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The best UI to use would be something similar to Civilisation 5 as their UI is extremely interactive for the player to use and as such would be perfect for the Game i intend to make

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How easy is it for your player to put their intention into action, or to understand what's going on in your game? In this tutorial, you'll learn how to build a better game UI by examining both good and bad examples from existing games, and end up with a checklist of questions to guide you through designing them.

By the way, you should check out our UI and UX design guide for 2020 to get up-to-date with the latest trends. And if you're looking for somewhere to get started, you can find a plethora of well-designed game assets on Envato Elements.

Introduction

As gamers and game developers we know that immersion is everything. When you're immersed you lose track of time and become involved in what the game is presenting. A major factor in what makes or breaks immersion is how easy it is for your player to convert an idea into an in-game action -- that is, how fluid your game's User Experience (UX) is and how well-designed its User Interface (UI) is. A game hurts itself by providing too little information or too much, requiring too many inputs, confusing the player with unhelpful prompts or making it hard for a new player to interact. Poor UI design can even break your game completely.

A composited screenshot from Honey Bee Match 3. The top-left half is rendered in green-blind mode by ColorOracle; the bottom-right half is the original. An estimated 1 in 100 people are green-blind, and this game is almost unplayable for them.

In this article I won't be teaching you how to put a UI together. Instead, I'll be focusing on what makes a UI well-designed or poorly-designed, and how you can apply this thinking to your own game. I'll be examining UI and UX design as a series of goals which are as important and as precise as any other part of your game, using examples from games that get it wrong and games that get it right.

What Are UI and UX?

The terms UI and UX are sometimes (incorrectly) used interchangeably, but they have specific meanings.

UI, or User Interface, refers to the methods (keyboard control, mouse control) and interfaces (inventory screen, map screen) through which a user interacts with your game. UX, or User Experience, refers to how intuitive and enjoyable those interactions are.

To look at it another way: the UI of a car is its steering wheel, its pedals, the dials and controls on the dashboard; the UX of the car comes from intangibles like the brake pedal being responsive, the engine smoothly accelerating when you step on the gas, the gear stick having just the right amount of resistance - those things that make the car enjoyable to drive.

What Does a Good UI Do?

Put simply, the role of a good UI is to provide relevant information clearly and quickly, and to get out of the way once it has done its job. If you only take one bit of information from this tutorial, let this be it:

A good UI tells you what you need to know, and then gets out of the way.

We can go further and boil down the process of UI design to six fundamental questions:

1. Does this interface tell me what I need to know right now?

2. Is it easy to find the information I'm looking for, or do I have to look around for it? (Are the menus nested so deep that they hide information from the player?)

3. Can I use this interface without having to read instructions elsewhere?

4. Are the things I can do on this screen obvious?

5. Do I ever need to wait for the interface to load or play an animation?

6. Are there any tedious or repetitive tasks that I can shorten (with a shortcut key, for example) or remove entirely?

Ask these questions frequently as you design and play your game. The world of UI design is a world of endless nitpicking, and it's one of the few areas of game development where it's okay to obsess.

Case in Point

One good example is Fallout 3's Pipboy - or, more specifically, the short animation of your character raising the Pipboy to eye level whenever you access it:

The animation lasts for only half a second, so you might not put much thought into it. But watch how it challenges the patience of your players after sitting through it countless times over the course of an 80 hour game. Never conclude that your player will "get used to" doing something in a non-optimal way. They will only seethe and bad-mouth your lack of design sense.

How Can I Practice Designing UIs?

I believe that the single best way to learn UI design is to make websites. Amazing resources like Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox exist to give you as much information as you want about what exactly makes a UI easy to use, how people interact with software and so on.
Editor's Note: And there's always our sister site Webdesigntuts+...
At the center of what makes a good UI is usability, an attribute that incorporates the answers to the six fundamental questions mentioned previously. There's much more to be said about usability and making your interface usable, and I leave it to you to pick over Alertbox and find the parts that are relevant to your experience.

Who Should Design a Game's UI?

Many programmers are scared off from making UIs because they feel that this is a creative job, one better left to someone like an artist who has a better understand of presentation. And yet UI design is a largely logical process, one that's perfectly approachable to a developer.

In fact, I believe that the programmer (or creative director, or whoever in your team has the most direct role in shaping the playing experience of your game) should be responsible for making the UI, as they are the ones who know the game inside and out, and who know what information is important and what is incidental.

They should focus on the functional aspects of the UI: How big is it, does it (or should it) scroll, what information is displayed and where, and how the player navigates through it. Mock it up with two or three colors, and never rely on color changes alone to convey information. At the very least, run it through ColorOracle or Coblis to ensure that color-blind people aren't missing out.

Games With Poor UIs

Before getting into this, it's important to understand that when I talk about bad UIs, I make that judgement based on the ideas and behaviours that I bring to it as a PC gamer who plays games with a keyboard and mouse.

The user's choice of input is extremely relevant to the user experience, although it's not the whole story. Someone who is used to a touch interface is going to find a button interface awkward, for example, but a well-designed button interface will still be easy to understand and predict.

Oblivion

Oblivion's UI is a classic example of one platform's UI being incompatible with another. Even though Oblivion was ported from consoles to PC, it still retained its controller-focused UI. This is completely analogous to releasing a game on iOS or Android and making the player move an on-screen cursor around like they're using a laptop's trackpad instead of taking advantage of absolute touch positioning.

So what makes Oblivion's UI so bad? It's a combination of wasted space, improper scaling, and inappropriate controls.

I hope you're cool with viewing six items at a time; these windows aren't adjustable. The actual part of the menu that conveys the relevant information, such as the contents of your inventory, uses only 21.7% of the total screen space at a resolution of 1920x1080.

Using only a fifth of a screen isn't that bad: you can do a lot in that much space. The real problem is that the font and icons are double the size they need to be for viewing on a PC monitor, and this greatly limits the number of items that can be displayed.

A linear list view also means that you tend to do a lot of scrolling, and the tabbed interface hides everything from you. Checking your status effects involves clicking on the Magic tab, going to the Effects sub-tab, then scrolling through the list. It's one thing to hide seldom-used information like character stats behind tabs, but completely different to hide important information such as what is draining your health while you walk around.

Oblivion also lacks shortcuts. There's no Map button to bring up the map; you have to click on the compass to bring up the Map tab. There's no Quick-Sell key or Sell Stack shortcut; you've got to work the quantity slider with your mouse and confirm it by clicking or hitting Enter. There's no standard button for getting out of a window (Escape in most games), so exiting different windows is done by pressing either E, Tab, Escape or some other key.

The sequel, Skyrim, would go on to fix some of these problems, but some would remain or become worse. I actually got stuck the first time I opened a chest in Skyrim: Escape didn't get me out of that window; the inventory key didn't get me out; trying to Use the chest again didn't get me out. There was no button you could click to exit or prompt that told you what to do. Clicking outside the window didn't work. Guess what key finally let me exit the chest? Sheathe/Ready Weapon, of course.

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 3's menus are really awkward for a PC user. Sometimes it doesn't respond to clicks so you have to click three times; menus can take some time to load; it's not really space-efficient - you know the deal by now.

It was patched, so I'm going to focus on the state of its in-game HUD when it was first released. Let's start with a look at the HUD in its predecessor, Far Cry 2.

This is what you see most of the time. Things like health indicators and ammo count fade in and out as you need them, but in general the HUD leaves you alone.

Now let's look at Far Cry 3's HUD.

Far Cry 3's HUD doesn't leave you alone. I have a hard time showing it in screenshots or videos; it's just something that you experience as a player who keeps getting jerked back into reality. It creates a claustrophobic feeling.

The minimap is large and opaque, so it gets in your way. The objective reminder in the top left is also large and opaque and gets in your way, and although it disappears after a few seconds it has a tendency to reappear just as you're about to start forgetting that you're playing a game. When you get shot the hit indicators appear near the center of the screen where they again get in your way, instead of appearing at the very edges of the screen like in every other game. If you gather enough crafting ingredients, another big, opaque popup appears on the right to let you know that you can craft something new.

Every time one of these popups appears it snaps the player out of whatever fun they were having and reminds them that they're using software. The over-supply of obvious information makes it feel like the game doesn't trust the player to be competent. The patch lets you turn off the worst of these HUD features, but the minimap is still there, and the menus are still awkward for mouse and keyboard interaction.

Games With Good UIs

But let's not spend all this time talking about bad UIs. Great examples of UIs come from games which acknowledge the limitations and strengths of their systems.

Morrowind

Most PC gamers agree that Morrowind (Oblivion's predecessor) has one of the best PC UIs around - except for one issue which I'll talk about below.

Let's go over the basic elements of this screen.

It's a single screen with four different, untabbed windows. Clockwise from top-left you have the character details, the map (which you can zoom), your list of spells and magic items, and your inventory (with tabs for sorting items).

At the top-right of each of these windows is a small raised square. If you click this square, then that particular window will remain on-screen even after you exit Menu mode. You can keep the map window open if you're trying to completely map the coast, for example, or you can keep the Magic window open to keep an eye on the number of charges left in your Ring of Healing.

You can drag these windows anywhere on the screen, and you can resize them or minimize them to tailor the UI to your needs.

At the bottom-right of the screen are some status icons. If you see an unfamiliar icon there you can hover over it in Menu mode, and a tooltip will tell you what it is. The same icons appear at the top of the Magic window too.

The inventory is laid out in a space-efficient grid, and you can adjust the number of items it displays by resizing the inventory screen.

What does this UI mean for the PC player? Almost everything is literally one click away. If you want to look at your skills you scroll the character window. If you want to equip something, you drag it onto your paper doll. The interface is fast and accessible, and almost every type of item in the world has a unique inventory icon, so finding your Journeyman Hammer involves half a second of looking at your neat, scalable inventory.

The only detail that lets this UI down is the fact that potions and scrolls reuse inventory icons; there are unique icons for the quality of the potion, but not for its effect, so a Master Water Breathing potion looks just like a Master Restore Fatigue potion.

Beyond Good and Evil

Text entry with a controller is inconvenient at the best of times, and painful in the worst. You can't move your fingers directly to a key, you've got to button-press your way there, creating a lot of unnecessary movements and actions.

Beyond Good and Evil sidestepped all of this by implementing what's commonly accepted as the best console text input scheme ever: An infinite ribbon with letters and numbers arranged on it in order. The ribbon scrolls fast and without delay, it provides constant aural feedback, and it's responsive to adjustments. It's a mystery why other games have not followed its example.

Well I've been a little unfair. Other keyboard-style text input screens do allow you to hold down a direction and scroll through all of the keys sequentially, but they often have a delay before they start scrolling at full speed, or they don't scroll fast enough. (Remember the fundamental question, "Do I ever need to wait for the interface to load or play an animation?")

Homeworld

Homeworld broke ground back in 1999 for being the first RTS with true three-dimensional movement. Being able to move units along three axes was a new design challenge, and Homeworld absolutely delivered with style and elegance. The problem: How to represent 3D movement on a 2D plane (your monitor).

The solution: First, deal with the traditional horizontal plane that gamers are used to.

Then, deal with the extra vertical plane.

The movement screen also gives the player some subtle but powerful tools:

Notice the compass ring outside the movement range of these Scouts. Homeworld's maps are big and empty, and compass headings are important for orienting yourself in local space.

Look how easy it is to see the lines that make up the functional part of this screen. Some games try to harmonise their UI elements with the game world by making them pale or transparent, but Homeworld doesn't. Empire: Total War is a good counter-example here. The firing arc indicator is made of a thin red line bordered by a white smudge, and it blends into the terrain quite often. Thank goodness for mods and modders.

There's a nice crosshair in the center of the movement range circle, and it always points to the center of your selected formation. Without it, you'd have to look for the health bars of your selected ships to find out where they are, and health bars can get quite small and dark when a ship is damaged.

The movement line provides you with a move distance, handy for estimating transit time in a map with no obvious landmarks.

Look at the Harvester ship just ahead of the Scouts. There's a line protruding through it, terminating in a small circle above. That circle is located on the horizontal plane of the Scouts (the green circle). The line marks how far below or above that plane the Harvester actually is. With these two indicators, moving towards a ship is fast and accurate: move the horizontal plane marker on top of the disc, then drag downwards to the bottom of the line to set the vertical plane.

Crusader Kings 2

Crusader Kings 2 is the kind of complex, multi-layered game that makes you feel dumb. However, its interface does its best to help you through it all. Firstly, there are many Help boxes that pop up until you're comfortable enough with that part of the game to tell it to stop. Secondly, there's this wonderful feature. Say I want to know what an icon of coins represents; I just hover over it and BAM!

The tooltip looks a little disembodied here because the pointer isn't captured in screenshots.

A wild tooltip appeared! The game tells me what to call the coins icon, gives me the information relevant to it, and even tells me how that information is organised. You can do this with any other element in the game, and the tooltip appears quickly so I don't have to wait.

You might look at this and say, "Duh, tooltips have been around forever. Of course one should pop out when I hover over something." Just keep it in mind, as it's easy to forget.

A Valley Without Wind

One place where it's particularly easy to forget about tooltips is in the front-facing menus of your game. Here is the Vsync tooltip in A Valley Without Wind's Options menu.

Here is the Vsync tooltip in Half Life 2: Episode 2's Options menu.

Really helpful. Most PC gamers who wander into the Advanced graphics options will know what VSync is, but placing a tooltip is just polite - just as long as it's a helpful tooltip and not one that reads, "Turns VSync on or off."

Civilization 5

Civ 5's city screen is a great example of making information available quickly.

This single screen tells you: the economic and cultural state of your whole empire; the production of this city, including population growth (and border growth if the building list is collapsed); the units and buildings available to this city and how long it will take to construct them; the sprawl of your city, as well as the resource tiles within it and which tiles citizens are currently working; the buildings already built within it, and a collapsed Citizen Management panel where you can switch to different worker allocation profiles to specialise this city's output.

You can also move workers between tiles right on the map of the city, putting all this screen space to good use.

Conclusion

Let's recast the six fundamental questions of UI design as six general guidelines:

1. Predict what the user wants to know, and give them that information.

2. Information must be easy to find.

3. Your UI should be easy to use and navigate. Use established patterns where you can: Everyone knows that Ctrl-Click adds items to the selection, so don't make it swap items instead.

4. Make the user's location in the menu system obvious, and make it obvious where the user can go and what they can do from there.

5. Minimise load times and avoid animations in your menus.

6. Eliminate or simplify repetitive tasks.

UI design is a logical job that you shouldn't be scared of doing. Pay attention to the games you play, take note of how they present information and how that makes you feel. Take note of things that you do repetitively, and how they could be improved. Look for information that acts only as decoration, and consider what you would replace it with. Pay attention to things that confuse you. And finally, always have some people play-test your game in front of you. Tell them how to run the game, then watch silently and resist the urge to guide them. It's quite humbling.

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Game UI by Example: A Crash Course in the Good and the Bad

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How easy is it for your player to put their intention into action, or to understand what's going on in your game? In this tutorial, you'll learn how to build a better game UI by examining both good and bad examples from existing games, and end up with a checklist of questions to guide you through designing them.

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currently according to statistics the PS4 is currently the best console in terms of performance and as such the Xbox one just attends to the media while the PS4 attends to the players and as such should be released for the

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It's an interesting time to be buying a game console. Three years into the current console generation, we are seeing (and hearing) about a new array of incrementally improved hardware, such as Sony's PS4 Pro, Microsoft's "Project Scorpio," and sub-platforms, like PlayStation VR.

This is somewhat problematic, as the primary benefit of a gaming console is its simplicity. There are many compelling arguments as to why players who care about performance or want access to the greatest number of games should invest in a gaming PC - the ability to mod games, change intricate performance settings, and Steam sales all come to mind - but there is a large contingency of people deaf to those arguments because they simply want to buy a game and play it.

Still, game consoles remain the easiest way to get into gaming. And while consoles are changing, our top picks remain the same.

Our pick

Why should you buy this: It's the best version of the most popular console, and has the highest number of high-fidelity games.

Who's it for: Everyone, but especially players with a 4K TV.

How much will it cost: $400
Why we picked the PlayStation 4 Pro:
The PlayStation 4 Pro is the best version of the most popular game platform available today. With 4K and HDR 10 compatibility and the most powerful components in a dedicated gaming platform, it is the best plug-and-play gaming platform.

A very large majority of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One libraries are available on both platforms. Though both platforms have popular exclusive franchises, the PlayStation 4 (Pro or standard) does receive access to small number of less well-known indie games and niche titles, such as Japanese role-playing games, that the Xbox One does not.

Picking PlayStation 4 over Xbox One or Wii U also opens the door for you to pick up PlayStation VR, which, as we've noted, is the most affordable premium VR headset available. While there are rumors of Rift support for the Xbox One, PSVR is the only option for console VR right now - and it's a good one.

While it can be difficult to take advantage of the PlayStation 4 Pro's advanced features, namely HDR support, the improvements it provides to even unoptimized games make it the most technically impressive way to play the largest number of games on a console. Depending on how well its adopted by developers - and whether 4K and HDR catch on - the PS4 Pro could represent the future of console gaming.
Our full review
The best console for 4K movie-lovers

Why should you buy this: With a 4K Blu-Ray player and HDR, it offers access to both great new games and high-resolution video.

Who's it for: Players who want to use their game console as the centerpiece of their entertainment center or home theater.

How much will it cost: $299+
Why we picked the Xbox One S:
While the PlayStation 4 Pro plays games in 4K, that benefit is primarily aimed at playing video games. Microsoft's mid-cycle refresh of the Xbox One sports an 4K Blu-Ray player, and can support 4K HDR video playback through a receiver, making it the clear choice for players who want to play games and watch movies in 4K.

While you are trading 4K gaming for more 4K media options, the Xbox One S upscales from 1080p and still produces a notable visual improvement over the standard Xbox One for gamers with a 4K TV. (The physical set is also the nicest looking of the current consoles.)

For those of us who haven't made the jump to 4K, both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are great consoles with large game libraries. You will be able to play the vast majority of new and upcoming games, including a few exclusive franchises like Halo, Gears of War, and Forza. Plus, if you are (or were) an Xbox 360 owner, a very large number of last-gen console's games are now compatible with the Xbox One, which could expand your game library and keep at least some of your old games in rotation.
Our full review
The best portable game console

Why should you buy this: You want access to a great variety of games at all times.

Who's it for: Everyone

How much will it cost: $649 - 849 (without a contract or upgrade plan)
Why we picked the iPhone 7 (or 7 Plus):
Professional photographers always they say, "the best camera is the one you have with you." The same, it could be said, goes for gaming platforms. Despite the resolve of the Nintendo 3DS fanbase, "portable gaming" and "mobile gaming" are very nearly synonymous. If you have a smartphone on you at all times, and you love playing games, it stands to reason that you will spend some time playing games on your phone.

If having access to mobile games - particularly smart, interesting games made specifically for mobile platforms - than the iPhone is the best choice. Though Google Play and iOS App Store are much closer to parity than they used to be, and the rise of free-to-play games has made Android's piracy issues far less relevant to this conversation, there are still some developers (Including Nintendo) making games for iOS first.

There's no doubt a 3DS can deliver a deeper gaming experience, but we've found that true on-the-go often benefits from simple, engaging games that can be played for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. There, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are superior, not only because of the variety of games offered, but also because smartphones are always close at hand. The 3DS, small as it is, doesn't easily fit in most pockets.
Our full review
The best complimentary console

Why should you buy this: Nintendo makes unique games you can't play anywhere else, and this is the best way to play them right now.

Who's it for: Anyone who loves Nintendo and wants access to their quirky, family friendly games.

How much will it cost: $199.99
Why we picked the New Nintendo 3DS XL:
For the last decade, more or less, Nintendo's consoles have offered fresh and fun games, but not much in the way of third-party support. As great as they are, consoles like the Wii U and 3DS lack the developer support and diversity of game experiences necessary to be the number one game machine in your life.

However, if you already own a game console (or a gaming PC) and you're looking to expand your horizons, the Nintendo 3DS will give you access to an entirely new library of games that you can't get anywhere else, including Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, and Animal Crossing. The console also has its own version of Nintendo's "virtual console" store, where you can grab games from some of Nintendo's beloved old-school consoles like the NES, SNES, and Game Boy.

While similar things can be said of the Wii U, its price tag is a bit higher, and its catalog of great games is arguably thinner. There are many great franchises, like Rune Factory, Animal Crossing, and Phoenix Wright, that are available on 3DS but not on Wii U.

One word of warning: Nintendo is expected to launch a new console, the Nintendo Switch, in March, 2017. The Switch will be a "hybrid" console that can be played as a portable like the 3DS, but can also be played on a TV using a docking station. The company said it plans to continue supporting the 3DS after the Switch launches, as it considers the Switch a "home console," but there is reason to question whether new games will be coming to the 3DS in 2018. That said, after more than five years, the Nintendo 3DS has already built up quite a library for you to work your way through.
Our full review
The best introduction to gaming

Why should you buy this: It's a concentrated dose of retro gaming for a very affordable price.

Who's it for: Nintendo lovers who don't own a Wii U or Nintendo 3DS, new gamers who never had an NES.

How much will it cost: $60
Why we picked the NES Classic Edition:
If you're new to video games - or want to introduce the form to someone - there's something to be said for starting with the classics. Nintendo's new mini-emulator box offers 30 first- and third-party games from the company's beloved NES console in a small, standalone package, including the first three Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man II, Castlevania, and Final Fantasy.

The device lacks many of the features we've come to expect from a game console: It does not connect to the internet, and is not expandable or customizable in any official way. While many argue that's a failing, we appreciate the opportunity to play games in a space without connectivity issues and free of in-game advertising. On the NES Classic, what you see is what you get, and that's great.

It's totally reasonable to expect that someone new to games might play with this, and quickly find themselves ready to move to a modern console. Luckily, at $60 and zero extra cost for games, the console requires less investment than any other console out there.
Our full review
How we test

Choosing the best video game console is, honestly, more philosophical than technical. Since gaming PCs currently produce the highest framerate and highest resolution, picking the best gaming console comes down to a number of factors including its design, features, and game library.

We do test them, of course. We've spent a lot of time playing video games on these consoles and we even more thinking about what they can do. We make sure that everything we like about these game consoles works and delivers what's advertised. That includes playing all kinds of games, checking the console's internet connectivity, looking at the console's exclusives, and checking if developers are making games for the platform.

4K, HDR, and buying game consoles

Two of our recommendations, the PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox One S, support high-resolution gaming that can take advantage of emerging display standards, 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR). Most people, aside from enthusiastic A/V fans, do not have a 4K TV yet, and fewer still have HDR, which is currently broken down into some sub-standards.

Given that there are only a few games for each console that take full advantage of these features, we currently do not recommend that you buy a new TV for the sake of high-resolution console gaming. Currently, no game console requires you to own a 4K or HDR compatible TV, so you can buy that new console and hold off on buying the TV until you've done more research, found games you feel are worth upgrading for, or are otherwise ready to commit.

If you do decide to purchase a new TV for the sake of the console, you should look for a 4K TV that supports HDR 10, as opposed to HDR "Premium."

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One game console is better than the rest, and we're not afraid to say it

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It's an interesting time to be buying a game console. Three years into the current console generation, we are seeing (and hearing) about a new array of incrementally improved hardware, such as Sony's PS4 Pro, Microsoft's "Project Scorpio," and sub-platforms, like PlayStation VR.

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a perfect idea to make the most money would be for testers to iron out the faults quickly then have micro - transactions for the game and have the availability of what happened afterwards used as DLC for the game

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some of the best levels used would be things like casino night zone for a platformer game, the spirit temple for a dungeon crawler game, or something like cool cool mountain for an ice level

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A reader names his favourite levels from video games past and present, but gets very hung up with Sonic, Mario, and Zelda.

Here is a list of 10 of the finest levels you can find in games as decided by a highly prestigious panel of judges consisting exclusively of me, myself, and I.

To be clear, only very linear games can be included. To constitute as a 'level' it must be clearly bookended. In games such as Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time, Dark Souls, Silent Hill, and Resident Evil it almost seems as you could divide them into distinct levels but it's not clear enough for me.

This was an extremely agonising list to compile. Real Sophie's choice stuff. I didn't want any one game or series to dominate - Sonic gets the most entries here at three. But I could have very easily included more. And the levels that didn't make the cut, but still deserved to be here, are almost enough to make you cry. No Space Station from Power Stone 2. No Shadow Temple from Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. Or the Bandit Town from Twilight Princess - a level so nice they let you play it twice. But I have stalled long enough: on with the list!
By reader DMR The reader's feature does not necessary represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. As always, email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk and follow us on Twitter.

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The 10 best video game levels ever - Reader's Feature

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A reader names his favourite levels from video games past and present, but gets very hung up with Sonic, Mario, and Zelda. Here is a list of 10 of the finest levels you can find in games as decided by a highly prestigious panel of judges consisting exclusively of me, myself, and I.

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some key game mechanics that could be used are things such as merciless deaths, curving the shots of a bullet and showing X - ray kills for the main thing

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Everyone has a favorite game mechanic. That one thing that makes a game stand out, shine and earn the crown of our hearts. There are games that do what they do so well they push the whole of gaming forward. Around the office we've been talking about the fact that Kanye West will be making a game. No doubt narcissism will be a prevalent mechanic. But while his game will be god-awful we all channel our inner-Kanye when we debate our friends about the best games e.g. "I'm sorry, Imma let you finish, but Mario Kart had some of the best racing of all time!". So, here are ten of what we think are the best game mechanics ever
1. Bullet Time - Max Payne Series
Max Payne was for games what The Matrix was for movies. While the game did pretty blatantly rip off that landmark of action cinema, the gaming world is all the better for it. Besides, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out explosions and bullets look super cool in slow motion.

Another case of plagiarism as Sniper Elite borrows the x-rays from Mortal Kombat 9 and puts them work dismembering the Third Reich. Literally. If not for the X-ray kills there's little doubt Sniper Elite would be just another forgettable romp in World War II. Thank goodness it is not.

This reboot of Prince of Persia had more stellar mechanics than a Jiffy Lube with a five-star rating on Yelp. Rewinding time, acrobatics and of course that dagger. Personal favorite of mine was the combat which we can see reincarnated today in games like the Arkham series or Shadow of Mordor. Doing flips around (and over) your enemies was a constant joy and hoovering them up with your mystic vacuum-dagger was a satisfying finisher. Put this game on the short-list of those due for an HD remake.
4. Rage - Wingsticks
Ah, Rage. From the studio that brought us landmark games like Doom, Quake and Wolfenstien came one of the smartest shooters of last-gen. Though it got a tepid reception back in 2011 (it was a fall release with games like Arkham City to contend with) for a lackluster story, critics were unanimous in praising the gameplay and insanely stellar visuals. You will literally stop to look at clouds in this game. At the time I found it forgettable, a game jumping on the Borderlands/Fallout post-apocalyptic band-wagon. But, with a clever arsenal of guns and gadgets Rage today is still a joy to play. Case in point is the wingstick. A boomerang-like device that you can bury in an oncoming enemy's face with ease. Time it right and they'll slide to a stop right at your feet, observe exhibit A below.

None of you will remember this game. Or the 2008 movie it was based on. It stands today as both one of the actually good games based on a film and a gem glistening in bargin-bins everywhere amidst all the copies of Madden 09. You can get this game for $4.99, which is a total steal. A little one-dimensional but the cover system works, it's still a pretty game, and curving bullets is just plain flat out awesome. For your comparison below are a scene from the game and the movie.

VATS, or Vault-Tek Assisted Targeting System, is that target-painting, brain splattering little toy from the Fallout Series. The updated system had us melting mutant faces with lasers and putting bandits down for dirt naps on the regular. Quite the jump from the point and click days of Fallout 1 and 2. Even then scoring a 100% and watching your enemies explode into various pieces was a dark pleasure to be enjoyed over and over. Rumor has it a Fallout 4 announcement is in the works, either for the upcoming PAX East or this year's E3 conference. We're eager to see what VATS can do in the next-gen.

Dishonored packed quite a few elegant mechanics into a neat synthesis of stealth and combat. Best among them is the Blink ability. This teleporting power made you feel like Nightcrawler if he went straight up cray and started filleting fools like steaks. Great for getting in and out of sticky situations and all-around badassery, Blink is just the tip of Dishonored' s iceberg.

"Finish Him!" are probably the most memorable, if not the most famous, words in videogame history. Mortal Kombat's has had its up and downs but with the phenomenal Mortal Kombat 9 the series has hit its stride and is set for solid installments from here on out. The latest Kombat hit shelves April, 14. Right now though it looks like Sub Zero has a train to catch. "FATALITY!"

Alien: Isolation was hands-down the most bold AAA title of 2014. One of the many big chances it took was its punishing save system. Some stamped their feet that the big mean xenomorph killed them and made them lose their progress. Instead of pressing the boo-hoo button the naysayers ought to recognize the save stations for what they are: a device for creating tension. Sure, you spend most of your time in Alien: Isolation crawling around like you've lost a contact lens but the desperation is palpable as you fight to stay alive. Games nowadays with their checkpoints and infinite continues play it safe and rarely, if ever, put players at risk. Alien took the high, hard road and committed to their vision for the game.

While switching between force powers felt like putting gloves on an octopus the Jedi games were the first to give us a true taste of what it feels like to wield the Force. Lightsabers, acrobatics, force powers, it all blended into a unique and addictive experience. The force is strong with this one.

There you have it and like all lists of things you read on the internet it is unimpeachable and applies to all times and places forever. If by some chance we missed a game mechanic be sure to point out in the comments which it is and how we are all blithering morons for not including it.

Alien Isolation Dishonored fallout Jedi Academy Jedi Outcast max payne Mortal Kombat Prince of Persia rage Sniper Elite Star Wars Wanted: Weapons of Fate

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