Well it is no surprise the new Super Smash Bros. game would be very popular with gamers all around the world. However in Japan, where the game debuts January 31st, preorders have sold like hotcakes. Many stores report problems filling all of their preorders, which leaves us wondering... will there also be availability problems with Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the March 9th release in the USA, or other regions as well?

In a country with over 5 million Wii's sold to date, there are worries that there won't be enough Super Smash Bros. love to go around. Nintendo's initial shipment was said to contain 300 - 400 thousand copies of the game. However for stores like Lepton, located in Japan, who is attempting to honor a reported 806 preordered units of the new Smash Bros. game, this is ending up to be quite a problem, as they only have 154 copies which falls short of fulfilling all 800+ preorders, not to mention opening day walk-ins.

"Lepton has tried to buy the games at full price from other sources just so they can fill the preorders, but nobody as any stock. They have then managed to secure an additional 100 copies of the game at 7350 yen each, which is at a price that is even higher than the selling price of the game which is 6800 yen (they'll be losing money with each sale).

They still do not have enough copies of the game to fill preorders."

Unfortunately this is not a isolated incident. Another importers NCSX echoed a similar statement.

"Last night, vendors in Japan warned us that there might be a shortage of [SSBB] so we're closing preorders today. If the information turns out to be erroneous, we'll accept new preorders again."

Sadly it seems the Japanese SSBB shortage will remain until after launch. However there have been a few conflicting reports regarding shipment numbers, so hopefully Nintendo will be able to rustle up some more units as soon as possible for our dedicated Wii fans in Japan.