E3 2008: Best in show report

We've survived another E3. Okay, it's hardly an achievement worthy of a Purple Heart but the event is growing again, as evidenced by this year's substantial increase in the number of announcements (relative to the drastic downsizing of 2007's show).

Naturally, some of that news was handheld-based – in fact, some of the more exciting revelations during the three-day event turned up in portable form. We're biased, clearly, and – whisper it – we also spend time with our home consoles, but we came away from Los Angeles eager to get our hands on some fine forthcoming titles.

And having had a few days to gather our thoughts, we've come up with the five we're most looking forward to. You'll find these below, but before you do it's worth mentioning other E3 2008 highlights such as LocoRoco 2, Patapon 2, Lego Batman, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Rhythm Heaven that didn't quite make the selection.

Still, enough of those losers (joke). Let's get on with the show, shall we?
Best in show E3 2008

1. Resistance: Retribution Format: PSP Developer: Sony Bend Publisher: Sony Effortlessly the most technically impressive PSP title at E3, Resistance: Retribution backed its notable visuals with hugely promising third-person all-out action. The game is a spin-off of the popular PlayStation 3 first-person shooter and apart from the wise change in perspective it looks set to capture the essence of the franchise. We came away particularly pleased with the fluid and intuitive controls, as well as the quality and intensity of the experience on offer. Time will obviously tell if the game manages to maintain that kind of delivery throughout its entirety but based on our first look we're very much hoping for another chance to introduce more Chimera to our bullet friends as soon as possible.
2. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Format: DS Developer: Rockstar Publisher: Rockstar A dangerous inclusion, this. Most obviously because nothing of the game was shown at E3 and only the briefest of information revealed – new characters, a custom game engine, free-roaming environment and a November release. So its appearance here is based purely on potential and the fact that the franchise could work wonderfully on DS. Just as easily as it could prove utterly disastrous (more on that in another article, perhaps). Still, we're prepared to believe Rockstar wouldn't attempt to bring its most treasured franchise onto Nintendo's handheld if it wasn't comfortable about the whole thing. The prospect of seeing how the GTA experience turns out on the handheld is therefore exciting.
3. Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Format: DS Developer: Infinite Interactive Publisher: D3Publisher Before we proceed, has everyone played Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords yet? Because if you haven't, you really are missing out. But apart from that, you'll probably find it difficult to understand why Galactrix has made it into this list. Gone are the previous game's mediaeval garments, replaced by a space-age setting detailing humankind's future bloody struggle for survival. The important bit, of course, is that humanity's fate is played out according to the Puzzle Quest turn-based, match-three-biased dynamic. Phew. It's far from an identical experience, however, and Galactrix's own tweaks to the successful formula currently promise an exciting evolution.
4. Prince of Persia: The Fallen King Format: DS Developer: Ubisoft Casablanca Publisher: Ubisoft When the first images of the cel-shaded The Fallen King, we'll admit things weren't looking too good for The Prince's outing on DS. But the graphics take on a very different character when moving, thankfully, and when combined with a modern interpretation of the classic side-scrolling platform-based gameplay of the original PoP, this stylus-driven update looks set to carve out our heart and feed it to us when it appears this Christmas. In a good way, naturally.
5. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Format: DS Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Will Dracula never die? Of course, we ought not to complain too loudly given the joy he's given us through the long-running Castlevania series. Under the watchful eye of the franchise's super producer Koji Igarashi, Order of Ecclesia looks set to carry on where Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin left off, with 20 explorable areas, an interesting new glyph attack system offering considerable offensive options in your battle against the undead and the side-scrolling wonderfulness we've come to expect. For as long as this kind of quality is maintained, Dracula can keep waking up.