Platinum Games, the wonderfully creative team behind thrilling action titles such as Bayonetta 2, Vanquish, and Anarchy Reigns, blesses the Wii U with what will be the company’s first next-generation effort, The Wonderful 101. I previously played the game at New York Comic Con, but an updated E3 build showcased many of the game’s new features.

Bayonetta is an over-the-top, stylish action game developed by Platinum Games and directed by Hideki Kamiya, of Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe fame. Bayonetta brilliantly integrates free-form combat with structured combos, resulting in one of the best action games of the generation. Unfortunately, despite the critical acclaim, publisher SEGA never gave Platinum Games the green light for a sequel. All of that changed during the Wii U showcase last fall, where Nintendo announced a sequel to Bayonetta as a Wii U exclusive title. While a teaser trailer was revealed earlier this year to tide fans over while Platinum Games worked on the Bayonetta 2, the game’s current was kept secret until the day E3 2013 began. Not only did fans get a new trailer, but E3 2013 attendees could also get hands-on with a playable demo of Bayonetta 2.

I never got around to playing Bastion, but I did watch friends play it. The game seemed odd, the isometric camera angle weirded me out, and it lacked a hook to pull me into its world. This isn’t the case with Supergiant Games’ turn-based strategy game Transistor. When it was revealed at the Sony press conference on Monday evening, I immediately felt compelled to play it.

I met up with Greg Kasavin, Transistor’s writer and designer, at Sony’s booth. I was honest: I told him that I never played Bastion, or really had the interest to, but wanted to play Transistor. I asked him what it was about, how it was different, what I should expect. Kasavin laughed and said, “You know what? How about you go in cold. I think it’ll be better for you that way instead of me trying to explain everything.”

And boy, was he right.

A few weeks ago, we brought you an X-List that featured dormant series that we thought needed a revival. Well, E3 2013 saw the surprising return of a few long-dead franchises. In fact, one of the games listed below was revealed an entire console generation ago.

None of those unveiled E3 2013 games made that X-List (prophets, I suppose, we are not), but it’s still quite interesting to see series once thought dead and buried resurface.

Let’s take a look at ‘em shall we?

Killer Instinct, Rare’s bombastic fighting game series, returns to combat after a 17 year hiatus. Last appearing on the Nintendo 64 as Killer Instinct Gold, Killer Instinct lied dormant until it was teased at Microsoft’s E3 2013 Xbox One press conference.

Killer Instinct, now under the guidance of developer Double Helix, has returned at the right time. Fighting games have enjoyed a renaissance that’s resulted in Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Dead or Alive, and Virtua Fighter receiving new series entries. The fighting game landscape hasn’t been this rich in decades, so its good to see Killer Instinct, one of the ’90s fighting game posterboys, contribute to this second coming.

Bethesda opened its E3 presentation with The Evil Within. On-hand representatives claimed, “We wanted to make a game that was truly horrifying.” Horrifying was right.

The Evil Within was so damn scary that I truly do not have faith in myself, or many others to review it. The game has an old Resident Evil or Silent Hill feel that keeps you not only on the edge of your seat, but on the edge of sanity.

This morning’s Nintendo Direct video revealed the latest iterations of The Big N’s biggest franchises. Or, rather, most of them. Anyone (like me) waiting for a new Metroid, F-Zero or Star Fox was left to continue waiting. Even Zelda failed to appear. The sequel to A Link to the Past, now called A Link Between Worlds, was absent from the Direct feed, only to be unearthed later on Nintendo’s YouTube page. It looks great, but why didn’t they include it as part of the main event? The new Yoshi’s Island got left out too.

Oh man. Sony. Sony’s conference was exciting because for a few months we thought gaming was entering a dark age. That appears to be avoided thanks to a company that (uh, for now) knows what it’s doing. This is a real turn around from 2006-20011 era Sony (the entire last generation basically), the Sony that fumbled and tripped over every little thing. Tonight, they did nearly everything right by doing nothing at all.

Microsoft’s E3 show started off with a bang — one that couldn’t be topped in this Metal Gear fan’s mind. The new trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain floored me. We got to see the full extent of the FOX Engine. It made for some breathtaking moments, including hiding whilst on horseback, day/night cycles and improved CQC combat. The overall scope and dreary tone of the footage hit me right in the diamonds. Kaz, poor Kaz. Jesus, what did they do to you? And the questions! Is Eli really Liquid Snake? Will that new lady sniper end up training a certain “wolf”? Who is Skull Face? Why can’t Big Boss remove that horn-shaped shrapnel from his head? It also gave us a taste of Kiefer’s brand of gruff and I’m loving it. I’m loving all of it. And it’s not an XBox One exclusive. Thank god.

Hideo Kojima confirmed what we kinda knew all along: Hollywood actor Keifer Sutherland will take over the voice (and motion capture) of Snake/Big Boss in the new Metal Gear Solid game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. We heard him “audition” the role as the bandaged character Ishmael in the Phantom Pain gameplay demonstration a few months back, but in a way The Lost Boy has been auditioning for the role for the past decade or so as Jack Bauer in the hit TV show 24.