Electronic Entertainment Expo

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3 or E³, is an annual game conference that has been held in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Santa Monica for over 15 years. In addition to their hardware and other series, Nintendo has showcased many new developments concerning the Super Smash Bros. series since 2001.

E3 2001

At E3 2001, Super Smash Bros. Melee was announced, complete with a trailer and playable demo. The trailer consisted of an early version of Melee's opening movie followed by a series of character demonstration shorts similar in execution to the Special Movie.

The trailer and demo revealed the following:

Characters

• Mario
• Peach
• Bowser
• Yoshi
• Donkey Kong
• Link
• Sheik
• Samus
• Kirby
• Fox
• Pikachu
• Ness
• Ice Climbers

Stages

• Princess Peach's Castle
• Yoshi's Story
• Yoshi's Island
• Jungle Japes
• Great Bay
• Temple
• Brinstar
• Fountain of Dreams
• Corneria
• Pokémon Stadium
• Big Blue
• Onett
• Fourside
• Icicle Mountain

Items

• Green Koopa Shell
• Turnip
• Freezie

Adventure Mode

Stages

• Mushroom Kingdom Adventure
• Underground Maze

Enemies

• Koopa Troopa
• ReDead
• F-Zero Racers
• Topi (seal form)

Notes

• Oddly, every time a character uses a grab in the trailer, they are shown to shield first, meaining that the actors are always using the shield+attack inputs instead of the grab button.

E3 2005

At E3 2005, the Wii was unveiled as the Nintendo Revolution. Alongside a few other games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was first announced with the placeholder name Super Smash Bros. Revolution. Sakurai was surprised at this announcement, since Satoru had refrained from informing him of the game's existence. However, he later accepted Satoru's offer to become the game's director. No details about the game were released.

E3 2006

At E3 2006, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was officially announced at the After-Hours Press Conference with a first trailer. This came as a bit of a shock, since traditionally all major games are unveiled in the main press conference.

The trailer revealed the following:

Characters

• Mario
• Wario
• Link
• Samus
• Zero Suit Samus
• Kirby
• Meta Knight
• Pikachu
• Pit
• Snake

Items

• Smash Ball
  • While it was known that collecting the Smash Ball would somehow unlock a super attack, the exact mechanics (attacking it until it breaks) were unreleased.
• Nintendog
  • While part of the Assist Trophy item, the Assist Trophy itself was never shown, and as a result the Nintendog was believed to be a separate item.

Final Smashes

• Mario Finale
• Triforce Slash
• Zero Laser
• Cook Kirby
• It was widely believed that the massive fart unleashed by Wario at the trailer's false conclusion was to be a Final Smash.

Stages

• Battlefield
• Battleship Halberd
• Castle Siege (first two areas)

E3 2007

At E3 2007, a 15-second representation was showed to showcase the things already known about Brawl as distributed by the DOJO!!. However, the representation also incidentally showed Donkey Kong, who was uncomfirmed by the DOJO!! at the time. Aside from lacking character voices, the footage appears identical to the game's released form. The first confirmed release date for Brawl for North America was announced to be December 3, 2007, but was later delayed twice.

E3 2011

After much anticipation, a new Super Smash Bros. game was finally announced to be a an upcoming title for both Nintendo's Wii U and 3DS systems. However, at the time of this conference, development on the game had not begun, and thus no further details were announced other than that the two games may be able to connect to each other.