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.

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Core Gaming have been working tirelessly to launch Wii Fit in South Africa and more. We caught up with them this week to discuss what is in the pipeline for this rapidly growing gaming region.

Wii Fit is flying off the shelves since it was launched across South Africa on the 5th of May. The Nintendo Team has revealed that they have sold through 1/3 of their stock to consumers in the two weeks since the games’ launch and that their warehouse is completely sold out.

Mario Kart Wii should be hitting stores in the next week or so. The games’ launch is pending classification at the Film and Publication Board (FPB) but Mario’s racing adventure on the Wii will no doubt be well worth the wait.

You will be happy to know that the Nintendo Team is “placing a focus now in bringing in some classic titles we’ve missed like Super Paper Mario, Link’s Crossbow Training and so forth.” This means that Nintendo fans have lots to look forward to throughout 2008.

The highly anticipated Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be released in South Africa to coincide with Europe, so expect it to be on shelves mid-year.

Better start saving your pennies and clearing your social calendar because gaming is about to get even hotter.

Core Gaming recently launched Wii Fit in South Africa. With the launch tucked securely under their belts, we managed to catch up with The Nintendo Team who gave us the scoop on some dates to diarise.

Mario Kart Wii will be launching across South Africa in mid-May. The latest instalment in Nintendo’s popular racing series has yet to be stamped with a price but mid-May is just around the corner so you better start your engines! The game comes bundled with a new accessory, the Wii Wheel, which looks set to revolutionise your Mario Kart gaming experience.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is one of this year’s most hotly anticipated titles. It was recently announced that SSBB would be released across Europe on the 27th of June, but until now South African fans of the series have been in the dark as to when they can enter the brawl. While an official release date has yet to be announced, it looks like South Africa will follow the European launch of the game and SSBB will probably arrive in South Africa mid-year.

The question on many Wii gamers’ minds is when the Wii Shop Channel will be launching in South Africa. The Nintendo Team confirmed that it is definitely coming, but it is just a matter of when. Nintendo of Europe is currently working on the stars catalogue, which they hope will be released in 2008. It is going to take significantly longer to bring Virtual Console titles to South Africa but rest assured that it is in the works!

The Nintendo Team also confirmed that they will once again be at rAge this year, showcasing both the Nintendo DS and Wii. With great games like Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the cards, they look set to raise the temperature of the gaming circuit.

Once we get solid release dates and prices you will be the first to know.

Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl has smashed Nintendo sales records to become the fastest selling video game in Nintendo of America’s history. This comes after being on the shelves for just one week, the game was launched in the US on the 9th of March.

Cultural phenomenon

Super Smash Bros. Brawl has sold over 1.4 million copies in the United States alone, with over 874 000 copies being sold on its launch date. If you break these numbers down, it means that the game has sold at a rate of more than 120 copies per minute between the 9th of March and the 16th of March. Its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee, was the best-selling Nintendo GameCube game of all time with over 7 million copies sold worldwide.

“Super Smash Bros. Brawl has made the leap from video game to cultural phenomenon,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Game reviewers and the public alike praise its fun game play and extensive, inventive content.”

Key upcoming titles

Nintendo was also quick to point out that they have “lots more fun on the way” with key upcoming titles including Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit. Mario Kart Wii launches on the 27th of April and comes bundled with the new Wii Wheel while Wii Fit arrives on the 19th of May and comes bundled with the Wii Balance Board. Nintendo believe that these titles will keep their “momentum going strong.”

SSBB sold 820 000 units in its opening week in Japan and one million copies in the first eleven days following its launch in Japan on the 31st of January. It continues to sell well in Japan with the latest Media Create figures showing that it sold 50 000 copies for the week ending the 9th of March and its life-to-date sales now stand at 1.4 million in Japan. The game has not yet been dated for Europe.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl went on sale yesterday across North America. However, some Wii consoles are having trouble reading the SSBB discs. Nintendo of America has quickly issued a report explaining the problem and how gamers can get it fixed.

According to Nintendo the game utilizes a double-layer disc with a large memory capacity. “A very small percentage of Wii consoles may have trouble consistently reading data off this large capacity disc if there is some contamination on the lens of the disc drive. Nintendo has specialized cleaning equipment that can resolve this problem. (Please do NOT attempt to clean the lens yourself, as you may damage the system.)”

If you are experiencing disc read problems, head over to Nintendo’s website and complete the repair form to request a repair. Returning the game to the retail store will not solve the problem.

Nintendo is “upgrading inbound and outbound shipping to expedite the total repair process.” No repair time is given but the repair time will be detailed once the repair form is complete. Nintendo will not charge for the repair or shipping.

Nintendo states that “you should not lose any of your stored data. In some rare cases you may have to re-download your Virtual Console games from the Wii Shop Channel, but there is no cost to doing so.”

Japanese gamers experienced similar problems when Super Smash Bros. Brawl went on sale in Japan at the end of January. So it looks like Nintendo had plenty of time to prepare for this problem.

According to French website Wiiz, Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be out in Europe on the 6th of June.

Wiiz reports that the announcement was made at the Micromania Game Awards in France. Although one would expect that this hugely anticipated announcement would have come in the form of a press release, it is likely that Nintendo will date the game this week in light of the Game Developer’s Conference which is currently underway in San Francisco and the fact that Nintendo dated both Wii Fit (25 April) and Mario Kart Wii (11 April) for Europe this week.

However, Nintendo has yet to confirm the date so consider it rumour and speculation until the stamp of approval is given.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is already out in Japan and will hit North American shelves on the 9th of March.

Source: Wiiz

So you’re likely waiting for Super Smash Bros Brawl to come out, since what kind of gamer are you if you’re not? I’ll tell you: you’re either Japanese or European, since the Japanese already have the game while the Europeans (that includes us South Africans even though we’re not European at all, in fact, I’m going to say PAL People from now on) are not waiting for the game, we’re waiting for the announcement of the game.

So, PAL People, what should we do while we wait? We could read all the spoilers Sakurai is posting on his Smash Bros Dojo site, but that would suck like knowing the winner of Survivor before watching it. What we could safely do is read the fantastic interview done by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata with the creator of Smash Bros, Masahiro Sakurai.

You’ll have to be all underhanded and read it on the Nintendo of America web site even though you’re not American, but I’m sure you can live with that.

Did I mention that I can’t wait for this game?

Nintendo’s highly anticipated Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii has proved it has what it takes, and more! The title smashed records by selling a whopping 820 000 copies in its first week on the Japanese sales charts.

The latest figures from Media Create have been hotly anticipated after rumours about early sales figures leaked from Famitsu. Brawl fans from around the world were whipped into a frenzy with reports that first day sales of SSBB had reached 500 000 copies and that it had sold through 80% of its initial stock. The latest installment in the Smash series was released in Japan on the 31st of January but North American gamers can only enter the brawl on the 9th of March while European gamers are still uncertain about a PAL release date (despite rumours circulating about a 1st of June release date, no official announcement has yet been made).

Continue reading Japanese Sales Data: Super Smash Bros. Brawl sells record 820K!

Initial reports are trickling in that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has sold 500 000 copies on its opening day in Japan. Despite the release date for this highly anticipated game being delayed several times, eventually landing in the land of the rising sun on the 31st of January, gamers have flocked to the shops to get their hands on a treasured copy of the next installment in this beloved series. Although these reports have yet to be confirmed, if they are true it will mean SSBB had an 80% sell through of its initial stock and that stores are probably sold out now.

This news comes from a Japanese blog which posted what it claimed were leaked Famitsu sales figures. If these figures are correct it will mean that Nintendo has snatched another title (albeit from themselves), with SSBB taking the crown of biggest opening day for a Nintendo console game ever. Currently the crown belongs to the N64’s Zelda: Ocarina of Time which recorded 386 234 units in its opening week.

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I just had to share this US boxshot of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with fellow Smash fans!

The game is scheduled to be released on the 24th of January in Japan and on the 10th of February 2008 across North America.

For more information head over to the Brawl’s official website.

Smash fans will be delighted with today’s reveal on the official Super Smash Bros. Brawl website.

The latest post details the target-breaking mode, which challenges players to break ten targets within a time limit. Now outside, the mode features five maps of different difficulties and some levels contain items which can also be used to cut time. The mode enables players to pause the game and try again or pause and glance over the layout.

Masahiro Sakurai then went on to make a surprise announcement - “This time, you can view replays. What this means is, the game records what you did in brawls or in Target Smash and lets you review it.”

Players will be able to record about three minutes worth of replay data. What’s more, you will also be able to send replays to your Wii Friends.