First there was Microsoft’s press conference, then there was Sony’s, and now Nintendo’s… sort of. For the first time ever, rather than host a press conference at E3, the company opted to instead deliver its big announcements through a Nintendo Direct broadcast– and a relatively short one, at that, weighing in at only 41 minutes and some change versus the 90-minute to 2-hours the other guys brought.

And to be quite frank, I hope they never do this again. Or at the very least, are better prepared for it– I and many others who tried to view it live (well, “live,” given it was pre-recorded) found great difficulty with the streaming, no matter where we went. I had to view most of it on Nintendo UK’s website, and missed their second announcement in the process, while only gathering glimpses of the first. If you must do this again, Nintendo, please go with Twitch or YouTube or– better still– both.

Of course, the funny part is that while they had the shortest showing, I’ll probably have the most I have to say about anything here, though that’s likely no surprise. If you’d like to compare this to my thoughts from last year, here you go. Now, without further ado…

Last year, I felt that while Sony had a pretty good E3 press conference, they didn’t really show much that compelled me to want a PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita. That isn’t to say that neither system has games I want, merely that most of what they were showing wasn’t.

This year, of course, is a whole new console and a whole new ballgame. And with Microsoft stinking up the joint before they even got there, will Sony pull off a double-header in my book and outdo their rivals at this year’s E3? Let’s fine out.

One thing before we get started: Unlike the MS conference earlier, I’m pulling all of my reference from this single video. And as it’s around two or so hours long and simply packed with stuff, I hope to be a little more brief here as well. So, without further ado…

Last year, after the big three gave their press conferences, I shared my thoughts on what they had to show. This year, I’m just taking them as they come, starting with Microsoft. They didn’t do much for me last year, and with their Xbox One reveal last month, they drove my interest in the new platform straight into the negative.

The simple fact of the matter is, I’ve already been anti-Xbox One. This isn’t about bias against Microsoft, as I still own, enjoy, and intend to continue playing my Xbox 360 for as long as it holds out. This is about the business practices they’re employing to basically invade and control every facet of the user’s experience, from how they enjoy the games to requiring a camera, online check-ins, and the whole used game rigamarole. I might be able to forgive one, or even two of these slights, but all together? It’s just too much.

So was there anything at their E3 2013 press conference today that would change my mind? Short of a retraction of some of these stupid policies, of course not. Some of these games may pain me to miss, but so it goes sometimes. That said, let’s see how they fared this year.

Following his views on the E3 2012 press conferences of the “Big Three,” Lanceheart joins us again one year later to share his views on how things have moved along.

Here we are, on the verge of E3 2013. Gaming has changed quite a bit since this time in 2012 and promises to change even more in the year ahead. From Nintendo launching its “next generation” console to Sony and Microsoft announcing their own, 2013 will be the most intriguing year in gaming since 2006.

Here we are, only a couple of weeks away from the launch of the Wii U. Naturally, this has led me to take a little bit of time to sit back and reflect on this last generation of games. And thinking about it, the Wii has had one problem which stood out above all others ever since that November 19th launch six years ago, and it is that…

Okay, so I’ve already talked about what I think of Nickelodeon’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as at length about one big thing I’d like to see them reinvent. Now, in some lesser detail, are nine other things I’d like to see reinvented for the new series.

9) Power Armor: Granted, I don’t want them to get into this too soon… in fact, I’d rather it come much later. Perhaps even much, much later, but more on that in a moment.

I always dug the Cyber Samurai Turtles’ power armor, and with Iron Man being a pretty hot ticket as of late, it seems like a cool idea. The alternate implementation was the one-shot episode of the original cartoon where putting on generic suits saw them shift in size and shape until they were the size of Megazords… neat, but not an idea with lasting power, in all likelihood.

Of course, where this idea really works is if they were to bring back a shared element from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures comic…

As I sit down to write this, it is late on the eve of the debut of Nickelodeon’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, which– as I see it– officially kicks off a new era for the fab four. Certainly, IDW has been doing some rather intriguing things with their comic book, things which I like a lot from what I’ve read of them (I need to begin collecting the graphic novels), and which you can read about at TMNT Entity.

Ah, but the cartoon… though the Turtles’ life began in the Mirage comics (aka “Turtle Prime” in Turtles Forever), it’s the cartoons which have really driven the franchise for better or for worse. Some even refuse to acknowledge anything which came before the Fred Wolf cartoons of the 80′s and 90′s… or after, for that matter.

And so we come to this. So far, it seems to be taking a bit of the old, a bit of new, and is more or less ignoring what IDW is doing in the comics, to boot (to my chagrin, in some cases). Can you believe it’s been nearly three years since Mirage sold the whole thing off to Nickelodeon?

Matt Green over at Press the Buttons recently came upon and posted the above piece of artwork by Michael Julius Peterson on deviantART, “Yoshi’s Island of Dreams.” He notes that “this is not a real Yoshi game, but it should be” while drawing comparisons between the composition of this piece and the art from Super Mario USA (the Japanese version of our Super Mario Bros. 2 and its forebearer, Yume K?j?: Doki Doki Panic.

Obviously, I liked the piece so much that I knew on the spot I had to share it here… and offer my own two cents, of course.

In the above video posted to YouTube by user CooperMcHatton (via GoNintendo), we see Charles Martinet say at an autograph signing at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con that he would love to see another Super Mario Sunshine game. And I have to say that I’m of mixed feelings about this.

The similarity between the four New Super Mario Bros. titles is “intentional,” says Producer Takashi Tezuka in an interview with GameSpot.

“That similarity in the visual style and the control style is all intentional. The things we feel like we’ve already promised the gamer is that Peach will be kidnapped by Bowser, and Mario will move from left to right. We know that’s what people are expecting! [Laughs] We know that there are all types of Mario games, as you said. So for us, with the New Super Mario Bros. series, we don’t really need to mess with it. This is what people want.”

Reading this, I felt a sense of… irritation. Granted, Official Nintendo Magazine‘s take removed the laughter, which changes the tone slightly as they proclaim at the top of their article that “According to Tezuka, his team are giving fans what they want. A 2D platformer in which Peach is kidnapped by Bowser.”

Given the nature of these interviews and how some parts can easily be misunderstood, especially when filtered through other sites, I wonder if I might be reading too much into this, if perhaps he was joking about certain similarities between the games. Despite this, I have decided to run with my initial thoughts.

“What the fans want is a 2D platformer where Peach is kidnapped by Bowser.”

But do they?

Do they really?