I hope you guys enjoy this collection of hilarious moments from my many rounds of Brawl. For reference: I’m generally always Player 3, nothing was staged, and aside from a few visual changes – we never actually hacked any of the gameplay itself. It’s possible you may need to watch this more than once to soak it all in….

Ray sent me this pretty awesome replacement cover for Super Smash Bros. Brawl to share with you all. Ray’s Mario Kart Wii replacement covers were a necessity since the official box art isn’t very good. Brawl’s box art is fine as is, but I must admit, I dig the sideways box art and the way Ray fit in every character! Keep in mind that he physically placed each and every one of the characters himself using ripped character art from the game, no small feat. The spine art is optional of course, so if you don’t like it you can just cut it off and use the front. One more shot of the box art plus the download after the break!

[Update]: Ray made a version without the ESRB logo for non-U.S. gamers.

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Yes, the day has finally arrived, March 9th, the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Ray and I do both have the game and if you’d like a challenge, step up to the plate against Ray, his friend code is: 4081-5167-3527. If his skill is too much for you, you’re welcome to gain back your manhood by destroying me for a few rounds, my friend code is: 0387-8461-4907. Feel free to leave your friend code below so we and other 2P START! frequenters can Brawl together!

The folks over at Brawl Central have a serious problem. It involves the use of the word ‘confirm’ to authenticate new info about Brawl. Take this for example:

As said in a previous update, we wouldn’t be reporting on any of the leak stories unless we had confirmation, but this seems like its real.

So in other words – you don’t.

So when it was ‘leaked’ that Zelda’s down-special move was named ‘Twilight Change,’ and mumbled something about the name ‘Sheik’ in parenthesis, they immediately made a news post reading:

Sheik Confirmed!

Well, guess what happened? Turned out there wasn’t even a down-special move listed. So they made an additional news post titled:

Sheik De-confirmed

Wait, ‘de-confirmed?’ Well great, now saying something is ‘confirmed’ is totally useless, as it can be just as quickly de-confirmed. But, oh, does this get better. (more…)

While Japan will only see a delay of a single week, the US version is delayed a full month. The new US release date is now March 9th.

And that’s in 2008, right Nintendo? Right?

In case you all forgot, Smash Bros. Brawl was first announced at E3 as already in development, and to be an online launch title for the Nintendo Wii. Can you believe that?

But the irony of this is even greater than you can imagine.
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Imagine you just popped in Smash Bros. Brawl, and then you press start at the title screen. Well, here’s the main menu you would see next:

How do you feel about this?

As a Graphic Designer, I’ve thought pretty hard about the alignment, the colors, the symbols, the fonts, the white space, and the consistency: and I end up wondering things like this:

• Why is there an X for Group? Is that supposed to mean multiplication?
• Why does the Wi-Fi button look nothing like the other buttons?
• Does this menu really say “Smash Bros?”
• Why do the borders have an uneven and inconsistent thickness?

On the other hand, It also works quite well, and I also end up thinking:

• The buttons must be gigantic so that selection is easy with the Wii Remote.
• The Wi-Fi button looks pretty similar to the logo used on game cases.
• The size of the individual button is determined by its importance.
• Perhaps it will all make a lot more sense once everything’s unlocked..?
• Smash Bros. Menus generally reflect the style of the console it’s on.

Perhaps I simply need to get used to it. Plus in the long run, is it really going to change what we think of the game itself?

I can’t believe I’m the one posting this since Brawl is more Ray’s territory than mine, but someone put together a neat little flash tool that lets you design your own Brawl levels, just like the real game will. Of course it’s pretty basic, but for some of you Brawl fanatics, this will give you something to do during the long delay. What do you think of my level design?

I put this little image together in Photoshop pretty quickly to give everyone a better visual of where we’re at as far as character announcements go. Is it just me, or does this help show how there are a ton of characters being kept secret? (both new and old…)

Hidden away from obvious eyes behind the main Smash Bros. TV was another one showing at least 10 minutes of various Adventure mode clips, including both its gameplay and cutscenes. Those cutscenes are rad, and I managed to take some video of my favorite clip involving DK and Diddy Kong fighting off a few Bullet Bills. It’s short, but sweet. Take a look: