We attended the launch of Super Smash Bros. Brawl in Johannesburg yesterday. The event was held at the offices of Core Gaming, with the company choosing to focus on smaller groups to launch a title rather than a large crowd. In doing so Core Gaming hope to focus more on the game being launched and address questions from the gaming media directly. This is a concept that I am sure the gaming community will embrace since we can raise concerns, ask questions and generally have our voices heard.

Four groups of roughly eight gaming media met, two met yesterday and two will be meeting later today. In addition the Nintendo Team will be winging their way down to Cape Town next week to showcase the game to the media there. As usual Core Gaming took good care of us, with a large flat-screen TV with SSBB set up, lavish food and drinks and a briefing about the game, the line-up for the rest of the year as well as interesting sales figures and a rundown of E3 which members of Core Gaming also attended. We also walked away with review copies of key upcoming titles so look out for reviews of these soon.

After the brawling had simmered down between the attending media and members of Core Gaming, it was down to serious business. Matthew Grose, General Manager of Core Gaming Systems, began by highlighting Nintendo’s continued dedication to draw in new gamers as well as lapsed gamers, dubbed the Blue Ocean Strategy. He believes that a growing catalogue of games as well as retailers restrategising to make their gaming spaces larger and more interactive will help Nintendo achieve this goal.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl should start arriving in stores by next weekend. The game will retail for R549. In terms of upcoming titles for the Wii in Quarter 3, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (compatible with Wii Zapper, priced at R549) will also be released in August while Family Ski (compatible with Wii Balance Board, priced at R549) will arrive in September and Link’s Crossbow Training (bundled with Wii Zapper) will hit shelves in October.

Set in the Hyrule realm from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link’s Crossbow Training is a shooting-gallery-style game that sees players stepping into the shoes of hero Link to guide him through a series of crossbow shooting tasks. Grose hopes that Link’s Crossbow Training will help more gamers to understand Zelda and embrace the series, something which many gamers in South Africa have yet to do. The game will be priced at R349, very reasonable considering the game comes bundled with the Wii Zapper.

August will be a bumper month for DS gamers, with Metroid Prime Hunters (R449), 42 All Time Classics (R349) as well as Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (R449) arriving. Super Princess Peach (R449) will follow in September. Grose emphasised that he had received a lot of pressure from Pokémon fans to bring the two popular DS titles into South Africa, proof that Core Gaming are hearing us and listening.

Stay tuned for more information from our Q and A session. Also make sure you don’t miss the discussion Grose had about Wii Fit sales in South Africa.