[Official Nintendo Magazine, via Wii Fanboy]

When they're all lined up like this, it becomes obvious that there is roughly 6-year blank before and after Pikmin. While there have been big series since then like "Animal Crossing," "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day," and "Wii Sports" it does seem that coming up with a completely new character-driven series has gotten more difficult recently.

Odd then, that the Mii, probably the most identifiable Nintendo-created humanoid to debut in the Wii generation is not a playable character. It's understandable, given the potential issues of bringing your Mii into online brawls, given their varying hitbox sizes, but they seem like a perfect fit.

It almost seems like a waste, given the creative talent at the developer/publisher, but it's clear that Nintendo has been successful with its reliance on older characters, with nostalgia playing a big part in Super Smash Bros. Brawl interest. Add to that the interesting and more abstract gameplay concepts that have emerged from Nintendo over the past few years—we certainly can't play a Brain Age math problem or anything from Electroplankton—and it makes a great deal of sense to rely on Mario, Link and Samus. That doesn't mean it's not somewhat annoying.

Given that Nintendo's last "character" franchise, Pikmin, had debuted within weeks of the Gamecube launch and we've seen almost nothing in the way of new character IP for the Wii, it would seem we'll just have to live with it.

Just a quick warning that the Smash Bros. Dojo post on the matter may contain spoilers for those who haven't finished or played the game yet.

All-Star [Smash Bros. Dojo]

But there are all sorts of rules and regulations regarding communication on the Wii platform and so it was apparent to me that it just wouldn't come together, we weren't going to be able to do it, so we decided to cancel that feature. I'm very sorry about that. But if you're really desperate for it, you could set up Skype by your game station and go at it with a friend if you like.

Well, the series has already had three iterations so I cannot say with one-hundred percent confidence that there won't be any additional Smash Bros. games ever. But, at the same time I'd really like to note that I feel like with Brawl there are already so many modes and so much to do that it's really hard to exhaust what you can do with this game. I'm really against the idea of merely creating a sequel that would add modes or increase the number of characters in the roster — all the sort of things that just simply fatten up the game. I'd like to avoid just doing that if a sequel ever came out.

Sakurai on SSBB [IGN via Eurogamer] [Pic]

But for those looking to relish in every detail, every screen shot, every word from Sakurai, savor the Dojo Dump. We've only got two more months together.

Monday: The Vault is for obsessive collector types, like yours truly, who like to pore over their virtual stuff. Time in the Vault is time you'll want on your death bed!
Tuesday: For an exhaustive list of the initially available tunes in Brawl, check out First Song in My Music
Wednesday: For a straight up primer on the Brawl portion of the game, read up.
Thursday: Sakurai warns about Future Updates, which should last for the next two months and feature plenty of spoiler-filled info. An Intro Movie that helps explain the numerous game modes is added.
Friday: The first official unlockable character is profiled. If you want to know who that is, click the ?????.

You may (or may not) remember Game Arts from its development on the Lunar and Grandia series, both quite aged, both essentially the opposite of a lightning fast, multiplayer fighting game. Why the secrecy? It couldn't have anything to do with the overreaction found on the internet. Could it? Nah. The full interview, if you missed it before, is worth the read.

Iwata Asks: Super Smash Bros. Brawl [Wii.com]

After much speculation, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is playable on all four Wii compatible control schemes: Wii Remote, Wii Remote and Nunchuk, Classic Controller and the GameCube Controller. Blogs game creator Masahiro Sakurai over at Smash Bros. DOJO!!:

I guess I have no choice but implement them all!

There's no need to be confused about what does what—just choose the play style you prefer!

I suppose I would recommend the Nintendo GameCube controller, though. I like the feel of that powerful rumble.

Controller Set Up [Smash Bros. DOJO!! Thanks, Mike!]

On Ryan Payton's Kojima Productions podcast, he dishes on how Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima played the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl at creator Masahiro Sakurai's Tokyo studio. According to Payton, Kojima said that:

The game already feels very complete, it's already a lot of fun and that you guys (Sakurai's studio) could put it out now, and it would sell millions of copies.

Kojima was playing as Snake, Sakurai was playing as Mario. Yet, Kojima humorously admitted that he wasn't able to punch of kick the character he's grown up with, Mario — Out of respect. Click over to listen to the rest and hear about MPO Europe extras and about Kojima and Ken Imaizumi (above) playing Guitar Hero. Brian Ashcraft

Payton Report [i-revo]