Here Comes Chrono Trigger DS
Wario Land: Shake It! Continues To Impress

Are We Excited Yet?

E3 Media and Business SummitNow that the calendar has rolled into July, I'm starting to get ramped up for E3 Media and Business Summit.  I'll be attending the show again this year as part of the Kombo team, and while assignments and appointments are still being hammered out, I have my own list of games with which I'm hoping to get a few minutes of hands-on time.  Oddly enough, at the moment I'm more excited about some of the various third-party projects than I am about Nintendo's own rumored titles. 

I have very high hopes for Ghostbusters (which, as I've said in the past, I need to be good), and while I'm more interested in the Sony PlayStation 3 version, I'd also like to see how the Nintendo Wii version is coming along.  Sonic Unleashed has a lot of positive buzz going for it, and the idea that Sega and Sonic Team have finally figured out how to make Sonic work in today's modern 3D gaming environment leaves me hopeful.  Then there's a pair of surprising projects from Capcom and Konami.  I'm most curious about Mega Man 9 which I really hope takes me back to 1990 with its retro flair.  There's just something about that original 8-bit Mega Man design that is so timeless and familiar.  Castlevania Judgment, on the other hand, is going to be fantastically amazing or pitifully awful.  I just don't see that game landing on neutral ground.  The same could be said for Street Fighter IV, but I'm more optimistic about that one.  Speaking of Castlevania, hopefully Order of Ecclesia for the Nintendo DS will be there in some form.  Both the new 3D Bionic Commando adventure and the remixed Bionic Commando Rearmed must put in appearances.  I want a few minutes with Chrono Trigger DS, but Square-Enix can be unpredictable with exactly what is available for a demo.  I can't forget about Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts for the Microsoft Xbox 360, but that's not as high on my list as I'd expected.

Wario Land: Shake It! Of course, then there's Nintendo.  I don't want to let slip anything I'm not supposed to talk about yet, so let's just stick with things that have been officially announced.  The Nintendo project about which I'm most excited is Wario Land: Shake It!, although I'm concerned that it may be relegated to a background slot in the grand E3 scheme of things.  It's not the most visually impressive or casual-friendly game compared to some of the company's other offerings.  Kirby Super Star Ultra for the DS intrigues me, and of course I'll have to spend a little time with the new Wii baseball title, Mario Super Sluggers.  I'm sure there will be a new casual-oriented title that I'll have to try, but I'm hoping that a certain game geared to the hardcore faithful will provide a fantastic counterbalance to the inevitable second wave of Wii Balance Board games. 

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