November 30, 2004 - With all the videogames that come out each and every month, it can be quite a difficult task to decide which title to spend your hard-earned money on. Granted you could go by our review scores alone and weed through the long list of games in search of something that scored high or low, but what if you had somewhere else to turn to?

Rather than wait until the end of the year like we normally do, your incredibly masculine friends at IGN.com have decided to employ a monthly tribute to the weeks that were. We're resolved to illustrate to our readers what we thought was the very best game for each system over the past month, and tell you exactly the reason why.

While some of us often chime in with our comments at the end of reviews, for the most part, the reviews on IGN are primarily written by one editor; in this feature we get all of the editors on a particular channel to vote for our Game of the Month. What better way to represent your channel than to speak your mind all at once?

How does it work? Simple. Any game released in the past month is eligible for the award and is taken through a battery of tests by every editor on that particular channel. After we've finished evaluating each game that comes down the pipeline, we put our heads together and decide on a single "best of" winner that's worthy of the title "IGN Game of the Month". Pretty simple, don't you think?

Now that we have the guidelines out of the way, let's move on and congratulate this month's winner...

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IGNcube's Game of the Month Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Developer:Retro
Publisher:Nintendo
Released:November 16, 2004

Why We Picked It:Metroid Prime achieved the unthinkable when released in the fall of 2002. It successfully distilled the essence of a 2D exploration/platformer and turned it into a first-person action/adventure. It's safe bet anyone who played through Prime has a hundred memories of gaming nirvana from which to choose. It plain rocked.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is no different. Refining and adding to what made Prime such a success, Echoes delivers solid gameplay and a great story, all wrapped up in juicy visuals and awesome sound design. Echoes, like Prime, is a 3D iteration of a 2D platformer. Apart from a few instances, namely boss fights, controlling Samus feels just as it should: fluid, precise and satisfying.

Movement in Echoes mirrors the same level of polish seen in every other aspect of the game. Navigating the sullen Torvus Bog or the arid plains of Agon Wastes couldn't feel any better. The boss fights are just as challenging and visually spectacular as before, with a roster of new enemies dotting the landscape. It's also a long adventure, offering some 25 hours the first time around. A terrific gaming experience all around.

Runner-Up: Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean
Developer:Monolith Studios
Publisher:Namco
Released: October 16, 2004

Why We Picked It:Baten Kaitos delivers one of the finer experiences on the GameCube. And it's arguably the best RPG on the system. If you own the system and love RPGs, go buy this game immediately. It boasts great visuals, genuine characters and a solid, albeit somewhat unoriginal, story. The combat is fast and unique, employing an interesting and thoroughly satisfying card-based system with over 1,000 cards to form your deck. The journey should last around 45 hours for the average gamer, but expect to spend a lot more time trying to find all the cards and completing all the subquests.

That's it for this month!