A tipster going by the name of UncleBob has reported his local Walmart has copies of Super Smash Bros. Brawl already in the warehouse to NWR. It's unfortunate that this early shipment will probably not not translate into a early release but it begs the question... have other stores in the USA also gotten the new Super Smash Bros. Brawl title and sold it to other lucky Wii owners?

"Walmart computers will not allow the sale of the game before the official release date, so anyone hoping to score an early copy (from Walmart, at least) will be out of luck. However, NWR has been seeing unconfirmed reports of North American retail copies of the game floating around the Internet, which could mean other stores that are also receiving the game may be inadvertently breaking street dates.

Furthermore, this news begs the question: Why is Nintendo shipping the game out to retailers this far in advance of the release date? Traditionally, the dates Nintendo lists on its release calendar are when it ships a game off to retailers, with games being available in stores a day or two after that."

I think a consideration for shipping early is that it is a first party title which has been delayed one too many times. Just a hunch ;)