In a word: disappointing. That pretty accurately sums up how this year’s E3 has played out this week. All of the big three have essentially played it safe this week. Chris Kohler over at Game|Life says it better than anyone else I’ve read so far:

Typically, it’s been the “battle of the press conferences” to see who “wins E3.” This year, everybody surrendered.

True. Nintendo has so much content in development right now, and all we really got were some release dates on games we already knew were hitting before Christmas, and two new game announcements: Mario Kart Wii (which we knew they were going to make, obviously, though they did confirm online multiplayer for the title), and Wii Fit. I’ll admit, Wii Fit looks like an interesting game, and when I explained it to my wife, she was completely sold on the concept without seeing anything. It will do exactly what it is intended to do: help Nintendo expand the gaming audience.

But that’s it. Nintendo has other games coming out this year, but you wouldn’t know it from this E3. They even talked big about how they are supposedly pushing online hard. But then two of the most highly-anticipated online titles: Battalion Wars 2 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, were noticeably absent this year. Are you absolutely sure you’re planning to support online gaming on the Wii, Nintendo? Because you sure aren’t demonstrating it.

Some announcements from third parties have been welcome, but I was expecting something big from Nintendo. I didn’t get it, and that makes me worried that there IS nothing big coming from Nintendo. Metroid Prime 3 will evidently rock my socks, and that’s good, because I didn’t even bother with Metroid Prime 2 since I was never sold on how the first one controlled.

All in all, E3 has proven to be a severely castrated perversion of its previous glory.

Long live E3; E3 is dead.