30Ninjas’ Top Ten Reasons to Be Excited About E3: Fighting and Family Edition

Share on Facebook posted 06-09-10 by Julina Tatlock

Attention all gamers, 30Ninjas is going to E3, and when we get done drooling over the software lineup ourselves, we are going to bring you all the updates about the hottest games to be coming out in the coming year. Of course, we can’t avoid a tiny bit of personal bias creeping into our reports, so it’s time that you knew a little more about us. These are the games that we personally are excited to see at this year’s E3.

Julina
Frighteningly, my gaming preferences are an accurate reflection of me: an MMA fan, Tae Kwon Do practitioner and a mother of 3. I like FPS and fighting games and am not afraid of a little violence, but I am also attracted to whimsy, creativity and a good story. My biggest problem is that between work and the kids, I don’t have enough time to finish games and that bugs the shit out of me. That said, these are my top picks for this year’s E3. Enjoy!

10. The Conduit 2

As a family gamer, my main console of choice is the Wii, and The Conduit proved that hardcore shooters do have a place on Nintendo’s little white console. It was a great first attempt by Sega at fostering the online Wii community and while The Conduit certainly had its flaws, it was like nothing we had ever seen before on the console. Now, The Conduit 2 is about to come out, and I am hoping Sega has learned from their mistakes, and is set to make a shooter that can give Modern Warfare a run for its money. Remember, the Wii has the largest player base on the market right now. Convincing motion-controlled first-person-shooters may just be the thing the Wii needs to pull the hardcore crowd into that player base.

9. Super Scribblenauts

Scribblenauts took last year’s E3 by storm. The ability to write anything on the screen and then see that appear in the action of the game was amazing to the casual and hardcore crowds alike. This year, we are going to get our first peek at Super Scribblenauts, which can only be much more awesome. Hopefully, the developers have learned from their mistakes in the control interface and have added yet more words to spontaneously pop into existence via your magical scribble pad. This along with some new and innovative puzzles would make me and the great Cthulhu very happy.

8. Okamiden

Okami was a great game for the PS2 and Wii that had innovative gameplay based on drawing onto the world around you. Even though the game was great, I couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t put it on the DS which has a touch screen and stylus that was practically created for drawing-based gameplay. It looks like Capcom listened to me, as Okamiden, the only sequel to Okami, will be DS exclusive. Honestly, the game looks pretty awesome, and we can only hope that there will still be interest in the franchise by the time it comes out.

7. Move Party

I like Wii Sports. It was probably the most played game I had back when I first got my Wii. I’m not ashamed of it. Well, Move Party is supposed to do everything Wii Sports did but better, and I want to see if Sony can deliver on their promise. A lot of people are saying that the Playstation Move might end up making the Wii totally obsolete, and that’s entirely possible, but until they can give me a two player tennis game that keeps me amused for months, I will stay unconvinced.

6. NBA Jam

Max is our resident retro expert, so I’m stealing this one from him. I’m not big on sports games, but the original NBA Jam was fun to play no matter who you were. Dunking from half court was awesome, and the fast paced two-on-two gameplay interspersed with almost anime-like exaggeration was enough to keep anyone playing. Then of course there was big head mode, low gravity mode, and the ability to play as Bill Clinton. Let’s face it, NBA Jam was a goofy game, and it would be awesome to play it all over again with a couple gameplay changes and updated graphics. Honestly, why not?

5. Fallout: New Vegas

Does anyone care about Fallout anymore? I do! Fallout 3 was a big hit and then there was expansion after expansion after expansion after expansion. Truth be told, I just stopped caring about Fallout 3, but I never stopped caring about Fallout as a franchise. Fallout: New Vegas says it’s going to be different. How? Well, no one really knows, but I’m excited. Come on Bethesda we know you can do more than make the same game over and over and over again. You are better than that. Give us the Fallout we all remember, and let me set fire to Harold again.

4. The MMA Games

Considering how mainstream MMA has become, it’s surprising to me that UFC Undisputed took so long to appear. It probably has something to do with how long good games take to produce. Undisputed has decent gameplay and was extremely customizable, but there are still some bugs to work out (not surprising since it’s first out of the gate). UFC Undisputed 2 is coming out and I’m particularly looking forward to trying out the “Career Mode” of personalizing your fighter more by choosing the style of fighting (Sambo, Karate and Greco-Roman Wrestling.) UFC Undisputed has a new competitor this year: EA Sports MMA which is taking the Strikeforce banner and is advertising gameplay that is far different from THQ’s UFC title. Which one will win the MMA wars? I don’t know but I’ll sure as hell play both of ‘em. If you want to know more about the Strikeforce game, check out Max’s article from his junket to Nashville to meet the developers. I have a tip for game developers: the first MMA game that puts Dana White in the cage for me to fight, wins.

3. Little Big Planet 2

Little Big Planet was awesome. It gave us all the tools to make our own platform game, and we did. There are over two million user generated levels on the Little Big Planet servers today, and that number is still growing. However, Little Big Planet 2 is taking it one step further. Instead of just giving us tools to make stages, Little Big Planet 2 is going to give us the tools to make whole games. From platformers, to racing games, to shoot ‘em ups, to RPGS, Little Big Planet 2 will let us make them all. This is rapidly looking to be the future of social gaming. Soon, we may only be sold game developer kits and the gaming community can make all the levels for us.

2. Project Natal

Honestly… I just want to see how well Natal works. The camera supposedly tracks all of your actions and that’s cool but does it work well enough for me to care? About 8 years ago I went to a graduate gallery showing at ITP, NYU’s graduate technology program and saw the basic technology of a camera mirroring onto a screen everything in its field of vision so I can see how, years later, a more sophisticated version would work (not to mention the advances in vfx motion capture technology). The demos show Natal being able to control everything from facebook to twitter, almost turning your Xbox into a virtual reality machine. Sounds cool but how well does it work?

1. Microsoft’s Big Lineup

Microsoft is honestly putting out too many games this year for me to choose just one to put on my list. Fable III, Gears of War 3, Halo: Reach, they are all just too awesome to choose between. So here is my big cop out, I’m putting Microsoft itself at the top of this list. People are saying that this year is going to be Sony’s big year to take the gaming throne, but I wouldn’t count Microsoft out just yet.