The Electronics Entertainment Expo, or E3 for short, is one of the biggest trade shows in the video game industry, and I’ve been going to it nearly every year since 1997.  Sure I’ve skipped a few years here and there.  Like when I didn’t have an outlet to write on for a short while between the newspaper and GamerDad.  Or when I just started a new job and didn’t have enough money or vacation time.  Or when E3 went through a bit of a downsizing phase and I didn’t feel like it was worth the trip then.  But those absences were all my choice.  I’ve been able to go nearly every year otherwise.  But for the past five years, I was denied a press pass for whatever reason.  Yet somehow, this year I was able to get a media pass even though nothing had changed.  So last week I went to E3, and here’s some articles about it!

For the most part, E3 hadn’t changed much since I went back in 2012.  The security was tighter and it was a pain in the butt to get in the first day, but was easier on subsequent visits.  Since I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth, sometimes I need help getting around so I usually take a relative to these shows and this year I took my dad again and we had a lot of fun.  I still like E3 a little better than PAX as E3 has more games I’m interested in covering, and some exhibitors treat the media better at E3.  But PAX is still a fun show, too, for different reasons.  But since I went to E3 this year, I’m sad to say I won’t be going to PAX West later as well.  Mainly because I don’t have enough vacation time at work, but also because PAX usually shows the same stuff E3 had anyway.  This was also the second year that E3 has let the public in, which I think was a mistake.  The public has shows like PAX they can go to, and PAX West is almost as good as E3 now anyway.  But it would be nice if the industry and media folks could get E3 back so we can do what we need to do without all the extra crowds.  But that’s all I have to say about that.  Let’s check out some of the games I played at the show!

Oh yeah, one disclaimer.  I’m only one person, and couldn’t play EVERYTHING at the show.  So if your favorite game isn’t in these articles, I just didn’t get a chance to play it.  Plus since GamerDad is a family-focused site, I tried to play only games that would fit our audience.  There will be some exceptions, though, but yeah, I couldn’t play everything!

LEGO DC Super Villains

One of the most fun things about the LEGO Batman games was getting to play as the bad guys, so here’s a whole game about that!  It was also one of the first games I saw before entering the show, as they had a big poster outside advertising it.

They also played it up big time at WB Games’ booth as well.

The game plays pretty much like how you’d expect a LEGO game to be.  You actually start out as a regular bad guy and can create your own look.  You agree to help Commissioner Gordon spy on Lex Luthor’s plans in return for a shorter prison sentence.  But you soon get caught up in Lex’s plan to break out of jail and steal something that can absorb super powers in the process.  By doing this, you’ll be able to get super powers for your created character as well, like heat vision in the demo.  You’ll play as other characters, too, like Lex, Solomon Grundy, The Joker, Harley Quinn, and some cheetah lady (sorry, I don’t read comic books), each with their own powers.  At the end of the demo, you’ll clash with the Justice League and an alternate universe version of the Justice League, so it looks like the bad guys are going to have their hands full!  The game comes out a little before Halloween, so it’s a perfect time to let out your dark side!  But don’t worry, it’s still a LEGO game and very silly and family-friendly.

Sonic Team Racing

SEGA had a lot of games shown, but I was only able to check out one at their booth: Sonic Team Racing.  It’s a kart racer and made by the same folks who did the last two Sonic and SEGA character racers, but this features a Sonic-only cast.  It plays like any other kart racer, as you can nab power-ups and drift and such.  The game features a team-based aspect.  I picked Tails, the best Sonic character, so my CPU teammates were Sonic and Knuckles.  As you race and pick up power-ups, you have the option to pass them along to your team, or pick up one they got.  You can also follow your teammates and get a slipstream boost, and as you race you can even activate a super boost for everyone on your team.  It was still pretty hard, though and I got last place!  The game didn’t seem as good as past Sonic racers, but it’s only a demo so maybe it’ll improve when the full game is released later this year.  At SEGA’s booth they had a little photo opportunity where you can sit in Sonic’s car, so I took a picture of that.

Elsewhere at E3 was another Sonic-related photo opportunity where you could stand inside a Sonic loop.  It was for some Sonic themed shoes or something.  Here’s a picture of that, too.

SEGA’s booth was kind of weird as they shared it with other companies like Atlus, NIS America, and others.  But it was all roped off so it was a little hard to see what was in there.  But I did dive in a few times and played some games from other companies.  Like NIS America.  I tried their upcoming SNK 40^th Anniversary Collection, which has a bunch of SNK’s arcade classics.  The neat thing is that you can also play the console versions of these games as well, and some games like Crystalis, let you play both the NES and GBC versions of the game!  The collection will come with a little over a dozen games, and you can download more for free later, which is an odd way to do a collection.  But oh well, I’m getting it anyway!  NIS also had the Switch version of Ys 8.  I’ve already played it on PS4, but it’s nice for the Switch to get another big adventure, too.  Games from other companies I played at SEGA’s weird combined booth include PM Studios’ MUSYNX rhythm game, which is coming out soon.  And Monster Boy, a 2-D platform adventure and a true Wonder Boy sequel!  I can’t wait for that one!

GungHo

They had a pretty lively booth with colorful games and costumed characters.  Here’s some near the area for the Switch version of Galax-Z.

But their biggest game they were showing off was Ninjala.  Aesthetically, it reminded me of Splatoon, as the characters are brightly colored kids in an urban environment.  But these kids are bubble gum blowing ninjas.  When you hold down the button to blow a bubble, it gets bigger and bigger and allows you to glide and climb walls.  You can pop it and sent it to other players to trap them in gum.  You can also summon an oversized baseball bat to clobber other players for points.  It had a single player and multiplayer modes, but that’s all I could figure out from it.

And another guy in costume from that game as well.

XSEED/Marvelous

They had quite a few games at their booth, but the one I tried was GalMetal.  In the game, you are the drummer in an all-girl Japanese metal band, and you must use the power of metal rock to stop an invasion of octopus aliens.  You use the Switch JoyCons to drum to the beat, but you are encouraged to make your own rhythms for a higher score.  It’ll be out later this year.

Fortnite

I’ve been hearing a lot about Fortnite lately.  They even had a huge booth at E3!  I liked the cartoony look of the game, but I don’t know if the gameplay is my cup of tea.  It’s free on the Switch right now, I wonder if I should try it?  What do you think?

This flying bus was part of the Fortnite booth.  I called it the Magic School Bus.

Bethesda

They were one of the most talked about companies at E3, and my brothers are looking forward to a lot of their games, so I took some pictures of their booth.  Here’s one of those ‘swing the hammer to ring the bell’ games at the Rage 2 section.

And here’s the Fallout man from the Fallout game series.  They had a new game of that at their booth, too.  I didn’t get to look at any of it, though, as their booth was always so crowded.

Jurassic World Evolution

This is a game where you can make your own Jurassic World theme park!  I just liked the presentation of the booth as you walked through the gates while the theme song played.  And the game is out now!

Accessories

Back when I wrote for The Dallas Morning News, not only did I write game reviews, but reviews of gaming accessories as well.  So I’m always on the lookout for accessories at E3.  And there were a lot of them, but you just don’t hear about them in most E3 coverage.  So I’m going to conclude this part of my E3 articles by doing that now!

Noblechairs

I sat in a lot of gaming chairs at E3.  Ones with lights and speakers, ones with bright colors, and ones with lots of padding.  But I think the most comfortable ones I sat in were from Noblechairs.  They were a lot simpler and were toted as more like office chairs, but I liked them the best.  They even had optional footrests you can get.  They’re designed by German engineers and were modelled after car chairs, too.  Hopefully I’ll be able to review one soon!

ASTRO Gaming

And finally, ASTRO Gaming had a headset designed after The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild, as well as a Red vs. Blue 10^th Anniversary headset.  Here are some pictures of the Zelda headphones.  They are optimized to work on the Switch, but are compatible with other consoles as well.  Both will be out later this year.

And here’s the other side.

And that’s all for now!  Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of my E3 articles, where we’ll look at more games, even Nintendo!  –Cary

Tags: Misc