After a lengthy wait (with many a thought of storming Nintendo Australia's headquarters to demand answers), The Big N of Oz has finally given up a solid release date for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In just over a month we'll be slogging it out, both on and offline, with an announced launch date of June 26 for all things Smashy.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a game play experience where characters from around the Nintendo universe meet up in Nintendo locales to battle it out. Choose from a number of iconic and new characters including Mario, everyone’s favourite plumber; Meta Knight, the sword-wielding nemesis of Kirby; Pit, the angelic archer from Kid Icarus™; Zero Suit Samus, the powerful Metroid® series heroine; Sonic the Hedgehog from SEGA®, and Solid Snake the solider from Konami’s Metal Gear series, among a host of others.

Jump and brawl your way through the Nintendo themed stages; pit up to four players against one another in a brawl to see who is the last one standing. Thanks to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection you can brawl with friends or strangers, share photos, swap replays, team up for challenging mini-games, and send custom made stages or screenshots to friends.

This news comes after we've spent plenty of time with the US version thinking all hope was lost. In celebration, stay tuned for a lengthy preview outlining all the features you can look forward to in one of Nintendo's most celebrated titles.

hopefully there will be more ppl online once this comes to australia

playing with the us version currently, and it takes a while to get a decent matchup

We have had this on gamecube for a while now. Am I missing something? How is it new?

It's an all-new smash bros title Kat, this one you can play online and it's on Wii

We have had this on gamecube for a while now. Am I missing something? How is it new?

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/875/katisretardedcj5.jpg

Thanks Steve

evis: it made no mention of Wii, DS or GC.

The GC game is called "Super Smash Bros Melee" - note the last word; the new one is "Super Smash Bros Brawl"

General awareness would have also clued you on.

My US version of brawl turns up today or tomorrow, and now I get this.
I'll still buy the pal version.

^^ why would u bother buying the pal version?

its a 5 second inconvenience.

I like the part where they still don't tell us that to unlock Sonic & Snake you have to put at least 10hrs into the Subspace Emissary mode (aka. the single player part). Almost seems dishonest to advertise that they're in the game, but not mention what you need to do to actually use them.

its a 5 second inconvenience.

It's more the inability to update firmware and use the Wiiware channel that will force me to get the pal version.

Won't they release the firmware update as a download? Seems a bit much to ask people to buy a copy of the game just so they can get new firmware...

I like the part where they still don't tell us that to unlock Sonic & Snake you have to put at least 10hrs into the Subspace Emissary mode (aka. the single player part). Almost seems dishonest to advertise that they're in the game, but not mention what you need to do to actually use them.

Haha. You should have read a FAQ.

Sonic

How to unlock:

-Play 300 brawls.
-Have Sonic join your party in The Subspace Emissary.
-Accumulate 10 hours of total time in brawls.
-Clear Classic with 10 characters.

Its actually possible to unlock all the characters in about 30 minutes of actual game play.

I believe you need to play 500 brawls to get all the characters.

Ok, I need to be a little clearer.
In order to play games from other regions, you need to use a disc called the Freeloader. It disables the region locking for the next disc that is inserted into the Wii. So everyone who has been importing brawl from the states, and in fact anyone with a Wii that imports Wii games from other territories, uses a Freeloader to play their imported games.

In the latest firmware version 3.2E, Nintendo included a file that blocks the Freeloader, but it isn’t activated yet. Rumour has it that Nintendo will activate the file with the next firmware update, or the update that introduces Wiiware.
If you choose not to update you can go on using the Freeloader but you miss out on Wiiware.

last edited by Lynx at 18:39:50 14/May/08

In the latest firmware version 3.2E, Nintendo included a file that blocks the Freeloader, but it isn’t activated yet. Rumour has it that Nintendo will activate the file with the next firmware update, or the update that introduces Wiiware.
If you choose not to update you can go on using the Freeloader but you miss out on Wiiware.

Oh snap! I didn't know that :( I've been using a Freeloader as well, not just for brawl either, that'd be balls if it suddenly stopped working.

Why are nintendo suddenly so against the Freeloader? Didn't they let it go on Gamecube without any action? And its not like it lets you play pirated games, you're still buying original copies of games and they're still getting money, I'm suprised they're actively trying to stop it :(

As far as I can guess, it prevents them from maximising profits though region locking. By charging more for the same game in another region, they can capitalize on what people are willing to pay. A $59 game in America should be about $65 here, at most $69. But check in store and you’ll see it retails here for $89-99.

What could they do to it on the gamecube anyway? It's not like it had any online capabilities.

Yeah you could see it that way, but they generally ignored the freeloader on the GC. I'm not sure on the specifics but the update not only blocks the freeloader but also the modchip which allows burnt games to be played. I think they're similar somehow, for the life of me I just can't remember how.

ok here we go found what I was talking about:

From: http://wiibrew.org/index.php?title=IOS37

Once the system menu is updated to use IOS37 [the update which we're talking about], "Trucha-Signed" discs -- or channels -- will stop working, as will the Datel FreeLoader disc. This has been confirmed.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, the "trucha-Signed" discs is what the latest modchips/burnt games use.

What could they do to it on the gamecube anyway? It's not like it had any online capabilities.

Pretty sure they released a new firmware for the GC that blocked the freeloader. But that was only because it allowed burnt games to be played. After that happened a second version of the freeloader came out.

I blame the pirates for this and of course stupid region locking.

last edited by sif greazy at 19:44:41 14/May/08

450 brawls for all characters unlocked

Haha. You should have read a FAQ.

My point still stands. Why emphasise the point that these two non-Nintendo characters are in the game, then expect someone to sink a bit of time into unlocking them (instead of having them available from the get-go)?

last edited by darkjedi at 22:59:24 14/May/08

first i read that rock band is apparantly due on the 25th (hey i know its bulls***, but i can hope damnit!) and now this on the 26th. i think they are trying to tell me something, seeming as my birthday is the 27th.

Where did you hear 25th of June for Rock Band? Cos the dates I've been hearing thrown around often involve "September"

I'm still more interested in how hard we're going to get ass-raped for the Rockband guitars/drum/mics. With GH4 taking the (inevitable) plunge into the same territory, I'm suddenly not so much in a rush to get Rockband (not to mention the whole "no DLC for wii crap")

My point still stands. Why emphasise the point that these two non-Nintendo characters are in the game, then expect someone to sink a bit of time into unlocking them (instead of having them available from the get-go)?

I kinda see you're point. If they're secret characters then they shouldn't be whored out, but still getting them isn't that hard.

They are kickass characters though.