RUMOR MILL: SUPER SMASH BROS. BRAWL… NOW WITH R.O.B.?!

Okay, I'll freely admit that I haven't been following all the supposed leaks surrounding Super Smash Bros. Brawl as closely as I should, but one thing I saw over at Joystiq today certainly caught my attention… R.O.B..

For those of you who may be too young to remember R.O.B., back when the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) launched in the United States, it included R.O.B., your Robotic Operating Buddy, a little robot who would play along with you in one of the included games. The initial idea was to use R.O.B. to help differentiate the NES from other gaming systems in an attempt to get retailers and customers to accept it in a post-console crash world. 

In reality, R.O.B. was a dismal failure. Only two games were ever released that made use of him (including the pack-in) and in truth, even those games played better without R.O.B. than they did with him. At his best, R.O.B. was a trojan horse that got the NES onto retailers shelves in those early test markets, but one that soon found himself on the outside looking in on the NES' success. Discontinued and alone, it seemed R.O.B.'s glory days had passed – at least until today…

If the screenshots over at Joystiq are real, it would appear that R.O.B. (along with many other borderline Nintendo stars) has found his way into Nintendo's highly anticipated Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I've always held a soft spot in my heart for the little guy, and the fact that he may finally be seeing the light of day once more is more than enough to pique my interest in the title.

Check out all the latest details at the below links – Good luck little buddy, I'm pulling for you. 

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl – Official website
• Super Spoiler Bros. Brawl: Major leaked roster update, videos & more – Joystiq
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl – Wikipedia entry
• R.O.B. – Wikipedia entry