When Solid Snake was announced as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, gamers didn’t know what to think. Months later, when Sonic the Hedgehog was confirmed, it became apparent that all rules were off. Then came the flood of speculation over who was going to show up next.

When the word came from Nintendo that the eagerly-awaited Super Smash Bros. Brawl would miss its previously-announced release date of December 3, 2007 for a later release in February of 2008, a number of fans held out hope that maybe, just maybe, Nintendo would make it up to them somehow.