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Trailer Blazer: E3 2017

...What am I doing? @marino's been humblebragging about uploading even more E3 trailers than last year, and now I'm going to sit here and watch them all until either my eyes fall out or I've decided I hate all video games forever. In all seriousness, Marino puts a hell of a lot of time and effort into uploading all these videos while also managing the E3 banner contest and a whole heap of wiki maintenance, and someone should probably watch them and then maybe make fun of them in a list format. The least anyone could do, really.

In addition to a general summary of what the trailer contains and how far along the games appear to be, I'm also introducing two new sidebars:

How Thinkfluenced Am I?: E3 2017 was all about thinkfluencers, and I'd like to believe I'm as thinkfluential as the next guy. Here's where I interject with my own opinion on how the game looks and whether or not you should consider playing it.

How 90s is It?: Sonic Mania, the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and that Bubsy reboot monstrosity all represent a keen desire by the industry to get us back to the 1990s, when sassy mascots once roamed the Earth. Not all games are created equally 90s though, so here's where I sort the bogus and bunk chaff from the totally tubular wheat. (I sound like a breakfast cereal.)

(work in progress! this is going to take a while!)

(v0.2 - 22/06: up to sixty!)

(v0.3 - 25/06: up to a hundred!)

(v0.4 - 29/06: up to 110!)

(v0.5 - 02/07: up to 120!)

(v0.6 - 03/07: up to 130!)

(v1.0 - 06/07: 148! That's all the ones I can find! Sorry.)

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  • A trailer made memorable by the actual hanging bodies during the Sony conference - who really went all out with the stage performance art this year - Days Gone looked like a fairly generic zombie game last E3 and continues to do so here, zombie bears notwithstanding. Last year's trailer focused on the zombie swarming tech, whereas this one seemed more about the stealth options you have available.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I still need to play The Last of Us. Seems like what they're going for here, just not quite as effectively.

    How 90s is It?: It can be hard to tell the difference between "90s grunge" and "post-apocalypse chic". Mostly, everyone's just dirty.

  • I theorized they named this game "Moss" because it is to "mouse" what "Smol" is to "small". You got doggos, you got kittehs, you got moss. Anyway, this appears to be a cute platformer with a VR director sort of role for the player, so here's hoping the devs pull a Super Lucky's Tale and come to their senses with a non-VR equivalent for the rest of us.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Looks great and I'm a sucker for any puzzle/action-adventure style plaformer, but... yeah, VR again.

    How 90s is It?: Like someone gave Stuart Little (1999, Columbia Pictures) a sword.

  • A couple of trailers here for everyone's favorite hot and cold MMO shooter sequel: a cinematic story thing and a brief one from Sony showing off all the PS4 exclusive pre-order junk. This is opposed to the slightly goofy Nathan Filibot trailer from a few months back, which was a little more direct about the upcoming game's plot. Essentially, a bulky Warhammer 40K alien with Darth Vader's aged, bald head kicked out all the Master Chiefs from the Epcot Center, and now the human race is fixing to take it back no matter how much Light they have to farm from a poorly designed exploit cave. I think I got all that right.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Well now, I'd have to play Destiny 1 first. For all that rich lore, am I right?

    How 90s is It?: If you go all the way back to Marathon, the 1990s FPS series Bungie developed for Mac computers, it kinda highlights how long Bungie has been at this space opera business.

  • There's a point early on in Dragon Quest Heroes, the musou game based on Square Enix's popular JRPG series, where you have a regular-looking town which is suddenly darkened by the shadow of a truly colossal creature, and then when the light hits the creature it's actually one of those goofy, brightly-colored grinning cyclopses. That's what came to mind when the first of Extinction's big ogres shows up in this story trailer: the game's aesthetic is all over the place, and it almost feels like a fantasy CGI equivalent of a cheap kaiju movie if it wasn't for the Attack on Titans level of bloody violence. The additional gameplay trailer suggests a certain amount of repetition to defeat each ogre, removing their armor and limbs before going in for the decapitation.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Ehhhh. This feels like someone played the Attack on Titan game, realized it had potential but wasn't going to reach the anime-averse, and decided to make an utterly safe western fantasy equivalent. That doesn't necessarily mean the game itself will suck though. I'll wait and see. If they can vary up the ogres a bit more, maybe with more forms than "standard WoW orc that's been upscaled 10x" and less tower defense "save this many buildings/people" stage requirements, I might be more welcoming.

    How 90s is It?: I still insist that Attack on Titan, and this game by extension, were influenced by a 1990 fantasy novel named Elven Star, which is part of the Death Gate Cycle. I've no proof though. Also I'm a nerd, but we've established that many times over by now.

  • This trailer doesn't give much away, without going out and looking up more info on the game (which is a big "no-no" for this feature). For a while it looks like it might be similar to Shadow Complex (or Metroid, for that matter), with a protagonist running across a 2D plane while elements in the background occasionally take the focus, but then the trailer is bookended with spaceships and an enormous friendly robot (respectively) so I'm not fully certain if the game intends to stick with any one thing. There's also the fact it's VR, and I'm not sure how that will factor into the gameplay. I will say that naming their game after the weird ghost kid from Mass Effect 3 probably wasn't the best call. I hated that dumb kid.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Nope, but again it's more like a "N/A" since I'm not investing in VR any time soon. I'll say this for PSVR though: Sony really has a lot on the horizon for that device, and not just cyber shooting galleries. I'm hoping it becomes the champion of new ideas that format needs.

    How 90s is It?: The heroine with the short, purple hair feels very 90s, but I can't quite place where I've seen that combination before. A Jet Set Radio game maybe?

  • FFXV's been out since last year, but Square Enix are still attending to it with lots of free content patches and new DLC. The two trailers spell out most of what's coming up: a VR mode that apparently revolves around fishing with the boys, a new DLC prequel campaign for Prompto to follow that one for Gladioli (or whatever his name is), a new car that came out this month, CG movies, animes, just a whole multimedia blitz(ball). This is why I bought the game a few months ago and haven't played it yet: what if they fix something or add a whole new game-wide feature to it mid-playthrough?

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I mean, I own the game and fully intend to play it, as I've done for every core non-MMO FF game so far. It's finding the right time, you know? Like once they run out of big content patches, maybe. If that ever happens.

    How 90s is It?: From most accounts, FFXV is essentially anime Backstreet Boys. Am I original? Yeaaaaahhh.

  • A forty-second reveal of the game's logo is all we're getting here. Presumably it'll be the fourth game in the Metroid Prime franchise. Still, definitely one of the biggest surprises of the show and is prompting a whole mess of questions about who might be developing it and what story it might have now that the "phaaze arc" is over.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Extremely. Between this, Xenoblade 2 and Mario Odyssey (and Zelda, if I don't fold and buy the Wii U version soon), the Switch is beginning to seem like a worthwhile investment. I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out.

    How 90s is It?: Super Metroid, the 1994 SNES game, is still the high bar as far as this series is concerned. Can Metroid Prime 4 surpass it?

  • I suspect "Kirby" will not just stay "Kirby" for long, and if you're reading this list in the future and wondering what that first sentence means when the game page attached is clearly named "Kirby's Dream World", I assure you this trailer claimed no such title. Kirby's been the guinea pig for some of Nintendo's less conventional game ideas of late, but it looks like they're going with a traditional (if super HD) platformer for the Switch. I suppose Yoshi will remain the custodian for Nintendo's "hobby craft" aesthetic games.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Wouldn't say no to a Kirby, but then I haven't played a new one since Super Star Ultra. I realize I'm a little behind.

    How 90s is It?: Kirby's Dream Land, along with Kirby himself, debuted in 1992 for the original Game Boy. Last April was the little guy's 25th anniversary (though his *American* anniversary is August 1st, if you felt like celebrating by inhaling an entire cake or something).

  • XCOM 2's got new DLC along the way too. I haven't had the pleasure of playing XCOM 2 yet, but was it always filled with blue space vampires and zombies and magic? I thought it was space marines hiding behind waist-high walls using their high-tech space rifles to miss aliens standing ten feet away. This trailer was a definite one of those "all you know is wrong" revelations.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Well, my original plan to play XCOM 2 some time this century hasn't really changed at all. Good that it's still getting supported, even if I heard less buzz about it than I did its predecessor.

    How 90s is It?: It's another new episode in a franchise that originated in the 1990s. I thought this 90s thing would be a goof I could roll out for Bubsy and his ilk, but it's surprisingly relevant to everything this E3.

  • Well, here it is. Game of the show, right? We've seen bits and pieces of Odyssey before now, back when the Switch was released, but this game and the Treehouse playthrough that followed it really put all the game's horrifying body-jacking cards on the table. I'm into the jumble of styles the game is aiming for, with Mario changing outfits to earn "moons" - which used to be three extra-lives in Super Mario World, so there's some precedent for them - and Cappy up to all kinds of business that's terrifying to contemplate. It's a strong reason to consider buying a Switch, but then the first new Mario for any Nintendo system usually does the trick.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Oh, very. I didn't buy a Wii U until relatively recently (well, OK, four years ago) so I wanted to wait on the Switch for a bit, but Nintendo's not making it easy.

    How 90s is It?: 1993's Body Snatchers, based on the 1955 novel of the same name, was the third movie adaptation of that story and possibly the spookiest. Alien pods appear in a military base, murdering the human occupants and replacing them with soulless facsimiles wearing magical hats with eyes.

  • Xenoblade 2 appears to be going full fantasy to set it itself apart from Xenoblade Chronicles X, which took the sci-fi undertones of the original and exaggerated them with a plot about a seed spaceship from Earth and mechas. XC2's looking a little generic at the moment, but I've played two of these Xenoblade games now and can't imagine it won't be one of the best JRPGs of the year when it releases towards the Holiday season. The trailer gets in a decent amount of plot and gameplay, though I'm really more curious about the open-world stuff, since that's always been XC's strength (and after Monolith's involvement with Breath of the Wild, I want to see how much of that game found its way into this one).

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Between this and Mario Odyssey, my mouse cursor hovers over the Amazon store page for the Nintendo Switch on an almost daily basis.

    How 90s is It?: The "Xeno" franchise as we know it really began with 1998's Xenogears, though there's no real correlation between -gears, -saga and -blade besides some stylistic stuff. Not even mechs are a constant - this game looks to be the first without one.

  • A ten-minute gameplay trailer for a game based on a cartoon that isn't out yet. Licensed games are a tricky enough prospect, but one for a property that has yet to grow an audience? That seems risky. And, if this trailer is any indication, pretty hasty too. Presently, the game looks a bit like the South Park RPG with real-time brawler combat, but it could use some more polish. I just hope they aren't rushing it out to coincide with the cartoon's August debut.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I'm so far behind with new cartoons these days. It seems most of them are sort of doing what Adventure Zone is doing with the silly lingo and 90s nostalgia, though you get the occasional one like Gravity Falls that 's worth getting into. This one's probably not going to be for me.

    How 90s is It?: Most cartoon creators these days were 90s kids, and this one looks like it was based on the Trapper Keeper notes of a particularly zealous Street Fighter 2 fan.

  • It's another VR game, this time with an enormous mech that the player controls directly. I already like the game's sense of perspective, where you're walking around this environment in this giant suit shooting down tiny soldiers and vehicles while striding through what looks like the remains of New York. Beyond that, though, it resembles a great many other sci-fi VR shooting galleries.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I'm not sure we're at the point yet where VR game developers can afford to be too off-beat, because the profit margins for such a small industry have to be near minimal. They're going to have to play it safe for a while until VR becomes more widespread, but then it might not get widespread if there's not enough creativity on display. I want to believe that a neat mech game might do the job of demonstrating what VR can do, but I'm not sold yet.

    How 90s is It?: Man, if this game can be the successor to the Battle Clash/Metal Combat (1992/1993) series that we've all been waiting for? All is forgiven.

  • Breath of the Wild's already out of course, but we still have a lot of DLC for it coming our way. The site has a trailer for each half of the "expansion pack" - far as I know, you gotta buy them both together - as well as a mini-trailer for BotW amiibos based on some of the NPCs you can meet. I've yet to start the game, so I tried to skim through these trailers to avoid seeing too much. This might be it for bonus content for the new Zelda, but don't hold your breath.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I mean, I'm obviously buying Zelda at some point. It's just a matter of choosing between the Wii U and Switch versions, depending on whether or not I fold on getting the latter sooner rather than later. The DLC though? Nah. From what I hear, the game has plenty of content already. And new amiibos can get stuffed directly into where they belong: Griffin McElroy's mouth.

    How 90s is It?: I can't actually think of a Zelda game that saw an expansion. The closest is that "DX" color remake of Link's Awakening that came out in 1998.

  • We've had Zelda Musou, and Fire Emblem seems like the next obvious Nintendo property for a similar treatment. Well, except maybe Pikmin, since that's a game already known for burning through hundreds of expendable units. Actually, that doesn't sound half bad: waves of enemy Pikmin to fight through, claiming random bits of trash across a map to sell back at Olimar's home planet. Anyway, that ain't this. This is a 90 second trailer that very closely resembles Dragon Quest Heroes, right down to the choice of male or female protagonist and a bunch of ringers coming in from other franchise games with little explanation.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Never really been a Fire Emblem guy - between the perma-death, permanently missing recruits and item durability it just seems more stress than they're worth compared to other SRPGs. That they're combining it to another thing I don't care for doesn't help. It's like mixing peanut butter and mayonnaise.

    How 90s is It?: Might be surprised to learn that both Fire Emblem and Dynasty Warriors debuted on either side of the 1990s.

  • Rocket League's a good get for Switch owners, especially since we're hearing that it'll be able to match up cross-network with owners of the PC and Xbox One versions (though not PS4, curiously). Absolutely the type of pick-up-and-play multiplayer that's fun enough even if you suck at it that you'll stick with it until you're doing mid-air bicycle kicks on goal like the best of 'em. The trailer knows that you know what Rocket League is, so it's in and out in just over a minute with hints of the Nintendo-specific swag to collect and a few assurances from its developers.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I haven't played an online multiplayer game in years because every console charges for the privilege and my PC isn't nearly good enough to run those games competitively. So I've mostly just been watching Rocket League from the shadows. Man, that sounded weird.

    How 90s is It?: There was actually a console racing game with a "soc-car" mode back in the 90s, called Street Racer. It was pretty bad, but I liked its Arena and Soccer modes all the same.

  • Yoshi's back on his papercraft bullshit, and it looks like the game will be packed with Super Paper Mario multi-plane trickery too. It's so far away that it doesn't even have a subtitle yet (how about "Dinosaurrugated Cardboard"? OK, we'll workshop that) but Nintendo seems happy to keep Yoshi's little sub-series alive with these cute platformers for the time being.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I've still not played Woolly World, so I'll reserve judgement until then. You'd think some of these newer Wii U games would be hitting Nintendo Selects right about now.

    How 90s is It?: Yoshi himself was invented in 1990 for Super Mario World as an expendable springboard and occasional companion to Mario.

  • I guess we know why Nintendo's been cracking down on AM2R so hard. The official reboot of the second Metroid game is getting the Zero Mission treatment from the studio that made... oh, the Lords of Shadow 3DS game? Well, maybe it'll still be good. At least they got the trial run out of their systems.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I'm always down for more Metroid, and I won't even have to buy a new system to play this. On the other hand, there's a few red flags to worry about, so I'll see what the reviews are like.

    How 90s is It?: Metroid II: Return of Samus, on which this game is based, was a 1991 release for the original Nintendo Game Boy.

  • If there are concerns that Sonic Team have drifted apart from their fan community, a new Sonic game where you create your own OC to fight Shadow and Metal Sonic and Chaos should quiet them. Sonic Mania's hoping to bring the franchise to its Mega Drive glory days, but it seems Sonic Forces wants to continue falling further into the den of furry depravity its online base has become. We just need the next game to involve the whole cast getting slowly swallowed by Ruby the Anaconda and we're all set for the apocalypse.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I escaped the "Sonic cycle" a long time ago. Actually, pretty much right after Sonic 2.

    How 90s is It?: Sonic is to the 90s what a shark is to the ocean. It's not only where he lives, but he's the master of that domain.

  • It's been many years since I played Yakuza 1, and even though it has a complex plot full of murders and double-crosses, I remember it well. That's largely because every new Yakuza includes a recap of all the previous games in case there are some returning characters or plot points that suddenly become relevant again. With that in mind, the trailer wisely determines that everyone's familiar with how Yakuza 1's story went and decides to focus on what's new: the graphics, the multiple fighting styles from 0, that goof Majima hiding in trash cans like a psychopathic Oscar the Grouch, additional side-activities brought in from later games, etc.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: If I were to play Kiwami, and I'm not saying there won't be a time where I eventually run out of numbered entries and will need to look elsewhere for my Yakuza fix, it won't be for a while. I've got plenty of sequels left before I start with the remasters. I've always got Beast in the East on which to feast, at least.

    How 90s is It?: I'm not sure if this game will embrace the 90s as much as Yakuza 0 did the 80s, but there's a prologue and then a big time skip. The prologue's set in 1995, so if the remaster decides to spend some time there before it lurches forward...

  • Yakuza 6 has been out since December in Japan, but this trailer is fairly cagey about what the gameplay will look like, instead focusing on a synopsis-like summary of the story. I've played enough of these games to know not to take any of these plot details on faith: the games are usually thrillers in the sense that nothing is as it initially seems. It's enough to get you hyped for the next game, though I'm sure anyone watching who has only played 0 (or have been watching GBE play it) are plenty confused.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Oh, I mean I'll absolutely play it eventually. The question is whether I should go into it before or after 0. Even if there's no chronological necessity to playing 0 first, 6 will have built on 0's gameplay advances and might well reference characters or events from that prequel. I suppose I'll be throwing gangsters off that bridge when I come to it.

    How 90s is It?: Set in present day, or close enough, that there won't be any retro throwbacks to appreciate here. Still, Kazuma's always felt like a guy trapped in the 90s to some degree.

  • It looks like they're remaking the second-best Mario & Luigi game with a bolted on mode featuring a bunch of enthusiastic goombas. I guess it's been almost... 14 years. Huh. I wonder what prompted this? The trailer has a weird self-own with its "you haven't laughed like this in 14 years" statement, implying that none of the Mario & Luigi sequels were anywhere near as chortlesome. It just feels like an odd thing to direct funds towards, but if this gets more people on the M&L train I suppose I'm for it.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Well, kind of like my situation with Yakuza above, I'm enough games behind in the core series that I'm probably good for remastered versions of the ones I've already played.

    How 90s is It?: The Mario & Luigi franchise always seemed like the spiritual successor to the SNES game Super Mario RPG, which - by the by - turned 20 last year. Where the heck is its big remaster, Nintendo? I suppose adding it to the SNES Classic is enough.

  • This previously PSP-only franchise has been hovering in the digital periphery for a while, joining the likes of Deception and Disgaea as distinctly Japanese strategy games in which the player takes the role of a bad guy for a change, directing their evil minions around to cause mayhem. A HD PS4 VR game is actually the last place I expected this series would end up, but given it's not your standard PSVR experience maybe it'll find a new audience.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I've never liked real-time strategy games and especially not the kind with tower defense, even those that embrace their terrible humor like this one does.

    How 90s is It?: The Dungeon Keeper influences are more than overt. Bullfrog started that franchise in 1997.

  • It's not a particularly memorable name, but this is the party game that briefly turned Shuhei Yoshida into a riot cop in a wonderfully myopic attempt to humanize Sony Interactive's already cheerful President. I can just see the smiling avuncular executive in full riot gear as he beats down an anti-fascist protester upset about the uptick of hate crimes across the country, loudly extolling the virtues of subscribing to PS Plus over the nearby hiss of a tear gas grenade. It's a new party game to play with your phones! Fun!

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Again, I lack all the necessary components to make this work, including perhaps the most important one: a desire to play it.

    How 90s is It?: In my day (the 90s), cameras and phones were separate things. You'd have to walk five miles in the snow both ways to see your friend as an elf.

  • We haven't had a game with zombies for a while, nor have we seen team-based shooters in forever, so here's a game that combines the two underutilized ideas. This very informative five minute trailer with developer commentary tells you everything you need to know about working alongside corpses to kill the dwindling population of humans faster. Wait, how the hell do the "pheromoned" zombies know which group of humans to kill?

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Not at all. It's almost poetic that zombie fiction, despite being so done that it's falling apart at the seams, is nonetheless being kept alive by forces we don't understand.

    How 90s is It?: Zombie games peaked with Zombies Ate My Neighbors (1993, LucasArts) so I'm not sure why developers are still on this topic.

  • Just to hedge their bets a little, along with the highly original audience-participation adventure game Hidden Agenda, Supermassive is also working on this VR shooting gallery game which will be tossed onto the big ol' pile of the things and promptly forgotten. You don't want to be the one guy constantly innovating, after all: it'd make you stand out too much, like the one kid who keeps raising his hand in class. Best to temper originality with mediocrity to ensure you don't upset anyone.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Right now I'm looking for a VR game that would convince me to buy into that whole expensive enterprise. I don't think this is it.

    How 90s is It?: Hey, anyone remember Johnny Bravo? Sorry. The lack of inspiration here managed to spread itself over to me, so we're back to reminiscing about 90s cartoons until I can recharge.

  • This is more like it: animes! Magical animes no less! The Fate-slash-blank series is this whole enormous enterprise that I've so far been unable to crack, but it's a collection of visual novels, fighter games, JRPGs, light novels and animes about kids learning magic who fight other wizards so they can have their wishes granted. This one is the second sequel in a spin-off series based on an alternate universe of the original visual novel and... this is exhausting. Apparently the game already came out in January for Sony systems, so this trailer's for the upcoming Switch port.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Sometimes a franchise is so impenetrable that you don't know where to start. From the beginning? From a newer standalone entry that doesn't require knowing too much of the backstory? Just jump in wherever? At any rate, I'm not sure this Musou-ish game is that launching point.

    How 90s is It?: Not very, the first "Fate/" game was released in 2004.

  • Speaking of giant multimedia anime/video game franchises that began as porn, Utawarerumono ("Utawa" means "Everybody Loves", and "rerumono" is simply how you say "Ray Romano" in Hepburn romaji) is something else I've never become familiar with and have since watched this train of an SRPG/VN series trundle by with seemingly no easy way to board it. If this is indeed the third and final game in a trilogy, maybe we'll see a compilation pack soon.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Any game that comes with a pillowcase has to be doing something right.

    How 90s is It?: Nope, like "Fate/" this game series began in the early 2000s. All these damn millennial sex pillow anime games, I swear.

  • You'd be forgiven for thinking this is yet another anime game with that nonsense title, but this is actually a hard rockin' spiritual successor to that blood and guts pixel action game Slain: Back From Hell. The trailer gives almost nothing away, besides a vague promise of a release date in 2018. Hey, maybe playtest this one a bit first, yeah?

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I've been meaning to try Slain but it isn't top priority right now. Feels less like the spacewhippers I'm into and more like Oniken or Volgarr, or any one of those similarly hard-as-balls throwback side-scroller games.

    How 90s is It?: Feels way more 80s than 90s if I'm being honest.

  • Heck yeah, more Ys! This trailer's only 30 seconds long, but it's enough to get me psyched about Falcom's next action-RPG starring Adol, Dogi and the rest. The fully 3D combat and exploration is the big new change for the series - before now it's always been a top-down affair - so I'm holding my breath that it continues to have that breakneck pace and twitch arcade gameplay I love so much. I was going to make a "lack rimshot" comment in response to not having a joke this time, but then it's sometimes for the best we leave the jokes behind.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Ys is my favorite RPG series, at least in terms of consistency. I guess we'll see with this one.

    How 90s is It?: Ys predates the 90s. It has a timeless quality to it, though, where it always just boils down to this red-headed guy who's really good with a sword.

  • A mercifully brief Danganronpa 3 trailer (since I don't want anything spoiled) highlights a few new changes to the series, in particular that this sequel will feature a female protagonist, but beyond that it's really similar to the first two. Even the trailer's music is a remix of the techno trial theme from the first... which probably just means this game remixes the same tracks a lot, like Ace Attorney and its various "Cornered" themes. If it looks a bit chaotic and indistinct, well... that's Danganronpa.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I really enjoyed the first and am looking forward to playing the second sometime soon. I dunno when I'll get around to the third, but it's another visual novel series I'll need to watch from here on out.

    How 90s is It?: The techno/drum n' bass soundtracks of these games always ring kinda 90s to me. I don't really hear those music genres in non-rhythm games too often.

  • A fine looking 2D action game with a certain amount of dour fatalism about it. It's easy to draw from the Souls well, but I think there's a lot of aspects to that series that appeal to different people, and maybe more games that are inspired by its atmosphere rather than its gameplay is not a bad thing to see. I mean, it's relentlessly bleak, but what about 2017 isn't? (Oops, I made A Bummer. Kids, never make A Bummer when you're writing a comedy list about E3 trailers.)

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I'm into what I see, though the trailer doesn't give much away beyond a redheaded dude murdering things. I can get that from Ys if need be.

    How 90s is It?: Ah, that's what the faceless guys and the occasional runs from wolves and such reminded me of: Eric Chahi's Another World, the 1991 adventure game for Amiga and Atari ST. Just more Norse than French.

  • A multiplayer VR Pong game with a Tron aesthetic. Stop me if you've heard this one before. The trailer is simply 51 seconds of neon space torsos tossing balls at each other until a PlayStation logo appears. Sometimes, there's just not a whole lot of material to work with. eSparcs? There's no Sparc of inspiration here? You won't be getting any Sparc plugs from me?

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Minimal. I can throw balls at people in real life. Not that I necessarily would, but the option exists.

    How 90s is It?: I feel like VR gaming's major stylistic issue right now is the idea of 90s VR nostalgia being so dominant. The vector/wireframe shapes and neon colors are all very distinctive of a culture borne from Tron and The Lawnmower Man and Reboot and other media of the time contemplating the future that is virtual reality.

  • If you're not sure which game this is, since the trailer's just a brief stylistic "oh shit!" thing, it's the one that was on VR Rodeo where they had a room full of robots to shoot at. I'm sorry I can't get any more specific than that, you know how it is. I can tell you it's probably not the one you're thinking of. That one where the robots look like mannequins and there are ninja stars? Not that one.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Minimal. I can shoot a sci-fi laser at robots in real... OK, I can't actually do that.

    How 90s is It?: The game's worker robots with their function-over-form shapes reminded me of 1994's Rise of the Robots. Not a knock, because that game had a neat aesthetic (and soundtrack). It was really everything else about it that let it down.

  • A great trailer, but then Elite's been out long enough that it wouldn't be tough to find enough picturesque parts of the game (or gameplay snippets) to montage something together. This trailer is for the system's long-awaited PS4 debut, which trails the now-expired temporary console exclusivity of the Xbox One. I don't know if I mind console exclusivity so much as long as it's a timed thing, you know? The devs need the cash, and at least it means I'll be able to play it eventually.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Elite Dangerous looks fantastic, and always has. I have a long affinity for the series too, but I did just recently complete Rebel Galaxy so I might be set for space-trading for another year.

    How 90s is It?: Elite's another franchise that's older than you think it is. 33 years old this September, in fact. I don't want to even think about how old that is in light years (that's not how light years work).

  • Insurgency seemed to grab a lot of people looking for a more serious military thing in the vein of ARMA and whatnot, though I can't say it ever appealed to me personally. The trailer's kinda vague about it, but this looks to be a separate game that updates everything rather than some revamp with a new desert setting. It's out at the end of the year and appears to be heading to consoles as well as PC. I almost got through this whole thing without asking what the name of the song was in the trailer.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I'm going to be the rude person here and say "nuh-uh-uh-uh-uh, nuh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh" to this one.

    How 90s is It?: Darude - Sandstorm was first released in 1999. Might as well ride this bomb all the way down to comedy oblivion.

  • In this cheerful game, the presence of rats as the vector for the black plague that swept across 14th cenutry Europe is given just a tiny bit of an exaggeration here as thousands swarm to devour people alive. I suspect the game might offer a few supernatural explanations for the plague as its hook, but this trailer's definitely not giving pet rat owners a positive image boost.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I'm no Professor Henry Jones Sr., but I am slightly disquieted by the cacophony of a thousand squeaking rats. I can't imagine it's the whole game, though. Otherwise they might've called it A Plague Rat's Tail just to be cute.

    How 90s is It?: It's set in 1349, so not very.

  • A picturesque trailer for the in-development Conan Exiles, a massively-multiplayer survival game currently languishing on Steam in the shadow of its many peers. I feel like the whole "donger sliders" business really took over this game's narrative of bringing the Hyborean Age to an audience of Rust/ARK fans. Let me tell you of the days of hung adventurers!

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Honestly, I'd love a big, immersive, open-world Conan the Barbarian RPG from developers who really appreciate and venerate the lore of the original Robert E. Howard novels, maybe tossing in a few of the orchestral tracks from the movies. Something like a Cimmerian Skyrim. I just don't see why it has to be yet another one of these antagonistic PvP survival crafting things.

    How 90s is It?: Far as I know, the only Conan-related thing to come out during the 1990s was... wait, there were two animated series and a live-action TV show? How did I sleep on all this?

  • I know folk who swear by Vanillaware, but I've never successfully managed to break into their ludography yet. The mech-heavy 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, the first of their games to attempt sci-fi, is probably going to be an action game with enormous mechas and a bunch of androgynous teens. I say probably because the E3 trailer is all atmosphere and zero gameplay.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I'm still intending to play Muramasa and Dragon's Crown one of these days. I don't have as much affinity for mech animes as I do regular fantasy, but I'll add it to the list if the reception is decent. I suspect Austin Walker's take will be the one to look out for. Crowbar's all about those robots.

    How 90s is It?: Some definite Neon Genesis Evangelion (Gainax, 1995-6) vibes with the dour schoolkids and the ruined cities, but I suspect that sort of imagery was fairly widespread in media of that genre.

  • The Styx/Orcs and Men folk are putting together a Call of Cthulhu game, presumably based on the table-top RPG inspired by Lovecraft's works. I'm not sure if it'll have so much of the RPG stuff: it looks more like Amnesia, if your lantern-wielding hero poking through a creepy mansion is any indication. If nothing else, the trailer leaves you with the impression that the devs know what a good Cthulhu game should entail: cultists, weird tentacle stuff in space, and doctors with giant hypos trying to calm your insane ass down.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I've been hearing that the Styx series has been getting steadily better, so I might trust Cyanide to pull this one off after that trailer. It's been a while since we had a good Call of Cthulhu game.

    How 90s is It?: In terms of Cthulhu games people have heard of, most would immediately recall the 2005 FPS Dark Corners of the Earth for PC and 360. However, I'm more acquainted with a pair of point-and-click adventure games from the 90s: Shadow of the Comet and Prisoner of Ice.

  • Ah, I've been wondering what indies zero have been up to. Figured it was another Theatrhythm. As well as developing NES Remix and the GameCenter CX games, indies zero has actually been around for almost twenty years now. Their first game was Sutte Hakkun for the Super Famicom, which I recently learned during... oh wait, I'm supposed to be talking about this sushi game trailer. It's neat! The trailer zips along giving you a sense of the eccentric cast while snippets of the gameplay - you have to quickly link together sushi of the same type on moving conveyors - gives you enough of the game's hook to be invested. I'm glad they're getting to make a game that isn't based on someone else's property. Now start working on a Falcom Theatrhythm already, please.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: It seems a bit too multiplayer-focused for me, but I certainly wouldn't mind a new fast-paced competitive puzzle game. Puyo Puyo Tetris proved there's life in that sub-genre yet.

    How 90s is It?: I definitely get a Samurai Pizza Cats (90/91) vibe from the idea of sushi chefs as samurai operating under the code of sushido.

  • Like many extant fighters which saw trailers this year, Injustice 2's trailer is all about the new DLC characters it is receiving. Specifically, Sub-Zero, who is moonlighting from his usual gig of trying to kill a fire skeleton to hack away at some DC heroes and villains instead. This really makes my "in just ice" pun from last year oddly prescient.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Ol' Subby Zee throwing his ice clone at people is new to me. Then again, I've only played like four of the dozen Mortal Kombat games out there.

    How 90s is It?: I wasn't sure you couldn't get more 90s than Sonic the Hedgehog, but Mortal Kombat might be the exception.

  • Time for the customary ironic appreciation of an utterly tedious-looking strategy-sim game. Last year it was Farming Simulator 17 (18 is conspicuously absent, unless Marino just forgot), and this time it's trains and railways and steam engines and little people who want to get on the trains to get to work and trees and sometimes the trees move when you plan a railway slightly differently. I wasn't sure about the Wild West theme, but then it strikes me that the 19th century was the last time anyone in the US really cared about above-ground trains.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: Not even a little bit. Skytrains though? Well, that's a whole different story.

    How 90s is It?: Back to the Future 3, the climactic ending to which I hope can be recreated in this simulator, premiered in May of 1990.

  • The Avatars are getting a Pixar/Dreamworks style facelift, offering more options for customization including prosthetics and wheelchairs for those that require them IRL. The big question is why is Microsoft going to all this trouble? That's not to be dismissive - Miis and Avatars have always been a fun way to recreate yourself in a virtual 3D space - but to wonder out loud if MS has any bigger plans for them. Like, more games that specifically use Avatars like some of Rare's 360 output or Indie stuff like Kingdom of Keflings. If those developers wanted to keep making games that incorporate player avatars, then that might be what this new rebooted Avatar system could be hinting towards.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I don't own an Xbox One, so no fancy new Avatar for me. I'm not sure I'd be fine with how realistically these tools can represent my paunch. My paunch has no business in cyberspace. Say no to cyber-paunches.

    How 90s is It?: Both Pixar (Toy Story, 1995) and DreamWorks (Antz, 1998) started making their trademark CGI feature films in the 90s. I imagine they must've poached a few of their character designers for these avatars, because it's uncanny how similar the styles are.

  • Another fighter, another bonus character. Eagle's another Native American, which were required in every 90s fighter due to... reasons I don't think I want to get into. He's also Chief Thunder's brother, and apparently been around in the lore since the first game but not actually in person, so I guess this is a neat boon (not that Boon, see "Injustice 2" above) to those who are... really into Killer Instinct's lore? There's no part of this that feels right, I'll say that much.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: I only buy fighter games that come free with CDs full of the hottest jams.

    How 90s is It?: Like anything else trying to bite Mortal Kombat's steez, Killer Instinct is 90s through and through. First game was released in 1994.

  • Forgive me if I've got the wrong impression here, but after watching this one minute trailer it feels like someone decided DOTA would be more fun if they got rid of all the towers and Ancients and creeps and jungles and just had the heroes fight each other Smash Bros style. You know, I'm not sure they're incorrect.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: My antipathy for DOTA and LoL is such that I don't think I could play anything even MOBA-adjacent. I bet I'd have more fun watching this than DOTA though.

    How 90s is It?: Could this be the successor to 1994's Sugoi Hebereke that everyone has been waiting for? The universal acclaim and recognition of Sugoi Hebereke makes it a hard act to follow. If anything does have a shot at toppling the mighty Sugoi Hebereke though, it's whatever this is.

  • The cute city-building/Zelda-dungeoneering became available shortly after E3 concluded, and it seems like the reception's mostly mixed with detractors pointing at the game's shallow modes and lack of challenge. The trailer gives you a decent idea of what the gameplay involves, at least the dungeon parts, but seems fairly muted. I have to wonder how much confidence Nintendo had in this game.

    How Thinkfluenced Am I?: It does seem like one of those portable chill-out RPGs and I'm still curious enough to try it out as a fan of RPGs with city-building aspects, but since I didn't care for Fantasy Life I'm not sure if it'll be for me.

    How 90s is It?: Not at all! This 90s thing was poorly conceived! I'm going to try something else next year! See you all then! (E3, please have fewer trailers next time!)
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mrcraggle

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mrcraggle

This list is relevant to me as a millennial who pines for the 90s.