Spiral Knights (PC)

"Spiral Knights is set in an ever-changing world brought to life with a vibrant, retro-inspired visual style. 

Release Date: Apr 4, 2011

Players can go it alone or join forces with up to four friends to unravel the hidden secrets of the clockworks world."With the opportunity to create guilds, craft new gear, and customise the looks and abilities of their characters, the intuitive pick-up-and-play controls provide an enjoyable, yet immersive style of gameplay."

After slightly customizing your character, players start off by crash-landing into the game and learning the basics through several tutorial levels in the training grounds. From there players begin earning currency called "crowns" and various items with which they can later upgrade their weapons, shields, armor and more.

Just like with any great MMORPG, players are able to interact with others by joining parties, trading items or competing against each other in the arcades. The communication with other players is simple and Three Rings has made online FAQs quite easy to locate in-game. So whether you're figuring out the next goal or trying to communicate a problem with others, it's painless.

The first thing you'll notice about this game is its unique sense of creation—it's mysterious environments and imagination. Spiral Knights has large levels with plenty of visuals to keep your peepers busy. The second thing you'll probably notice is how top-notch their online community is. No one likes the companies that release games, only to leave it to their players to "figure it out." So having a flourishing online presence is a very healthy sign for players of this genre.

Another noteworthy feature that Spiral Knights offers, besides the visual candy and online community, is the music. We all know how music helps direct the tone of any game, as it strikes emotion and creates a more memorable experience. Spiral Knights does a nice job of not only coming up with decent sounding tunes, but also by doing it in a style that suits the game's design.