One more trailer for tonight. Just like the Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility trailer, we’ve already shown you this trailer. So what’s different? HD! Nothing like viewing one of the year’s most anticipated rhythm games with high quality video.

Enjoy the updated version. I’m gonna go recap the day.

Good! Here’s the latest trailer for Natsume’s Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. We’ve posted this before, but this is a higher quality version where you can actually see what’s going on. Perfect! Now just imagine yourself swinging that arm to use the water jug, and you’ll be on your way to the game’s August 26th release date.

Oh by the way, the song from this trailer is stuck in my head for the rest of the night. Sweet!

Okay, so we were disappointed with Nintendo’s E3 showing. No Kid Icarus. No Punch-Out! Four years since the last The Legend of Zelda reveal. But in all honesty, should we really want to hear about a new Zelda game now, learn about a holiday 2009 release date, only to see it delayed to “after the fiscal year” ending March 2010, and finally see release in November of 2010? Reggie doesn’t think so.

There’s one thing I do want to reinforce. I could almost put myself into the ‘geeks and otaku’ camp. I grew up playing all those great Nintendo games. And so for me I look at product like “Animal Crossing” and I get tremendously excited. I look at “Wario” and get tremendously excited. I look at “Sluggers” coming out and get tremendously excited. So this mentality that we have somehow lost our soul and [are not] speaking to our fanbase, there is nothing further from the truth. And if you talk to Mr. Miyamoto, you really understand that we really have the interest of our core fanbase right at the top of the list. The recognition is — and I think this is really the point — we’re not going to tease you over 18 months or 24 months. We’re going to show you something that’ll make your jaw drop and make it available shortly thereafter.

That’s more like it. Remember, E3 and all the smaller publisher events surrounding it are only the start of the event season. We’ve got the Penny Arcade Expo, Leipzig Games Convention, Tokyo Game Show, and E for All rounding out the rest of the year, with the Game Developers Conference early next year. We’ve got plenty of time to reveal that amazing new Zelda + Wii MotionPlus game.

MTV Multiplayer

The whole “Dawn of…” thing is going to get old at this rate. Anywho, I’ve uploaded five HD clips from the localized version of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Feel free to full-screen these babies. More clips in English can’t hurt while we wait for the game’s fall release, right?

The first clip is above (obviously). The rest are after the break.

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With the show in Los Angeles just wrapping up last week, it didn’t take long for a formal apology from the Nintendo camp to surface. In an interview with Forbes, Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata went on record to try and win back the core gamers that were left with a bad taste in their mouth:

If there is any perception that Nintendo is ignoring the core gamers, it’s a misunderstanding and we really want to get rid of that misunderstanding by any means… We are sorry about [the E3] media briefings, specifically for those who were expecting to see Nintendo show something about Super Mario or Legend of Zelda. However, the fact of the matter is the so-called ‘big titles’ need a long, long development period. … We really didn’t think this year’s E3 media briefing was the time to do so.

I completely agree with not showing a game until it is ready, but even a short clip or a screen shot or a logo would have sufficed. It is reassuring that somewhere, some form of a “hardcore” title is being worked on by Nintendo. Why is the world so cruel?

IGN Wii

Yeah, we know. Everyone’s bummed that Nintendo didn’t have any megaton announcements for the core gamers during the E3 press conference. Wii MotionPlus could have been a start, had we seen a first party game for the core userbase that used the accessory, but we’ll have to wait a little longer for that kind of announcement. Because of the lackluster press conference, many people have supposedly criticized Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, of faking the smile she had during the media briefing. Speaking with Chris Kohler, she had the following to say:

Just tell your blog that I’m really a genuinely smiley, nice person. Because people think I’m fake, smiling up there. I’m just not! It’s just me! I am who I am.

Cammie Dunaway is easily one of my favorites among Nintendo of America’s executive staff. She may lack the authority that Reggie had in his first appearance in 2004, and she may lack the fire that Perrin Kaplan had, but she knows what gamers want - and she’s telling us to look forward to PAX in August. You can read more on Kohler’s talk with Dunaway at the link below.

Wired

It’s unfortunate that Activision is no longer a part of the ESA - it resulted in us not being able to try out any of their games. It’s a good thing that their press conference did a great job of presenting some of their upcoming titles, including Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. The game looked great from my vantage point, and while it wasn’t as impressive as some of the other titles shown, it looked like a Spider-Man game I could consider buying.

Still… no hands-on coming from me anytime soon.

Sonic Unleashed looked pretty solid when we got to see the game demonstration on Wednesday. Well, the daytime half of the game did, at least. As for the nighttime half, well, I’m pretty sure I have yet to be sold. I’m being cautiously optimistic for now, and the trailer above will give you an idea of the mood they’re trying to set with this game.

After four days, eight hours of flights, twelve hours of L.A. traffic, one hundred dollars worth of Wi-Fi fees (stupid hotel), two gigabytes of photos, and ten hours of video footage, I think it’s safe to say that E3 has officially kicked our ass, but we loved almost every second of it. Hey, that sounds a lot like Mega Man 9, which I will be gushing about sometime later this weekend.

E3 might be over, but the best of our coverage has only begun, so stay tuned over the next week as our impressions, opinions, and an unhealthy amount of videos begin to trickle in. Now, excuse me as I continue to capture the remaining six hours of our video footage.

Elebits was one of those games during the initial period of the Wii that really didn’t catch my attention.  It looked interesting enough to purchase once I looked at some early footage, and to be honest, I spent countless hours destroying the house trying to find these critters to upgrade my gun to destroy the house even more.  With the recent announcement of Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero for the DS, I’ve been patiently waiting to see how this series will translate to the handheld.

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