Adrian Ling

June 2nd – June 4th, those days marked a big moment in my life. The 2009 edition of the E3 brought us some nice and also disappointing stuff. The return of the classic old-school E3 style was a good detail coming from the organizers of the event that allowed us to have a more pleasant and joyful time during our L.A. Convention Center stay.

First we had the Nintendo’s Press Conference on the first day. Everything about what were going to be showed off in there was a mystery. I’m sure that the 90% of the people in there expected to see some advances and footage of a new Zelda for the Nintendo Wii. Unfortunately that didn’t happen, but that didn’t mean the end of the world because some other really good announcements were present in the briefing too. In first place we have New Super Mario Bros Wii, a game that at first glance could be disappointing because we are not used to see 2D Mario games in our home consoles anymore, but I have to say that after playing it my perception of the game changed radically. The game is fun, addicting and very entertaining, especially when you play it with other people.

Then we had the announcement of Golden Sun DS, a game that nobody expected to be announced, because fans of the series gave up their hopes on a sequel long time ago. Unfortunately the demo on the show floor was so empty of gameplay that we can’t actually have a good verdict of it. However, for what can be seen in the trailer and images, the game looks very promising, just as its predecessors.

The conference was coming to an end and some other games that we already knew about were also showed off. Our hopes for a big surprise started to fade away, especially after the announcement of the ridiculous accessory, the Vitality Sensor. It was then, when the moment for not only one but two big games to be announced arrived; Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were indeed the stars of the briefing. These two games are a clear example of Nintendo to show to the people that they know exactly which games are the ones that people want. In one side we have Metroid: Other M, with the return of the series to the 2D, exactly when Metroid titles were in their height and in the other side we have Mario Galaxy 2, a sequel of one of the most successful Mario games in the whole video games history.

The time to try games arrived. Some of the most remarkable games exhibited on the different booths and that I had the chance to play were:

- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: I’m still unsure if I liked it or not. The game was fun in the dungeon part because of all the cool things you can do with your stony partner, but the boss and the train parts were both boring and predictable that makes you think that Nintendo has ran out of new ideas for portable Zelda titles. However my hopes are not faded away entirely because probably Nintendo will surprise us with a good final product.

- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories: A game that really impressed me because of its quality to make you piss your own pants. A very well done remix of the original but with its own peculiarities that at first makes you very skeptical because of its peculiar gameplay, but after you play it, the perception you have of horror games will change radically. 

- The Conduit: What surprised me more of this game was its own options to customize the sensitivity of the controller without even having a Wii MotionPlus plugged. This game looks so promising because of its good response with the controller, the depth story and its own online multiplayer mode that I’m sure it will become a must-have game for this year.

There were some other interesting games that I played, but you can read my hands on articles in the news section to know more about them. Now I would like to talk about the Miyamoto’s roundtable. The privilege we had of been there and know the man who started it all cannot be measured. At first we thought that nothing new was going to come out from the conference but then a surprise was revealed; an art image from the Zelda Wii that Miyamoto showed off. Speculations about it started to flow in all video games sites and blogs. What’s the meaning of that strange creature and where will this new Zelda take place? Those are things that only time will say, but for now the official announcement of a new Zelda is enough for me.

Some other cool stuff was announced in other conferences during the E3. The Natal Project from Microsoft promises to break with all the barriers for video games and of course Sony didn’t want to be left behind and also announced its own motion sensing controller. In the Konami conference we were able to see how Hideo Kojima announced three new Metal Gear titles and also Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, a 3D Castlevania game that promises to break the conception that gamers have of the tri-dimensional Castlevania titles released for the PS2.

All in all, this E3 brought us some neat surprises that will make of 2009 a great year for video games. I’m sure that little by little, the E3 expo will be turned again on what it was some years ago and that we will see it on its most glorious days in a near future. By now, we can only chill and enjoy with the games we have available, with the illusion always in our minds of all the games that we will have in our hands both in a near and a far futrue.