Well if you’re reading this article you probably know that this week is one of the biggest in the videogame industry. Despite the fact that E3 isn’t nearly as big as it was in prior years (read: less 17 year olds getting into the show as "press"), it’s still the biggest week for news in the game industry.

This year though, with the lower attendance, the Console Big 3 had to think of better ways to get the word out to gamers and they have done so by releasing a cornucopia of downloads. Both Sony and Microsoft have put every game trailer they can think of on their download service, and let me tell you, this is why I bought the 120GB Elite! Well that and I spend way too much money on games, but you’ve probably already figured that out by now.

In addition to the trailers, all 3 companies also put out some new/old games on their services, so let’s talk about that first, and we’ll get to the add-ons and trailers later. Before I wrote this article, I have to put all the new content onto a sheet so I kneow what to talk about – the list is two pages this week and I’m exhausted just looking at it.

I’m going to start with the Wii because thankfully for me there’s just the usual three virtual console games. No trailers, besides they wouldn’t fit on the 512MB internal memory. The Wii brings us two NES games and one Turbo Grafix 16 game. I’ve never been a fan of Yoshi and the NES game won’t change my mind. I’d skip it. For those of you that were dying for a game like Bonk but different, why not try Air Zonk? Yes, this was the creative marking of the late 80s/early 90s. I’m surprised we never got Bonic the Hedgehog. Finally, we have Mach Rider, which if you can get over the graphics, is a fun game. It’s a motorcycle racing/shooting game and doesn’t that sound great? Oh yeah, the main colors in the game are green and yellow. Let’s just say it does not look good – but it is fun.

Moving along to GameTap, we have six new games on the list: four Neo-Geo games and two PC games. The NG games are mostly sequels to games we’ve mentioned in past columns with the exception of The Last Blade, which really isn’t anything to write home about, and considering I’m one of five people that own the Dreamcast version, that really says a lot about me. The game of note this week is Sierra’s Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers. After playing such a fun game like this, you wonder, where did all the fun adventure games go? That’s a genre that needs a come back.

Moving along to the Xbox 360, in the pay category we have two: Sonic The Hedgehog Arcade and Golden Axe. You’ll probably note something different – they added “Arcade” to Sonic the Hedgehog, but it’s kind of like saying Memory Card (for PlayStation 2). Everyone already knows it’s for Live Arcade. Remember when Mattel had to add “Cartridge” to every Dungeons & Dragons games so that people would know it wasn’t a ‘real’ game? I guess it’s kind of like that. The Sonic game is no different from the Genesis version. I was under the impression that the graphics would be updated but it doesn’t look like that is the case. What is nice is the way Sega has displayed the game as part of the “Sega Vintage” collection. Anyway, this is the same game you’ve played a zillion times on a zillion other systems, so unless you must have those 200 achievement points, don’t bother.

The other new XBLA game is the arcade version of Golden Axe. Many columns ago we mentioned that the Genesis version of Golden Axe 2 hit the Virtual Console…so basically we’re just waiting for Sega to release it on the PS3 and the circle of hell will be complete. Again, no HD upgrade, just the same game. Even Double Dragon got an HD treatment. I’d skip this one too.

Microsoft has put up a few playable demos of games and I highly recommend you check out the Ace Combat 6 demo because of the truly stunning graphics. You can also check out Blue Dragon (Final Fantasy fans and RPG fans in general need to check this demo out – it is simply awesome! – ed.), Stuntman, and NCAA Football 08.