March Software Sales Madness: Consider the Competition “Final Smashed”

Ah, memories. About two years ago I remember a friend of mine bursting into my room at 1 AM to show me the megaton of all trailers. Yes, it was the E3 2006 trailer of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The same trailer that wet your pants when you found out Solid (effin‘) Snake would be breaking necks in the Nintendo beat ‘em up. Now that its way in the past, I can safely say I watched that trailer about a hundred times (yes, really) within the next couple of days. The next two years would test my patience unlike any other two years of my life.

Today, I’m almost as happy as I when the game was finally released. Why? Because Brawl sold 2.7 million copies in the month of March. That’s Halo 3 statues people, without the $10 million marketing budget. I’m happy because I can safely that my favorite franchise is now a franchise that can not be ignored. The numbers, please.

Want Aisle: Smash Bros Chuck Taylors Made By RIT Alum

For once I’m actually proud of my college, the Rochester Institute of Technology. Here I was thinking those Brawl Force Ones were the sweetest game kicks I’ve ever laid eyes on, this comes by may: Hi-Top Chuck Taylors with the Smash Bros. Melee cast hand-painted on the side. Brilliant.

This masterpiece is the work of a Cole Ranze, who’s putting these bad boys up for auction on eBay. The gargantuan Smash fanboy in me wants the bid on them so bad but then I realize have to digest food, which costs money, in order to live and breathe. Being a college student sucks.

Bravo, Mr. Ranze. I kindly ask the person who wins the auction to not wear them but instead frame them (preferably in some crystal casing) to forever maintain their beauty.

BID AWAY PEOPLE!

Want Level: 10/10

Brawl Sells 1.4M in a Week (Fueled by Fanboy Impatience)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl further proves the theory that if you starve a Nintendo fanboy long enough he/she will spend more money. According to Nintendo Brawl has sold a staggering 1.4 million copies in its first week, 874,000 of which were sold on the first day. Impressive? Yes. They also claim that it’s the fastest-selling game in Nintendo of America’s long history. “But what about Pokemon Diamond & Pearl?” I hear someone whine. D&P are counted separately, so stop whining.

I’m seeing Brawl hitting 2 million by the end of the month.

What if Nintendo actually spent marketing dollars on the game like Microsoft did for Halo 3?

Brawl Force Ones

Geek couture rarely impresses me. Plus, wearing a Triforce tee (I own two) doesn’t give you props with the common folk. See, that’s probably as far as I’d go, a Triforce t-shirt, because the average person has no idea what it is. I could tell them that it’s a gang sign from Nigeria and they would believe me. And if they do happen to know what it represents then I can call them a dork for knowing so much.

T-shirts aside, some guy who loves Brawl just a little more than the rest of us decided to customize a pair of Air Force Ones to acknowledge the greatest mascot fighter of all time. These are sweet, period. You can act like you don’t like them but you’re only lying to yourself. They actually look official until you realize that Solid Snake is on the back. I’m liking the Brawl logo on the tongue and the Master & Crazy Hands on the heels. Sure beats the Halo shoes.

Where the hell can I buy these?

Verdict: WANT.

[Kotaku]

Brawl Sells 820K, Looks Down Upon Mario Galaxy

Yes, the hype has certainly paid off, or at least in Japan. Brawl has reportedly moved over 800,000 units since it hit the Far East on January 31st. By the time you’re reading this the game has already eclipsed Mario Galaxy’s mediocre Japanese sales. Some of you might look back at Halo 3’s monumental colossal US launch and respond to this with a “meh” but the Brawl sales are quite impressive once you consider that Japan has a much smaller population and that Nintendo only shipped around 800k copies of the mascot-fest. Yes, that means Brawl pretty much sold out its entire week’s stock. Plus, its hype machine didn’t cost $10 million. No, it was a simple, low cost, and effiecient one made up of 30% blog, 10% TV spots and 110% fanboy lust. Yeah, that doesn’t add up but you get the point: Brawl causes nerdgasms.

BRAWL SPOILER BLOWOUT! More Confirmed Characters!

With Brawl being released later this week in Japan some people have gotten their hands on early builds of the game, and have started to taunt North America with massive spoilers and character reveals. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!

SPOILER ALERT! Brawl Subspace Montage Revealed!

Watch at your own risk!

Ness, Marth confirmed!

Ness Confirmed for Brawl! Oh, Jiggypuff and Lucario Too.

When Lucas was officially announced I was crushed. How dare they replace my beloved Ness?! Lucas doesn’t even have a freakin’ bat for goodness sake, nor a sweet hat, or a cocaine pusher-esque backpack either! Luke does score some cool points here and there (his back air is a spike, he has a sweet flash kick, etc) but they don’t compare to giving someone a thunder back kick to baseball bat to the face combo, followed by my favorite taunt (“OK!”). My Brawl experience would be very sour without Ness.

Luckily, that won’t be the case, as a very perceptive GameFAQs poster spotted a few little icons in a recent Japanese Brawl trailer that reveal Ness, Jiggypuff and Lucario as playable characters. In Brawl you can collect various stickers that can be organized according to game franchise, located in the bottom right corner of each picture. The picture on the left shows Pikachu and Pokemon Trainer, as well as two other icons that are obivously Lucario (who i quite popular in Japan, appartenly) and Jigglypuff. The picture on the right refers the Mother/Earthbound franchise and shows an icon next to Lucas sporting a red baseball cap. NESS!

Now I can sleep at night. Although it does ruin a good surprise.

Brawl Countdown Widget for Macs

Countdown the days until your regular life goes out the window. Homework will be left unfinished. Chores will left undone. Friends and loved ones will might be ignored…unless they’re playing with you.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Countdown Widget (Mac) 

Brawl Box Art Confirmed?

Guess so. With 40 days left before Brawl hits the US, and 24 days until its Japanese release, this placeholder box art seems to be official. Yeah, yeah, I know people have called this official I while ago but I have my reasons for making this late statement. Back when Melee was about to launch Nintendo gave retailers a shoddy, uneventful placeholder until about two months before the game went gold, so I thought they might have been pulling the same stunt again.

Placeholder boxart for Super Smash Bros. Melee

Final boxart for Super Smash Bros. Melee

The first one: dull. The second is packed with more action than Steven Segal versus Jean Van Damme fist-fight. The Brawl box art isn’t terrible, it’s actually pretty sweet, but I guess I was expecting a bit more. The art doesn’t really reveal too much and only features most of the characters revealed on Smashbros.com. Where’s Captain Falcon? I wanna see the flames spewing out of his Falcon Punch on the box. Wait, why isn’t he on there in the first place? Is he still in the game? See that’s my problem with the box; it gets me worried about who’ll be retuning for Brawl. Luigi? Ganon? Game & Watch? Young Link? Hopefully Smashbros.com will soon trickle drops of info to reassure us thirsty Smash Brothers, and being the obsessive fans we are we’ll wait patiently like we always do.

Damn, Fox looks bad-ass. Like he just came from the future to save John Connor bad-ass. Look how jealous Link is of him.