So its that time of the year, when the discussions begin about the game of the year. This has been an unusually big year for games. Each platform released a lot of great titles, which rated pretty high with gamespot. So is the best rated game, the game of the year? Under normal circumstances, I would agree. The best rated game is the game of the year. That would give the honors to GTA: San Andres this year. Obviously there were many big hitters this year, namely, Halo 2, Metroid Prime 2, Doom 3, Half Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3. The highest rated multi-platform game this year was Burnout 3 and should also be considered for Game of the year. But I'm here to make the argument that the best game of the year was Ninja Gaiden.

Ninja Gaiden rated a 9.4 with gamespot a mere 0.2 off the year leading 9.6 that was scored by GTA: San Andres. The problem obviously is that Ninja Gaiden was rated on 03/02/04, the release date of the game. Since then there have been 2 updates to the game, that add unbelieveable amount of replayablity and more unique challenges. The first update named Hurricane Pack 1, added a new weapon, loads of new enemies and a completely new gameplay style. In the original game, players could just block and counter a lot of the enemies moves, but with the addition of the Hurricane Pack 1, a lot of the enemies got block breaker moves, and therefore it was not possible to just hold the block button down. Also, there was the introduction of the Intercept move, which would reward exact reflexes, and timing of the block button.Hurricane Pack 1 also fixed the issue many people had with the camera, though, I would have to say, that once you get used to the original camera it not really as bad as people say. Hurricane Pack 1, didn't add new environments, the game story remained the same, only the way you approached combat changed, but because of the new enemies the challenge was competely new.

Then came Hurricane Pack 2. This was basically a new 5 Phase challenge, which added a new environment, some new enemies, and gave some old enemies new moves. Also, it added a new main boss, which by all accounts is the insanely tough. Hurricane Pack 1 & 2 make this already challenging game insanely hard. Just based on the fact that Ninja Gaiden scored a 9.4 without the Hurricane Packs, I would definitely think that with the Hurricane Pack additions, Ninja Gaiden can easily surpass GTA as the best rated game of the year. The Hurricane Packs fixed issues that people complained about, and added so much more to an already jam packed game, that it is hard to argue that it is the Best Game of the Year.

PS: I wish gamespot would re-review Ninja Gaiden with the Hurricane Packs, cause I'm just curious where it would rank.