Game play is as intensely kinetic as you’d expect from this classic style of fighting game. And while using the Wii remote sideways takes a little getting used to after years of knowing the feel of the standard arcade joystick/console configuration, the game does not disappoint. Okay, I do have to admit that I prefer a more strategic action type of game, but I can never say no to a good button-masher. And Tatsunoko vs Capcom fits the bill perfectly. I won’t pretend to have any technical skill when it comes to these games, so my only worry about the game play happened when I handily defeated 12 pairs of foes with relative ease in Arcade mode using Ken the Eagle and Jun the Swan (well, they DO kick a lot of ass…). But then I tried Survival mode using Morrigan and Chun-Li, going a solid 26 rounds (though not easily) undefeated against every opponent in every locale many times over. Maybe I’m just that good. Just don’t ask me how I unleashed that explosive 42 hit attack for the third time in one match. I don’t know how I did it once.

I’m no expert on most Japanese animation icons, but I grew up with Gatchaman (known as G-Force in the US) and played my share of Street Fighter arcade games at the mall. Other than those characters, Mega Man and Viewtiful Joe, I had no idea what to expect from every other oddly outfitted man, woman, robot, demon, cyborg, and little girl with a broom crammed onto the cover of the game. Well maybe I don’t know Mega Man that well, because I had no idea who Roll was. And it disturbed me that I pile-drived (drove?) the limp body of what appeared to be an adorable 5 year old girl head first into the pavement… more than once. Hey, she came at me with a broom and a bucket of water… and rainbows! I had to defend myself. Kicking people in the face is Chun-Li’s schtick, not mine. I did what I had to do.

All in all, if you’re a fan of this type of hyper-bombastic fighting games with crazy cross-over attacks, brain-busting chain combos, and an endless array of senses-shattering explosions, Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars is for you.

(And it doesn’t hurt to also have an appreciation for oddly translated phrases and misspelled words. Les Vegas? Sounds hot!)

Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars is available at all major retailers exclusively for the Nintendo Wii today!

This bundle is the perfect enhancement to your Wii gaming collection and is available at finer retailers and on the Penguin United website for only $24.99 at www.penguinunited.com.

Check out the trailer below and head over to www.unleashed2010.com for the latest news on future developments directly from the creators…

Here are a few of the highlights…

The Comics, Sci-Fi & Beyond Pavilion was sponsored by the Comic Bug, a great store for all of your comics and pop culture collectible needs, located in Manhattan Beach, California.

Penguin United also makes Wii shooting games more fun. Not satisfied with making yet another gun-shaped cradle for the Wiimote (like the Wii Zapper), PU has created a full-on gun shaped controller. The Crossfire Remote Pistol has the B button in the obvious trigger position (duh) and a logically (beautifully) placed A button and D pad within easy reach of your thumb. I did have to tweak the sensitivity down to its lowest level in order to use it (it’s a very responsive remote) with my system, but once I did that and plugged in the nunchuck, I was ready to start blasting away.

The only unfortunate thing is that the Crossfire Pistol doesn’t work with the Electroflow Charger, but that’s understandable considering how they’re built. Recommended for the Wii gamer who wants responsive shooting power and ready-to-go charged up Wiimotes without having to constantly undress and re-dress them every time.

Both the Electroflow Inductive Charger (retail $29.99) and the Crossfire Remote Pistol (retail $39.99) are available at better gaming retailers and online at Penguin United.

Yes, that is Felicia Day (Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and The Guild web series) pictured above. She also makes a brief appearance in the video below…

Today was all about filling in the gaps and making sure I covered all the bases that didn’t get covered on the previous days. I grabbed the swag (including a free pass to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in IMAX, limited to only 150 people total, a flying slingshot monkey from Woot!, an Alan Wake Xbox faceplate, and a handful of random t-shirts), talked to a few gaming companies including Konami (Silent Hill, Ant Nation, Saw, and lots more) and Xbox (Alan Wake, Halo 3 ODST), and collected my share of blisters (by the way, don’t wear Doc Martens to a video game convention and constantly walk non-stop 8 hours a day for 3 days straight). I even got a chance to play Batman Arkham Asylum, Super Mario Bros Wii, and Splosion Man. I also met some nice people at Peregrine (a glove game controller), SureDisc (fix your game discs or DVDs by sending them off to them for a low price!), and Woot! (they love giving out monkeys and spinning lights).

In the end, it was the Xbox media briefing that stole the show with their many celebrity guests and the announcement of Project Natal. But when it comes to deciding what was the biggest game of the show, well, there is so much cutting edge stuff coming to a console or PC near you that it’s hard to pick just one. There’s something for everyone, whether it’s psychological story-driven thrillers (Alan Wake) or racing (Need for Speed Shift, Forza Motorsports 3, Mod Nation Racers) or mindbendingly brutal action fighters/shooters (Assassin’s Creed 2, Halo 3 ODST, Splinter Cell Conviction, Modern Warfare 2, God of War III, and so much more… the list goes on and on…). So much good stuff. It makes me want to own every game console, game, and gadget I saw this week. I think I’d start reviewing things regularly if I got some of these things sent to me *cough* (hint,hint).

Anyway, the last of my pictures have been uploaded to Flickr, but lots of video footage is still to come. Just give me this weekend. Expect a pretty extensive collection of crazy stuff from the last 4 days. I’m actually excited to review 328 individual clips that I shot in HD to help me remember what I actually saw this week. My memory is all kinds of blurry now as I’ve reached the end of my physical and mental rope. But enough of my bitching. After a little bit of sleep, I’ll be digging in and serving up something pretty fun by next week and slapping it up on YouTube. Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words on my pictures and videos. You can look forward to the same coverage coming this July at the San Diego Comic-Con International. But you can expect almost twice as many pictures and video. This was only a warm up…

Check out our pictures on Flickr

I’m tired. The rest is up to you. Go check out the pictures. Expect some video this weekend as it takes a bit longer to cut together a montage of EVERYTHING that happened at E3 than it does to upload 200 pictures.

One more day and it will be GAME OVER for E3 2009! My weary bones can’t wait (but I really am enjoying myself… seriously).

Check out our pictures on Flickr

• Super Mario Bros Wii will let you play as 4 characters at once, working together or against each other on the same side scrolling screen.
• Metroid the Other M, which looks to be both a third person and first person shooter/fighter, is coming in 2010.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 is coming soon!
• The DSi will soon let you upload your embarrassingly distorted pictures to Facebook from the console.
• The Nintendo Vitality Sensor. Apparently it checks to see how the games are affecting you and will work with some games to help you stay relax or even sleep. I’m just saying… if your game puts people to sleep, you made a bad game.
• Golden Sun DS is coming soon!
• Wii Sports Resort will come with the Wii Motion Plus controller add-on by this holiday season.
• Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again will allow you to build and share your own custom levels.
• Wario Ware will allow you to create your own mini games and share them.

Then came the Sony media briefing at the Shrine Auditorium immediately after Nintendo finished at Nokia. We would have gotten there faster if we had driven, but the complimentary shuttle buses were more convenient. When we arrived, they even had food, water, specialty drinks, and even alcohol! I only had enough time to grab a few bacon wrapped sausages and some tasty little desserts before we were rushed inside to the glorious old auditorium. Sony gets the award for the biggest single screen (if you don’t add up the sizes of the multiple screens at the other events) and they made use of it. They repeatedly made it clear that only games on a PS3 could look this good on a screen this big. And everything they showed us did look good. It looked amazing! I’m not a Playstation gamer, but I wish I was sometimes. Many of these games are moving works of art and they showed them off as if they were, but with a bit more violence. If you get a chance to catch any of the E3 footage that Sony is making available on their website, do it. You’ll be stunned by what you see, whether you’re a gamer or not.
More than a few unexpected surprises were shared today, despite the prevalence of leaked rumors and secrets. Here’s just a few:

• No longer a secret at this point, the PSP GO is the next generation for their handheld devices, but the original, bigger PSP won’t be leaving the market anytime soon. They’re partnering with many new companies to provide a wide variety of video content as well as origina, exclusive games and more.
• I was actually impressed with their still-in-development demo of the new PS3 motion controller, which looked like a wand with a glowing tip, but was amazingly attuned to the action happening on screen. It’s biggest selling point was the subtlety of movement from the slightest of gestures, allowing precise interaction with the virtual environment on screen.
• They surprised everyone with the official announcement of Final Fantasy XIV, exclusively for the PS3.
• Final Fantasy VII is just one of many classics being made available through the Playstation Network.
• Rockstar Games, the creators of Grand Theft Auto, will soon have a new game called Agent. And while they didn’t show any footage, I imagine it will be similar in scope as the GTA series, except maybe you’re not a criminal this time around.
• They demoed Assassin’s Creed II for the awestruck audience.
• In the spirit of Big Little Planet, the PS3’s newest create/play/share game is called Mod Nation Racers, which allows you to create your own characters, cars, and even elaborate tracks in just minutes.
• The Last Guardian was breathtaking in my opinion. It’s a fantasy world with photorealistic detail and a story with characters that remind me of the Neverending Story (the trailer was light on story, heavy on atmosphere), but more realistic looking, if that makes sense.
• They finished things off with a mind-blowingly violent God of War III demo that had the crowd oohing, ahhing, and gasping at almost every action on screen.

Well, that’s all I have for tonight. No video tonight, because you can probably get much better quality videos straight from the creators on their sites right about now. Plus I don’t have the patience to sit through an upload at this point. I haven’t even published any of my pictures from the floor yet on Flickr. Today was all about finishing up the coverage of the media events. We’ll save the floor footage for tomorrow. Now I’m going to bed. It’s insanely late (don’t believe the time on this post) and we’re hitting the road at 8:30. I might get almost 6 hours sleep tonight. woohoo!!!

And to continue that theme, it’s late. Here’s hoping I get through this before falling asleep (pre-6am wake up time to drive into LA for the Nintendo and Sony conferences tomorrow). But today, everything was centered around the star-studded Xbox media briefing. No one knew just how star-choked the event would be, but WOW did Microsoft deliver! They kicked off the day with the new Beatles Rock Band game and got the Beatles widows Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono to wave to the crowd just before the surviving legends Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney stepped onto the stage to thunderous applause. I’m dying to play the drums on this new game, just because I love playing Rock Band and the Beatles songs are just iconic. They just feel like they’d be fun to play.

The rest of the morning included more than 10 new world premiere announcements of new games and lots of other goodies (more on that later). Among the games featured, in no particular order:

• Tony Hawk RIDE – Tony himself showed up to introduce the new skateboard controller included with this game, lending a whole new level of realism to the skate game genre that he helped pioneer.
• Left 4 Dead 2 – The quick trailer they showed us was scarier than almost any other zombie movie I’ve seen, set down in the Bayou. Intense action and more gore than you can shake a chainsaw at.
• Forza Motorsport 3 – Stunning lifelike racing action that the series is known for. Plus, they showed off a sexy car on the stage!
• Modern Warfare 2 – The Infinity Ward guys showed off an extended arctic battle that involved crazy vertical mountain climbing, ice pick-axe thingy take downs, an integrated HUD on your weapon, and an insane snowmobile shoot and chase scene.
• Metal Gear Solid: Rising – introduced as the first appearance ever of a Metal Gear Solid game for the Xbox by creator Kojima, but it will star Raiden instead of Solid Snake.
• Shadow Complex – They showed off this complex (duh) side scrolling puzzle shooter with surprising depth.
• Halo 3: ODST – They showed a lot of cinematics and some in-game play from the new game set prior to the entire Halo series. Plus, when the game is released this fall, gamers will get the opportunity to take part in the multiplayer beta for the new Halo Reach game.
• Actress and girly gamer geek Felicia Day announced that Xbox would be teaming up with Facebook and Twitter to bring their content to Xbox Live, allowing you to interact with your profiles in all new ways and in some ways incorporating your profile into your games, allowing you to post your status, scores, and performance as it happens.
• Plus announcements on Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox, the truly creepy Alan Wake game will finally see the light of day, Crackdown 2 will be released in 2010, a new avatar-friendly game called Joy Ride that lets people race around over Xbox Live, and so much more! I wish I had time to cover it all in detail.

But the big announcement was something called Project Natal. Steven Spielberg even showed up to discuss his involvement in the project. I know it’s been said before, and I expect a ton of negative backlash to crop up between now and the time it actually hits stores (because that’s what the ignorant masses do), but I believe we witnessed history today. There had been rumors that Microsoft would be introducing a new motion sensitive controller today, but no one had any idea that the controller would actually be… YOU! With a new motion sensing camera attached to your tv (and existing 360, which means no new console to buy), your Xbox will actually sense you when you walk into the room. You will command it with your voice and move things around the screen with a wave of your hand, from picking a movie to watch via Netflix to communicating with friends through a video connection to painting a picture using virtual buckets of paint and giant stencil pages to interacting with the game environment in ways that don’t require a controller. And each time we thought that they had showed us everything, they went a little further, until they showed us Milo. In this game, we witnessed a woman communicating with an artificial boy on the screen. She was able to interact with the boy’s immersive environment, even seeing her face reflected in a pool of water on the screen as she waved her hand through it to create ripples. And when she drew a picture on a piece of paper and held it up to the camera, the boy took it into his virtual world, identifying the image as a fish, which she had drawn on the physical page. It may seem like sleight of hand at this point, but the possibilities at this stage are limited only by our imaginations. This is the next step toward a new world of interactivity, not only for gaming, but for communication via the Xbox like no other console or computer has done before. There is no release date just yet, but you’ll know when it hits because it will be the only thing people will be talking about, unless Nintendo or Sony has something big up their sleeves for tomorrow.

I know I’m missing tons of other stuff, such as the new 1080p digital quality picture for all video, including movies (which will instantly play with no download delay), Sky network programming for those who want to see what’s happening on the other side of the pond, and lots more.

After the Microsoft briefing, it was hard to think that anyone could outdo the buzz surrounding Project Natal, but Ubisoft and EA gave it their best shot. I didn’t get into the EA event (sorry), but I heard they had some great new Star Wars: the Old Republic footage among some other stuff. I would have loved to have covered it, but oh well. Ubisoft was much more accomodating, but man was the whole registration process more than a little muddled. Regardless, host Joel McHale from Talk Soup showed off a number of big projects, including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, which after seeing the gameplay twice (it was also featured at Xbox), it was no less stunning. They showed off the brand new and much improved Red Steel 2 game for the Wii, the new Rabbids Go Home game, a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash-Up game from the makers of Mario Smash Bros Brawl, and even a new fitness game that includes a camera called Your Shape, that watches you as you work out, giving you tips and pushing you to a better body. But one of the big stars of the event was soccer legend Pele, speaking mostly in Portugese through an interpreter about his new game Academy of Champions, which looks like a cartoony Harry Potter world if they played soccer instead of Quidditch. The only person who might be slightly bigger than Pele (in North American minds) was director James Cameron, who showed up to talk about the evolution of his new Avatar movie and the video game that has been developed in conjunction with the film. He didn’t show us any footage of the stereoscopic 3D game, but he did say that it would be playable on the floor this week, so it will be a must-see, even if the lines will be too long to actually play it for this impatient one.

Okay, well, it’s off to bed for a few hours. Tomorrow it’s Nintendo, Sony, and the official opening of E3 2009! Check back tomorrow for more coverage of this massive event!

Check out our pictures on Flickr

E3 was always known as the big, noisy, glizty monstrosity for the video game and electronics entertainment world, calling industry insiders, investors, and of course media (go PCG!) to it’s darkened halls with its siren song, tempting us with previews of the latest and hottest games due in the coming months and years. There isn’t much to say right now other than that if the banners hanging outside are any indication of how huge this event will be, then yeah, reserve two seats on the plane for this mutha, because she is gonna be big. Take a look at our pictures posted to Flickr so far, using the image links below or just click here. Expect lots more pictures and video in the days to come, even before the Expo officially opens its doors on Tuesday.

I’m heading to a number of the media events to cover all of the latest big announcements from Xbox, Sony, Nintendo, and more! And while I’m there, I’ll be tweeting my ass off about anything that catches my attention the moment it happens. Sure, some of the companies have live feeds on their websites, but wouldn’t you rather get your news at a 140 characters at a time? I hear it’s all the rage with the kids. So keep an eye on this site throughout the week for all of the latest and greatest from the video game world!

Check out our pictures on Flickr

Since there doesn’t seem to be a way to share the video via a blog, here’s the link to the official site:
http://modernwarfare2.infinityward.com

More information and register your band at the official Harrah’s website.

This video has nothing to do with the story. I just thought it was funny…

The E For All Expo is no more (by the way, that’s the bad news that’s sorta good… I’ll explain). According to organizers, ESA, the E For All Expo will not be happening in 2009. As for its fate beyond next year, who knows? But it’s become clear to many that since IDG (operator of both E3 and E For All over the years) has chosen not to continue their poorly attended, consumer-friendly convention, they’ll be shifting their focus toward returning the more industry-friendly E3 Expo to its former massively cacophonic state (big, bright, noisy… and crowded!).

In 2007 and 2008, E3 had pulled back from packing the LA Convention Center with noisy, giant booths from nearly every game developer in the world, celebrity appearances, and more games than you could shake a joystick at. E3 seemed to have become a quiet, scholary gathering where the Big 3 (Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony) made moderately interesting announcements at press conferences for a handful of press members in a hotel conference room. No booths, no big splashy premieres, no walk-up, hands-on demos at every turn, no overwhelming madness… no excitement.

In stepped the E For All Expo, which catered more to the man on the street player. Anyone with $80 dollars and a stomach for lukewarm cheeseburgers could attend the event for a weekend, walk the same floors that E3 once commanded, only with about 90% less games and 95% less people. Sure, I had a great time at E For All (both years) because I was able to walk up to any game and play it. No line. No crowd. No problem. But there’s something about E3… old E3 (circa 2006)… It had a certain energy… a kind of urgency and specialness and exclusivity that can’t be adequately duplicated without all of the game companies in attendance and crowds so huge that you have to learn to walk sideways in order to navigate the massive throngs of people crammed into every corner of the sprawling convention center. It’s all about the spectacle.

Sure, while the ESA has stated that they are working toward building E3 back up toward its former glory, there’s no way to know just how far they’re willing or able to go. Will the Big 3 sign on? Can the smaller companies still afford to put up tricked-out, attention-grabbing booths in this waning economy? Will it still be just for industry and press people or will they fully open it up to the public, like E For All, essentially combining the points of the two events? I’m hesitant to believe all my dreams will come true once again, but the hope is there. So far, the ESA isn’t saying much, except that we should “get ready for some fireworks!”

I’m ready, E3. Gimme something to Ooh and Aah about…

LucasArts and BioWare™, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced the development of Star Wars®: The Old Republic™, a story-driven massively multiplayer online PC game set in the timeframe of the Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™ franchise. Star Wars: The Old Republic, being developed and published by BioWare and LucasArts, represents an innovative approach to interactive entertainment, featuring immersive storytelling, dynamic combat and intelligent companion characters.

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, players will explore an age thousands of years before the rise of Darth Vader when war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire divides the galaxy. Players can choose to play as Jedi, Sith, or a variety of other classic Star Wars roles, defining their personal story and determining their path down the light or dark side of the Force. Along the way, players will befriend courageous companions who will fight at their side or possibly betray them, based on the players’ actions. Players can also choose to team up with friends to battle enemies and overcome incredible challenges using dynamic Star Wars combat.

“Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is the most critically acclaimed Star Wars game in LucasArts history and a preeminent example of our company’s interactive storytelling heritage,” said Darrell Rodriguez, President of LucasArts. “For a long time, we’ve wanted to return to the franchise in a grand way, and we felt that the best setting for it was an online world that would allow millions of people to participate in the experience together. We knew that the developer capable of working with us to deliver an engrossing story with a fully-realized online world was BioWare.”