The Smash Bros Dojo officially confirms that online multiplayer will be available for Super Smash Bros Brawl. You can play with friends you know or ‘anyone’ in a random bout. The random battles will not be ranked and you will not know the names of your opponents.
Other features revealed are:
- in-game taunts can be pre-programmed and triggered using the + Control Pad
- a Sandbag punching minigame to play while waiting for online games to start
- the ability to change the icon that represents you (even using your Mii)
The site also teases us by saying there will be a number of other services that make use of Wi-Fi with more news to come.
With just over ten weeks until the game is released and more information still coming, is Brawl shaping up to be everything you hoped for?
I agree that fighters are one of the trickier genres for online gaming, but the industry is making strides with them.
Bleach on the DS has wifi, afew of my friends and I play on it in different areas and it works fine most of the time.
I just hate how Strikers is intentionally gimped. Distance isn’t the only cause of latency. Often playing various games online with friends from all over, someone half way around the world may still have a better ping than a friend in the next town.. there are many causes of latency, from routers to ISPs to line conditions. Picking on geological location solely is just uncalled for. Removing the capability altogether is frustrating at best.
3 of us bought Strikers for the online component only to find out after that this sort of thing had been implemented.
A simple popup “This player is in a different region and you may experience additional lag” is all that’s needed, not eliminating the ability regardless.
I do have to say, I’m glad they at least added the option to play with people you don’t have friend codes for…I was afraid I’d have to join some forum where everyone posted their friend codes just so I could play with people I don’t know (this was one of the things that frustrated me most about Pokemon Pearl–I know nobody who owns a DS). I understand why they’d want to take away a ranking system, but I wish I could at least know who I was playing against, or have some form of communication. Otherwise, I might as well play against an AI. I was excited about online Brawl so I could show that girls can kick some butt too. But unless I make a girly screenname I guess no one will know, since there’s no voice chat (as of yet, still crossing my fingers).
I think it’s great that Nintendo is giving us online modes completely FREE (as opposed to the yearly fee of X-Box live), but I’d almost rather pay for a better implemented online mode. I mean, will I still buy the game? Of course; the day it comes out. I’ve been a Nintendo fan for years, and they have always been my first console of choice. But am I a little disappointed with the way the online play is turning out? Sure. I can love something and still wish there was some improvement.
I mean, most of what makes Melee so fun is when you get all your friends in a room to play you all chat and comment on occurrences in the game and such. I was hoping I could get that same experience when playing with friends in other towns or even other countries. But without voice chat, it’s a muted game…or just me talking to myself.