Top 5 Surprises of E3 2009
With E3 2009 in the books, now is the time to do some reflecting on what we’ve gleaned from this past week. And what better way to kick things off than with a look at tshe five biggest surprises of a show that was jam-packed with surprises. Even with those that were spoiled ahead of time, it was still difficult to narrow down the list to just five items. Eliminating the likes of Halo: Reach, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow,cheap Nike shoes, and the Wii Vitality Sensor (who saw that coming?) wasn’t easy, but hime’s a look at tshe top five surprises of E3 2009.
Final Fantasy XsheV
Sony’s secret megaton announcement proved to be quite the big deal indeed. Final Fantasy XIII still is nearly a year away from release, and already the next sequentially numbered entry has been revealed. As the (unrelated) sequel to Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO from much of the same team that worked on XI. Given that all we really have to go on is a trailer, there’s not much to be said at this point. It looks gorgeous, and fans of XI will no doubt love it, but what’s in store for the rest of us? Details can’t be too far off, as the game is expected to release in 2010 on both PlayStation 3 and PC — though don’t be surprised if the game doesn’t remain a PS3 exclusive.
Read our preview of Final Fantasy XIV
Two New Mario Games For Wii
In very un-Nintendo-lsheke fashion, not one but two real Mario games (which is to say, not spin-offs or anything of the sort) were announced on Tuesday at the Nintendo press briefing. The first of these two, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, introduces multiplayer as a front-and-center feature. The typical Mario side scrolling action has been injected with support for up to four players playing cooperatively in the main game. And on the othim hand we have Super Mario Galaxy 2, sequel to what might be the single best game on Wii. Like most everything else on this list, we don’t know a whole lot about it, but the trailer we saw showed much of the same style of gameplay as Galaxy, only now with a shealthy dose of Yoshi added to the mix.
Read our preview of New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Metroid Other M
Another case of Nintendo going beyond the norm for their press conferences, Metroid Other M came as a real shocker. Not only is thime a new Metroid game in the works, but it’s being developed by the post-Itagaki era Team Ninja of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fame. After the franchise was reborn at the hands of Retro Studios, Nintendo has opted to hand the series over to a different developer after three Metroid Prime games. Team Ninja might seem like an even stranger fit for tshe sershees than Retro, but a more story-driven and action-heavy Metroid game doesn’t sound like such a bad thing, does it?
Read our interview with Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto and Team Ninja head Yusuke Hayashi
Motion Control For All
Microsoft has shunned the entire motion control fad until now, but they made a big splash with the announcement of Project Natal. Rumors of a motion controller that employed only your body have been around for some time now, but not many people were expecting a full blown demonstration of the technology to be shown during Microsoft’s press conference. It might be a bit imperfect at this point — which is to be expected, as the release of this to the public isn’t exactly around the corner — but it was an impressive demonstration nonetheless.
Sony had motion control in the PlayStation 3 from the beginning with the Sixaxis controller, but it was never a major point of emphasis when it comes down to playing most games. Cue Sony’s new magic wand demonstration. Expected to be out next spring, this tech made use of both a camera and a wand-like accessory that grants extremely precise control through your movements.
A Metal Gear Solid Trifecta
The countdown website was almost certainly counting down to a new Metal Gear game. That suspicion was officially confirmed at Microsoft’s press conference with Metal Gear Solid: Rising — an all-new Metal Gear game is headed to both the 360 and PS3 starring (to many Snake fans’ dismay) Raiden. But that’s not all. The PSP is getting what’s being called a “true sequel” to Metal Gear Solid 3 titled Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Just when it seemed that Sony and Microsoft’s conferences had blown all of the Metal Gear news there was to be had, Konami’s conference revealed yet another Metal Gear game, Metal Gear Solid Arcade. The game will be available in arcades and is based on Metal Gear Online. With all these new MGS experiences forthcoming, what better way to top things off than to allow newcomers to the series a chance to start at the very beginning: the original Metal Gear Solid is on its way to the PlayStation Network on June 18.
Disagree with our assessment of what the biggest surprises were? Be sure to share your top five in the comments and let us know where we went awry.
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