaven, look no further.

While not technically a separate release in the US or Europe (it was only released as a stand-alone disc and as an arcade cabinet in Japan) Metal Gear Online deserves special recognition for its multiplayer ambitions. Taking the core gameplay ideas from Metal Gear Solid 4 and expanding them to take advantage of its online nature, MGO may not have been the best multiplayer game ever, but it was not short of ideas.

MGO brings all the weapons, stealthy moves, and cardboard boxes over from MGS4, but it also makes use of the Sons of the Patriots network of nanomachines to tie everything together. You won't just be able to see where your teammates are - you can even keep track of your enemies by hacking into their nanomachines. Sadly, Konami shut the servers off back in 2012 and effectively patched the game out of existence, though some dedicated fans have found a way to , even if it's practically on life-support.

There are ways to convert popular console franchises to mobile devices without sacrificing what makes those games so special, but everything about Metal Gear Solid Touch screams ‘soulless cash grab’. Loosely following the plot of MGS4, Touch takes the series' trademark open-ended stealth action and converts it into a bland, uninspired shooting gallery. Enemy soldiers appear on each stage, and you swipe your finger on the screen to aim and tap to fire. Occasionally you have to zoom in to shoot a distant enemy or switch to your rocket launcher to take out a lumbering Gekko. That's about it.

Everything about MGS Touch feels cheap - characters and environments look like they've been poorly Photoshopped out of MGS4, enemies fall down in three jarring frames of animation when shot, and the gameplay is far too basic to be engaging. Unless you're so desperate that you absolutely have to have a Metal Gear fix available at all times, it's best to pretend MGS Touch doesn't exist.

Snake's Revenge isn't low on this list because it's a bad game. As a follow-up to the NES version of Metal Gear, it's actually surprisingly decent, providing more of the same stealth gameplay with an all new story. It even has a few interesting gameplay twists of its own, as you can actually interrogate enemy commanders for information by hitting them with a canister of truth gas.

But Snake's Revenge isn't really a Metal Gear game. It was made specifically for North America and Europe because of the popularity of the first game, and series creator Hideo Kojima had no knowledge that the game was even being worked on until well into its development. Kojima began work on a true sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which released exclusively in Japan six months after Snake's Revenge. Kojima's game went on to become series canon, while Snake's Revenge became apocrypha - an interesting curiosity, but nothing more.

If you follow a franchise long enough, you're bound to see strange spin-offs into completely new genres. While we haven't had a Metal Gear Soccer game (yet), Konami converted the classic stealth series into a turn-based strategy/collectable card game called Metal Gear Acid for the launch of PSP. The most surprising thing? Despite its flaws, it actually works.

Acid takes the sneaking, shooting, and cardboard-box wearing action found in the core titles, and puts them all into the most bizarre board game you've ever played. Actions and items are relegated to cards that you can earn while you play, and Metal Gear Acid is as much about building your deck for each level as it is about figuring out the opportune moment to play your cards. Its pacing isn't for everyone, its story isn't canon, and many of its biggest issues end up getting fixed in the sequel, but Metal Gear Acid is still an interesting experiment.

The first game developed by the (allegedly) recently dissolved Kojima Productions, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops marks the very first time a canonical entry has appeared on a handheld… kind of. Set six years after the events of Snake Eater, Portable Ops follows the exploits of Big Boss and his attempts to build the beginnings of a soldier's paradise. Since Kojima was only a producer on Portable Ops, though, its importance to the overall storyline is debatable.

Portable Ops does, however, introduce the neat ability to find and recruit soldiers in the field - an idea expanded on by Peace Walker and more fully fleshed out in The Phantom Pain. The controls aren't great (curse the PSP's lack of a second analog stick), but it does a decent job of taking the modern 3D Metal Gear style and making it playable on the go. Just be careful: if you want the story, get Portable Ops, as PO Plus is a stand-alone expansion that rips out the story entirely.

The original Metal Gear may not have aged as gracefully as some classic games, but many of the ideas found in Solid Snake's first outing still show up, even in recent entries. Metal Gear introduces the cardboard box, iconic characters like Solid Snake, Grey Fox, and Big Boss, and the stealth gameplay that would become the series' hallmark. Ironically, this was a design necessity at the time thanks to the limitations of the Japanese MSX2 computer. While both the MSX2 and Nintendo Entertainment System versions are similar in how they play, the MSX2 is officially considered canon, thanks to the host of changes made to the NES version without Kojima's consent.

In order to fit Metal Gear on the inferior NES hardware, Metal Gear was forced to undergo a graphical downgrade - but the changes don't stop there. Plot points were removed, a new intro sequence and additional story elements were added, and the difficulty was greatly increased. Heck, the titular Metal Gear doesn't even show up in the NES version, instead sending Snake into a boss fight against a giant supercomputer. Much of the gameplay remains exactly the same despite these changes, but the MSX2 version is without a doubt the superior entry.

Ground Zeroes is the cold open to a much larger game, a glorified demo sold at a premium as a way to tide die-hard Metal Gear fans over until The Phantom Pain finally launches this year. It's like taking the Tanker chapter from Metal Gear Solid 2 and breaking it out into its own separate release - only worse, because the single story mission offered in Ground Zeroes will only take about an hour to finish. The Side Ops try to add a little more substance, but there's no denying that Ground Zeroes is extremely light on content.

What Ground Zeroes does best, though, is show off the graphical potential of the Fox Engine and the evolution of the series' stealth gameplay - and the gameplay is great. Streamlining many of Metal Gear's more obtuse systems, Ground Zeroes is more accessible to new players while still offering a surprising amount of depth and strategic options. Ultimately, Ground Zeroes currently exists as pure, unfiltered potential of what open-world stealth can look like, and we won't know how successful this experiment really is until The Phantom Pain closes the book on Metal Gear Solid 5 in September.

VR Missions isn't quite a ‘full game’, as there's no campaign or story to speak of, but that doesn't mean it's short on content. Instead, think of VR Missions as a stand-alone expansion to one of the greatest stealth games of all time, taking its core concepts and devising a wide array of sneaking time trials and puzzles to go with them.

Featuring over 300 bite-sized stages, VR Missions runs the gamut, from weapon-based challenges to pure stealth gauntlets. VR Missions isn't afraid to explore the weird side of Metal Gear Solid either, letting you solve murder mysteries, take on Godzilla-sized genome soldiers, or even play as the coolest cyborg ninja ever. If Metal Gear Solid is the main course, then VR Missions is one hell of a dessert.

Metal Gear Acid 2 takes the unique card-battling board game introduced in the first game, and makes everything better. The controls are more refined, turns are faster-paced, and your turn no longer ends when you open doors - a huge improvement from the first game. There are also way more cards to collect, with over 500 this time around, each one representing a different weapon, item, or moment from the storied franchise.

The additions don't stop there, though. An arena mode lets you fight against iconic bosses like Liquid Snake with Acid's unique turn-based system, allowing you to earn points outside of the story to buy new cards. Improved tutorials and guides explain and inform you of Acid's various systems, and are available for perusal at any moment. And the game even comes with a bizarre cardboard contraption called the Solid Eye, which lets you play in 3D for literally no other reason than because it looks cool.

The true, canonical sequel to Metal Gear is better than the first game in almost every way, and it makes the unofficial Snake's Revenge look primitive by comparison. The music is better, the animations are more fluid, and the story is deeper and more complex - which makes it all the more surprising that the game wouldn't officially leave its native Japan for nearly 16 years. Thankfully, the Western release of Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence finally gave us a chance to experience this lost chapter in the series' history.

Metal Gear 2 didn't just improve the enemy AI or give Snake a radar and the ability to crawl into tight spots; it's also the first entry that forces the player to break the fourth wall and scan their instruction manual for tap codes and other clues to find new codec frequencies. If not for some unfortunate backtracking, Metal Gear 2 would be the perfect 2D entry in the series.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is the glorious result of the unlikeliest of partnerships. Helmed by Eternal Darkness developer Silicon Knights, produced by Hideo Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto, and featuring new cutscenes by Japanese action flick director Ryuhei Kitamura, The Twin Snakes takes the classic Metal Gear Solid experience and completely overhauls it for the GameCube, featuring updated graphics and controls found in Metal Gear Solid 2, as well as a re-translated and re-recorded script.

So if Twin Snakes is such an improvement over the original, why does it end up ranking lower? Well, for one, the changes to the gameplay actually make Metal Gear Solid way easier, as the level design and boss encounters weren't originally meant to be tackled with first-person shooting, tranquilizer darts, or by hanging from ledges. Plus, Twin Snakes' cut-scenes are perhaps a bit too over-the-top, as and performs other feats of anime ridiculousness. Twin Snakes is still one hell of a trip, even if some of the magic gets lost in the transition.

Metal Gear Solid 2 ended on a bizarre cliffhanger, raising far more questions than it actually answered, and when Kojima wanted to end the trilogy with a detour to the 1960s, fans begged for proper closure to the story that began in Metal Gear Solid. And boy, did Kojima deliver, tying up every single loose thread of Metal Gear's labyrinthine narrative - almost to a fault.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is layered with brilliant systems. Snake's OctoCamo lets him blend seamlessly into his environment like a chameleon. Rebel factions are constantly at war with PMCs, and both sides can be played against each other, allowing Snake to sneak past undetected. Extra guns can be snagged and converted into Drebin points, allowing you to buy new gear and weapon upgrades. But it's all in service to the countless 30-minute-or-longer cut-scenes the game funnels you into. MGS4 offers a satisfyingly outrageous conclusion to one of the most convoluted franchises ever - if only the gameplay had more room to breathe.

Revengeance better than MGS4? Yup. While the Metal Gear series constantly waffles between melodrama and goofiness, Revengeance is pure fan-service, taking Metal Gear's themes and slicing them all up into tiny pieces. It even turns the series' most reviled character into an unstoppable badass. It follows the events of MGS4, as Raiden investigates the fallout caused by the sudden implosion of corporate militarization. His hyper-violent journey leads him right to the doorstep of Senator Anderson, a cyborg who delivers the .

In Revengeance stealth is secondary, a way to thin the field a bit before you inevitably get spotted. But, honestly, who needs to sneak around when you have a sword capable of severing limbs like a hot knife cuts through butter? With a strategic series of cuts, you can remove arms or legs to cripple your foes, or simply rend them in half to reveal their juicy, life-replenishing innards. Don't question it - just go along for the highly entertaining, ridiculously satisfying ride.

It doesn't matter that the Game Boy Color version of Metal Gear Solid (known as Ghost Babel in Japan) isn't canon, taking place on an alternate timeline seven years after the events of the original Metal Gear. It doesn't matter that the Game Boy Color isn't that much more powerful than the NES and sports as many buttons. Somehow, Metal Gear Solid on the Game Boy Color manages to blend the retro stylings of the MSX2 entries with the modern improvements made by the classic PlayStation entry, culminating in the greatest 2D Metal Gear game ever made.

Despite its small stature, Metal Gear Solid on the Game Boy Color packs in a deep, mature storyline (while still being rated 'E', no less), following Snake as he battles a separatist force in Central Africa and listens to (or reads, in this case) reams of codec dialog. It's still amazing what the developers were able to pack into such a small cartridge, how nothing was sacrificed to make a seemingly simple-looking game with all the complexity of its bigger console brothers. Don't write it off just because it's on a Game Boy - this Metal Gear is one of the best.

Hideo Kojima is a master manipulator, and no game proves this more than Metal Gear Solid 2. In the run up to its release, he teased videos showcasing series hero Solid Snake front and center - then pulled the rug out from everyone by replacing him with the inexperienced Raiden for the game's second half. Highly contentious at the time, the dust has settled since its release, and Sons of Liberty is finally appreciated for what it is: one of the first and finest post-modern video games.

As a sequel to one the most highly regarded action games of all time, Kojima was aware of the expectations heaped upon MGS2, and played on them perfectly. The jump from PlayStation to PS2 allowed Kojima to deliver an absurd attention to detail, as well as some of the best graphics of the era (only a year into the PS2's lifespan, too!). But he also used it as an opportunity to reflect on the nature of sequels, effectively reusing the same story beats from Metal Gear Solid and flipping them upside down. By the end of Sons of Liberty, it's hard to separate reality from fiction - which means it's working exactly as Kojima intended.

Some people complain that Metal Gear games have way too many cutscenes and not enough gameplay, and for some entries it's a valid concern (see: Metal Gear Solid 4). But Peace Walker takes those complaints and jettisons them into the ocean, making this portable title one of the biggest, most expansive Metal Gear outings yet.

Taking place a few years after Portable Ops, Peace Walker sees Big Boss continuing to build his mercenary army - only this time, you'll have a full-on outpost called Mother Base to grow. Big Boss undertakes a wide variety of missions set during the backdrop of the Nicaraguan Revolution of the 1970s, recruiting new soldiers, researching gear upgrades, and even developing a Metal Gear of his own. The sweeping story is still here, but between building out Mother Base and fighting actual monsters from Monster Hunter, there's enough gameplay to fill up a dozen Metal Gear titles. The HD release greatly improves the controls and adds online multiplayer, making it the definitive version of the game. If not for its lackluster boss fights and some unfortunate resource grinding, Peace Walker would be the number one game in the series - it's that good.

The original PlayStation hit Metal Gear Solid is still one of the best, as almost every single one of its sequels and spin-offs ends up living in the shadow of this classic. Its story deals in a heady mix of nuclear proliferation, illegal cloning, double-crosses, and paranormal activity, and it moves at a rapid-fire pace for the duration of its 10-hour campaign. It was a revelation at the time, wearing its Hollywood aspirations on its sleeve while never forgetting that it's still a video game at heart.

Few games can boast the sheer amount of amazing twists in Metal Gear Solid. The mysterious death of the DARPA Chief; finding Meryl's Codec frequency on the back of the game's actual CD case; the fourth wall-breaking battle against Psycho Mantis; Snake's capture and escape from prison; and so many more that I could fill this entire slide and still not have enough space to gush about everything cool that happens. Even with its rudimentary 3D graphics, Metal Gear Solid remains a masterpiece, second only to...

The Metal Gear series' hard left turn into the Cold War era remains its best, taking everything fans love about the series' narrative and gameplay and executing on them to near-perfection. Its story is the tightest and most thrilling of the bunch, using a pastiche of 1960s spy movies to tell the origin of just about every single narrative thread in the series. Plus, the story just feels so much more human than the rest, dropping a convoluted web of nanomachines and artificial intelligence to focus on Naked Snake and his subsequent fall from grace as he discovers the truth behind the betrayal of his mentor and friend, The Boss.

The jungles of Russia change up Metal Gear's stealth gameplay for the better, forcing Snake to utilize a wide variety of camouflage to tip-toe through Snake Eater's various locales without getting spotted. But it's not enough just to sneak - Snake has to survive, foraging for food among the flora and fauna of the untamed wilds and tending to wounds he receives on the battlefield. It's hard to top a classic such as Metal Gear Solid, but Snake Eater manages to surpass its predecessors with dozens of memorable moments of its own and gameplay that has yet to be matched - and if you're new to the series, .