'Smash Bros.' breaking records

Nintendo fighting game sells 1.4 million units

By BEN FRITZ

Nintendo's new fighting game "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" has sold a record-crushing 1.4 million units in its first week, making it the Japanese vidgame giant's fastest-selling title ever in the U.S.

By comparison, Nintendo's successful "Super Mario Galaxy" sold just 500,000 units in its first week in November.

Produced exclusively for the Wii console and drawing critical plaudits, "Smash Bros. Brawl" pits classic Nintendo characters against one another, along with several characters from competitors Sega and Konami.

Launch appears to be one of the biggest ever for a vidgame outside of the traditionally dominant period leading up to the holidays.

It's still well behind the biggest vidgame bows of all time, however. Microsoft's "Halo 3," for instance, sold more than 2.5 million units on its first day in the U.S. in the fall.

"Brawl" sold 874,000 units on its first day.

The last "Smash Bros." game, "Super Smash Bros. Melee," sold 7 million units worldwide and was the biggest game for Nintendo's previous console, the GameCube. "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" appears to be on track to beat that figure -- particularly impressive given that the Wii is little more than a year old.

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