It really is a saying that holds some weight with how I spend my gaming hours these days. 

2011 has been one hell of a year for games, Portal 2, inFAMOUS 2, Dark Souls, Xenoblade Chronicles, Gears of War 3, Deus Ex Human Revolution and the upcoming games like Uncharted 3, Batman Arkham City and Zelda Skyward Sword all pushing the boundaries of the medium, but 2011 has also seen some old favourites return and often outshine those games mentioned. 

This time last year I looked at 2011 and was excited with all the new games coming, I didn't think I would be playing more of games I have played years ago than I do games of today, but here I am. 

Tactics Ogre Let us Cling Together kicked me off this year when it was released in February. This game was originally released in 1996 for the Super Famicom. It did get an English release on PlayStation in America, but this was the first  time the game was released in Europe. This time the game received a graphical overhaul, nothing drastic, just redrawn sprites that were optimised to take advantage of the PSP screen. Another difference was the translation, Alexander O'Smith the man who translated Vagrant Story brought to life this amazing story. The big game play innovation that was added was called the Wheel of Fortune, this gave the player an option to rewind up to 50 moves in any one battle. This made purists unhappy, but for me, it was a god send, I am often selecting the wrong unit by mistake or pressing cancel when I wasn't meant to etc, so now I was able to correct silly errors. 

One of the things that made this game so great in 1996 was left intact. That is the moral decisions the game will throw at you. This would determine the path of the game the player would take. These decisions are not only played out intelligently later in the game but they also made me stop and think hard about the choice laid out in front of you. It honestly puts games like Mass Effect and inFAMOUS' moral decisions to shame and this from a game 15 years old.  

                                                                             "The new art brings the sprites to life"

2011 is the 25th Anniversary for The Legend of Zelda and what better way to say happy birthday than by releasing the most celebrated video game of all time. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time! 

June saw Nintendo release Ocarina of Time on their fancy new Nintendo 3DS console. And what a wonderful remake this is. Nintendo upped the pretty and made the best looking 3D game on the system. Not only were the visuals updated, but Nintendo added some motion controls to the game for aiming, surprisingly these were excellent and easy to use.  

I remember when the DS was released, I said to my brother "Imagine Ocarina on the DS, with the inventory on the bottom screen for easy access" well Nintendo added this time saving feature in this 3D remake and it really helped streamline this already timeless classic.  

I certainly hope Nintendo are able to bring us Marjora's Mask and then Wind Waker to 3DS after how successfully they brought Ocarina back.

These two were just the start, stay tuned for another two games that were brought back to life in 2011.