This week we’d usually have been arguing about – I’m sorry I mean debating – all the big announcements from E3. True, we had Sony’s PlayStation 5 reveal yesterday and it was very exciting, and true, we have a bonanza of PC game events to look forward to this weekend, but it’s not quite the same is it? Covid-19 means the world’s gaming industry couldn’t squash into downtown LA to see Microsoft and Sony reveal their fancy new machines, and the big publishers show their games for them.
Then again, we do get to look forward to another event – Microsoft’s – later this summer, and who knows? Maybe spreading it out will become a better way of doing things. But I will always miss the hubbub, the excitement and the intense drama of live E3. So in honour of an event which may never return in quite the same way, let’s relive some drama from the past! Hooray! Here are some of the best moments from E3 press conferences gone by. Have a lovely weekend.
It was 2004. Nintendo fans the world over were just putting down their pitchforks over the cel-shaded redesign of Zelda: Wind Waker, just finishing an enjoyable E3 presentation, when the booming voice of Reggie announced a now much-copied “one more thing…”
As the first shots of Hyrule from Zelda: Twilight Princess appeared on-screen, the crowd fell silent as they drank in the view. And then Link appeared, riding on horseback, sword raised to the sky, and screams filled the room.
I remember watching this reveal as a teenager, bedroom walls plastered with Lord of the Rings posters, getting goosebumps at the thought of a true Ocarina of Time sequel. The sight of Miyamoto on stage, wielding a sword himself. Link has grown up, he acknowledged, and in this new game will look different, act different.