Electronic Entertainment Expo

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3 or E3, was an annual game conference that has been held in Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and Santa Monica, California since 1995. In addition to their hardware and other series, Nintendo has showcased many new developments concerning the  series since 1999 until 2021. In December 2023, ESA declared that E3 was no longer going to be held.

E3 1999
Despite already releasing in North America, Super Smash Bros. was one of the major games displayed at the event with demo kiosks. Masahiro Sakurai also publicly announced that a sequel to the seminal entry was in development for Nintendo's upcoming home console, then codenamed Dolphin. No further information was given.

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:

Stages

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

Items

 * Green Koopa Shell
 * Turnip
 * Freezie

Stages

 * Mushroom Kingdom
 * Underground Maze

Enemies

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

E3 2005
At E3 2005, the Wii was unveiled as the Nintendo Revolution. Alongside a few other games, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was announced by Satoru Iwata, with no title or details given save for that it would feature online play. Sakurai was surprised at this announcement, since Iwata had not contacted him about development of the game. However, he later accepted Iwata's offer to become the game's director.

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:

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
 * 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.
 * It was widely believed that the massive fart unleashed by Wario at the trailer's false conclusion was to be a Final Smash.

Stages

 * Battleship Halberd
 * Castle Siege (first two areas)
 * Castle Siege (first two areas)

E3 2007
At E3 2007, a 15-second representation was shown to showcase the things already known about Brawl as distributed by the DOJO!!. However, the representation also accidentally showed, who was unconfirmed 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 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.

E3 2013
Super Smash Bros. 4 was revealed at E3 2013 during a Nintendo Direct presentation, in the form of a trailer. Demonstrations of the game were also made the same day, including the revealing of the and a battle between  and.

Stages

 * Battlefield
 * 3D Land
 * Gerudo Valley
 * Spirit Train
 * Skyloft
 * Arena Ferox
 * Living Room
 * Boxing Ring
 * Town and City
 * Wii Fit Studio
 * Wily Castle
 * Unknown jungle-based stage (later revealed to be a part of Smash Run on the 3DS version)

Super Smash Bros. Invitational
At E3 2014, a Super Smash Bros. Invitational held by Nintendo took place on June 10th, 2014 at 4:00 PM PTZ, where 16 selected smashers were invited to participate in a tournament. The winner of the tournament was Gonzalo "" Barrios. The tournament also had several special guests, including an appearance by Masahiro Sakurai.

Nintendo's E3 2014 Digital Event
During June 10th, 2014 at 9:00 AM PTZ, Nintendo released an E3 2014 video presentation in the form of a Digital Event. The video featured Reggie Fils-Aime (President and CEO of Nintendo of America) and Satoru Iwata (then-President and CEO of Nintendo Co., Ltd) in scenes of combat, culminating in a sequence that revealed as a playable set of characters. amiibo figurines were also unveiled with proper terminology. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was stated to be a pioneer, being the first Nintendo game to feature interaction with such figurines. At the end of the presentation, animated footage was shown of Link and Pit both engaged in battle, subsequently indicating 's presence as a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Super Smash Bros. 4 Roundtable
There was also a 90-minute developer discussion regarding Super Smash Bros. 4, including a segment hosted by Masahiro Sakurai that consisted of 's revelation amidst the showcasing of other features.

A trailer for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS was also released during the event. Demonstration kiosks of both versions of the game were also available for use by event-goers of the public and press. Nintendo Treehouse also broadcasted live-streams throughout the duration of E3 2014, with many segments involving gameplay and discussion of both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS iterations of Super Smash Bros. 4.

Revealed characters

 * s

3DS

 * Arena Ferox
 * Gerudo Valley
 * Golden Plains
 * Living Room
 * Prism Tower
 * Rainbow Road
 * Reset Bomb Forest
 * Spirit Train
 * Tortimer Island
 * Tortimer Island

Wii U

 * Battlefield
 * Mushroom Kingdom U
 * Skyloft
 * Coliseum
 * Town and City
 * Pilotwings
 * Boxing Ring
 * Wily Castle

E3 2015
The E3 event took place from June 16, 2015 to June 18, 2015. Nintendo announced on their Twitter account that Sakurai will be hosting a video presentation on June 14th, two days prior to the event itself. It announced the paid downloadable content which includes and Capcom's  as DLC fighters releasing alongside the already revealed, as well as a returning 64 stage, Dream Land 64, and new Mii Fighter costumes. In addition, an update was released which added the Miiverse stage for free. All off this was available for purchase immediately after the presentation. It also teased at the return of the Hyrule Castle and Peach's Castle 64 stages some time in the future. In addition, the 2015 featured  as the fourth stage of the competition along with an exhibition match featuring Jigglypuff and Ryu in a Final Destination match with a special appearance by  and Reggie Fils-Aimé.

E3 2018
The Nintendo Direct: E3 2018 on June 12th (9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET) 2018 showcased the first look at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch. All previously playable veterans were confirmed playable. In addition, Inklings (who had already been featured in the March 2018 teaser), Daisy and Ridley were formally confirmed for the roster. New and returning items, stages and features were shown off as well.

Additionally, Nintendo announced that they would be holding an invitational tournament also on June 12th, featuring the new Super Smash Bros. title.

Revealed characters

 * All characters from previous Smash games

Playable stages

 * Boxing Ring
 * Coliseum
 * (the Ω form of Battlefield as a placeholder)
 * Frigate Orpheon
 * Great Plateau Tower
 * Green Greens
 * Green Hill Zone
 * Kongo Falls
 * Lylat Cruise
 * Mario Galaxy
 * Moray Towers
 * New Pork City
 * Onett
 * Princess Peach's Castle
 * Prism Tower
 * Saffron City
 * Skyworld
 * Spirit Train
 * Suzaku Castle
 * Tortimer Island
 * Town and City
 * Wily Castle
 * Wily Castle

Item announcements

 * New items include Healing Field, Black Hole, Launch Star and Fake Smash Ball.
 * New Assist Trophies are showcased: Rodin, Squid Sisters, Bomberman, Burrowing Snagret and Sukapon. Returning Assist Trophies confirmed were Jeff, Knuckle Joe, Metroid, Ghosts, Lyn, Waluigi, Andross, Nintendog, Riki, Starfy and Midna.
 * New Poké Ball Pokémon showcased Bewear and Solgaleo.

amiibo

 * It was confirmed that all previously released Super Smash Bros. series amiibo will compatible with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Playable characters who have an amiibo from other series will also be compatible as well.
 * New amiibo for Inkling and Ridley were officially shown off in the Nintendo Treehouse segment. Nintendo also confirmed that the new amiibo for Daisy will be coming as well.

E3 2019
On June 8th, a tournament took place. At the conclusion of the tournament, a video was played, where Sakurai announced that the next DLC fighter for Ultimate would be shown off during the Nintendo Direct airing on June 11th.

The June 11th Direct began by revealing the from  as the second downloadable character from Fighters Pass Vol. 1, due Summer 2019. Later in the conference, it was confirmed that from their namesake series  would be added in Fall 2019. This would be the only time two DLC characters were revealed simultaneously for Ultimate.

E3 2021
The "Nintendo Direct: E3 2021" on June 15th opened with the revealing of from  as the fifth downloadable character from Fighters Pass Vol. 2. After a short demonstration of some of Kazuya's moveset, Masahiro Sakurai announced that Mr. Sakurai Presents "Kazuya" would premiere on June 28th, 2021 at 10 AM EDT, which is 7 AM PDT. This was the last time any content related to the Super Smash Bros. series would appear at an E3 event.