Damion Schubert certainly thinks so. After getting past my reservation about it being a three hour (not counting bonus modes) pack-in with a few much larger games, I think so, too. Strikes against it:

• It’s three hours long. Actually, that seemed about perfect. Halo 3’s single-player campaign was around 10 hours, and while great, it could have been streamlined by a couple hours (and probably would have been if people didn’t still feel like they have to aim for at least 10 hours of play time).
• It’s not a totally new concept: the first 3D portal puzzler was Narbacular Drop, whose creators joined Valve to help create Portal.

In favor of it being game of the year? It’s perfectly paced, with perhaps the smoothest learning curve I’ve ever seen. Like a star athlete or a virtuoso performer, Portal’s player education seems effortless, but check out the developer commentary to get a feel for just how much work went into making the experience so smooth. Beyond the gameplay, Portal has one of the best nemeses in recent memory, plus some endearing (and less fleshed out) bit enemies.

Zelda: Twilight Hourglass is a reasonable contender: it’s the classic Zelda formula, with your arrow puzzles and bomb puzzles and so on, with all the neat little combos that keep your mind cranking away. It also adds some great new twists, and uses the DS in rewarding and innovative ways. (Blowing out torches? Awesome.) I enjoyed Halo 3, Bioshock, and TF2 quite a bit, I’m probably missing a number of titles from earlier in the year, and I haven’t played Assassin’s Creed yet. It’s been a strong year. But I don’t think there’s another title that surprised, excited, and entertained me quite as much as Portal.

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