Your Favorite Pre-Release Video Game Moments

[Blacephalon]

Was there ever a time during a pre-release of an upcoming video game that made you excited or jump out of your seat, screaming across the house? In this thread, you can share your moments that you felt excited during those time frames. From an announcement of a video game to news being shown during pre-release, it's all welcomed here!

One of my favorite moments of pre-release was the Black and White 2 announcement/news. Everything from Kyurem's new formes to the expanded Unova region had me excited to where, like White, I imported White 2 from Japan shortly after it's release and frankly, I loved every moment to where BW2 became one of my favorite video game titles of all time.

And while this was after the release of Super Smash Bros for 3DS/Wii U, during the final Smash Direct of the DLC announcements, Corrin and Bayonetta's trailers turned my stressful Tuesday (because finals) into hype since I welcomed both additions immediately!

 

[pkmin3033]

I try not to these days - disappointments abound, after all - but every now and then when certain JRPGs in series I love get announced - Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (even though it turned out to be utterly bollocks), Drakengard 3, Nier Automata (I outdid the FFVII Remake fans for hype for that one), Luminous Arc Infinity (even though that one doesn't have a localisation announcement yet), etc - I tend to scream the house down in pure joy. Just knowing my favourite series are continuing is enough to excite me. It wears off as time goes on usually, but initially...yeah. I'm like a little kid. You don't want to know how I reacted when Xenoblade Chronicles X was first announced...

When stuff gets announced for localisation or re-release I get quite excited sometimes, too. Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth had me pretty excited when Bandai Namco first announced that was getting localised - although that's been soured a bit by the fact that I need to import it for a physical Vita version - as did Rogue Galaxy's re-release on PS4, and I am eagerly awaiting Wild Arms 3, Twilight Princess HD, and Pokemon Yellow on the eShop. Stuff that I've wanted for ages, or have played before and know I'll enjoy again - with added trophies - puts me in a pretty good mood.

In terms of pre-release trailers...the only one that really ever got me was NieR's first one, which is just Kaine swearing at Weiss. The excitement only escalated from there once I heard the soundtrack, but I KNEW I was going to love that game from that trailer alone.

 

[JJ Styles]

Blizzard for me has done a lot of things throughout their more modern history, and I've mentioned about Blizzard in some of my other posts.

Starcraft 2 - When Starcraft 2 was announced, complete with all of the gameplay and cinematic footage, I was really hyped for what could be during that time is the biggest sequel to be made. Everything was looking great with the new graphics, new units, the follow up to a very intriguing storyline, it was all great, considering how much Starcraft has hugged millions of players such as myself. But then all of that ALMOST changed when the Activision Nation attacked when Blizzard made some rather controversial decisions that time such as the mandatory internet connection to play the game- even in single player, the separation of the three factions' campaigns into 3 separate but Stand-alone titles, the lack of LAN or Local Area Network support, which was really the hype killer, among some of those to add some salt to all the Starcraft 1 players out there. There were even some movements to boycott Starcraft 2 because of those decisions. For much of the drama and salt back then, it attracted more people to see how would SC2 deliver.

Diablo 3 - Diablo 3 was pretty much the same story as that of Starcraft 2. Really hypey announcement and trailer, but the current model of such (requirement of internet connection just to play, no LAN support, etc) as well as the complete scrapping of the Skill Tree system from Diablo 2 to make way for what is currently in Diablo 3, which is basically just allocation of skill talents and nothing else, also poured a lot of salt.

What really got me pumped up for these two games was simply the excitement of playing the follow ups to two (among a couple) of my most favorite games of all time, and reading a lot of the salt and drama such as the "get a computer with Internet connection you lazy foo" vs the "we didn't need an internet connection to enjoy SC1 and Diablo 2 to play Single Player" arguments from different message boards got me buying these games.

Both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 are games that i somewhat enjoy, though not really by a serious extent, but those two games were some of the biggest gaming announcements back in the day, and for better or for worse, it was worth experiencing all of the hype and drama that eventually got me getting the games anyway. I find myself playing these games from time to time, at one point being rather hooked to them, but not in a seriously immersed or hooked manner.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

03.07.2015
Anime Expo
Aksys boot
6 people..., no 6 billion people died!


I don't think I need to add anything more :D
Just that... my voice has never been so high =D

 

[Spinosaurus]

Street Fighter x Tekken is a case of a game's promotional media being better than the actual game itself.

 

[Dusk]

Deceiving Eyes, I'm with you on the hype for the upcoming Smash DLC characters! I remember watching the last Smash Direct, and it opens with a parody of the pivotal scene in Fire Emblem Fates. I was like, "What is this, an advertisement?" But then Corrin is in Smash! They look super cool with Dragon Fang, and what an.. opportune release, with Fates also to be released in February. I have yet to play Bayonetta (shame on me), but I was equally hype and very surprised at her reveal! I'm about as excited for the Umbra Clock Tower stage as I am for Bayonetta herself. So many cool music tracks~

Another Nintendo Direct that got me excited was the one in November, specifically the segment detailing the Fire Emblem Fates North American release date and Special Edition. I was literally jumping for joy and I was on that SE before the Direct was over. My body is ready. I've been looking forward to Fire Emblem Fates since the Japanese reveal a year ago. I'm counting down the days and working on some art for it right now, listening to the game's OST. x'D

The month before a game's release can be agonizing but also very exciting. I remember the month before Animal Crossing: New Leaf released, I scoured Animal Crossing blogs that had the Japanese game, looking at all the inspiring town, home, and clothing designs. Watching every official video about the game, and then some. Once again, sneaking a peek at new music (especially the K.K. Slider songs!)

Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and the old Smash Dojo website was good about keeping up hype, in spite of some delays. The days went by easier being steadily fed information bit by bit. Brawl was the first game I went to a midnight release to! Good times.

 

[Sydian]

I don't get super hype for games the way I did as a kid. Don't get me wrong, I was excited for things like Splatoon, Mario Maker, Yoshi's Woolly World, etc. but it never amounts to the anticipation I had as a kid, or even a teenager for that matter.

Most of my really hyped games were between 2002 and 2007. I remember being stoked for Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. I saved up what little money I had (I mean, I was ten) and counted the days til they released then got my dad to take me to the store. I remember just staring at the box when we were leaving and telling him I was gonna start with Torchic and as soon as I got home, I popped that sucker into my GBA. I was pretty hype for Emerald too, because I loved Ruby and Sapphire so much. I was sick the day it came out though, so I gave all my money to my mom and she picked it up at Walmart for me. And Colosseum...hell, even FireRed and LeafGreen, which I'm not a big fan of now, I was really excited about. Gen III in general for Pokemon was just all hype and no disappointment. I didn't end up disliking FRLG until years later, so I still count them as good memories then even if they're not so fun now.

With all of that said however, I think my absolute most anticipated game was Twilight Princess. I was subscribed to Nintendo Power all year in 2006 when stuff was being released every month up until the game's release. I remember one article mentioning fishing -- fishing, of all mundane things -- and I was just enamored. I couldn't wait. I would have been totally okay with fishing in that game if that's all it was, I swear. But I remember asking for it for Christmas that year and one night, I couldn't sleep. So I went into the living room to watch the big tv and my mom was wrapping presents, so she let me in when she cleared away all my unwrapped stuff. Or so she thought. I saw my copy of Twilight Princess sitting in the floor and I just started laughing and went back to my room. Brilliant. I am pretty excited for the HD release of the game, but not to the magnitude I was excited for the first one. That's one of the things I miss about being a kid. And I think part of it also has to do with the fact I have a job and money and such. It's not like when I was a kid where I'd have to make birthday and Christmas money last until that ONE game I wanted came out, or waiting until said holidays to ask a family member for it. I can literally get whatever I want when I want now. So I think, as great as it is, it takes away from the experience a bit.

 

[saifors]

There are of course the Smash Bros announcements, every announcement was full of hype.
And the Nintendo Directs have often gotten me really excited for games, some lived up to my expectations, others were complete dissappointments in the end, but that's just life.
However, one that had my biggest reaction was probably when I logged on Twitter after waking up one morning and seeing that a Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth localization was announced at Anime Expo, I had to prevent myself from screaming to avoid waking everyone up. Also, even when it was still Japan-only at the time, I got really excited when the Sayo DLC Quest was announced.

 

[JJ Styles]

Also, there's the whole "League of Legends vs Heroes of Newerth" Pre-release battle that went on even after the official releases out of open beta for both games.

I won't say much but HoN was the much more aggressive campaigner between the two, especially HoN's streaming site HoNCast that used to have an add that aggresively attacked League simply for the acronym, and of course trying to be moar edgy.

HoN, being a clone of DoTA pretty much already had a competitive scene before League did. League was simply just a DotA spinoff from Riot Games that was full of funny and cute references with rather cartoony graphics while HoN was this "next level Dota with amazing graphics" thing.

In the end though, i think most of us who play/played/still playing these games and have followed their scenes knew who was the big winner.