After endeavoring on the beastial quest of what no mortal human could possibly fathom to merely reach the back of the cavernous convention hall where the videogame exhibitors had been tucked away as if they were some sort geek culture leapers who could not even begin to wear the trousers of the man of the house, the Elders quickly scoped out the must-play-games of the convention - Mega Man 9, Street Fighter 4, Castle Crashers, Soul Caliber IV, de Blob and Bionic Commando.

Not all the booths, however, had been spread upon with some sort or videogame Nutella. Microsoft's booth? The computer giant sat quietly in the shadow of Capcom's SF IV booth with nothing notable except this line up of custom Xbox 360 consoles they were giving away.

Here are some of the highlights.

Megan Man 9

Mega Man 9 is pretty much awesome, It's everything you'd expect. Great 8-bit graphics, great 8-bit sound and hard as piNk! Capcom was displaying the Wii version and even though the only controller option they had was the Wii-mote, the controls were tight. This one will be a must-buy for any retro gaming fan.

Castle Crashers

It's been years in the making, but it was definitely worth the wait. Never has it been so much fun to get raspberried with digital deer fecal matter. The graphics are sharp, the animations are tight and with four-player co-op the game is simply a blast to play. While the game contains some RPG elements, the game barely qualifies as an RPG-light or the Champaign of RPG's if you will. Castle Crashers was covered in gaming Nutella. Be sure to check it out at PAX as the Behemoth's booth will be directly behind ours.

Street Fighter IV

We have already written extensively on our impressions of this incredible game, which can be read here and here. All that needs to be said is that this game lives up to the hype. Also impressive was Capcom's merchandise booth where they were selling items such as Mega Man and Street Fighter tees, hard-to-find titles such as Zack and Wiki as well as Udon's incredible Street Fighter commemorative art book, which contains submissions from Seattle's own Gabe (from Penny Arcade) and Corey Lewis (of Sharknife and Seedless fame). Elder Taragan picked up a copy and had it signed by Gabe.

de Blob

Slowly but surely the Wii is collecting quality titles from third party publishers - Zack and Wiki, Boom Blocks, Okami, Elebits, No More Heros. THQ's be Blob looks to be the next in line. There is certainly something satisfying about literally painting the town with a blob of paint. The mixing of colors to create new colors (i.e. yellow and blue makes green) is a nice touch. The controls are tight, the graphics are colorful and sharp and the game runs smoothly despite the ever changing environment. For those that love to paint, de Blob will have to fill the gap until Bob Ross' Wii game is released...if ever.

Bionic Commando - Re-armed

Bionic Commando - Rearmed, or Top Secret: Hitler no Fukkatsu no Fukkatsu as it might be called in Japan, was on display in Capcom's curtained "Adult's Only" section of their booth. Next to it was the new 3-D version of the game, with Super Joe losing the punk red hair in favor of dreadlocks. The Pink Godzilla crew, however, made a b-line right past the graphically superior version to the retro remake. Bionic Commando - Re-armed is tight. The 3-D graphics look slick on the 2-D backgrounds. The addition of co-op mode is automatically awesome. And the added functionality of being able to pick stuff up, like a barrel, with your bionic arm is a great touch. Every fan of the original 8-bit classic should be looking forward to this title, which has been generously dipped into the gamer Nutella.