Rumor: Square Enix reason behind Brawl delay?

While Japan gets their slice of the cake early with their version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the rest of the world will just have to wonder what could have been the reason for the delay. If you’re in the mood for some speculation, then head over to the full article to read about what could be one of the reasons why we’re not Brawling ourselves senseless just yet.

Delays are annoying, especially when the developing team in question doesn’t quite offer an explanation for the delay itself. Such is the case with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where numerous delays had its release date pushed back for quite some time.

The latest delay, in fact, had its Japanese version pushed back a few weeks, and the North American version an entire month or so. Ouch.

And as helpful as the Smash Bros. Dojo website updates that Masahiro Sakurai, the developer in charge of Brawl, churns out, we never really got to find out just why.

Well, there’s speculation abound that Square Enix could be the reason for the previous delay. It seems to revolve around certain copyright issues about a character by the name of Geno appearing as a playable character that got Brawl‘s release date pushed back.

While we really have no way of knowing whether it is actually true, there’s quite a few events that point to it being a possibility. First off, remember that survey Sakurai conducted on gamers a few years back about what character they would most like to see tearing it up in Brawl? Every character in the top 10 of that list – except Geno – got into the roster. It’s to note that Geno himself ranked number 1 on that list.

There’s also the deal about voice actress Makiko Omoto being credited as Geno’s voice in the credited cast portion of IMDB‘s overview of Brawl. That’s another point.

Finally, the last piece of evidence:  the final character select screen. If you noticed that the random select box looks like it was positioned in a weird way, then you’re not the only one. Notice how it’s under the column where the third party characters are? Curious, indeed.

In any case, there’s definitely room to speculate, as this delay itself is the reason the world isn’t in Brawling fever just yet. But as always, this is only speculation and may remain as is, until we get official confirmation or denial.