Sentient hats and donut holes? 10 standout E3 moments

This year's E3 was a bit of a head-scratcher.

As the world's largest video games trade show and marketing cavalcade came to a close in Los Angeles Thursday, gamers and press had relatively fewshocking surprises or major reveals to ponder compared to years past.

Publishers like Sony, Electronic Arts and Bethesda showed off long reels of trailers and videos for upcoming games at press conferences,but most were known quantities: sequels to or expansions of existing gamesor forthcoming titles unveiled last year. These looked impressive, but few of them wowed.

Still, a handful of games, announcements and press conference moments managed to stand out from the crowd. Here are 10 of this year's best.

Super Mario Odyssey

Sony and Microsoft sharedbig numbers millions of consoles sold, 4K resolution, 60 frames per second but Nintendo took adifferent tactic. The latest trailer for Super Mario Odyssey shocked and delighted with a new feature that, while simple in concept, sparkedgamers' imaginations:Mario's hat, now a sentient creature named Cappy, allows him to capture and control enemies or objects around theworld.

Mario games have always been weird, but the sight of him possessing everything from a Goomba to a Tyrannosaurus rex made Odyssey the game everyone wastalking about this E3. Check out our hands-on impressions of the game here.

Release date: Oct.27

Platform:NintendoSwitch

Spider-Man

Sony's Spider-Man game for the PlayStation 4 was revealed last year, but a new extended trailer showed Peter Parker going what he does best:web-slinging through New York's skyline, putting the beat down on thugs and taking time to make a witty quip whenever possible.

The buttery smooth animation and a cameo by Miles Morales Parker's Spidey successor stood out amidst Sony's impressive, but mostly safe, offerings thisyear.

Release date: 2018

Platform:PlayStation4

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Developer Machine Games successfully revitalised the classic shooter Wolfenstein with The New Order in 2014: a punchy, alternate-reality, Second World War shoot-em-up with a surprisingly poignant plot. The trailer for The New Colossus ratchets the weirdness upeven further asNazis have seemingly taken over the United States with a mix of brutal violence and pop culture propaganda (which creative director Jens Matthies calls "Germericana.")

In the trailer's final scene, a resistance fighter runs into a psychedelic, LSD-fuelled hallucination while his partner, a woman pregnant with twins, savagely stabs a Nazi soldier to death. Expect a heavy serving wild tonal shifts and off-kilter humour with this one.

Release date: Oct. 27

Platform:PlayStation4,XboxOne, PC

A Way Out

Video games often stretch claims of a "cinematic" experience, seemingly out of a desperate desire to be taken as seriously as film and TV in pop culture circles. But A Way Out takes the idea of cinematic presentation and actually uses it in creative, surprising ways. It stars two convicts attempting to break out of prison, and each player controls one of the pair.

The screen is split between the two perspectives, but in an unusual move the layout and size of the screens change and shift depending on the events. It's a clever framing mechanic that seems inspired by the complex and variable panel setups of comicbooks.

Release date: 2018

Platform:PlayStation4,XboxOne, PC

Sonic Mania

Sonic the Hedgehoggames have arguably never reached the height of the original 16-bit platformers from the early 1990s. Sonic Maniaattempts to harness fansnostalgia by making a new game more like the games of old.

New trailers and video show cleverly remixed versions ofclassic levels and the sense of speed that fans remember. Fanswho have been waiting years for Sonic to successfully go back to his rootsmight finally be granted their wish.

Release date:Aug.15

Platform:PlayStation4,XboxOne,NintendoSwitch, PC

Donut County

Ben Esposito'sDonut County is a contender for the most surprising (and oddest)indie game of E3. Players move a hole in the ground toswallowobjects like blades of grass or, yes, donuts. The more objectsyour hole swallows, the bigger it gets. Eventually you're engulfing cars, animals and even mountains.

The bizarre premise is oddly soothing in practiceand players with an obsessive need to clean and organize spaces around them might feel its pull more than anyone else.

Release date: 2017

Platform: PC, Mac, iOS

XboxLive Avatars

Microsoft's Phil Spencer would probably consider the unveiling of their newest Xbox, the super-powered Xbox One X, as the most important announcement of E3. As far as hardware goes, it probably was. But Xbox's low-key revamping of its avatars was a pleasant surprise. Players create cartoony characters to be used across several games and the Xboxsocial media platforms and the newest update includes a wide array of options.

Diversity was a key component, with promotional videos showing avatars with prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs, in addition to morefashionchoices, and hair styles.

Star Wars Battlefront 2's Janina Gavankar

Electronic Arts' Star Wars Battlefront 2 promises to hit all the notes for which fans and critics of the first game clamoured (including John Boyega). But Janina Gavankar, who stars as an elite Imperial squadron leader, stole the show at EA'spress conference last Saturday.

Armed with a steely gaze, an eye-catching Star Wars-themed dress and a passion for games that couldn't be more genuine, Gavankar (seen on TV's True Blood and Arrow) injected an otherwise plodding and awkward conference with genuine enthusiasm and an arresting stage presence.

Release date: Nov.17

Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC

Metroid Prime 4

Nintendo hasn't released a good Metroid game since 2007's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Fans have begged for the series' lead,Samus Aran, to return to glory for years, but received only a handful of disappointing spin-offs in return.

So imagine the surprise when Nintendo revealed a working logo (and nothing more) for Metroid Prime 4, currently in development for the Switch. Fans shrieked aloud and wept with joy in reaction videos not unlike those seen after a Game of Thrones season finale.

Release date: TBA

Platform:NintendoSwitch

Beyond Good and Evil 2

Michel Ancel'sBeyond Good and Evil, released by Ubisoft in 2003, was a surprise hit adventure with a diverse cast, but less-than-stellar sales. After a teaser trailer in 2008 and little else since, gamers and reporters had assumed the long-awaited sequel was dead in the water.

But a lush CG-animated trailer, reintroducing a fantastical world where humans co-exist with talking pigs and monkeys, brought raucous applause from the audience and tears from Ancel onstage. Players should temper their expectations, however, as no release date was announced.

Release date: TBA

Platform: TBA