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Smash Bros. Delayed Until March 9th

Posted by Zonk on Tue Jan 15, 2008 09:43 AM
from the just-a-few-more-weeks dept.
Wii (Games)
After several delays already, Next Generation is reporting that the much-anticipated Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been pushed back yet again to early March. "The launch date for Super Smash Bros. Brawl has shifted a few weeks to March 9. The development is taking slightly longer than expected. As we're sure you have seen the game contains an unprecedented number of characters, options and experiences. Be sure to keep an eye on the Dojo site for the latest information."
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[+] Nintendo Confirms Mario, Smash Bros. Coming This Year 63 comments
Some excellent news for Nintendo fans: two of the 'big three' games are coming out this year. At an event held in Washington state Reggie Fils-Aime was able to confirm that Smash Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy will be released before the end of the year. Excellent to hear such news, of course ... but other people had different priorities. For Metroid fans, it does indeed look like Samus will have to wait until 2008. Other than that, the company was all good news in general: "Typically, about half of home consoles in Japan are placed in the living room -- with Wii that figure is 75%. In France, 15 of the top 15 games recently were Nintendo. In the US, Fils-Aime says they are seeing 'early signs of significant market change.' The number of female purchasers of hardware are up 42%. The number of people over age of 30 purchasing Nintendo DS is up 127%. Tighten that age range to people over 35, and the number is up 212%. 40% of Wii owners have connected to the internet. 3.3 million plus Virtual Console downloads." Game|Life has hands-on impressions of Brain Age 2 and Mario Strikers Charged , two of the new games shown off at the event.
[+] Super Smash Bros. Brawl Delayed 142 comments
Dr. Eggman writes "As feared when it was announced that the Japanese launch was being pushed back to January 24, Nintendo has announced that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been delayed in North America as well. 1up.com cites the new launch date as February 10th. On the bright side, however, 16-bit era fan's prayers have been answered: Sonic the Hedgehog is officially in the game."
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Smash Bros. Delayed Until March 9th 50 Comments More /

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  • That's ok (Score:5, Funny)

    by Alizarin Erythrosin (457981) on Tuesday January 15 2008, @09:59AM (#22050076)
    The delay gives me that much more time to actually find a store around here that has a Wii in stock.
  • Currently there are 24 known characters for SSBB. Previous game had 25. [/nitpick]

    For some reason I seemed to be thinking it was coming out in March anyways... I still need to preorder a copy if/when that's possible.
    • Currently there are 24 known characters for SSBB.

      The game itself does have more characters than any of the other SB games.[/counter-nitpick]

    • Re:Not an "unprecedented" number of chars (Score:5, Informative)

      by Turn-X Alphonse (789240) on Tuesday January 15 2008, @10:06AM (#22050184) Journal
      You assume everthing has been revealed, I assume there will be another 8+ secret characters as with Melee.

    • Not an "unprecedented" number of chars
      For a second I read that as "unprecedented number of chairs" and was like, "woah, Ballmer's in there now?!"
    • Mortal Kombat Armageddon had somewhere around sixty or seventy characters. All of those ninja aren't just pallet swaps nowadays either!
        • I don't think MKA was necessarily overkill. If you're a fan of the series, it was quite gratifying. I don't like many of the new characters from Deception personally, but even they weren't a bad addition in the grand scheme of having everyone. I just wish we could have seen a return of all of the stages as well, instead of some half-baked "Kart Kombat" mode. Oh, and Tremor from the Special Forces spin-off would have been cool. :P
      • You're kind of forgetting that the game will most likely have all the characters of previous games

        The comments for Lucas on the offical site have said that he's in the game instead of Ness, so that's one old character confirmed gone.

        I've also gotten the impression that Ike is replacing Roy & Marth, although I don't think they've said anything concrete on that.

        Once they start removing characters, I wouldn't be surprised to see others removed. I'd put clones, Mewtwo, and Game & Watch as the most likel
  • Take you time to make a good time I said, but now I'm kind of regretting those words. Wasn't this suppose to be a launch title? I guess I can take solace in the fact that it's announced to be released near my birthday (hint, hint!)

    • Wasn't this suppose to be a launch title?

      If I remember correctly, then no...at least, not as the Wii neared release (a year or so before, yes). It was supposed to be a lot closer, though. I suppose all of the build-up may actually be good for sales in the market of those not already addicted.

      That being said, I have quite a few friends who are going to be more than a little pissed off at the news.

  • Just get the online right (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Alzheimers (467217) on Tuesday January 15 2008, @10:09AM (#22050222)
    Considering this will be the first BIG online game for the Wii, I'm hoping they're taking their time to make sure it's done right. I don't know if the Wii can download patches as easily as the PS3/x360, so if the Big N takes a little extra time to reduce lag and latency's effect on gameplay *now* I'll be happy for the delay.

    Now if they could just get rid of these damn buddy codes. All it does is move the matchmaking from an in-game browser to the web forums. I know it's all about "protecting the kiddies" but that's why these consoles have parental control options. Turn off the parental block, and let adults play with adults without the barriers.
    • Hmm... I guess you missed "With Anyone" [smashbros.com] mode. It's free of buddy codes and rankings, for random play.
      • Names won't be shown and messages won't be sent. Neither your identity nor your opponents' will be known, so you can play without any worries.

        Might as well be playing with a half-decent AI then, donchathink?
        • It would have to be an incredible AI in order to match the unpredictability and flexibility of a human player.

          The best Smash, like before, will almost undoubtedly be when you have 3 flesh-and-blood opponents in your living room. It's nice that they're trying, and "With Anyone" mode may be just the tip of the online iceberg.
          • I'm not saying it's not a good start, but enforcing the communication barrier should be the job of the parent, not the developer.

            Put in a Mute mode if the console is set to T. Otherwise, treat every random player like a friend. Then, for those adults who don't want the verbal abuse that sometimes comes up from these kinds of systems, then can set that console ID to ignore and never have to play that person again. And with matches that do work, that's one more friend to play again.

            It's this kind of nannyi
    • I don't know if the friends codes are all that bad. I think in a way it adds to the "social" aspect of the Wii. My Wii is set to work with a few of my friends Wiis and not anyone else.
      In other words we play games with people that we have real relationships with and not strangers online.
      As you said you can use any number of websites to find people to play with on-line so it doesn't stop you from finding people to play online with.
      Maybe it is just different and not all that bad.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by zerOnIne (128186)
        My problem with the in-game friend codes is that they make absolutely no use of the Wii's built-in friend code system whatsoever. So it doesn't matter if we've already swapped Wii codes and I can send you Wiimail; in order to play Brawl together (or Guitar Hero 3, or ... you name it) online, we need to give each other *additional* friend codes.

        I wouldn't even care if the lists were kept separately for each game. That'd allow me to, say, add some guy from a forum to my Brawl list but not my GH3 list. BUT for
        • I can see your point. I haven't messed with the online stuff yet with the Wii. My wife has but yea if you have a Wii friend you should have the opportunity to just add them from the address book. I still need to get Opera for my Wii as well.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Mr2001 (90979)

        I don't know if the friends codes are all that bad. I think in a way it adds to the "social" aspect of the Wii. [...] In other words we play games with people that we have real relationships with and not strangers online.

        You can do that with other consoles too... but you can also form new relationships with people you meet online.

        I mean, that's a pretty common way to make friends: meeting people who share your interests. Why is it more "social" to meet people somewhere else, and then later invite them to play online (hoping they own a Wii and the games you like), than to just meet people online who you know have a Wii and enjoy the same games as you?

  • I thought they had said that it had gone gold about a month ago...?

    • I thought they had said that it had gone gold about a month ago...?
      Well, this game is supposed to support online play, yes? Maybe one of the designers owns a 360 and noticed the slight problem they had with Live. It is possible that they want to make sure they can handle the launch on the server-side.

    • I thought they had said that it had gone gold about a month ago...?
      Read the archived comic of penny-arcade about what going gold REALLY means

  • New Character? (Score:5, Funny)

    by moosesocks (264553) on Tuesday January 15 2008, @10:19AM (#22050328) Homepage
    Let me guess..... Duke Nukem is being added as one of the character choices?
  • Quite frankly, I would MUCH prefer that they get it right by delaying a few more months than rush it out early and possibly screw it it up. Keep in mind, the major short-coming of the Wii is that it does not have a hard drive to allow for patching or upgrading. With the Wii, if a disc-based game is faulty, a new disc needs to be sent out unless Nintendo starts to take advantage of SD cards. (See Activision's Guitar Hero III-in-monaural debacle.)

    The gaming community is rife with examples of games that

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by techpawn (969834)

      the major short-coming of the Wii is that it does not have a hard drive

      What you talkin' bout Willis? It DOES HAVE MEMORY [wordpress.com] Only 512 and most of that is used for downloads from the Wii Shop. But, I agree. If you rush a product with the idea of "we'll just patch it later" that's just bad programming. I mean WHO [microsoft.com] who do THAT?

      • 512 MB is nowhere near sufficient for patches, hence why I mentioned possibly using Smart Cards for external storage but Nintendo doesn't seem to want to use it for that -- yet. (The Guitar Hero III fix/update is supposed to have downloadable content for the Wii, so I would guess that it will be requiring an SD card for that.) Besides, utilizing any kind of memory for patches on the Wii will only encourage such sloppy "ship it now, patch it later" programming whereas right now the developers can't get awa

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Khuffie (818093)
        Apple [apple.com] do that too.
        • Last I checked Jobs didn't unveil a new console yesterday;)

          Patching has always been common to personal computing, Microsoft's blunde^H^H^H^H^H revolutionary innovative technology brought it to gaming!

  • Everyone always says... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by llevity (776014) on Tuesday January 15 2008, @10:47AM (#22050702)
    Everyone always says "Oh, a delay. That's cool. It means they're making sure they get it right. I'd much rather have it be good and late than on time and crappy."

    While I agree, can't anyone get it done right, AND on time? Or is "good" and "on time" now mutually exclusive?

    • Re:Everyone always says... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cowscows (103644) on Tuesday January 15 2008, @11:03AM (#22050912) Journal
      When I was younger, I knew the world wasn't perfect, but I thought that adults were generally competent and honest enough that much of civilization and technology was really refined and well functioning. I just sort of assumed that medicine and construction and industry was all about well established procedures, precision, and organization.

      These days, I make a living designing buildings, and I can tell you that I was entirely wrong about all of that. There are tons of full grown, highly educated, very experienced professionals that are just as confused, scatterbrained, and flaky as those dumbass lab partners you'd end up with in high school. And getting them to do their fair share of the work is sometimes harder than the actual project you're trying to accomplish. When something is being designed, it's really really hard to solve all the problems before you actually start building it. Lots of things will go wrong, lots of simple things will get overlooked, lots of stuff that you never expected will happen. Half the time, whoever discovers the problem will either blame someone else, or at least try to shift responsibility for figuring it out away from themselves. The other half of the time the problem will be solved on the spot by whoever happens to notice it. Then there's maybe a 50/50 chance that they'll mention that issue to anyone else involved.

      I guess the point is, there are very few jobs/projects where you just sit down and crank out work according to a schedule. Design of almost any sort is less about putting down the answers onto paper/computer/whatever, and more about trying stuff out, seeing what problems arise, and then trying to fix them. Deadlines have a role in the process and are important, but unless someone is producing an exact replica of a game/building/object that they've already done, you shouldn't take a date as anything other than a very rough approximation.
      • I'd much prefer a team full of people who are competent, but not fantastic at their job over a group of people who were overconfident and arrogant any day.

        "Plan for the worst, expect the best" tends to be the strategy that produces the best results in the long-run, and prevents small problems from turning into huge problems. Even though Team 2's best estimate is 20% longer than Team 1's, I'd put my money on Team 2.

        Sadly, the business world these days seems reluctant to identify and root out incompetent a

    • While I agree, can't anyone get it done right, AND on time? Or is "good" and "on time" now mutually exclusive?
      • Full-featured
      • On schedule
      • On Budget.

      Choose up to two.

  • I remember when this game was set to be released alongside the Wii (or a few months after, I don't remember). But it kept getting pushed back further and further, until its true release date became locked in a Shrödinger box of quantum indeterminacy. Then the Duke Nukem Forever trailer came out and its waveform began to stabilize.

    Then they moved it to Dec 3rd 2007, my birthday, and it soon failed to live up to even that. Nobody ever remembers my birthday. Thanks Nintendo.
    • Slashdot has become Digg 2.0.

      You must be new here...

          • Re:In other news... (Score:5, Informative)

            by bigstrat2003 (1058574) on Tuesday January 15 2008, @11:18AM (#22051142)
            I suppose we should get off your lawn now?

            You know what? I don't particularly care if you approve, I think the story belongs (and apparently I'm not alone). We're only talking about one of the most hotly anticipated Wii games which is ever going to come out here, after all. And if you have a problem with it... it's not even on the main page, it's in the games section. So, if you have such a problem with seeing it (your loss), I suggest you take Games stories off your front page, because that's what the section is for. You know, news about (gasp) games.

            Good God, people will whine about anything.

              • I don't have any problem with you voicing your opinion. It's a public forum, after all. But if you get to whine about stupid, unimportant things, I sure as hell have the right to tell you that your issues are stupid and unimportant.
                • "you have the right to whine about stupid unimportant things and i have the right to tell you they are stupid and unimportant!" lololol

                  you owe me a keyboard
          • I think this game undoubtedly appeals to more adults than something like "MANHUNT". It's one of the big releases. Slashdot has every incentive to cover the major gaming releases of the year, and by any sane standard, SSBB is one of them.
    • Surely Digg 2.0 would have more random unedited linking and intelligible rants.. I personally think the editors do a decent job.

      of course, i also happen to like the Super Smash Bros games, and i can't see anyone who isn't either a nerd or a nintendo fanboi playing them. Certainly, they're too complex for kids to play them sans button mashing..
    • I think that's being a little over dramatic. Duke Nukem Forever has been delayed for years, SSB:B is barely at 3 months. I think we can stop panicking now.
        • That's because Nintendo owners are so calm and polite. :-)
        • It never was scheduled for early or fall 2007. When the game was first announced a year before Wii's launch, it was announced as a launch title. Nothing was said about a release for the game after that until it was given a December '07 release.

          I'm not sure if even Nintendo took the idea of having it for the Wii launch seriously, as when they said that, they hadn't yet actually talked to the producer of the previous games about making a new one or formed a dev team.
        • Nope, the first actual release date was December 2nd. Fans ASSUMED (and wrongly so) that it would be a Q1 2007 because E3 of previous year was showing off Brawl as an "future game for the Wii". I told everyone back in '06 that Brawl was going to take a while, and likely it would be a Q4 2007, which was its actual release date. Nintendo never made any claims otherwise. Since then, they have delayed it 3 months, but that's it. Any further delays you saw were your own expectations, or those of others.
    • Maybe the part they want to get right is the localization? Poor localization can ruin a game just as much as a bug, really. It's a funny thing. (Like server maintenance!) When it's done well, you don't notice it at all. When it's done poorly, it's really obvious, and really annoying, and EVERYONE gets in your face about it.

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