After scouting the show floor at Tokyo Game Show 2009, Keiji Inafune came to a grim conclusion: "When I looked at all the different games on the event floor, I said, 'Man, Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished.'"

The famed game designer, who cut his teeth on the Mega Man series and later launched the AAA franchise Dead Rising, realized in the sprawling halls of the Makuhari Messe convention center that his home nation of Japan, once the leader of the video game industry, had fallen. In its place atop the market - and across the venue - stood Western-made blockbusters like Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty.

But as Tokyo G …

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Ryozo Tsujimoto didn't set out to create a Monster Hunter game aimed at Western audiences. It's more like he stumbled upon the idea. Four years ago, Tsujimoto, who serves as producer on the upcoming Monster Hunter World, sat down with his development team at Capcom's Osaka headquarters to brainstorm just what the next Monster Hunter should look like. Their first goal was to create a game for the modern generation of consoles. This was a big shift for a series that, despite debuting on the PS2 in 2004, has since become synonymous with portable platforms.

First, there was the question of what to do with all of that extra power. The team decid …

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Each time Nintendo releases a new console, it's safe to assume the usual suspects will follow: a new Mario Kart and Super Mario Bros. are all but guaranteed; new Smash Bros. and Zelda games are likely to make appearances at some point; and maybe another Metroid launches before the next console makes it to market, and restarts the cycle.

In its first few months of existence, the Nintendo Switch has made good on that nascent promise. It debuted alongside the stunning Zelda adventure Breath of the Wild, and its holiday will be propped up by Super Mario Odyssey. At E3 2017, Nintendo teased new Pokémon and Metroid Prime adventures, establishing …

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It's easy to pick out Koji "Iga" Igarashi in a crowd. Clad entirely in black, with a cowboy hat perched above a long ponytail, Igarashi looks the part of a renegade. Exactly what you'd expect from the man who brought Castlevania back to life with the seminal Symphony of the Night in 1997. He's even been known - as was the case when I interviewed him at E3 last week - to carry around a whip, the favored weapon of Castlevania's vampire-hunting Belmont family.

After leaving Castlevania developer Konami in 2014, Igarashi set straight to work on independently creating exactly the kind of game he's known for: a gothic horror-themed action adventu …

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One of the highlights of Microsoft's E3 press conference last week was the reveal of an all-new fighting game for the Dragon Ball Z universe. Now, there's been quite a few DBZ fighting and action games over the years - nearly 150 titles in all. The long-running anime hasn't always had a stellar reputation for quality, but Dragon Ball FighterZ, as the newest title in the franchise is called, should change that.

In the reveal video, we saw an explosive and disorienting fighting game that has characters teleporting left and right, doling out massive doomsday event-style energy blasts, and throwing punches and kicks at blistering speeds. It was …

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Bungie's upcoming Destiny 2 is going to be more than just a fresh start when it comes to the game's quests, multiplayer structure, and expansive list of guns, armor, and other collectibles. In a brutally honest interview with Kotaku's Jason Schreier this week at E3, game director Luke Smith says the development team is effectively rebooting the core narrative pillar of the Destiny universe. It's all starting with a complete scrubbing of any mention of The Darkness, the ominous yet vague unifying force players fought against in the first game. It turns out that not even Bungie knew what it was supposed to be or even stand for.

"So, I think t …

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E3 felt different this year, and not in a subtle way. For the first time, the Entertainment Software Association sold 15,000 tickets to a video game trade show that had previously been accessible only to industry insiders and the press. And E3 transformed to meet them, building physical spaces that served as temples for the digital worlds they represent. Game developers have always built massive structures for E3, but these served a different purpose. The result was an event that felt less like the corporate schmooze-fests of yore and more like a glimpse of gaming's theme-park future.

Walking into the Los Angeles Convention Center this year …

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As a standalone story, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy will leave behind Nathan Drake in favor for a team-up between Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross. It's a first for the series, but not for developer Naughty Dog, who has experimented with this one-off style with experiences like The Last of Us: Left Behind - an experiment that gave the studio the confidence to experiment with smaller experiences, says game director Kurt Margenau.

When Naughty Dog released Left Behind, they told a story about Ellie that includes moments that both pre-date and take place during the full game. "I think [Left Behind] proved that it was worth it, and for [The Lost Lega …

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