Capcom unveil line-up for Electronic Entertainment Expo and promise a surprise or two

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Legendary arcade and video game maker Capcom have unveiled their planned line-up for the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, June 14-17.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, also known as 'E3', is one of the world's biggest annual video game events, if not now slightly more prominent than Germany's GamesCom and Japan's Tokyo Games Show.

The Expo is an opportunity for console manufacturers and game developers to underline the best and brightest that will be released in the rest of the year and beyond.

For Capcom, that means some of their most successful titles of the last few years are coming out to play again. Most are scheduled for release early in 2011, indicating a growing trend to target January to March for big games, acting as a counterpoint to the traditional October and November window.

The vibrant Marvel vs Capcom 3 has only had ten of a possible thirty characters revealed, so expect more to come out of the shadows at E3. The game draws upon Marvel's comic book heroes (Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine) and Capcom's back catalogue (eg. Street Fighter and Resident Evil).

Okamiden is a sequel to Capcom's beautiful instant classic Okami, but this time on Nintendo DS instead of Wii and Playstation 2. While the original told the story of a white wolf that brought color back to the world by means of a celestial paintbrush, Okamiden's main character is a cute wolf pup and the brushwork is expected to lend itself well to the DS' touchscreen.

Bionic Commando Rearmed was a massive hit as a downloadable game on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2008, so to hear of Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 is no shock. Similarly, Dead Rising 2 follows up on the zombie-outbreak-in-a-shopping-mall of 2006's Dead Rising, and there's the intriguing Dead Rising: Case Zero that links the two bigger games' stories.

Along with MotoGP 09/10 and the less familiar Sengoku BASARA: Samurai Heroes and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (by the creator of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney), Capcom are also promising "a couple of surprises", and there are a few notable franchises left off their list.

Resident Evil Portable for PSP could get a look-in, as well might Monster Hunter Frontier (the series' first foray onto Xbox 360), and Devil May Cry hasn't had a console outing since 2008.