It may seem strange to some of you, but every year one of my first stops at E3 is SEGA. I’m a die hard fan and it’s mostly because of the Saturn. The Saturn was the first system that I really started importing games for and I can’t even begin to tell you how many amazing games for that system never made it State Side. Anyway, SEGA has a very fond spot in my heart so they are always near the top of my list. For those curious, a SEGA rep did confirm to me that Yu Suzuki was at E3, even though he did not make any announcements and I actually had the pleasure of meeting Yuji Naka and Takashil Iizuka, score!

So what did I see, lots of good stuff. Admittedly, the Dreamcast ports of Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi are a bit disappointing. Sonic Adventure only plays in 4:3 and Crazy Taxi is missing the restaurant locations like KFC and Pizza Hut, even worse the soundtrack has been replaced. No Offspring = No Go. Come on SEGA, if you can’t give me exact or better ports focus on something else.

There were plenty of other exciting things to see despite the disappointing Dreamcast titles. Yakuza 4 is on it’s way to wreak more havoc. This time you’ll be playing as four different “heroes” with all story lines coinciding to make one epic tale.

Sonic Colors is a new title being developed for the Wii. This is a bit of a throwback to the old school, it is very linear and very fast paced. The view switches off between 2D and 3D quite frequently and makes for an interesting twist. A new feature in this adventure is the use of Wisps. Wisps are life forms that follow Sonic and allow him to access different areas. For instance, a certain color will allow you to tunnel underground to reach new sections of the stage. After playing for a while this fills like a good direction for a 3D Sonic, I anxious to see more of this title in the future.

Sonic Free Riders looks like a ton of fun. From the numerous games being shown for the Kinect this by far looks most interesting. Unfortunately, it was not playable, but at anytime of the day you could visit the SEGA booth to watch reps playing in a glass box. There is absolutely no way that it was scripted, the game was actually being played, and it looks pretty damn good. The Kinect seems to be quite responsive even when playing two player split screen. This game is really showcasing what we can expect from Microsoft’s new gadget.

While we’re on the subject of SEGA’s lovable hero hedgehog we have to talk about Sonic the Hedgehog 4. It’s great, it’s simple, it’s beautiful, it works. I had the pleasure of playing through one entire area; Splash Hill Zone, which is composed of three stages and a boss battle with none other than Dr. Robotnik. Splash Hill is very reminiscent of Green Hill Zone and Robotnik’s contraption in the boss battle has a wrecking ball you must avoid just like before. Now, this is not to say that this is a copy of any of the previous games, there is ton’s of new content and according to one of SEGA’s reps this game picks up after Sonic & Knuckles. I posed a few more questions and was told that episode one of Sonic 4 will have 16 stages; that’s four zones with four levels apiece. Sonic will be the only playable character in the first episode, but it sounds likely that other character’s will make appearances in those to come. The object is once again to collect the Chaos Emeralds to save the day. Supposedly the rotating maze from the original Sonic will be back! I loved those special stages and personally can’t wait to go through some more. Be ready to run, jump, and spin dash your way to the giant golden ring at the end of the level sometime in Q4 this year.

Last but not least is Vanquish, from PlatinumGames. The same studio that brought us the miraculous eye popping righteousness of Bayonetta. Shinji Mikami; director and producer of some very well known heavy hitters (he directed Resident Evil 4, produced Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry, etc.) is lending his directorial talents to this title. Imagine playing Halo with the game engine of Bayonetta and you’ll get a feel of what your in for, it’s sweet! This game is going to rock, count on it.

There was more, but these are the real highlights. I have a feeling SEGA still has a few games up