But Brawl was quasi-announced in 2005. Even if we don’t count that, Nintendo released the game’s first trailer at E3 2006 in which Final Smashes, a couple new stages, and five newcomers including the series’ first third party character were unveiled. There was plenty of hype for Brawl before the Dojo started. As far as sequels go, Melee is the outlier, having been released on the same year it was shown to the public.