Super Mario Galaxy 2 Trailer | Metroid: The Other M Trailer

So there we were, just cruising along with news of how Nintendo is going to make us skinnier, healthier, smarter, more fashionable via their games and ever expanding list of peripherals when they decided to wake us up. Want some more Mario? WA-BAM! Want some new Metroid? WA-BAM!

So there we had Super Mario Galaxy 2 and at first I was a bit disappointed that Galaxy 2 is so close to Galaxy. Then it dawned on me that Nintendo may have figured out the prefect way to present Mario in 3D with this series. Mario isn’t about having a large open world to roam around in, spending his time getting from place to place. Sure, he did some of that in Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine, but Mario is at his best when he is platforming.

Look at what was the most loved aspect of Sunshine for some; the very simple puzzle sections that focused on Mario’s standard abilities. Now take that concept, slap a bit of whimsy and polish on it and there you have the Galaxy formula. Ok, ok, this probably isn’t a big or original revelation, but it certainly makes me appreciate Super Mario Galaxy 2 much more. That said, I do hope they expand the idea a little bit and give us a more connected gameplay experience. Something more akin to the world in Super Mario World where it all feels connected.

Still, there is nothing like a single player Mario game that will make me run to the store. Day one.

And then we have the new Metroid. The Other M. What is most exciting to me about this game is that there seems to be a huge amount of story involved. From what I’ve heard it’s the same people that did Fusion and Zero Mission and they are tying it all into the manga canon. How cool is that?

To me this game looks like Metroid: Jungle Beat. The graphical style seems bright and clean and the action seems fast and fun. That said, I’m not a huge fan of the Team Ninja Ninja Gaiden look of the cinematics. It’s a very generic anime style with weird rubbery lighting.

But more Metroid is usually a good thing and having a strong third party developer aboard (we all remember what good that did F-Zero) makes things even more exciting. And that also frees up Retro Studios to work on something new. Grrr, tell me now!

Anyway, both of these games look fantastic and definitely help me feel the hardcore fanboy portion of e3. Without these I still would have been happy; tons of third party Wii games look fantastic, New Super Mario Bros Wii looks fun, and Wii Sports Resort, which looks like a day one purchase. But I would have left feeling that Nintendo didn’t come to the party. Was I hoping for a little more? Yes. Was I glad I watched the conference and happy about whats coming down the pike? You betcha.