Super Smash Bros. Brawl… Doesn’t Work

Thousands of people today, went out and bought Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Several lined up for midnight releases. And for many of them, Super Smash Bros. Brawl just doesn’t work on their Wii.

For some, the game won’t even load, for others the graphics are choppy and slow. This is, according to Nintendo, do to a dirty reading lens. Super Small Bros. Brawl is the first Wii game to use the second layer on the Wii Disc. All other games have made do with only one layer. So apparently, the disc reader is having trouble properly reading the second layer do to collected smoke and dust on the lens.

Nintendo warns that no one should try to clean the lens on their own because it is more likely that they will damage it. Nintendo is offering to clean anyones lens for free. You can get more information about that here. At the moment, they don’t say how long a repair is expected to take, but they do say that all of your data should be perfectly safe. As more and more games start utilizing the extra space available in the second layer, this problem will probably increase.

Some conspiracies have popped up claiming that dirt is not the problem, but some other fundamental issue that Nintendo doesn’t want to admit to. I for one do not believe any such conspiracy, and applaud the quick and free response Nintendo has issued. One question to ask: If a single year of use has made the lenses dirty, will the rest of us probably be experiencing problems like this in the next few years. Or will people who get a lens cleaning have to do it again when their lens becomes dirty again? Will there be a way to clean the lens ourselves in the future? Is there a permanent fix for this? Most Nintendo consoles to date have been very rugged, much more so then the competitors. A lot of old NES’s and SNES’s are still out there working (although often the cartridges would corrode). Problems like this could end Nintendo’s claim for most rugged console.

For those of us who are lucky enough to have the game working properly, so far it does seem to be all that it was cracked up to be. Another AAA title by Nintendo. Good luck to everyone experiencing problems and may your Super Smash Bros. Brawling come soon.