1. Super Mario Odyssey ; I'm usually not that crazy about 3D Mario games. I enjoy them, and recognize their quality objectively, but I don't think I'd call any of them personal favorite titles for me. Super Mario Odyssey's trailer is one of the best trailers I have ever seen for a video game. It constantly surprises. It OOZES charm and imagination. And the new mechanic had me sold instantly. The game is so weird! It's so unique! I get to play it in four short months. I didn't imagine myself being this excited for a Mario game ever, but Nintendo knocked it out of the park with both their trailer and demonstrations. Gold star.
2. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 ; Nintendo is sticking to their Holiday 2017 guns and I'm starting to believe. I'm so psyched for the return to a focused narrative and deeper character interactions. The gameplay demonstration got me really pumped too, and I'm actually really okay with how different the combat looks from the first two games. I LOVED the combat in the first two games, but while it streamlines some elements, XB2 seems to be complex and just as customizable in completely new ways. I think playing through it is going to be a blast. A couple of frustrating female character designs and a worse English voice cast are a couple elements that make me feel that I won't love this game quite as much as I adored the first Xenoblade Chronicles. But I feel that I'm going to love XC2 regardless, and I'm unbelievably glad I'll get to verify that by the end of this year.
3. Dragon Ball FighterZ ; The game I never realized I wanted. A balanced, gorgeous DBZ fighting game by a team that has gotten imaginative movesets and character variety down to a science. There are only three things that could make me happier. One, my man Hercule being playable at launch. Two, Arc System Works having enough manpower to be working on this and Persona 5 Arena at the same time. Three, this is the first step towards a 3v3 Shonen Jump crossover game by the same team. To be clear though, I am already immensely happy, and the phenomenal looking gameplay videos are to thank for that.
4. A Way Out ; An AAA co-op-mandatory prison break game was certainly unexpected, but in this case unexpected is really good. It looks like the kind of innovative experience that makes me love video games as a medium, and the focus on storytelling is always a huge plus for me. My girlfriend also really loved the demonstration, and we both can't wait to do at least one playthrough together next year.
5. Spider-Man ; The gameplay looks real good. It's funny how many flashbacks this gives me to Spider-Man 2, just with an absurd level of polish and visual flair. My only hope is that the additional villains are more notable than Negative Man, a character I have never heard of in my 20+ years of reading comic books.
6. Kirby ; Speaking of games I'm going to play with my girlfriend, this looks adorable! Power combinations are back! So are partner characters! Like. It's Kirby. It's really hard to fuck that up and I have confidence that HAL is going to make me love a Kirby game for the billionth time.
7. New Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony ; While Danganronpa didn't have a huge presence at E3, the dub trailer featuring an incredibly competent voice cast (as usual) was all I needed. I love, love, love the Danganronpa franchise, and I anticipate V3 being one of my GOTYs when it finally comes out. So the tiny taste the new trailer provided was all I really needed.
8. Detroit: Become Human ; Man, no release date again. It's taking so long to come out. But every time they show off something new, I'm sold all over again. Detroit: Become Human really does look like it's going to be the best game Quantic Dream has ever made. If that really ends up being the case, then I'm okay with waiting as long as it takes.
9. Beyond Good and Evil 2 ; Shani is one of the most fantastic character designs I've ever seen. I haven't played more than two hours of the first BG&E, but Shani makes me want to play through that entire game just so I can fully enjoy the prequel. The only reasons it's not waay higher on the list are that I don't think I've seen any explicit confirmation that she's playable, and of course that this won't be a real video game for several years. I do think however, that if Ubisoft doesn't cancel or shelve it again, Michel Ancel absolutely has the chops to make BG&E2 the phenomenal game it could eventually be.
10. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle ; It is so dumb this game even exists. But it's an admirable, amazing kind of dumb. I have to play it for myself, just to confirm it really exists. I don't anticipate Kingdom Battle to knock my socks off, but even the possibility that it'll be competent and kind of fun is something amazing. I badly want this to succeed, even just so it opens the door for even better third party collaborations.
Honorable Mentions:
x. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - The Champions' Ballad ; Man, I hope the Champions are playable in this. Even if they're not, I'm going to do my best to scoop up every one of those beautiful fucking Amiibo.
x. Undertale ; Already got the true ending on PC, but the wider audience Undertale's going to have thanks to its PS4 port is well deserved, and I'm absolutely double dipping on that mouth-watering Collector's Edition.
x. Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite ; The story demo launching on the night of the Sony conference was a pleasant surprise, and it was actually pretty cute and fun to play through. Boy, Dragon Ball FighterZ sure is making Capcom's efforts (and budget) look embarassing though.
x. Blade Strangers ; It looks janky and kind of bad but I will always play a new fighting game, and I will especially always play a new fighting game coming out on the Switch. Plus it's got such a weird cast and interesting controls that I've gotta check it out. Fingers crossed that Nicalis gets it out in a timely manner.