Oftentimes, video game announcements aren’t too surprising. Either because one is announced every year like clockwork, or because the surprise was leaked weeks before announcement, reveals can feel routine.
Every once in a while, however, the impossible happens, catching both hardcore fans and journalists off their guards in the best way possible. Here are seven examples of video game reveals that knocked our socks clean off.
Twilight Princess – E3 2004
Although the world would eventually come to appreciate The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker’s cartoony style, it would be an understatement to say Zelda fans were displeased with the franchise’s direction at the time.
Twilight Princess was an answer to fans’ demands for a more mature Zelda, and once those in the audience realized what Nintendo was presenting, they lost their minds. This wasn’t any new Zelda; this was a “mature” Zelda.
Following the game’s reveal trailer, Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto stepped onstage, posing as Link with his iconic sword and shield.
The visionary’s beaming face combined with the crowd’s rabid response kicked off the hype for Twilight Princess, which carried until its launch on both GameCube and Wii in 2006.
The game received widespread critical acclaim and impressive sales. Although some have come to be more critical of its shortcomings in recent years, the hype surrounding Twilight Princess at the time was unmatched.
Final Fantasy VII Remake – E3 2015
Final Fantasy VII remains one of the most beloved JRPGs of all time, but even its most hardcore fans mostly admit that the original PlayStation game looks a little rough around the edges nowadays.
That’s why when fans realized Square Enix was remaking Midgar from the ground up at Sony’s 2015 E3 press conference, they lost their minds.
Cloud Strife was back, looking even better than he did in the 2005 CGI movie, Advent Children. Although Square Enix went mostly radio silent until the game’s re-reveal in May of 2019, the initial hype hasn’t died down.
And with Final Fantasy VII Remake now months away, this hype seems to be warranted. We loved our hands-on time with the game at E3 2019, and recent trailers have only increased our excitement.
Shenmue III – E3 2015
During the same press conference as Final Fantasy VII, fans received perhaps even a bigger shock: After 14 years, Shenmue III was finally in development, but needed investments from fans to become a reality.
Coming from seemingly nowhere, Sony announced that Shenmue creator and director Yu Suzuki was prepared (and legally allowed) to begin work on the third installment in the Shenmue series.
However, without proper funding, Suzuki and his team took to Kickstarter to fund development, and fans delivered. The team received $2 million in under seven hours, and eventually reached over $7 million by 2018.
Although a far cry from the original Shenmue’s record-breaking budget of $47 million in 1999, Shenmue III broke record of its own by becoming the highest-funded game in Kickstarter history.
Using this money, Suzuki and his team at Ys Net have just about finished the project, with the current release date sitting at November 19 for PlayStation 4 and PC, the latter version being exclusive to the Epic Games Store.
The game may not be as graphically stunning as the original was to audiences in 1999, but we hope it can capture the same magic that made fans fall in love with the series 20 years ago.
Cloud in Smash – Nintendo Direct 11/12/15
Cloud getting his own game remade was enough of a shock, but just a few months later, fans got even more unbelievable news: He would be in the largest video game crossover of all time, Super Smash Bros.
There have been plenty of crazy announcements of unlikely characters making it into Smash Bros. before and since Cloud, but his announcement stands out as particularly shocking for a number of reasons.
Although a wide variety of Final Fantasy titles are now available on Switch, in 2015, no mainline Final Fantasy had appeared on a Nintendo system since Final Fantasy VI in 1994 for the SNES.
Final Fantasy was mostly synonymous with PlayStation, and having the series’ trademark character join the fray in Nintendo’s fighting game was mind-bogglingly amazing, especially since the character hadn’t been leaked.
Breath of the Wild – E3 2016
Many items on this list shocked audiences for being completely unpredicted. Breath of the Wild, on the other hand, had been announced years prior as “Zelda U,” and expectations for the game were sky-high.
For E3 2016, Nintendo didn’t have its typical presentation, instead showing a single trailer. Fortunately, this one trailer was enough to “win E3” for some, as it unveiled one of the decade’s most hotly anticipated games.
Details on Breath of the Wild had been sparse until the reveal, which blew away fans with breathtaking locales and an unparalleled promise of player freedom.
When the game launched on Wii U and Switch in 2017, it absolutely kept that promise, with many calling it the best game in The Legend of Zelda series and some even hailing it as the best video game of all time.
God of War – E3 2016
The Legend of Zelda wasn’t the only game series to receive a dramatic reimagining at E3 2016, as director Cory Barlog took the time to show off Santa Monica Studio’s latest project at Sony’s press conference.
Beginning with a live orchestra, the trailer began with Atreus playing with some toys before being beckoned by a deep-voiced figure. Fans exploded with cheer as Kratos stepped into the light, simply stating, “I am hungry.”
So were fans for a new God of War, and Santa Monica Studios delivered. God of War (2018) omitted a subtitle, aiming to reinvent the franchise while carrying on Kratos’ legacy. It accomplished this with flying colors.
The game also received a documentary titled “Raising Kratos,” in which one section showed the backstage tension and stakes of the live gameplay demo. It was a refreshing look behind the curtain on what is often left a mystery.
Breath of the Wild 2 – E3 2019
Following Breath of the Wild’s massive success, fans weren’t entirely sure what to expect for The Legend of Zelda moving forward. It surely couldn’t regress to its old formula, but how do you follow up such a massive hit?
The answer was apparently to make a direct sequel, hopefully borrowing from Breath of the Wild’s genius foundation and building upon it even further. And this answer came far sooner than most were expecting.
As Nintendo’s “one more thing” reveal at the end of its E3 2019 presentation, the trailer opened in a mysterious and foreboding environment, showing Link and Zelda find an ominous corpse.
It’s rare for Zelda games to receive sequels, but Breath of the wild is absolutely deserving of one, and we can’t wait to see how it turns out.
For now, the game has a placeholder title of “sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” with no known release window. If it’s half as good as its predecessor, we’re in for a treat.
About the author
