Super Smash Bros. Brawl - European release update

There still seems to be some uncertainty about when SSBB will be released in Europe (see my earlier post about it here) - this is from an article at Nintendo Life yesterday:

(Quote)
Update: Nintendo Puts Things Straight On European Brawl Release
26th Feb 2008, 09:47am by Anthony Dickens.

It seems that 1up's recent podcast suggesting Brawl has been delayed until Autumn in Europe isn't exactly true.

While recounting some of the info that I learned from Nintendo of America's President & COO, Reggie Fils-Aime, I implied that the European release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl had been moved to the fall of 2008...that's not quite accurate, as neither NOE nor Reggie has announced any official release date at this time. Reggie did tell me (and the other media present) that the release had been pushed out of the winter/spring time frame due to the amount of localization required to get the game up and running all the various European languages. But Reggie did not say WHEN Europeans will get Smash Bros., just that it would be at a later date than the U.S.

So now angry gamers, it seems Brawl might be heading to Europe sooner than we first thought, however Nintendo of Europe haven't confirmed any specific date, all we know is that it won't be released before May.

Reggie also explained that the recent announcements of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii release dates were to "balance out" the release list. I'm sure these won't please faithful NoE fans of Brawl but perhaps it isn't as bad as we first fear.

Our thanks to NoA for clearing this one up.
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Mario & Sonic Online Game Recommendations - Part 7

Here is Part 7 in my ongoing series of Mario and Sonic online game recommendations (see also Part 6):

Super Mario Bros.: Monoliths Ultimate Mario World (and its sequel
Super Mario Bros.: Monoliths Ultimate Mario World II)
This is an excellent Flash version of the original "Super Mario World" game, with an even better sequel to play once you've completed it.

Super Mario Bros.: Super Mario World Flash
Another great Flash rendition of Super Mario World, but this time with a slightly altered format that results in a completely new version of the classic game.
(And if you like the above game, you might also want to try Super Mario Bros.: Super Mario World Revived.)

Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Blox
Although superficially very similar to the all-time classic "Tetris", this game has some unique Sonic additions that make it even more fun and challenging.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Chaos Crush
A Sonic the Hedgehog version of "Breakout", with the added benefit of Sonic, Shadow and Silver the Hedgehog power-ups.

Enjoy! You can now play over 130 Mario and Sonic online games by visiting my www.MarioSonicGames.com website. More recommendations coming soon...

Expansion of the main MarioSonicGames.com site

I have now added a second main index page to my MarioSonicGames.com site, so there are now even more Mario and Sonic online games for you to try out. I hope you like it...

A nice little Mario "time-waster" game

I think this little Mario game is great for whiling away the time during coffee breaks, although it does eventually get insanely difficult... see what you think - it runs directly within this blog post:

You can play loads more Mario (and Sonic) online games by visiting my www.MarioSonicGames.com website.

Crash Bandicoot, the 3rd platforming hero (after Mario and Sonic)

When the first "Crash Bandicoot" game was launched for the original Sony PlayStation console back in 1996, it seemed to me and many other people at the time that it was mostly an attempt to c(r)ash-in on the popularity of Mario and Sonic in order to create an iconic character for the PlayStation. (Sorry about the pun.) If that was the intention it certainly worked very well, with the game proving to be extremely popular and with "Crash" becoming the PlayStation's unofficial mascot for a while.

I have to say that I actually liked it a lot, it had some original gameplay elements as well as the standard platforming ones, and was great fun to play. I thought the sequel that was released in 1997, "Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back", was even better. The third and final game in the original PlayStation series, 1998's "Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped", was a near-perfect game and is rated as one of the best platform games of all time by many fans and critics, which certainly ended any remaining thoughts about Crash being a derivative and unoriginal character. Crash is now a multi-platform franchise in much the same way that Sonic is, with a variety of games being available for all the modern consoles.

Here is an excellent online version of "Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back" for you to try: Crash Bandicoot Flash

You can find it and hundreds more quality-tested games at my free online games site.