Nintendo misses the mark with Super Smash Bros. Brawl

My kids have been waiting for “years” to get their copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl (SSBB). The North American release kept on being delayed.

Caving into the nag factor, especially because the release date was supposed to be on my son’s birthday in mid-February, I placed a deposit on a copy in January. A week or so after I put my money down, I learned SSBB release was delayed again!

EBGames left me a confirmation message on Tuesday. Our copy should be waiting for us in the store this morning.

You may know I’ve been hanging out on twitter lately. So, when I logged on this morning, there was lots of buzz about SSBB.

Jeff Pulver posted a video of the SSBB unveiling at his house. Guess he got some early-bird copies. ;)

Mitch Canter attended the SSBB tournament in Nashville last night and had a great time competing only to go home with his early-bird copy and learn the game didn’t work on his Wii. This morning he posted about it on twitter. So, I took the opportunity to quiz him and read his blog post.

SSBB uses a new technology called double-layer disc because it has more memory. Turns out “launch” versions of the Wii have dirty lenses and don’t play the double-layer discs.

Ninetendo cautions customers not to attempt cleaning the lenses themselves and is offering to repair “launch” Wiis within a one-week turnaround time for free.

Now I don’t know about you or your kids, but when you’re a die-hard Wii owner who has been waiting for months to get your hands on a copy of SSBB, this news is a major disappointment.

It’s March Break and my guys had been looking forward to playing with their new SSBB for ages. I’m keeping my fingers crossed but since we were early Wii owners, my hopes aren’t very high.

Why Ninetendo sat on this information is anyone’s guess. I wonder what the retailers will be doing to inform and appease their customers this morning. I’ll be watching closely.

My kids have been raised on Nintendo products. I’ll be curious to see how this affects their brand loyalty.

Talk about a Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Bummer!