Let's face it everyone... Nintendo just flat out wins at E3 this year. Microsoft had a good showing with alot of new games, but nothing new or surprising. Sony announced pretty much nothing that didn't elicit a big "yawn" save for the outrageous price ($500 core, $600 premium). Nothing on the PS3 looked all that revolutionary, but some things (like Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain demo) showed an excellent level of refinement. Overall, though, they just seem to be showing the same old stuff, but prettier and in HD.
     Nintendo, on the other hand, is blowing the roof off the place with the Wii. Even if the graphics aren't as advanced as the PS3 or X-Box 360, they're quite beautiful and the gameplay mechanics are all extremely compelling. Super Mario Galaxy controls by moving around with the analog stick, and using the remote to gesture at things and pick up objects. Madden has you running around with the analog stick, gesturing pass and kicking motions, moving your left hand around to juke in the running game, and using your right hand to stiff-arm while running. For the first time since 1993 I'm actually thinking of picking up a Madden game, if for no other reason than to bring it to a video game night.
     Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been announced and hot-damn it looks good. New characters include Metaknight, Pit, Zero-Suit Samus, Wario, and Solid Snake, and the Nintendogs make an appearance as a summon/weapon (like the pokemon in Melee) The graphics also look significantly better, and I know that it's only running on an early dev kit (the dev kits are rumored not to be running at the Wii's full speed). I'll be calling around to the various gamestops in the area and checking to see when they'll take Wii preorders. I don't think it'll be for a while (which sucks because they were taking 360 pre-orders before E3 last year), but I want to be first on the list.
     Anyhow, I'm gonna get some sleep. Watching E3 videos has pushed this post back to 2 AM and I'm just plain beat.