10 Best Video Game Characters Of The New Generation

5. Kai Tana - Velocity 2X

In another climate, Futurlab's Velocity would've been the Metroid of a generation, not just because protagonist Kai Tana (yes we know, half-cringe) is suited up with palm-lasers and enough weaponry to take down a small space-armada single-handedly, but also because gameplay-wise Velocity is a brilliantly original mix of side-scrolling blast 'em up action twinned with dual-joystick space-shooting.

Releasing in September as one of Sony's free Playstation Plus titles as the sequel to 2012's original, it gave the millions of account-users free-reign to get to grips with the incredibly proficient mechanics that make playing through such a pleasure. You'll regularly dock your ship at a number of points in an otherwise constantly-moving level, whereby gameplay will switch to that of side-scrolling as you explore, collect gems, solve puzzles and shoot down a number of switches along the way.

Having been imprisoned and experimented on, Kai is now imbued with a variety of enhanced cyborg powers, but that hasn't turned her into some one-sentence loner, instead she retains the same sense of humour and 'take all comers' nature of the original game, with boss battles regularly starting out with brilliant exchanges between the two.