Our overall impressions of E3

This was my very first E3, and now will certainly not be the last. When I was young I often heard about how E3 was an “unbelievable experience”, and that most certainly held true this year. This year saw the debut of a lot of great things, both in software, and hardware. We got to meet all sorts of celebrities, from gaming legends like Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka, to internet celebrities like Ryan Cassidy (GoNintendo’s RMC) and Angry Joe, to renowned wrestlers. The people at the SEGA booth where great, welcoming us in a fun but proffesional manner, helping us get content and info that we could then deliver to you guys.
Almost as important as the people, however, where the games, and this year was unbelievable, even by my buddy Jason’s standards. And he’s been to a LOT of E3s. For one, this is the year we finally saw the grand return of Nintendo. After years of giving us underwhelming E3s and pandering to the casual market, Nintendo finally delivered in full force, from Zelda to Kirby, and debuted an absolutely spectacularly looking new handheld that drove me to buy new stock in the company. Not only was this the year of Nintendo, but also the year of the platformer. Beyond Sonic, Epic Mickey, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Bonk, and Lost in Shadow all left impressions on us. The platformer genre, a genre that our blue friend is a part of, has long been neglected, but this E3 the genre has come back in full force, and it was a wonderful thing to see.

But, more then all of this, this year has also marked the return of our little blue pal, Sonic the Hedgehog. This year we got to play not one, not two, but FOUR Sonic games, all of which where impressive, but stuck to the roots. Sonic Adventure, the release of Sonic’s first critically acclaimed 3D title, has been tightened and improved, with many of it’s niggling bugs removed. Sonic 4, while it still has some issues that keep it from being just like the classics, is a far cry from the “Sonic Rush 3” many screamed it was going to be, and is looking to be a very fun, physics driven platformer. Perhaps the biggest impression was left by the newest game, Sonic Colors, which looks to put the whole “Sonic can’t do 3D” nonsense to bed once and for all. Not to mention, it’s producing a very different, but equally as fun DS version.

When Jason can say he played Donkey Kong Country Returns with Takashi Iizuka, you should get an idea of just how much fun E3 was this year. I encourage you all to check out SEGAbits for our impressions on the SEGA side of things. We’re not quite done with E3 on TSS either. We’ve got some more write ups to do, which hold some exclusive (I think) info on a few games. So stay tuned ;).