Things were a little different at this year's E3. They opened it up to thousands of non-professionals in an attempt to compete with other consumer game shows and stay relevant. Did it work? I'd say, yes! It was exactly the shot in the arm the show needed. People have been finagling their way into the show for years, but now you can pay to play...video games! The overall energy was up, Nintendo came roaring back and most importantly--there were a lot of great games on the floor! Now let's give out some silly awards! 

Life's a Peach Award
Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash

The girls of Senran Kagura are hitting the beach and squirting each other down with super-duper soakers! This 3rd person shooter lets you run around in bikinis blasting other Senran Kagura girls with squirt guns in crazy multiplayer matches. The game comes with tons of different guns and water-based weaponry, different levels, upgrades and all the usual stuff they put in shooters these days. There's also a single-player mode with the classic wacky banter and antics SK cutscenes are famous for. Glad to see this series branch out into new genres. If you ask me, it's just Peachy keen! 

by Urian Brown

Bizarre Nonsense That Shouldn’t Work, But Totally Does Award
River City: Knights of Justice

I was probably as shocked as anyone else when I walked over to Natsume’s booth and saw not one, but two brand-new games in the River City (of Ransom fame) franchise. One of them seemed more traditional, but inspired by the likes of Yakuza. It was cool, but totally untranslated, so I opted to wait until a later time to try it out. On the other hand, Natsume also demoed River City: Knights of Justice, which happened to drop on the 3DS eShop right after the show. It’s the River City brawler style, but with a crazy, old-school RPG gimmick slathered all over it. It sounds bizarre on paper, but in practice it’s totally aware of how silly it is and goes out of its way to be both funny and super fun to play.

by Lucas White

This Stain Needs to Come Out Award
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night 

The Kickstarter honeymoon is over for gamers. After being burned so many times, it seems like people are finding it harder to part with their money. Many great games have been promised, few have been delivered. But Bloodstained looks to buck that trend as it's creator, Koji Igarashi, the man behind the Castlevania series, has created something I think people are gonna like. When I sat down to play this, I was hooked! It felt both familiar and fresh at the same time. The gameplay felt exactly like the old school Castlevania games, but the graphics are definitely modern and absolutely gorgeous. Plus, the main character Miriam is one stylish lady! 

by Urian Brown

The Most Desperate Brand Award
Betty Crocker's Fruit Gushers

Throughout the course of E3, I was accosted multiple times by people wearing Gushers and/or Fruit by the Foot T-shirts. They really, really wanted me to take packets upon packets of their gross, syrupy snacks. I’m not sure why the Betty Crocker company decided E3 was the perfect market to shill its cruddy junk food, considering the demographic for Gushers is significantly younger (if it still even exists), but they were there, and they were aggressive! Granted, at one point I walked by the huge line to get into the show floor and attendees were literally screaming and jumping up and down for free Gushers packets, so the Gusher hype is real, I guess!

by Lucas White

Let's Go "Clubbing" Award
The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor

The RPG/Rhythm game is a relatively new genre mashup and the latest entry to this ultra-niche category is Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor. In this game, like most rhythm games, you must input commands to the beat, but you'll also be controlling a group of fantasy warriors and fighting monsters. How you ask? With dance power! Or by hitting all your notes to load up spells and attacks, then unleashing them. After attacking, you'll need to switch to a different party member and repeat. The longer you stay with one character, the more powerful the attack you unload. The game has a full story and comes with all the usual RPG fixings including a variety of weapons. You can literally get a club for a weapon and go "clubbing!" Great music too! Solid gold! 

by Urian Brown

Most Meta Swag
ARMS' Arms

A lot of people tend to associate events like E3 with swag. And sure, every now and then you get the occasional trinket or T-shirt as a thank you from a publisher for playing their game. For whatever reason, somewhere deep in the weeds of marketing 101, there’s a belief that handing someone a little gift with your brand printed on it will somehow make them like you more. Journalists think it’s weird and annoying, but sometimes they secretly wear the T-shirt later (if it’s a decent shirt). This year, I came home with a pair of ARMS sleeves after visiting the Nintendo booth. Yes, if you wear this you can have ARMS on your arms! How meta is that?

by Lucas White

Most Heavily Guarded Rock
The Rock in Front of the Monster Hunter: World Demo

I understand a lot of stuff at E3 comes together at the last minute, but this ridiculous cordoned off rock and bushes just looked silly. Especially with the one single light on in it. In video games, you'd know this was the place you're supposed to go. It totally stands out, so there must be treasure or something you need to get to the next area there. But! The folks at E3 weren't making it easy, they put a guard near the rock, you'd have to use your stealth skills to sneak by him and find out what's there! Luckily, I got a free plushy from the previous booth and threw it the opposite direction, which distracted the guard, and let me get into the Monster Hunter: World demo. Totally worth it! 

by Urian Brown

A Bloody Good Time Award
Mary Skelter: Nightmares

Thank God for wacky JRPGS! They're the only thing keeping the PS Vita alive! And this JRPG dungeon crawler is as wacky as they come. And as bloody. In the game, you play as a guy named Jack who controls a group of girls based on famous fairytales, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. And you're tasked with escaping a living jail! A jail full of monsters and one specific one called a Nightmare that pursues you. Blood factors into just about every part of the game. As the girls do damage or take damage, they get bloodier. And if they're not cleaned, they go into Blood Skelter Mode and may attack your own party members. In order to keep them from going crazy, you must use the "Lick" function to clean some of the blood off. Of course you do! Although many video games are violent and have lots of blood, none as much as this one! 

by Urian Brown

Most Immersive Booth
Ubisoft

When you attend E3 as media, you get to go “behind closed doors” to work, and by work I mean play video games. Of course, there are occasional interview opportunities and the like as well. Anyway, while the E3 show floor itself is relatively open and air-conditioned, sometimes the closed quarter's situations backstage…are not ideal. This year, Ubisoft was just as humid and suffocating as I imagine ancient Egypt was, but considering their big game was Assassin’s Creed Origins, it was oddly appropriate. I hear they eventually installed some fans, but I definitely felt like taking a dip in the Nile after the demo. 

by Lucas White

Most Exciting VR Moment
During the Life is Strange: Before the Storm Demo

When I found out Life is Strange takes place in Oregon, I was like, "Hey, I took place in Oregon!" so I was understandably curious to see how accurate this game is. Unfortunately, I'm not a hot angsty girl so I can not fully gauge the accuracy of the game. But during the demo, the guy next to me practically keeled over with his head hanging lower and lower, ending up between his knees. I asked his friend, "Hey, is your buddy okay?" To which he replied, "Yeah, he just played a VR game." They left soon after. Haha! This does not bode well for the new technology. As for Life is Strange, it felt like a Reality Bites simulator, which was kind of endearing in its own way. 

by Urian Brown

Best Floor Display
Donkey Kong Rabbid

There were a lot of enormous creature statues on display at this year’s E3. The things that stood out were a huge dragon to promote Shadow of War (that you could sit on and get your picture taken!), a big dinosaur for Monster Hunter: World, a skeleton pirate for Sea of Thieves and a giant Donkey Kong Rabbid in the South Hall lobby for Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Not only was Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle a surprise hit at the show, but the giant, goofy Donkey Kong Rabbid was hilarious. Seeing the big statue whenever I went by for my next appointment always gave me a nice chuckle.

by Lucas White

Most Revolt-ing Game! 
Culdcept Revolt 

A new Culdcept game!!! This series has been around since the Gamecube days, but it's never quite found its audience in the States. In fact, only two have been released here, but things are looking up as a new one is on the horizon. And it's multiplayer! The best way to describe this series is it's like Magic: the Gathering meets Monopoly. There's a board, you roll dice to travel the board, use cards to put down monsters on spaces and try to own and control as much of the board as you can to get enough magic to win. But your opponent has cards and monsters too! So when you land on a space they have a monster on, it's time to pay them or fight! A card from your deck comes up to battle theirs. If your card is stronger, you might defeat their monster and vice versus. The game comes with a story mode, or you can just battle others. It's a crazy idea for a game, but just crazy enough to work. And super addictive! 

by Urian Brown

Best in Show
Dragon Ball Fighter Z

This isn't a knock at Shonen Jump related games, but they usually aren't the ones with a wall full of awards. Dragon Ball Fighter Z has changed this. It had so many awards on its wall, they nearly ran out of room! This is the game Dragon Ball fans have been waiting for. It's a fast-paced 2D fighting game with eye-blistering graphics and a focus on team combat. It's been compared to early Marvel vs. Capcom, the earlier super over-the-top 2D ones, and that's a fair comparison. When you're battling there's so much happening so fast that it's pure chaos, but in the best possible way. My fingers literally hurt after playing so I'll need to spend a day or two in the Room of Spirit and Time mashing buttons to get them strong enough before the release. 

by Urian Brown

The Nostramadus Award
Urian Brown

I wrote this in last year's awards article, "As for the show's future, it'll be interesting to see what they do to keep the buzz going. I wouldn't be surprised if they opened it up to the public. If they do, I'll give myself the "Nostramadus Award" next year!" Hey, that actually happened. Congratulations, me! (I'm on the left)

by Urian Brown

And congratulations to all the games, companies and people who won awards this year! You did it!