In the past, whenever someone would say that Brawl was going to be a Halo killer I would laugh and ignore the claims. Halo is simply too much of a behemoth for ANYONE to dare and challenge. The amount of passion poured onto Halo is incredible. The release of Halo 3 was insane. Galaxy was celebrated, sure, Bioshock was welcomed with open arms and Call of Duty 4 changed the formula, but the ONLY game to have driven gamers to the point of insanity in 2007 has been Halo 3.
But after looking at the angst and anger the Brawl delay has generated I am ready to believe that Brawl will be the ONLY multiplayer game to actually rival Halo in terms of fan passion and appreciation.
Metroid and Galaxy were delayed multiple times, and fans didn't seem to mind that much. Twilight Princess was delayed MULTIPLE times, including a year long delay, and while fans were upset they weren't ready to go out and kill anyone associated with Nintendo.
Yet, Brawl was delayed for one month and fans are ready to make Sakurai their own worst enemy. People are driving themselves mad over pieces of data on a disc. The only other game who has inspired this much emotion in gamers has been Halo.
An SSB community has already been formed, but I suspect that community will grow big to the point of becoming a legion by the time the year ends.
If Brawl delivers in its online portions it could be the year's biggest hit. No other game will come close to how inspired the release will be. Hell, no Wii game, no matter how grand it is, will come close to the impact Brawl will cause on gamers.
So to sum it all up, I am a true believer that Brawl could be serious competition for Halo.