Another E3 has come and gone! If memory serves, this is my 15th E3! And boy it sure has changed over the years. When I first started going, the PR people didn’t have such a strong grip over companies, and you could play just about any game coming out. Now, you're more likely to wait in line for hours to watch a demo. Luckily, there are plenty of indie games out on the floor! And more wacky Japanese games than ever, thanks to a few small companies committed to the cause. Here are our awards for E3 2015!

It’s no secret we are big fans of Bandai Namco at Shonen Jump, mainly because they keep releasing SJ games! And not just Naruto! This year they’ve really outdone themselves by announcing the ultimate SJ game, J-Stars Victory VS+! But that wasn’t all they had. Their booth felt like an SJ video game arcade! Aside from J-Stars, they’re releasing new games for Naruto, One Piece and Saint Seiya. Plus, Godzilla, Tales of Zestria and Project X Zone 2. If that’s not an otaku's wish list, I don’t know what is!

Urian Brown

Most Godlike Feeling
Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4
Obito vs Madara Fight

At this point in the Naruto story, many of the characters have an insane amount of power and super moves. And the fine folks at CyberConnect2 have done an excellent job translating those powers into visually impressive video game attacks. But playing Obito against Madara takes it to a whole new level. Obito doesn’t even walk! He floats around and shoots crazy black stuff that goes all over the place. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but it looked amazing. And the same for Madara. When everything you’re doing looks this amazing, you can’t help but feel the power of the characters. Kudos to CyberConnect2 for capturing it so well. This game comes out on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One in October.

Urian Brown

Most Realistic Game
Godzilla

Godzilla is known for many things, but speed is not one of them. And I have to give the developers of Godzilla props, they’re committed to the realistic, slow lumbering movements of the big lizard and his other giant monster buddies. I respect that! They could have easily sped it up to make the fighting a little flashier, but then you’d lose the feeling of the movies. There’s something kind of wonderful about stomping around slowly as you work your way towards Monster Zero or Space Godzilla crushing all the buildings in your path to battle. And blasting other monsters in the face with white hot Godzilla breath never gets old! You can stomp around with this game on the PS4 in mid-July.

Urian Brown

The "Wow, This Game Is Probably Cool, but Playing It at a Booth Sucked" Award
Corpse Party: Blood Drive

I'm glad I got to talk to Tom Lipschultz of XSEED when I wandered over to the booth to play Corpse Party: Blood Drive, because otherwise I would have walked away confused and disappointed with the use of my time. It's not the game's fault, though. The first two Corpse Party games were great, and this one seems to fit right in. However, it just isn't the kind of thing you want to play on a loud show floor. Part visual novel, part horror game, Corpse Party is something you want to play on your couch or in bed, in the dark, with headphones on. Scrolling through text or bumping around in a dark exploration section not knowing what you're supposed to be doing does not an exciting E3 moment make. You can play this game with the lights off and scare yourself in Fall 2015. 

Lucas White

Shiniest Game
Saint Seiya: Soldier’s Soul

I mean, it’s not even close. Even the shiniest of other shiny games at E3 seem dull when compared to the beautiful armored boys of Saint Seiya. And they look even extra shiny now that they’re on the PS4 and running in 60fps. But don’t worry PS3 and PC owners, it’s coming your way too. I played it a bit, and it definitely felt like an improvement over the previous one. There are more short-, mid- and long-range attacks, and the Big Bang attacks are easier to pull off now. And this version includes characters from the new Soul of Gold anime. And their armor are super, super, super shiny! Might want to wear sunglasses when you play this one. You can find out how hot your Cosmo burns this fall on the PC, PS4 and PS3.

Urian Brown

Biggest Booth with the Least Games
Nintendo 

Poor Nintendo! Last year, you knocked 'em out of their seats with so many great games including the Splatoon surprise. This year, you are mocked by everyone, including your own president. I mean, where were the games? Mario Maker, Star Fox, Yoshi and Zelda? Seriously? That’s pretty sad, man. But the booth did look nice! It was huge, open and full of bright and cheery colors, so they had that going for them.

Urian Brown

The "This Is Ridiculous and Unnecessary, but Also Awesome" Award
Kobojo's Zodiac Press Kit

The funny thing about E3 is people are always trying to impress you, because they want that sweet, sweet mindshare. Sometimes, they try to impress you by giving you stuff. Usually that means a t-shirt or a goofy keychain or even free food. Occasionally, things get weird. Zodiac is a mobile RPG from developer Kobojo, which is notable as a European RPG with some serious Japanese RPG talent, including Kazushige Nojima (writer, Final Fantasy VII) and Hitoshi Sakimoto (composer, Final Fantasty Tactics). For whatever reason, Kobojo went to great lengths to make a ridiculously-extravagant asset card for members of the press. It's a thick, plastic business card-type dealie, with key art from the game on one side and all the relevant URLs on the other. It also has this thick tab in the middle, which flips out into a USB stick when you push on it. That's just silly. Zodiac come out on IOS and Android some time in 2015. 

Lucas White

The "Farm or Fight?" Award
Return to PopoloCrois: A Story of Seasons

Do I wanna grow vegetables and get my farm going so I can be a productive member of the town? Or do I want to don my adventure gear and go vanquish monsters? How about both?! Aside from the Rune Factory series, there aren’t a lot of farm/fight games, but Return to PopoloCrois: A Story of Seasons aims to change all that. You play a prince whose kingdom has been corrupted and veggies wont grow. So you go to a new kingdom to learn how to purify the land and grow crops. But you don't really have to farm that much, if you don’t want to. You can focus on questing and fighting monsters with your crew. It’s more or less up to you how you want to play. I’m going to farm a lot. The game has adorable graphics, a neat battle system and is as charming as it gets. This game is for the 3DS and comes out December, 2015.

Urian Brown

The “Only Good Bug Is a Dead Bug” Award
Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair

I’m a huge fan of the EDF series. It’s basically as close as we’ll ever get to a decent Starship Troopers video game. It’s video-game fun boiled down to the basics—shoot everything with more than two legs. I loved Earth Defense Force 2025, which this is a remake of, but the frame rate when playing two player was a joke. Luckily, that’s been fixed for this PS4/Vita remake. The graphics have been souped up and more content added as well. While I’m not from Buenos Aires, I do say “Kill them all!” This game is for the PS4 and the Vita and is scheduled to be released later this year.

Urian Brown

The "I'm Supposed to Be a Journalist, but I'm Taking a Picture of this Cool Thing Like an Idiot" Award
Mad Max Car

There's nothing like a totally-rad, full-scale model of the Mad Max car in the middle of the convention center entrance to make being a professional, detached journalist literally impossible. The second I noticed it, my hand went into my pocket for my phone automatically, as if some primal part of my brain took complete control over my body. Mad Max is that cool, okay?

Lucas White

Best Digital Booth Babes Award
XSEED

I have to say, this year there weren’t that many booth babes at the show. Maybe they’re being phased out, maybe it was an off year, but did not see many. However, XSEED’s booth was full of babes, but they were digital! Onechanbara Z2: Chaos features four badass babes that you can switch out any time and cut up endless swarms of zombies. Lots of cool combos and blood and guts everywhere. Oh, and don’t forget to clean the blood off your weapon! A key part of the gameplay! Aside from that, there were two Senran Kagura games! Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson for the 3DS, and Senran Kagura: Estival Versus for the PS4 and Vita. Plus, an all-girl fighting game from the Arcana Hearts team called Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel. It features lots of tough girls duking it out with wicked fast combat and beautiful 2D sprites.

Urian Brown

The "Most Fun I Had Dying Over and Over" Award
Rodea the Sky Soldier

There’s no doubt dying in video games usually sucks. But it can also be quite hilarious. And I could not stop laughing at my ridiculous deaths in Rodea the Sky Soldier, from the legendary Yuji Naka of Sonic the Hedgehog fame. In fact, the game plays like a mix of Sonic and Knights, which he also worked on. You play a cat boy in a strange world of floating land masses. In order to traverse these areas, you must point your target and fly that direction. Sounds easy, but for the life of me, I kept falling off the edges and flying right into rock over and over dying in the most ridiculous ways. If done correctly, you’ll be flying through lines of stars (rings) and bouncing from enemy to enemy. If done incorrectly, like me, you’ll fall off the side and look like an idiot over and over. Still, it’s a beautiful world, and once you get the hang of flying, should prove for an interesting experience. Comes out on the 3DS and Wii U in October.

Urian Brown

Okay. I get it, once E3 actually happens, nothing is a secret anymore. Shenmue III is happening, Final Fantasy VII is getting remade, yadda yadda. But when Bandai Namco is touting an "unannounced" AAA game, and that unannounced game is prominently displayed on a million of the biggest banners at the show (all in one hallway, might I add), it's kinda silly. No wonder it leaked early! 

Lucas White

Coolest Game with Coolest Dragons
EarthNight

One thing about E3, there will be dragons…and lots of them. Dragons and video games go hand in claw, and it seems like there are more every year. But there aren’t that many dragon-based indie games. And even fewer as cool as EarthNight. Dragons have taken over the Earth and humans live in space! You choose between one of two characters, a cute little black girl or an old bald white guy. Great combo, actually. From your spaceship, you skydive on to the dragons to pick your level. From there, you run down the dragon's back as it moves up and down. Naturally, you’ll have to avoid dangers and get items along the way. The challenge is the movement of the dragon makes jumping much harder. The graphics are gorgeous and some of the best on the entire show floor. The music was also amazing and by the chiptune musician, Chipocrite. EarthNight will come to the PS4 and PS Vita later this year.

Urian Brown

The "Fun to Watch It Grow" Award
Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories

There’s no doubt, I’m a Harvest Moon nut. I have been since the N64 one took over my life. And recently, Natsume has been trying out new things with the property. They have the rights to the Harvest Moon name in the States, but the games made in Japan are going to a different company. So now they’re trying to grow the property in new ways, including this game for the Wii U, PC, Android and iOS! This is the first time they’re trying to move into mobile space and hopefully they’ll succeed. Kids should be able to play a good farming sim without being shook down for cash by greedy Free-2-Play companies.

Urian Brown

The "This Display Should Be Terrible but It's Actually Cool" Award
Pixels/Video Game History Museum 

The less said about this horrible-looking movie the better, but wow, it had a heck of a presence at E3. At the far edge of one of the show halls was a huge showcase of gaming history provided by a classic gaming museum from Texas. A bunch of playable, old school arcade machines were there, as well as a big display case of super-old video game tech. But my favorite part was the line of tables showing off all kinds of awesome old merchandise. From the Powerglove to the Pac-Man phone, from a bunch of old Atari badges and stickers to a case of every model of Game Boy, the people in charge of promoting Pixels did a great job making a special display that almost entirely ignored anything about the actual movie...because it's probably terrible.

Lucas White

Proof Every Game Is Better with Frogs
Legend of Legacy 

Frogs make the best video game characters! Slippy from Star Fox! Frog from Chrono Trigger! The toads from Battletoads! And of course, Frogger! So when I saw you could be a frog in this game, I jumped at the chance. You can actually play as several other characters as well as you explore the strange island of Avalon. What’s interesting about this game is you can play the game over and over from all the characters' perspectives and the story will change each time. And considering it’s a 30–40 JRPG, that’s a lot of hours!!! It’s a also a very beautiful game with a simple, but interesting battle system. Of the numerous JRPGs I saw at the show, this one definitely stood out. This game will hop on to the 3DS in late 2015.

Urian Brown

Best Dancing Game for Lazy People
Persona 4 Dancing All Night

Want to play a dancing game, but not actually dance around in your living room sweating on everything? Well, this is your chance! Persona 4: Dancing All Night lets you dance your way through the Persona 4 world. I never played Persona 4, so I can’t talk about that. I have, however, played lots of dancing rhythm games going back to the Space Channel 5 and Bust a Groove era. And as far as rhythm games go, this one is solid. One of the best systems I’ve seen and totally intuitive. There are six buttons that match six circles on screen. Each circle is by what button it is, so it’s super easy to know what to hit. The rest is just keeping the beat and watching for times when you have to hold buttons down for an extended time or hit two at once. Great music, too! All the ingredients you need for a great night out dancing…on your couch. This game is for the PS Vita and comes out late September

Urian Brown

Best Floor Display
Rash From Battletoads

Floor displays can range from simple statues, to massive multi-piece statues that tower over the crowds. And usually the big ones get your attention the most. But not this time. This ridiculous “life-sized” Battletoad grabbed everyone’s eye and got endless smiles. There’s just something clever about the size and placement. He’s by himself, standing in the middle of the floor like a real person would be. I totally cracked up every time I saw him.

Urian Brown

The "I Guess I’ll Buy It Again…Again" Award
Rare Replay

The video game industry is definitely in a terrible “Let’s remake and resell everything!” phase. I understand companies want to cash in on nostalgia, and it’s easy money. The game’s already made, you just have to port it. But I have to give Rare credit. The Rare Replay is an amazing package. It includes 30 games for 30 dollars! That’s wicked cheap, and there are some classics in here. Banjo Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Viva Pinata, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Battletoads and more! It’s an amazing deal, and I guess I’ll buy Banjo Kazooie again. In fact, I’m happy to at this price!

Urian Brown

Most Award-Winning Wall
Wall

Congratulations, wall! You won a lot of awards! You’re like the best wall at E3, no doubt about it! You did it! You stood there all day long, being a wall and never being anything else. Not even for a second! You deserve all those awards, you really do. Congratulations and we hope to see you next year! Keep holding stuff up!

Urian Brown

That's it for this year! It was a fun E3 and hopefully next year Nintendo will come back and blow everybody's mushroom hats off!