Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Xbox 360, also PS3
Fighting perfection
Ah, there's nothing quite like the opening chords of the trashy lo-bit guitar signalling Street Fighter II's attract mode to get the memory glands flowing. A youth spent in the refuges of the local arcade, pumping coins into Ryu's roundhouses or trading blows on the SNES version with a group of school friends are memories forever ingrained, easily unlocked by the shrill cry of Chun Li or the looped roar of Blanka. With Street Fighter IV arriving in February there's plenty more future memories to be made and to ease old fighters and new challengers into the game, Capcom have released a remake with one of the silliest titles around.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is a lovingly crafted slice of history that allows you to go back in time with the rose tints intact. Reworking the excellent Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Capcom have employed Udon comics to completely redraw the game, transforming the pixelated sprites into Hi-Res comic book graphics.
Gameplay has been tweaked slightly, making some moves easier to pull off, and characters have been further balanced, to the point that Akuma is now tournament legal. Music too has been revamped, with the OC ReMix website handling the job with enough skill and sensitivity for it to feel fresh yet essentially the same.
While the graphics, music and movesets have been polished, HD Remix still uses the same amount of frames for animation, meaning that although the action is authentic, it doesn't move quite as smoothly as its HD visuals would initially suggest.
Still, with robust online play a massive draw, alongside fans demand for authenticity and accurate frame counts, it's as perfect as it could possibly be without physically wrenching you through the spacetime continuum back to 1994.
Some may balk at the slightly higher than normal price tag (1200 ms points instead of the usual 800) but when the definitive version of a legendary game comes with lag-free online play and gorgeous hand-drawn graphics for about a tenner, you really can't complain.
It's also the perfect way to relive old memories and dust off those quarter circles in preparation for February's modern onslaught.
9/10

Top 5 games of 2009?

Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
The true kings of fighting are back, with a canonical sequel to Super Street Fighter II and some stunning new 3D animation that mixes thick brush strokes with cartoon violence to great effect.

Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360)
Halo returns without Master Chief in this highly anticipated expansion pack, introducing a new hero, stealthier gunplay, new multiplayer maps and a fresh perspective on the fall of New Mombasa told through flashbacks.

Res Evil 5 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Resident Evil debuts on modern consoles to stunning graphical effect, taking the action to Africa and introducing online co-op gameplay to the series, and rather awesomely – zombies on motorbikes.

Alan Wake (Xbox 360)
The team behind Max Payne have endured some troubled development but Alan Wake’s nightmarish story of insomnia looks to be on track for an impressively moody debut in this intriguing psychological thriller about a horror novelist who’s latest book is becoming reality.

Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer (PS3)
Quantic Dream hopefully deliver on the promises of ‘The Casting’ tech demo, and create a unique, emotionally engaging film noir thriller where death finally has some weight and your actions write the story.

Top 5 games of 2008

Little Big Planet
Sony’s innovative title may not be setting the charts on fire but those lucky enough to have it know that its rich mixture of multiplayer platforming and DIY level creation deserves to be in every PS3 in the land.

Fable II
Bugs and over-hype aside, Fable II finally delivers on the promises of the first game, presenting an immensely enjoyable adventure packed full of personality, moral dilemmas and public displays of farting.

Grand Theft Auto IV

A maturer perspective, darkly comic narrative and rich characterisation showed that there’s more to this sandbox series than hot coffee and car jacking.

Left 4 Dead
Surviving the zombie apocalypse has never been so much fun as co-op gameplay achieves new heady heights in this unparalleled shooter.

Braid
Using a mixture of metaphorical time-bending puzzles and emotionally charged narrative, Braid’s beauty and genius level design sees it closer to art than artful.

Little Big Planet

PS3
A ball of fun
There's a scene in Michel Gondry's 'Science of Sleep' where Gael García Bernal breaks into a neighbours flat, takes a hand crafted stuffed horse, dissects it and fills it with a variety of cogs, rods and dreams. When he returns it, the stuffed horse becomes alive, galloping with a stop-motion shuffle to his friend's delight. It's also the perfect analogy for Little Big Planet. 
LBP is Sony's innovative platformer/game creator that aims to turn a world of dreamers into creators, hopefully launching a platform for new gaming experiences for years to come.
Using virtual combinations of cardboard, glue, elastic, springs and a multitude of other materials and devices, Media Molecule have hand-crafted a platformer in the ilk of traditional 2D Mario Bros games. The world however is a living, breathing mixture of fabrics, stitching and clunking mechanics, held together by tactile smoke and mirrors where string replaces strings of code and everything is held together by a forgiving physics engine and a smidgen of luck.
Introducing Sony's new mascot, Sackboy, LBP's charm is easily translated through his likeable, knitted face. With a customisable likeness and the opportunity for up to 4 friends to play together locally or online, LBP is an instant joy to play, packed full of imagination and wit. 
That imagination however, has crafted a finite number of levels, yet LBP has the power to last for much longer, its true hook being the Create Mode.
Giving you (and your friends) the same tools the developers used to create the game, LBP opens up a world of creative possibilities, where you can make pretty much anything you can think of.
This is no ordinary, techy level editor though. It's more akin to painting, where your brush can leave solid stone instead of paint and your sticky hands leave a hodge-podge trail of kooky creatures, impossible machines and home-made puzzles.
Such depth comes at a price though as it's DIY logic takes some grasping to begin with, and the scale can be overwhelming. The dulcet tones of Stephen Fry guiding you through it is always enough to make you carry on, upload to the internet and share your imagination with the world, one dream at a time.
10/10

Left 4 Dead

 Xbox 360, also PC
Ready your boomstick
Zombies are great – they let you shoot-to-kill with no moral recompense, are comedic yet horrific, and always offer up plenty of potential for social commentary (aren't we the real zombies?). Left 4 Dead dispenses with the socio/political semantics, and delivers four playable movies of old school, zombie slaying horror. 
Sticking you and up to 3 friends in a series of zombie based blockbusters, Left 4 Dead is a co-op dream come true, where team work and improvised tactics are the only way to stay alive through each intentionally cliched environment. 
Gameplay is relatively simple – survive wave after unpredictable wave of zombies as you battle towards each level's grand-finale to be rescued. There are a limited amount of weapons to choose from, a limited amount of health packs and an unlimited amount of screaming terror.
Depth is created through strategy such as weapon choices and player placements when the hordes descend. A constant eye on other players is also required to ensure they survive so you can too. Doing it alone is not an option. Thankfully, Valve's stellar credentials in audio/visual communication mean it's always clear where your friends are and if they've floored by a mob or super zombie.
Mixed in with the shambling, sprinting infected are these super zombies, a selection of 5 freaks with enhanced abilities running ruin to your carefully laid plans. 
Tanks are huge lumbering beasts able to bat you down in an instant, Boomers spew zombie attracting vomit at you, Hunters are leaping nightmares, Smokers are snaring wierdies with a tongue from hell and then there's the sobbing Witch. Don't startle the witch.
With 4 expansive levels, it still sounds like a minimal package considering its online focus, yet Left 4 Dead provides hour after hour of addictive, startling fun, thanks to the excellent AI Director who changes the way each level plays, ensuring a different experience every time.
Versus mode (where you can be the super zombies) and the upcoming downloadable content (first up – the mall from the Dawn of the Dead remake) give Left 4 Dead further life, ensuring the panicked, selfless, tense, chaotic, shared horror continues apace with mucus soaked glee.
9/10

Fallout 3 (18)

360, also PS3 and PC
Mad Max meets the Jetsons
So, i'm walking through the wastes of DC, heart of the capital wasteland. A vast nothingness surrounds me, just dust and rubble, empty shells of buildings offering little shelter to wastelanders. Empty bottles of Nuca-Cola litter the floor amid long-burnt-out husks of flying cadillacs, posters for kid's cereals flapping in the strong nuclear breeze, buoyed by the sound of happy-go-lucky 1940's popular music.
Like Oblivion before it, Fallout 3 attempts to create a vast, believable world, using small scale details to populate the
free-roaming adventure. What Oblivion achieved was technically great, but ultimately fell short. Fallout 3 ups the technical ante, while narrowing its focus into a more determined adventure, to mostly great
affect.
Comparisons to Oblivion are obvious and expected, as are the claims that it's 'Oblivion with guns'. That claim is correct, but it is also much more. The amount of detail thrown into the wilderness is stunning, swapping the green rolling hills and castles for dense rubble and towns built from scrap metal. Obviously its not a pretty sight, but it is a sight to behold.
All this wasn't meant for your eyes though. As a Vault dweller, you were born in the safety of a nuclear bunker, instilled with the traditional values of a retro-futuristic yesteryear. Your dad's unexpected departure leading you out into the blinding sunlight for the first time, your doorway to a new, harsh world of freedom.
Looking and playing like a first person shooter, Fallout 3 is an RPG at heart, replete with skill upgrades, chat trees and inventory management. RPG-like, pausing combat is an option too, allowing you to target at your leisure, rewarded with slo-mo cinematics and lots of blood. In times of paniced gun fights it's an indispensable and strategic tool, but it's always enjoyable to do the work yourself when you can.
As a 'post apocalyptic simulator', Fallout 3 does a startling job, but is ultimately a divisive game. Some could find the prospect of walking through a decimated grey/brown landscape for hours on end rather boring... some might argue those moments of quietness add to the tension. Whether or not Billie Holiday's 'Crazy He Calls Me' defeats that tension is a moot point.
8/10