This week's installment of GamesRadar's venerable "Top 7" list covers the top 7 games of the year so far in terms of raw awesomeness, and bolstered by the games' dreaded metacritic average. 

What ended up as the #1 game of 2009 (so far)?  Street Fighter IV.  GamesRadar gave it a 10/10 review, but it wasn't just them--SFIV is actually the highest rated game on any console this year.    

That score is a pretty staggering endorsement on its own, but that's got nothing to do with why Street Fighter IV is the game of the year for me. 

Sure, you could talk about the stunning visuals, or the new game mechanics, or the fact that it has essentially infinite replayability, but for me, it's not about what's IN the game at all.  Street Fighter's genius is about what the game brings out in the people that play it. 

Ono-san describes Street Fighter as a "fighting tool," and he's right.  You use the tool to try and beat the opponent, but along the way--almost involuntarily--you end up expressing yourself.   This is rare anywhere, and especially in gaming.  The more time you spend with the game, the more your personal style is expressed in the way you play, so IMO, SF is secretly a medium for self-expression, all wrapped around some ink-splattered face-punching. 

SFIV isn't about what's in the game.  What other games brings out this kind of intensity from players, this kind of spectacle, and this kind of visceral emotion? 

All of this is immediately obvious to anyone that's spent time with people in the vibrant, irrepressibly awesome Street Fighter community at a live event.  You'll see laughing, crying, trash talking, camaraderie, joking, raw emotion, and the glory of true human achievement. 

The great SF players are routinely described as artists by the people that know and understand them, and there's a reason why.  Even in the hands of an elephant, aspects of a painter's personality comes through right away. Not everyone chooses Guile, and no two that do choose Guile play in the same way.  Just like painting, great skill allows the masters to convey something amazing or unique in a language unique to the medium. 

Street Fighter is a mirror, reflecting and amplifying some of my favorite bits of the human experience, and I love it.  Street Fighter isn't a game you play to beat--it's not a finite experience you have, finish, and walk away from, akin to blockbuster films.  It's a journey. It's an adventure.  It's a path towards enlightenment.  It's a way to learn about others, and about yourself: your fears, your weaknesses, your blindspots, and your strengths. 

If all that sounds like a lot of hot air--no problem:

Shoryuken!