THQ’s E3 offerings this year ran the gambit from casual to more hardcore, and while some titles seemed a little more sparse, one title in particular stole the show for me; read on to see what games they had on display.

First up was a Balance Board-integrated title called All-Star Cheer Squad. I didn’t play it myself, but I did get to see a rather non-feminine THQ rep get up and dance, while I watched his progress. As seen in the screen above, arrows scroll across the screen, indicating the directions you should be holding your Wii Remote and nunchuk in, in order to pose; at the same time, Balance Board instructions appear as well, telling you to stand on one foot, etc. From what I could see, the game did a fairly good job of recognizing what the dancing man was doing, though there was maybe some room for improvement. The game has customizable dance squads, a sort of  story mode where you advance your own little cheerleader, and dance routines choreographed by Tony G, who worked on the Bring It On films. This game will be coming out for Wii and DS in fall 2008. From what I saw the product seems like it could be kind of sparse when it hits the market, so let’s hope THQ fleshes it out.

Next, I took a stab at testing my elementary-school learnings, with Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Make the Grade, based on the game show. If you’ve ever seen the show, you know the deal; you’re tested in ten different subjects taught in elementary school, one question per subject, and you have the opportunity to let a 5th grade student help you out by either looking at his answer, or copying it. Also just like the show, the questions start out easy with a little bit of trickiness, then suddenly skyrocket into some obscure biology or other stuff that you’ll have a hard time remembering. The Wii version that I played is fairly straightforward, feeling not unlike the old PSX version of Millionaire though obviously looking and sounding better. I am glad to say that, with the combined brains of the THQ rep and I, I successfully conquered the first ten questions, bringing honor to my family; unfortunately, before we could see the $1,000,000 question, another THQ rep inadvertently reset the system.

Besides the main mode, there are some multiplayer modes to be looked at. There’s an Academic Academy mode, which I believe is a 4-player variation of the main game; Flash Cards, where you quest to be the quickest draw; and a spelling bee mode, where four variations of a word appear and you must choose the correct one. The THQ rep I talked to was unsure if the game would be a budget title or a WiiWare download. As a WiiWare download, I think it’ll do itself rather well for its price point and would be a good buy; as a budget title, it may still be worth it, but we’ll have to look at the final product to say for sure.

After testing my brainpower, another THQ rep noticed I was from NintendoGal and motioned me over to try out a DS strategy title called Lock’s Quest. This game has you playing as a boy named Lock, and his titular quest is to build up a fortress to keep the enemy from breaking in and stealing the precious resources. The game first tasks you with using Build Mode to build up your fort’s defenses, making sure to strategize properly as you do so. Once you’ve built yourself up, the battle begins; during the battle, you can do some repairs to structures, or you can go out and start trying to kill enemies yourself, tapping numbered icons in order on the bottom to go faster. I didn’t get to see exactly how in-depth the strategy element got, but the controls seem fairly intuitive, at least. Lock’s Quest will also feature multiplayer mode for up to four players; look for this title this fall.

Finally, we get to the title I hyped up earlier: de Blob. I ended up playing this title for about 20 minutes, and only left because I had to go and get some food. In fact, I suspect that had food not intervened, I would still be in Los Angeles playing this.

For the uninitiated, de Blob places you in control of a large blob that has the ability to absorb and distribute paint to the surrounding buildings, which have been drained of color by the Inkt Corporation; it’s based off of a PC tech demo that you can download and play for free. As you collect various colors of paint, build yourself up, and gradually turn Chroma City into a Mondrian painting, the music of the world comes to life with some funky, well-chosen tunes, and citizens come out of their blocks to be returned to their colorful selves. You’ll do battle with Inkt officers, take on building-coloring challenges, and do some old-school platforming, and all the gameplay is very pick-up-and-play intuitive.

The environment and atmosphere nearly trump the gameplay in overall impressiveness. As you watch rock walls obtain color and your city turn into a living, happening art project, it produces a sort of giddiness that gets you completely hooked. It helps that there’s a lot to paint; I was told that there will be ten levels in the final game (though my memory may be fuzzy), but after playing the same level for twenty minutes, there was still a large portion of it that I had not yet explored. This game is not going to be lacking in content, that’s for sure. This game, like THQ’s other offerings, will be arriving this fall, and I personally cannot wait. Sadly, THQ’s press assets did not include any working screenshots that I saw.

Probably due to all the time I spent with de Blob, I didn’t get to the other Nintendo titles THQ had on display, but hopefully at least one of these previews will get you interested or excited to see these games when they appear this fall.