The days preceding E3 are always pretty full of news, rumours, images, trailers and the whole shebang. If that's not enough to keep our loyal readers busy, we've also had a few reviews and hands-on previews up in time for reading before the big show starts.

With Nintendo's E3 conference just around the corner we know all these articles will be lost in the ocean of gaming goodness coming from the show, so to make sure you're in the loop before it starts, a few links and a quick recap might be just what the doctor ordered. Plus, we don't want the N-E team's blood, sweat and tears to go to waste.

This week we saw IGN unveiling two new Wii games from High Voltage Software, the developers of The Conduit. The first, Gladiator A.D. is, as you could assume from the title, an action game where you control various gladiators in mortal combat, fighting not only against each other but against tigers and other life-threatening dangers one would expect in a Roman coliseum. A trailer was released and showed a bit of what seemed like very early gameplay footage.
The second game from HVS is The Grinder, an FPS focused on 4 player online co-op, much in the vein of Left4Dead, where players must cooperate to survive against hordes of mythical creatures such as werewolves and vampires. This announcement was also followed by a trailer.

Among the rumours of Wii Fit Plus, the possibility of a new Mario game in 2009 and an interesting Nintendo trademark for a game called Art Academy, we also showed what's supposed to be a canned Alien DS game developed by Way Forward, developers of Contra 4 and A Boy and His Blob. Unfortunately SEGA took the video out of circulation. Speaking of A Boy And His Blob, five new gameplay videos have appeared and boy, is it looking gorgeous.

So, what else is new? A fantastic trailer for No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle popped up, Trauma Team and the next chapter in the Trauma Center series was also revealed along with some screenshots.
Ubisoft revealed Shaun White: World Stage and a Rabbids Go Home Trailer. SEGA on the other hand, surprised us and showed a trailer for Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing for Wii and DS, pretty much the Mario Kart/Diddy Kong Racingof SEGA. The next chapter in Naruto Clash of the Ninja was also revealed and it has online support!

Horror fans are in for a treat too, the first trailer for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, a reimagining of the first game in the series was released, Fragile was confirmed for western release, as was Ju-On, based on the very popular Japanese horror movies more known over here for the American remakes called The Grudge.
A creepy teaser for Dementium II also appeared despite not showing anything from the game itself. On-rail spin offs of horror games also didn't go unnoticed with footage of the entire E3 demo and a new trailer for Dead Space Extraction as well as images for Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles. Spooky!.

Now let's move on to the impressions department!

Dean Jones got his hands on three DSiWare titles to let you know if they're worth those precious points.
First off is Real Football, re-released on the DSiWare store after seeing a retail release last November. Do the new features like camera incorporation or the ability to play it without needing to swap cartridges make it worthwhile for football fans? Read to find out.

Next on the list is ART STYLE: AQUITE, an underwater block-matching game featuring the minimalistic design seen in all ART STYLE games, the series based on the Japanese only Game Boy Advance bit Generations games. Does it bring anything new to the table?

The final DSiWare review by Dean Jones is ART STYLE: CODE another puzzle game, but this time revolving around numbers. With several modes and a difficulty curve that welcomes those who just want a quick math puzzle and those who want a challenge, this game seems to be a good buy for puzzle game fans.

Pokémon Platinum, the 3rd game of the latest Pokémon generation isn't that different from Diamond and Pearl, but reviewer Derek Wheatly thinks that the new features coupled with what already was a great game, make  Platinum a good choice for your DS collection.

Stephen Thompson got his hands on Treasure's Bleach: Dark Souls, the 2nd instalment of the fighting game series based on the popular anime and manga and the game looks good indeed.

Tom Phillips, N-Europe's commander-in-chief was invited by THQ to try out some of their upcoming games like Drawn To Life: The Next Chapter for Wii (a DS version is also in the making), sequel to the fun and original DS game where you can not only draw your character, but platforms and the levels. Be sure to read the hands-on preview on what looks to be a very interesting game from 5th Cell and THQ.

Also from THQ, Tom previewed Marvel: Super Hero Squad, an action adventure game styled after the action figures with the same name. You can control several Marvel heroes like Wolverine or Iron Man and play the game in co-op, read the preview to find out more details.

Roogoo Attack!, a puzzle game coming for DS expanding on the premise of "heart shaped box goes into heart shaped hole" and obviously familiar to those who played Roogoo on Xbox Live Arcade. Dean Jones tried out the preview code of the game, read to find out his impressions.>

Lastly, from yours truly comes a hands-on preview for the Japanese Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes. Now that the game was announced for US release  (hopefully Europe will see it too), find out it all the hype is justified

Also, if you live in the UK and want to get a free PDC World Championship Darts 2009, click here to enter our competition!

That about covers our latest and biggest pre-E3 news, we hope they were of use and as always, comments on the articles are more than welcome. Stick with us for your Nintendo gaming needs and of course for E3, so remember checking out our E3 hub and the live feed tomorrow!

- Jo�o "Hellfire" Lopes
N-Europe Staff Writer