You don't realize just how good a gaming year it's been until you look back at all of the games you actually played. From physics puzzlers to ninja simulators, 2012's library was full of interesting, creative, unique experiences.

I played a lot of games last year. A few were bad. Most were good. Some were great. Those are the ones I'll remember: the games that stood out from the pack in memorable ways. So here are my ten favorite games of 2012. Presented in no particular order:

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

My personal game of the year, Virtue's Last Reward kept me up for many hours, many nights in a row. Though some—like Kotaku boss Stephen Totilo—have found the game's opaque puzzles and overwrought dialogue to be rather tedious, I enjoyed every moment of Aksys's chilling visual novel.

The Last Story

A wonderfully well-written role-playing game with pleasant British voice acting and combat that taught me how to enjoy running around and smashing the A button, The Last Story (not to be confused with Hironobu Sakaguchi's other work, Final Fantasy) is the year's best JRPG—if not the generation's.

Dishonored

I've written a lot about how Dishonored is a stellar experience, but really, all that matters is the Blink spell. There are few abilities in a video game as satisfying, as empowering, as totally game-breaking as an ability that you can use to teleport anywhere at any time. The world and art direction are just dismally gorgeous icing on the delicious Blink cake.

Persona 4: Golden

Let me sum up my feelings toward Persona 4 with an anecdote. A few nights ago, I was fighting one of the game's final bosses. After a solid 45 minutes of battling, I had taken him down to something like 10% health. I was following the same patterns: buff, attack, heal, rinse, repeat. I was ready for it to be over.

He uses one attack. Bam. My main character instantly dies. Game over. Time to start again.

If I was playing any other game, I might have quit and moved onto something else at this point. Instead, I went and killed monsters for an hour to make my characters stronger. Persona 4 is the worst. (Also the best.)

Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy

Rhythm games are fun, Final Fantasy music is fantastic, and there's something really special about a game that combines the two. Even when you're repeating the same songs ad infinitum, it's hard not to love the addictive, frenetic tapping of Theatrhythm. The name, on the other hand, is very easy not to love.

Quantum Conundrum

I enjoyed every minute of this first-person puzzler, wonky physics aside. I wish the ending had been more satisfying, but the journey was totally worth it.

Torchlight 2

Funny that the year's best Diablo game wasn't even called Diablo.

Mark of the Ninja

Forget the snappy controls and smart interface; the best part of Mark of the Ninja is that every stage feels like a puzzle with multiple solutions. Would you like to choke out that guard from behind or throw a smoke bomb so you can get past him without being seen? Ninja is a smart, tight, remarkably enjoyable game.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask

It's easy to complain about the "annualization" of video games—how companies like to milk a series cow for yearly sequels until the teat has run way too dry. But when it comes to Layton, I say bring it on: the professor's charming puzzle adventures just seem to get better and better every year.

Far Cry 3

Because shooting down pirates, running into the forest, finding myself face to face with a giant tiger, getting the hell out of dodge, finding a hang-glider, and using it to soar across the skies to safety was one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences in 2012.

Quantum Conundrum's Kim Swift (because I am tired of typing Portal creator) and her team at Airtight Games have undergone a startling epiphany—mobile phones can play games. They've launched Airtight Mobile to take advantage of this discovery, with the first of these "mobile phone games" dropping next week. It's called PIXLD.

From the official announcement press release:

PIXLD is Airtight's first release under the new Airtight Mobile brand, an innovative and unprecedented venture aiming to do the impossible: allow consumers to experience the joys of video gaming on their mobile telephones.

"Seriously, have you seen these things?" said PIXLD creative director Kim Swift, gesturing at Apple's sixth-generation iPhone. "They're like tiny computers. Tiny computers you carry in your pocket. So I'm all like, ‘I know this sounds nuts, but guys, let's put some games on there.' And they did. Bam."

Man, if only I had known this sooner I wouldn't have given away my smart phones to the homeless.

PIXLD is a stunningly simple match game in which the player is challenged to make blocks of similar shades of blue. Touching one of the small bits on the screen swaps the color of it and all the bits around it. You can see where that my pose a problem.

"Is it risky betting on an emerging platform like iOS? You bet. But I have a feeling Apple just might be onto something here," added Swift. "Buying a video game that you can play on your phone for less than a cup of coffee? That's just crazy!"

That is kinda crazy. Even crazier is the fact that PIXLD will be released next week on iTunes for the introductory price of $.99—half off of the price you can figure out using math (hint—add a penny to your end result).

We'll have more on PIXLD once we figure out how to put games on our iPhones. What, we just set them on top or something?

Delightful puzzler Quantum Conundrum will receive two new downloadable content packs this summer, publisher Square Enix said today.

Pack one, The Desmond Debacle, sticks you in a new wing of the Quadwrangle Manor to solve puzzles that center around the drinking bird Desmond. Pack two, IKE-aramba!, tasks you with rescuing the adorable Interdimensional Kinetic Entity (IKE), also in a new wing of the manor.

The Desmond Debacle ($2.99) - July 31 (Steam); August 14 (PlayStation Network); August 15 (Xbox Live)

IKE-aramba! ($2.99) - August 28 (Steam); September 11 (PlayStation Network); September 12 (Xbox Live)

Square Enix and art group iam8bit have gone and done a thing. They've paid for a TV show based on first-person puzzler Quantum Conundrum, and it's going to be hosted by Kevin Pereira.

It's called The Super Dimensional Quantum Learning's Problems and Solutions Gametime Spectacular!!, and will put contestants in a replica of the game's mansion, complete with its weird dimensions like "fluffy" and "anti-gravity".

The show is coming soon.

Quantum Conundrum, released yesterday for the PC, now has a specific date for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. PlayStation Network gets the puzzler on July 10, Xbox Live subscribers may buy it on July 11.

The game does not yet have a price on either console service but as it ran $15 on PC, that sounds like 1200 Microsoft Points/$14.99 to me.

Quantum Conundrum is a first-person puzzle game, and if that makes you think of Portal, it should. Kim Swift, the project lead on Portal is this game's designer. Jason Schreier reviewed the game for Kotaku' on PC and really enjoyed his time with it.