The 17th annual E3, or Electronic Entertainment Expo, has come and gone. Flashy trailers were shown, lofty promises were made and copious amounts of body odor were expelled. Being my first-ever E3, it was a pleasant experience--the sights, sounds and scoops were a marvel to behold. But as far as social, mobile and casual games are concerned, even I was able to take a step back from the glitz and glamor to take note of the bigger (or smaller) picture.

Mobile, social, and casual were all a much bigger deal at this year's E3 than ever before. Facebook games like Puzzle Chasers had their very own booth displays and even big-time developers such as Insomniac Games were present to show off their social games. Hell, GREE had one of the biggest booths of any developer at the show with over 25 mobile games, one of which was on display inside of a gutted-out convertible.

Even so, social and mobile gaming still wasn't as big a deal as it could (or should) have been. Sure, E3 is a show traditionally reserved for all things "hardcore", but If its effect on the industry at large were represented at scale, then Zynga would have had a booth comparable to EA's, which was front and center in the South Hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center last week. At any rate, social, mobile and casual showed its growing stripes at this year's E3, and we were there to cover the best and brightest. In case you missed it, here are the highlights:

June 4th:

• SimCity Social talks a big a game of 'more city, less ville'
• Madden NFL Social tries the play again this fall on Facebook

June 5th:

• New Super Mario Bros. U takes a cue from Facebook
• Three Mario games makes a crowd on Nintendo 3DS
• Disney's City Girl, Disney's Ghosts of Mistwood, Mobster's Criminal Empire hit Facebook this summer
• Where's My Water meets Phineas and Ferb on iOS, Android
• New Super Mario Bros. U: Fifth wheel has its highs and lows
• Fashion Hazard on iPad: Finally, a girl game with gusto
• Nintendo Land: Wii Sports without the faux athleticism
• Koozac is what happens when math meets Tetris
• Motley Blocks is like frantic 3D Picross on iOS
• Square Enix gets award-winning board game to Facebook, mobile

June 6th:

• GREE hides in plain sight with a gaggle of games
• Puzzle Chasers hunts down a new kind of Facebook game
• Scrabble finds its niche on Facebook, iOS and Android
• Disney feels generous in Disney Animal Kingdom Explorers

June 7th:

• Outernauts is the true Pokemon experience on Facebook
• Harvest Moon maker gushes over Project Happiness
• Nintendo's Cindy Gordon on what Wii U is all about

[DL Image Credit: Engadget]

What did you think of this year's E3? What were your favorites or duds from the show? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.