Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Did you pop in Brawl early this morning, only to find out that it wouldn't play? You're not the only one.

A number of Wii owners on this side of the globe are reporting problems similar to ones seen in Japan -- disc errors, supposedly caused by dirty laser lenses. Since Smash Bros. is the Wii's first game that's on dual-layered DVD, it's extra sensitive to such problems.

The good news is that Nintendo will fix the problem for you. The bad news is that it might be a few more weeks before you get to play Brawl ... or any Wii game, for that matter.

Nintendo is urging people experiencing this problem to fill in this form and send in their Wiis for repair. They'll be footing the bill for the shipping and repair costs (as they should), so the only thing you'll be losing out on is quality time with your new copy of Brawl.

Are any of you affected by this problem? If so, feel free to rant about it here. Just let it all out.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

The Japanese Super Smash Bros. Brawl launch has been successful, selling approximately a freaking ton of copies, but not without a few issues. Rumored supply constraints and a required system update (which was detailed on an instruction sheet shipped with every copy) kept the launch from being called perfect, and now apparently there are reports from the Japanese gaming public that some Wiis are having trouble reading the game.

Nintendo responded to this latest concern by stating that Brawl is the first Wii game to come on a dual-layered DVD, and is more prone to read errors from dirty laser lenses than normal game discs. They have offered to clean any affected Wiis free of charge. In the meantime, quit blowing into the disc slot! Just because the Wii plays NES games doesn't mean it's an NES.