6. Braid
Platformers and puzzlers are a dime-a-dozen these days, but when was the last time one of them actively changed the way you think about something as deeply engrained and regimented as the flow of time? Exactly. Braid is the mind-meltingly beautiful side-scroller from genius-visionary Jonathon Blow, and its not until you start trying to figure out the increasingly maddening game levels that you start to take in just how special the entire project is. One puzzle involves your attempts to ride a moving platform, alternating side-to-side across the landscape. You realise that releasing the lever that activates said platform is too far away to make it back in time to get on board. The solution involves walking yourself over to where youre going to be in the future, then across to the lever, before rewinding time at a speed that jettisons your character Tim across the level faster than the platform, arriving in a new future for the level, all the while as a past version of yourself. That friends, is only the beginning, and thats without discussing the simply stunning hand-drawn visuals and dark-fantasy tale of journeying towards a lost love that powers the entire experience.