The holidays just got a little less cheerful. Nintendo's Super Smash Bros Brawl has been officially delayed in Japan until January 24, 2008.

No idea if that means North American and European gamers will also have to wait until then, but I'd say it's a fairly safe bet.

They also announced the inclusion of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog to the playable character lineup.

It seems odd to me that they'd announce these things at the same time. I expected Sonic to be in the game, but I thought they'd leave it as a surprise until the very end of the marketing campaign, not announce it at their Fall Conference.

On a more neutral note (neither very exciting nor very annoying), online co-op play will be available in some form.

Jump over to Kotaku for more details.