Happy June everyone! We're now at the precipice of E3, staring into that abyss with an intensity unmatched as we await news as to what future years will bring. 2018's going to have a heck of a time matching this year's prestigious output, but I'm optimistic that there'll be plenty of great things in store for owners the fledgling Nintendo Switch, as well as for PC and other consoles. That also means I'm going to be putting together another Alternative to E3 feature in the near future: a daily series that coincides with the event and provides a gentle and chaos-free come down to the mile-a-minute procession of revelations and announcements. The event's apparently now six days long thanks to early birds EA, so I've been looking for something relaxing that I can enjoy for that extended length of time.

It actually took some careful deliberation because of that extension. My first idea was to delve into some of the weird visual novels I've been picking up on Steam and maybe mock them just a lil' bit, but I don't own as many as I assumed and a lot of them have far more in-depth RPG and strategy elements than I'd prefer to deal with while I'm distracted by my E3 moderator duties. The Alternative to E3 series is intended to be a low-key chill-out sesh of a feature to offset the chaos and trepidation of the 24-hour hype cycle of the event, and I'll be darned if I have to make an effort. (For the games, I mean. I always make an effort when blogging. *Cough*.)

Instead, I'm going back to the well I drew from last year with the five day Rudra no Hihou screenshot playthrough with another fan-translated Super Famicom exclusive: 1996's Marvelous: Mouhitotsu no Takarajima, a.k.a. Marvelous: Another Treasure Island. I've written about Marvelous before, first when putting together this highlights reel of the Super Nintendo's 1996 library and most recently when discussing games Nintendo might try to bring to western audiences for the first time via their SNES Mini (or SNES Classic, whatever they end up calling it) miniature console sequel to the NES Classic. Marvelous is a Zelda-like game that prioritizes puzzle-solving and story above combat and was one of the earliest first-party Nintendo projects to involve Eiji Aonuma, the eventual primary director of The Legend of Zelda series from Majora's Mask up to the recent Breath of the Wild. I'm curious to see where he got his start, and if Marvelous has the chops to hang with the likes of A Link to the Past, which it closely resembles. Is there a reason we never saw a localized version? I've been curious about it for a while, and last year's full fan translation has given me the opportunity to find out. Best of all, it's not going to be a gigantic JRPG like Rudra no Hihou so I suspect I might even finish it before E3 is over. If you wanted to join me on a remote island solving pirate puzzles, knowing that it isn't a euphemism for something untoward, than you are welcome to do so while the maelstrom that is E3 rages on around us.

(Talking of E3, I'm half-contemplating bringing back the E3 Trailer Blazer again. It's an arduous endeavor though, so let me know if there's any interest as that might be enough to push me to do it.)

Before we start messing around with E3 plans, however, we have some weekly content to discuss:

• The Top Shelf as we know it is coming to an end. It's actually the end of the first round of the elimination process, with the second round commencing shortly thereafter (though perhaps not while E3 is happening; I'll have some kind of stop-gap in place). After next week's "season finale", we'll have completed the preliminary appraisals for all 185 games in my PS2 library, and can start critiquing each of our remaining shelf-potentials on an individual basis. I'm looking forward to revisiting PS2 games I've long forgotten about, and finally boot up the surprising number of PS2 games I've never tried before. Until then, please enjoy this week's assortment - there's some real bangers in there including my favorite Suikoden, the divisive (but a game I happen to like a lot) Final Fantasy XII, the fantastic introduction to Japan's premier open-world crime series that is Yakuza, and the utterly gorgeous and impressively lengthy Okami.
• Indie Game of the Week is last year's Owlboy, which I'm very close to completing as of writing. I might have to knock down the score I gave it in that rundown after suffering through the "Boguin Cannon" mini-game (it's optional, but there's collectibles up for grabs, so it's not "optional" for me). It's a great game, but there's a handful of minor issues that holds it back from being a truly exceptional Indie spacewhipper. There are better ones out there but, with the possible exceptions of Dust: An Elysian Tail or Ori and the Blind Forest, none that can match its level of presentation and 2D graphical prowess.
• The end of May brings with it the end of May Maturity, the old-games-a-thon that dominated my play-time all last month. We reached the end of Menzoberranzan, the 1995 Drizzt Do'Urden-headlining first-person CRPG from DreamForge that riffed on earlier May Maturity candidate Ultima Underworld for its own subterranean adventure in the Underdark of the Forgotten Realms. That game's review-like Outro can be found here. We then capped the feature with a two day blitz of the Legend of Kyrandia sequel Hand of Fate, not to be confused with the card game. The Intro and Outro to Zanthia's speedy and sardonic journey to save the disappearing world of Kyrandia should tell you all you need to know about the middle child of Westwood's irreverent adventure series.

Alas, even though I've broken free of the yoke of May Maturity, I couldn't start a new game in time for a Saturday Summary rundown. I've spent the first three days of June still grasped in Owlboy's talons, but I should have something prepared for you all next week. A game that was released this decade, even.