E3 1995 - 2009 in video

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The rise, fall and resurrection of the greatest show on Earth


This is what we loved about the old E3 - ridiculously OTT performances to capture the attention of tired journos. And boy, did this one do that! It's Ulala from Space Channel 5, doing the dance from Space Channel 5... only in the flesh. Wowsers.


It's Duke Nukem Forever! In a new trailer! Must be close now.


Back in the days when Nintendo were all about pleasing the fans - here's a musical extravaganza full of Nintendo sounds and rhythms. And not a Wii-mote flute solo in sight.


On the showfloor, the Game Boy Advance's connectivity with Gamecube was being displayed with some tech demos (which never really made it into any games, at least not like this). Interesting to see how similar the end result looks to a Mii - and how accurate the machine was at guessing that the man in question was a software programmer.


Who would have thought that Nintendo would change so much in five years? Just look at this and pray we get something similar to cheer about this year.

"In order to grow, Link must not stand still - and neither can I," said Miyamoto, smiling. Here's hoping he's not going to 'stand still' with Wii Fit and Wii Music for too much longer.

Another sobering note is Reggie Fils-Aime's closing comments. Skip forward to 7:15 in the following vid (and turn your volume down a tad - the quality's poor). "Giving gamers what they want"? What happened to that, Reggie?


Back in 2005, the show was a sprawling affair and it really was getting to be almost too much to take in. This YouTube video shows you an hour of action from the showfloor, although we really don't expect you to watch it all. Gives a great indication of what it was like to be there, though.

Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata was in a good-humoured mood at the Nintendo press conference, having a little dig at Reggie Fils-Aime.

And of course 2005 was the year of that infamous PlayStation 3 target footage, said at the time to be gameplay video. We've seen it hundreds of times, but somehow it seems less chaotic in the light of the real game.

2005 was all about the PS3 and the other tech demos were impressive indeed. Who'd have thought two glasses of water and a sink could make grown men say 'ooo'?.

And then E3 went wrong. Very, very wrong.

Justin Towell
Justin Towell
Freelance Writer

Justin was a GamesRadar+ staffer for 10 years but is now a freelance writer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.