Ooooh, a trailer thread! I love me some good videogame trailers.
The live reveal for DOnkey Kong Country Returns is fantastic. It shows so much in such a small amount of time.
The only nitpick I have is that the music starts a good 5-10 seconds too early (or fades in too quickly). Otherwise...totally sublime. This is how you reveal not just a game, but a (no pun intended) return of a series. (This video also reminds me that while Nintendo Directs are cool and probably even better, I still do miss when Nintendo did press conferences due to their live reactions. You can actually hear the cheers from the audience during the trailer when they realized what exactly was happening.)
Sonic has also had a fair amount of good trailers. The one that sticks with me the most is the original reveal trailer for Mania at the 25th anniversary party. The moment Whitehead and Headcannon's name came up after "in association with" I was ecstatic, I knew the game was in good hands. Combined with how the trailer was put together and the music...pure bliss. The Pre-Order trailer with Tyson Heese's sketch animation was fabulous as well.
Mania aside, say what you will about Sonic Unleashed as a game, but between the Mazuri trailer (that was leaked prior to the official upload and had the "prototype" music for the level), the "High Europe" trailer with Spagonia, and the E3 trailer which featured the theme song "Endless Possibility" (linked below), you can't say the marketing team didn't know how to promote the game, especially stuff like the "found footage" Werehog trailer as well as the Night of the Werehog CG short. Really writes in stone how Unleashed for quite a few fans felt as something of a "last hurrah" for Sonic in the presentation department just before the current era of modern Sonic titles. And while we all know how the final game turned out...I still rather like the E3 trailer for Sonic 2006; largely due to that instrumental cover of His World.
I also can't get enough of the Super Mario Odyssey trailers. Both the original at the Switch Presentation and the E3 trailer. It's a dead heat between which one of them I like better.
And I'm
astounded nobody's mentioned any of the character reveal trailers for Smash Bros. 4 and Smash Ultimate. The highlights for me are the ones for Mega Man, Cloud, and King K Rool (below). They're also one of the few trailers I love watching reaction videos for of people absolutely losing their shit with excitement when characters are revealed. The teaser reveal for Ultimate in particular with the Inklings was also a standout example of marketing.
