It's very rare that Europe sees an event put on by Nintendo on the scale of the 2010 Media Summit, which games press from across the continent made pilgrimage to last Thursday. The big event, following on from a release date announcement frenzy at a US summit the day before in San Francisco, was hosted at the suitably massive O2 Arena in London. N-Europe's roving reporters Tom Phillips and Nathan Whincup were on the scene, prepared to soak in as much gaming brilliance as our moderately sponge-like minds would allow.

The opening conference was hosted by Nintendo of Europe's head of PR, Shelly Pearce. It was made clear that the games shown off at the event would be true gamer's games, and without further ado, the wheels were set in motion with an epic trailer for Super Mario Galaxy 2. We were treated to lots of footage of Mario's new planet-excavating drill item, the bipedal green dinosaur Yoshi rampaging around the cosmos, a glimpse of Bowser Jr.'s return (alongside the terrifyingly loopy-looking dragon boss, Gobblegut), and with the rest consisting of approximately 110% extra awesomeness. Nintendo pointed out that they're looking at Galaxy 2 as an "all-new platformer", referring to it as "much more than a sequel" before laying down a European release date of 11th June. Cracking stuff.

Gobblegut here is taking in all the latest news. Through his mouth.

Next up was Monster Hunter Tri, which definitely seems to be getting a big marketing push from Capcom and Nintendo in the run-up to its launch. To the delight of cash-strapped gamers everywhere, Capcom confirmed that the online modes that have been integral to the Monster Hunter series since its inception would be totally free, and that Europe would be able to enjoy the game just three days after America on 23rd April.

Linking in to another powerful third-party partnership, Nintendo revealed a new friendship with Square Enix, and revealed themselves to be the European publisher of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, which set the Japanese charts alight when it launched in 2009. With over 4 million copies sold in Japan alone, it appears that Nintendo also have high expectations for its performance in the rest of the world. A European release date was also set for Summer 2010.

Sin & Punishment: Successor of the Skies, sequel to the Nintendo 64 cult-hit Sin & Punishment which finally received an English release in 2007 thanks to the Virtual Console, was next up. Nintendo advised us to begin shooting as soon as we pass the title screen... and keep shooting. A very explosive trailer was shown off, before the release date was revealed as 7th May, a whole month before its US launch date.

Will Sin & Punishment's worryingly deranged storyline make an ounce of sense this time round? No. Probably not.

The rest of the conference was filled with other smaller-scale announcements, including an expected release date for Artoon's colourful MotionPlus platformer FlingSmash (Summer 2009). The DSi XL was given a slot, with emphasis placed on the "shared gameplay" the bigger screens encourage; the launch date was reconfirmed as 5th March (alongside Picross 3D, which was cruelly neglected on the day).

But wait just a darn minute! Aren't we forgetting something? Of course, Metroid: Other M! With Nintendo's promises of Other M blending action and cinematics and allowing us to finally "know Samus", all we needed to seal the deal was a release date. Q3 2010 was about as specific as Nintendo would get all day, but with rumours floating around that we'll see the game land in Europe around mid-July, we can only hope that the truth will emerge soon.

And with that unfortunately vague revelation, the stage curtains were lifted, revealing an army of Nintendo reps guarding an armada of Super Mario Galaxy 2 demo pods. That was our cue to spring into action, and fight through the hordes of other games journalists and get our eager mitts all over Mario, Samus (not in that way) and any other delightful surprises lurking within the O2.

We'll update the space below with links to our hands-on previews as they're available, so you can find out what you should be saving up those pennies for over the coming months. Keep watching the skies! Erm, we mean the space below, of course.

Hands-On Preview: Metroid: Other M

Hands-On Preview: Super Mario Galaxy 2