Top 10 Video Game Teaser Trailers

DICE spliced together an amazing collection of action from the title itself to showcase their unique parkour platformer. Through the first person perspective, you get to watch protagonist Faith run, jump, and fight her way around the city rooftops of the game’s setting. The trailer’s made all the more beautiful by the soundtrack that we only got a small taste of.

As much as we loved “The Wind Waker,” it wasn’t exactly the darker and more adult Zelda fans were hoping to see on the GameCube at the time. So when this trailer was first unveiled at E3 2004 showing off Link in combat on horseback along with shots that demonstated Twilight’s landscape, well … see for yourself (Show fan reaction) Oh yeah and what better way to top off the reveal than with Miyamoto wielding Link’s Trademark Master Sword and Hylian Shield.

True the new Smash Bros on Wii U and 3DS had impressive trailers, but we’re honouring the first trailer that changed everything. Fans saw that veteran Smash fighters like Kirby and Mario would be back, and seeing that beloved Nintendo characters like Pit and Metaknight would be added to the mix would be a good way to cap off the trailer. But oh boy, nothing could prepare us for the surprise reveal of the first 3rd party character in the franchise: Solid Snake.

If you’ve ever worked a crappy job, you probably have painful memories of those annoying orientation videos that don’t actually teach you anything. The trailer for this game hilariously spoofed videos like that, while also showcasing the awesome and unique capabilities of the portal gun. The parodic style showed us the black humor that would become a trademark of this game and its sequel.

It’s been one of the most hype games for years, thanks solely to this amazing teaser and the knowledge that it was being developed by the same folks behind Shadow of the Colossus. It reveals the affecting emotional attachment between a boy and his giant pet griffin Trico, as well as the massive scale of the world they inhabit. Who wouldn’t get psyched about getting to fly on a huge mythical creature? No if only Sony would give us an actual release date rather than leave us hanging since 2009.

The future is apparently gold tinted, and Human Revolution’s teaser trailer shows us everything and everyone has a secret. Cinematic in scale, we get to see the awesome, if life changing augmentation that happens to protagonist Adam Jensen. We certainly wouldn’t want to live forever in the world of this game, but the clip made it look like a cool place to visit.

Hey Look its Rapture from the first … nope its just a fish tank. This clip played on our excitement by starting in the sea, then heading upward to reveal the flying city of Columbia that was the game’s setting. The trailer does a good job of leaving various hints of what to expect in the game, from the abundance of American Flags to some interesting propaganda signage that is enough to make anyone curious.

Due to layoffs at its studio during its development, there was concern that this game would never come out, but this teaser showed us that it would be back and better than ever. It features the franchise’s trademark use of early jazz to introduce us to the desolate post-nuclear war landscape that became its setting. The ominous shot of The Brotherhood of Steel Soldier and foreboding voiceover at the end were the perfect finishing touch.

The Terran combat armor always looked badass, and this clip gave us an up-close look at it being put on convict Tychus Findlay, a nice nod to lore of the first Starcraft where most marines are reformed convicts. But what’s best is that it’s unclear that you’re even watching anything Starcraft related until the second half of the traler. Not to mention he sums up what fans had been thinking since they’d been waiting almost a decade for the next game. (Hell it’s about time)


Before we get to our number one, let’s take a look at some honorable mentions:

“Tony Hawk’s Project 8” (2006)

“No Man’s Sky” (TBA)

“ZombiU” (2012)

“Prey 2” (TBA)

Without question one of the best game teaser we’ve ever seen. It combines sombre, swelling string music with gorgeous slow-mo reverse zombie violence to showcase a girl’s journey from being happily on vacation with her parents to being a victim of the undead. Now if only the actual game had any sort of emotional moments to match this one, as it also kind of taught us to be cautiously optimistic about CG trailers in the future.

Do you agree with our list? Which video game teaser trailer had you tempted to go pre-order it? For more enticing top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.