New Super Line-Up

While Nintendo's press conference may have left Zelda fanboys wanting more, (and please stop whining, Wii Zelda is coming at some point), there was no shortage of love for Super Mario Bros. fans. With three marked different titles coming down the line, Nintendo seems to be planning make fall '09 the season of Mario.

Being a fan of the DS incarnation, New Super Mario Bros Wii easily excites me the most. While definitely maintaing the look and feel of the NSMB DS, Nintendo has maintained these will be two different games altogether.

What I find really iinteresting is the four-player co-op that the game promises, which is as competitive as cooperative. Up to four people can play together as Mario, Luigi and two version of Toad (seriously, they couldn't find any other companions for the Bros?), there are co-op moves such as the ability to carry other players or use them as step-stools to hop to point otherwise unaccessible, and the power-ups aretypically handed out in fours though it's up to the each player to grab them.

Yet, at the end of rounds scores are tallied up which add a competitev flare to the game. If you're feeling a little bastardly, someone can front-run a bit and make life difficult for anyone trailing too far behind on screen. So depending on who're you're playing with, the game sets itself up to played in a few different manners.

The Mario Brothers will also make an obligatory handheld appearance in the form of Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for the DS and DSi. The game start with the rather disturbing set-up of Fawful tricking Bowser into eating a magic mushroom resulting in the King of Koopas inhaling everything around him, including Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach. The resulting game tells two co-dependent stories: Bowser's attempt to regain control of his castle and the brothers Mario's attempt to save the Princess and escape the inner-workings of Bowser. The game allows the freedom to switch at will between stories and certain actions from the Mario Bros. will be needed to cause Bowser to do things he needs to solve puzzles in this own struggle.

At this point, the least is known about Super Mario Galaxy 2, which is the only of the trio of titles not to release this fall. From what we can gather of the trailer, it doesn't seem to stray too far for the gameplay formula of the original. It does add however the popular Yoshi as an ally to Mario in his quest. MTV Multiplayer reports that Miyamoto is 90% - 95% new material and was only pushed to 2010 because of the release of New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Come Together, Fall Apart, Go DJ

E3 had no shortage of music games shown off, but none may have wowed as much as The Beatles: Rock Band. Playing much like Rock Band 2, the game will be available in a package with guitar and drum accessories -which so far have received mixed reviews from outlets- resembling the actual instruments used by the band. The redesign of the drum uses a screen to feign the appearence of a real bass drum to acheive the look of Ringo Starr's Ludwig drums. Being released in tandem with the a collection of the legendary bands music, the safe to assume this front-runner of this fall's music games.

As an odd contrast of Rock Band games, LEGO Rock Band aims to add the distinct LEGO series sense of humor and customization to the popular music franchise. Published by Warner Bros. and MTV Games, LEGO offers a wider array of artist from the Jackson 5 to Foo Fighters to Pink. Amongst the challenges in the game aside from just playing the music is destroying skyscrapers and giant robots. This is an odd meshing of franchises to say the least but one that'll easily appeal to kids.

Activision, not to ever be forgotten in the music game genre put their guitars to the side to celebrate the launch of their news music franchise, DJ Hero. Holding a concert in featuring Jay-Z and Eminem -both slated to contribute to a special edition of the game with an advanced version of the game's turntable controller and 2 CD compliation of their music with new mixes. As Guitar Hero used a guitar controller to simulate the experience of being a rock star, DJ Hero's turntable controller is intended to give players to feeling of being a DJ. Complete with a cross-fader, effects dials, sample buttons; the game gives cues to scratching and other effects that players must master the progress in the game, compete with other in DJ battles, or play co-op with a USB mic and the Guitar Hero controller.

Activision is also slated to release Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero in addition to DJ Hero this fall.

Konami Press Conference Blog, video games

Close on DDR for 360/Wii/PS3. 8 directional arrows. 150 songs for PSN/XBL, and 8 directional mat. Coming Fall 09. That's it.

SH:SM. No canned sequences.Enemies attack by clinging till they bring you down and smother you.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. No combat, puzzles. uses Wiimote. Wii/PSP/PS2. Coming this Fall.

Deca Sports 2: has hockey, tennis, and kendo amongst other games. Still pretty much in the Wii Sports vein.

Wireway: 48 levels; lots of star collections; alien, dinosaur and kitten(?) baddies.

Wireway is next: DS puzzler. Will slingshot main character (Wiley) with stylus off wires he grabs onto in levels.

DDR: Master tracks, board-gamelike mode. 60 PS2 tracks. Wii-version supports balance board. Pushing it as a workout.

Karaoke Revolution next. Fall 09 PS3/360/Wii. Customizable avatars.

Saw to release in October.

Up next Tobin Bell (Jigsaw) on the Saw game.

C:LoS info from producer Dave Cox: Open world action, theme of retribution and salvation, MercurySteam/Kojima collabo.

"Mask" reveal: Patrick Stewart narrating. God of War style with a whip it seems. Castlevania: Lords of Shadows, 2010 for 360 and PS3!

MSG Rising: Will be PS3/360/PC. As we knew, follows Raiden. Developed by "youngblood" at Kojima Productions.

Goodnewss, two people can get under the cardboard boxes in Peacewalker. 2010 release, True sequel. Naked Snake's story.

Kojima Title 3: Metal Gear Rising. (Four will probably be whatever "Mask" is)

Title 2: The previously announced Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker.

Kojima title 1: Metal Gear Arcade. Coin-op game using googles and 3D. Hits Japan this year, looking to go worldwide.

Kojima comes onstage early. With news for 4 new games.

MGS4 goes PS3 Greatest Hits on June 16th.

Opening montage: Metal Gear, Silent Hill, Winning Eleven, Saw, Pop 'N' Music amongst other stuff seen already.

Square Enix FFXIV Conference Blog

About the free to play rumors circulating: No pricing has been set as of yet. And that's it. Pretty much a FFXIV session.

No porting of characters from IX to XIV (makes sense, different worlds). Can transfer friends lists however.

Specifically, the Galka fighting scene in the trailer was in-engine.

Parts of trailer at Sony's press conference were pre-rendered and parts were from the in-game engine.

Simultaneous worldwide release for XIV. Multi-platform and multi-region beta coming.

Making more content for solo players as well as large scale battles as were in FFIX.

FFXI will be concurrently supported with FFXIV. At least another year of support (content) planned.

FFXIV: Set in a different world so different races. However, the races are similar as not to alienate FFXI players.

That was about FFXIV by the way. The start of this conference seems focused on that game.

Exclusivity update. It's coming to PS3 and PC. They are considering other hardware. (Xbox not completely out of the question yet then.)

Panel consisting of Nobuaki Komoto, Hiromichi Tanaka, and Shinju Hashimoto.

Rundown of the Square Enix lineup as we know: FFXIII and FFXIV, Dissidia, FFC:CB, Front Mission Evolved, KH: 358/2 Days, Nier, Order of War, Supreme Commander 2, FFIV: TAY, and FFCC: MLAADL

Great joke from G4TV.com (credit Brian Leahy): " I think the localization team for FFXIII is running this event." (running late)

Pretty interested in seeing what comes out of Square. The FFXIV online caught me off guard yesterday. Wonder what other surprises are here.

Square Enix Press Conference at 1PM Central. Should be able give some updates as it comes along.

Sony Press Conference Twitter

Gotta say, pretty happy with all three conferences.

God of War III demo being shown off. March 2010 release. No one wanted to see that demo end.

The Last Guardian. Project Trico unveiled. Yeah...I'm intrigued. Confused, but intrigued.

Modnation Racers. Looking like LittleBigRacer. Which is promising.

PS3's entry into the motion control trend. Looks like a Pez dispenser. PS Eye used as a sensor. 1 to 1 tracking. 3D pointing. Potential...

Final Fantasy XIV. Sony exclusive (heard THAT one before) Looks like it's going back a pastoral setting.

FFXIII trailer. Sooooooo pretty. Whoa....FFXIV?

ACII demo. Liking the Di Vinci glider. Smoke bomb's awesome. Battle's looking fun. Totally looking forward to it this fall.

Sweet. More Assassin's Creed 2.

Rockstar present Agent. PS3 espionage exclusive.

PSN Final Fantasy VII US release official. 6.5 million on Home worldwide. Glad it's coming along.

Resident Evil coming to PSP next year. 09 will see Motorstorm, LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: FTB 3, SoulCalibur and of course Hannah Montana.

Kojima returns. Solid Snake coming back to PSP. Kojima writing the script and Kojima productions main team working on MGS: Peace Walker.

GT PSP amazing. No surprise at all. Oct. 1 release.

Video delivery service native to PSP now, thankfully. Liking the direction PSP is going with media at least.

Like that they've made the choice to put new games out on UMD and digital distribution. PSP Go $249 in Oct.

Media Go to make media management easier on your PC and PSP. Sense Me to analyze music to suggest more.

PSP Go aka. "Worst Kept Secret of E3."

Kaz Hirai out to talk PSP.

Eh...hopeful but still not sure how it will go when officially out.

M.A.G. live demo coming up. Wonder if they can quell my skepticism.

Gorgeous-looking game. Really good-looking game.

Showing off Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Multiplayer Beta starts at midnight. Showing single player now.

PS2 off ten year life-cycle to however long people will buy it (makes sense). 100 new titles for the year.

Tretton starting off cracking jokes about press leaks. Sony knows a little something about it.

Sony's starting now