To pass the slow weeks of January, the Cooperatives are playing through their 2012 backlog. This week, we bashed the brains out of Hotline Miami.

The indie game pummels together bits of various genres — strategy, roleplaying, adventure, dual-stick shooters — into one of the most disorienting experiences of last year. It simply doesn't play like anything else.

The brain-singeing acid blip soundtrack and the eye-tearing 2D glitch graphics channel bad drug trips and snuff films. The story, which is both humane and meta, reveals itself like a rotten onion, with smelly, awful truth waiting in its core.

Which is to say, we like it. In my case, a lot.

Where did Hotline Miami rank on your personal end-of-year list? And where would you set the sequel? Let's discuss!

For more episodes, visit our Cooperatives page.