If you're anything like some of the editors at GameSpot, you probably bought at least as many downloadable games as retail games in 2011. The value for money offered by the best downloadable games, coupled with the ease with which you can add them to your collection, makes them difficult to resist for those of us with a penchant for bargains and for moving from our couches as infrequently as possible. Despite starting our discussions with a list of 10 games, narrowing the nominees down to five wasn't especially difficult this year because, at least in our opinion, there were some real standouts.

For those of you who are interested, the five games that we loved enough to discuss but not quite enough to keep were Zeit Squared, Ms. Splosion Man, From Dust, Section 8: Prejudice, and the game formerly known as Trenched. Honestly, choosing between some of these games is like having to choose between your children.