Day two at E3 2011: 3DS announcements, Minecraft Pocket Edition, FIFA 12, Heroes of Ruin, and the omnipresent PS Vita

This is more like it. Day two of E3 2011 started with Nintendo's tub-thumping morning press conference, during which it revealed several new 3DS games and showed off several others that we already knew about.

Among the newly announced titles were Luigi's Mansion 2 and Super Smash Brothers, and we were treated to new footage of Mario Kart 3D and Super Mario 3DS, featuring underwater racing and a raccoon costume respectively.

After the presentation I managed to get some hands-on time with Super Mario 3DS and Luigi's Mansion 2, squeezing in two of the four demonstration missions available in the former and about five minutes of gameplay in the latter.

Of the two, Luigi's Mansion 2 looked like the more exciting prospect to these jaded eyes, if only because it's significantly different from the endlessly iterated Mario.

Portable gaming was abundant on the show floor, and not just thanks to the recently released 3DS and the imminent PS Vita.

There was also a whole booth dedicated to games on the Xperia Play, including a barebones but promising Minecraft Pocket Edition; iPad versions of EA Sports's titles alongside 360, PS3, and 3DS; various mobile devices at the Namco Bandai stand; and a T-Mobile booth showing off Tegra 2 Android games on big LCD TVs.

At this last booth, I caught a glimpse of the recently announced Shadowgun. More on that tomorrow.

At Square Enix's booth I saw n-Space's forthcoming 3DS game Heroes of Ruin. n-Space's previous DS titles include Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, GoldenEye 007, and Tron: Evolution, so this RPG-lite is something of a departure.

Producer Tim Schwalk took me through a single mission, during which we played co-operatively, killing monsters and collecting loot and items. The final version will let up to four players play co-operatively, dropping in and out “seamlessly” as the mood takes them.

Heroes of Ruin will use StreetPass for item trading, and n-Space plans to update it regularly with challenges and DLC. Expect a full preview soon.

At EA's booth, I had a go on both the 3DS and iPad versions of FIFA 12. The iPad version was arguably the more interesting, because it'll come with support for one or two iPhones or iPod touchs as Bluetooth controllers, meaning two players will be able to compete on one device (albeit by using two other devices.)

The most obvious portable presence at the show, though, was PS Vita. Hanging posters lined corridors, and a large area of one of the exhibition halls was dedicated to the device, with blue-shirted exhibitors patiently explaining to an endless succession of gamers how to do the sample level in LittleBigPlanet.

If you missed them, check out Pocket Gamer's Day one at E3 2011 thoughts.