After months of begging, pleading, and, well, I’ll be honest with you, bitching and moaning, it has recently been announced that ‘Lil Mac, the historic midget with the uppercut of gold from Punch-Out!!, will be appearing in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. But much to my chagrin, he will NOT be the featured character I was holding my breath until I turned blue for. Rather, he will be an assistant trophy character that will only come out to do your bidding when you call upon him. This is actually similar to the extra characters in the original Marvel vs. Capcom (W00t, Arthur from Ghost ‘n Goblins!). But, also like said characters in MvC, this also means that their awesome, albeit brief, appearance only makes you wish they were in the game a little longer as a main character. Personally, I think ‘Lil Mac’s appearance in this game is lame, lame, lame.

But wait one cotton-pickin’ minute, though, before you start telling me, “You should be grateful, you prick,” as I am, I really am. But I mean, come on. I know ‘Lil Mac wouldn’t be the easiest character to translate into the Smash Bros. universe, but if both the Ice Climbers and Captain Falcon have made appearances, are you going to tell me Nintendo couldn’t manage to somehow make ‘Lil Mac a playable possibility?

And while I know that part of Nintendo’s excuse for not making him a lead character is because they probably couldn’t figure out what kind of stage to use for him, if that annoying, “the f$#@ing floor and ceiling keep moving!” Ice Climbers level could make the cut in the last game, I’m pretty sure the creative minds at Nintendo could have somehow fit ‘Lil Mac’s ring into the, er, ring.

But, as I said before, at least he’s in the game.

Super Smash Bros Brawl, which was supposed to come out on December 3rd has been pushed back to February 10th, 2008. Because, you know, Nintendo can’t stick to a release date.

Ever.