A few early impressions from this week’s E3 presentations. It was a bit of a mixed bag this year, with Nintendo rebounding, Microsoft falling short, and Sony kinda boring the pants off us again.

The Good

Nintendo remembers core gamers – After last year’s disastrous presentation and the claim that Animal Crossing was the game that Nintendo’s core Wii gamers were waiting for, this year was a complete (and welcome 180). Not one but two Mario games, including a welcome return to side-scrolling awesomeness. And a new Metroid title from the Ninja Gaiden folks next year. Looks like it’s time to dust off the Wii. Something I haven’t done since before LAST year’s E3.

Return of the Vampire – Kojima Studios taking over Castlevania seems like it should be significant. Still early to judge, and Castlevania has had it’s problems in the third dimension, but the potential is there. Will it actually lead to a good game? I’m not going to hold my breath, but in my heart, there is hope.

ModNation Racers – I love racing games. Especially arcady racers. This title hit me out of the blue, one of the few genuine surprises this year. It’s an arcade cart racer with a big twist. You can design your own cars, drivers and tracks. And it looked pretty easy to do, which should lead to a wealth of user-created online offerings. The only question I have is whether this will be a disc game, or a PSN title. My gut says PSN title, and that’s okay. Finally though, in the interest of building a brand, wouldn’t this have been better marketed as LittleBigRacing?

Xbox Live - Facebook and Twitter added to a variety of other services available on Live. With the 360 and PS3 jockeying for a place as the only console you need in the living room, integrating all these forms of social networking into one setup can only be a positive idea. And adding downloads of no-longer-on-the-shelf 360 games is a winning idea as well, though it seems to further invalidate the idea of a cheap 360 without a hard drive. What I’d like to see next is Google get involved, and put Mail and Reader apps on both the PS3 and the 360. THAT would be fantastic.

Volume - Simply put, whatever your system, there are some great games coming out in the next year. Even the PSP is showing signs of life, with a redesign and a recommitment from Sony.

The Bad

Premature Announcements – It feels like the window between E3 announcement and the product hitting the shelf is getting wider and wider. For example, one highlight of Nintendo’s show last year was MotionPlus. One of the highlights of Nintendo’s show this year? MotionPlus, which will actually be hitting the shelves soon. Last year, Microsoft announced Final Fantasy 13 would be coming to the 360. This year, it’s still coming. Probably next year. Who knows? And as a result, I think the enthusiasm peaks and wanes far too early.

PSP Go – The system itself is rather nifty, but a $250 price tag is way off the mark. If it was a phone, maybe, but as it is, it’s overpriced in a market that’s gotten a lot more competitive since the first PSP was released.. Here’s the point: Sell me on the PSP Go over the iPhone/iPod Touch. Similar price, but the iPhone/iTouch offers so much more than just games and media, and in most cases, the iApps are cheaper. On the plus side, at least Sony didn’t invent a new proprietary media format to saddle the Go with.

Third Party Exclusives – This is always going to be a pet peeve for me. In this day and age, other than a big fat cheque from either Microsoft or Sony, is there any valid reason for timed or complete exclusives? I don’t think so. Developers, you are limiting your potential sales, so I hope that cheque is even bigger and fatter than I think.

The Meh

Motion Control - You may not have heard this, but apparently the Wiimote is rather popular. Popular enough that Sony and Microsoft are both trying to one-up the Wiimote, with two very different alternatives, which were both on display at E3. Unfortunately, in both cases the sizzle was there but the steak was lacking.

Let’s start with Sony’s effort. Their system is essentially a home motion capture system, which is definitely a different take from Nintendo or Microsoft. It worked as advertised in a tech demo. Great. Wonderful. How does it work in games? What games are available for it? What? They didn’t announce anything? Exactly.

Finally, Microsoft. Project Natal. Glorified EyeToy? Pedophile simulator? Who knows what to make of this. Mostly because it looks like Microsoft rushed it out the door to flesh out what was otherwise a fairly weak E3 performance. They trotted out Kudo Tsunoda, Peter Molyneux, Steven Spielberg and to do what exactly? Show off a last generation tech demo, an obviously somewhat-cooked boy simulator, and, um, Steven Spielberg.

And trotting out Peter Molyneux and Steven Spielberg doesn’t compensate for the fact that it was a new idea that’s nowhere near being a reality, and even when it is real, will most likely end up being used by minigame collections.

Game Presentations – I don’t know where the sweetspot is exactly, but it seemed like most of the gameplay segments went on way too long, but on the flipside, several of the pre-rendered trailers weren’t informative enough. Take Alan Wake as an example. Looks like a great game (literally), the story seems compelling, and the gameplay solid. But boy did that seem to go on forever. With this being THE big event on the game marketing calendar, keep it short and leave us wanting more.

That’s the highlights. Lots of good stuff, even if the presentations were a little underwhelming. And maybe some year, we’ll get to cover E3 live.