What was the coolest *hidden* gem of E3?

Darkphibre

Hey everyone,

Every week I provide a state-of-the-union gaming presentation to 30 people in our org. I cover stuff like the latest DLC, random quotes that are in the air, and show a few good game trailers. I also try to throw in a slide on stuff like Spyborgs, Flock, Professor Layton, and other quirky titles.

E3 was big, but it was too big. I can nail the highlights in my presentation Thursday... but if I may ask... what do you think were the real hidden gems that didn't get a lot of coverage? I'm interested in your collective opinions on the little guys of E3.

-Darkphibre
Regular PAX photographer

Fig-D

Scribblenauts.

Mini Ninjas could be good.

Taramoor

Scribblenauts was probably the big surprise. Though it's coming away with a number of Game of Show recommendations, so maybe it didn't quite fly under the radar.

Delzhand

I don't know that it's necessarily a "hidden gem", but Shadow Complex certainly came out of nowhere. The news about finally getting another Layton game stateside is also great news.

Xenogears of Bore

Doing homework and a poll thread. Awesome job. Then to further my criticism let me continue this thread by posting in it my answer.

Which is of course Scribblenauts. The Monkey Island news is a distant second.

Fig-D

Shadow Complex, definitely. That one had slipped my mind. I'm more excited about Scribblenauts and Shadow Complex than I am about some of the more high-profile titles.

Darkphibre

Scribblenauts I did indeed see; I can't wait for it to come out! Mini Ninjas I covered in January with their debut trailer, as it was made of win. I see their latest work may be even better.

@Xenogears: Indeed, I worried I was breaking the mores of this forum. I don't usually frequent these wild parts, and prefer to hide in relative obscurity in PAX threads, springing forth once a year to unleash my works upon the world. I attempted to use appropriately submissive locution to convey my uncertainty. Please forgive my transgressions.

UncleSporky

Another vote for Scribblenauts. I had seen it before and thought it was a great idea, but for all intents and purposes E3 was its debut to the gaming world.

TwistedFate

I don't know if it was officially shown at E3, but there wasn't any real info on it until then, but I'm really, REALLY excited about Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.

Lunker

It's hard to really tell, since most of us didn't go to E3 and so the hidden gems remain, uh, hidden. But Shadow Complex and the Monkey Island games haven't been getting a whole lot of play. Scribblenauts is a complete jawdropping surprise but I'm excited that it isn't a hidden gem—it's getting press everywhere, and deservedly so.

I heard one 1UP Yours talking very briefly about the new PixelJunk game, Shooter, and it sounds intriguing—kind of a Solar Jetman-ish elements game with lava and water.

Lightor216

Monkey Island

Ziggymon

Probably Sin and Punishment 2 getting a western release

randombattle

I would say Crackdown 2 because it was just a tiny trailer that hardly anyone is talking about.

emnmnme

Did Sid Meier reveal anything this E3?

Fig-D

Lunker wrote: »

It's hard to really tell, since most of us didn't go to E3 and so the hidden gems remain, uh, hidden. But Shadow Complex and the Monkey Island games haven't been getting a whole lot of play. Scribblenauts is a complete jawdropping surprise but I'm excited that it isn't a hidden gem—it's getting press everywhere, and deservedly so.

I heard one 1UP Yours talking very briefly about the new PixelJunk game, Shooter, and it sounds intriguing—kind of a Solar Jetman-ish elements game with lava and water.

Hm, I'd say Scribblenauts, Shadow Complex and the new Monkey Island titles are getting a lot of press from a lot of gaming sites, but not nearly the sort of coverage that the larger titles (Halo ODST, Assassin's Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, etc.) are getting. And as far as playable Scribblenauts at E3 goes, I'd say it was a hidden gem, tucked away at the Warner Bros booth of all places.

Was Tatsunoko vs Capcom at E3? I don't hear it getting a whole lot of press following the North American announcement.

Noray

Demon's Souls. I spent way too much time playing this game at the Atlus booth, it's amazing.

Dourin

I cannot believe this thread has gotten this far with no mention of Perfect Dark for XBLA. Talk about under the radar, it was only shown behind closed doors, that I believe were behind closed doors, and got nearly zero media coverage at all. Most of which actually came after the show.

Edit: And especially after the issue with Goldeneye, this was a very pleasant surprise.

slash000

Venetica:

I It's an action role-playing game starring the daughter of death, Scarlett, who must do battle with evil forces in order to defeat an evil necromancer and save her father.

PixelJunk Shooter:

Why, it's PixelJunk Shooter, the latest model in the PixelJunk line of quality PlayStation Network titles. Rescue trapped miners while exploring the way lava and water interact with each other...or, in co-op mode, spill lava on your friends for shooting the trapped miners.

Grapple Buggy:

Nathan Fouts' Grapple Buggy immediately conjures up warm, fuzzy feelings of Bionic Commando, Super Metroid, Contra III: The Alien Wars and Blaster Master. Damn good retro company to be kept in.

Gravity Crash:

What Is It?:
While Geometry Wars might have gotten the pure twitch shooting down pat, Gravity Crash focuses on a much more finesse-based sort of shooter style. You pilot your spaceship around beautiful HD-vector graphic planets completing various objectives, from gathering resources to rescuing stranded spacemen, all the while fighting against the pull of gravity. It brings to mind classic titles like Lunar Lander combined with shooters like Defender.

The game comes with 37 planets worth of game play for both single and multiplayer action, but that's just the beginning. Gravity Crash also contains a robust yet simple level editor, with hundreds of different objects to place in order to build your own custom levels, which can then be shared with the community over PSN.

slash000

Snapshot


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EblXiO4jaDo&feature=player_embedded

Yesterday I wandered over to the quiet indiecade corner of E3 to check out Snapshot and talk to its two man development team, Kyle Pulver and Peter Jones.

The game is a side-scrolling platformer with a unique twist. At any time, you can take pictures of objects in the environment to capture them, and then re-release them from the photos to assist you in completing the levels.

For example, you can take a picture of a walking purple elephant and then re-release it, by positioning the photo on the screen, to help you push a heavy box onto a button switch. You can then recapture the elephant by simply taking another photo.

The same mechanic applies to moving crates, doors, and almost anything in the level. You can even stack items into a pile and snap a shot to hold multiple objects in one picture.

Gameplay is made more challenging with "no photo" zones and limits put on how many photos you can hold at a time.

The game is currently a PC demo that Kyle and Peter are showcasing to gain enough support to make a full blown version of the game, hopefully on multiple platforms.

"Snapshot" has unlimited gameplay possibilities and I can't wait to see this game progress.

Also, this game is being made by a whopping total of 2 people.

devoir

Torchlight got some really great reviews from people who played it. It's being developed by Runic Games, basically the former Flagship Seattle studio who were developing Mythos. It's completely new from the ground up, going to be a single player only release in the next couple of months and then a F2P MMO with non-stupid microtransactions in the next 12 to 18 months after that.

By all accounts it's got the ARPG, Diablo-esque mechanics down to a T, runs well on old hardware and looks great.

Spoit

It was briefly mentioned by the press sites, but no one really seemed to pay that much attention to Splash Damage's Brink. I'm impressed and intruiged by the concept

CarbonFire

I'm looking forward to most of the games listed in this thread so far, but most listed so far I wouldn't really call "hidden".

As far as hidden gems go, this one seems like it could be interesting.

Shatter, or the Pacman:CE treatment applied to Arkanoid:

Shatter!

Sort of a hybrid Arkanoid/Shmup/Puzzle game, PSN Exclusive.

LewieP

Shatter looks incredible.

Ozmodai

I was really floored by Singularity, as was the rest of the press team that I went to the show with. In fact we voted it as one of the best games of the show. Scribblenauts was really cool too and was very under the radar before the show and from what I hear deserves the press it's getting. Unfortunately I never got around to trying it out.

The Monkey Island remake looks really nice. While being completely true to the original game it manages to improve all the art, music, and sound in the game. Over 100 painted scenes, redone music, and the original cast came back to record the voices in high fidelity. Plus with the press of a button you can switch over to the original game's graphics and sounds. Hopefully more classic games get redone like that.

Valkyrie79

yeah, thanks for mentioning us! RPGfan called Torchlight "the best little game at E3." We got some really nice press overall and ended up winning RPGFan's Best of E3 for RPG on PC. so sweet!

We'll be at PAX, too, wooo wooo!

Valkyrie79

BTW, here's all the info on Torchlight if you're interested.


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