My favourite game this year (by leaps and bounds) was Rayman Origins. I’ve been waiting for this game to come out since the first trailer for it was released at E3 2010, and it has been well worth the wait.

All you need to do is watch a video of gameplay to see that Rayman Origins is a thing of beauty. The hand-drawn characters and backgrounds combined with the orchestrated score combine to make this game a phenomenal experience.

The game is also immensely charming with a lot of clever and amusing details. The game’s diologue is spoken in Pig Latin, the sound effects are great (there’s even a Wilhelm scream for sound effect nerds), and the level design packs in lots of surprises for the player.

So if you haven’t had a chance to play the game (or at least try the demo) it’s worth giving it a shot. Compared to other ‘darker and edgier’ games out now, Rayman Origins is a breath of fresh air.