Nintendo Delays Super Smash Bros. Brawl

One of Nintendo's much-anticipated signature games for the Wii will be coming out more than two months later than expected.

Gamers already had to cope with one critical delay this year when Rockstar hit the brakes on Grand Theft Auto IV’s release, and now Nintendo is throwing them another. Super Smash Bros. Brawl has had Wii gamers salivating since it was announced, but original hopes of a 2007 release have been crushed in favor of a new release date well into next year.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata originally announced a delay for the Japanese version of the game on Wednesday, which was quickly followed on Thursday by a similar delay for the U.S. version, announced at Nintendo’s fall conference in San Francisco. Super Smash Bros. Brawl will now come out on January 24 in Japan and February 10 in the U.S. Previously, American gamers expected the title on December 3.

According to Nintendic, Iwata’s original announcement cited the standard reasons for the game delay: they just need more time to finish.