Best of E3 2012

With all of the big E3 press conferences over I have put together a list of the games shown that I'm excited about and is very likely to purchase. They are the following:

New Super Mario Bros U (WiiU)
Rayman Legends (WiiU)
Epic Mickey Power of Illusion (3DS)
New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS)
Paper Mario Sticker Star (3DS)
Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon (3DS)

They all have somethings in common, things that are very revealing about my fairly narrow preferences when it comes to video games. They are all for Nintendo platform, 4 out of 6 are even first party Nintendo titles and all those first party titles are Mario games. 4 out of 6 are side scrolling platforming games with the other two (Paper Mario & Luigis's Mansion) arguably being some sort of platforming hybrids.

It should be very clear from this list that I am absolutely in love with Mario, he is my favorite video game character. Not so much for his 'brilliant' character design but for the consistent quality of the titles bearing his name.

As I have gotten older my tastes in games have become ever more conservative, I love Nintendo games because they play and most importantly feel the same way Nintendo games always have. Sure there are added gimmicks to change up the experience but the essence stays the same. You might have noticed that Pikmin 3 is not on my list, even if this is a Nintendo title it is a bit too unorthodox for my taste.

Epic Mickey and Rayman Legends are not Nintendo games but both are 2d side scrollers, a genre I was raised on and with obvious appeal to someone like me who is not fully comfortable with the turns main stream gaming has taken the last two generations.