CONFIRMED: Smash Bros Brawl is online!
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 7:01am by David
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?
September 18th, 2007 at 7:19 am
Notice too that there’s no mention of friend codes. It says that you register your friend’s name to add him/her to your list. What does that mean?
September 18th, 2007 at 7:29 am
To answer your last question, Yes.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:40 am
I really hate this trend of not being able to communicate with the people you’re playing with. I don’t want d-pad taunts, I want voice chat.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:54 am
It shows a friend code input method on one of the screens. There will be codes by the looks of things.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:57 am
@ DrewMG
Yeah. I agree.
Its great that Nintendo is coming into the online age with the Wii. And this will be a great game. Both online and offline.
Still, not knowing the identity of your opponent? This should be an OPTION in the game that gamers can turn on or off, at THEIR discretion.
Online voice would be nice as well, again, with the option to use or not use depending on the stiuation of the individual player.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:05 am
Come on now Nintendo Fanmen/Fanwomen…this is a happy day. Lets not argue over oo’ killed oo’ just celebrate that there is no more anti-nintendo cannon fodder over no online for this game, watered down or not.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:08 am
No one’s ever satisfied anymore. How sad.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Screw voices, Halo discouraged me from ever talking on a console game to others. And I love how it is put “how the game is shaping up”, it isn’t shaping up anymore, the game is basically finished already in my opinion.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Cory, maybe we want to have some better communication tools when playing with people we already know? Yeah, I rarely use my XBL headset when I’m playing ranked matches, but if not for the headset, playing against friends wouldn’t really be that great.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m really stoked to see them making the effort here. I just think that communicating with the people you’re playing with has always been a big part of playing online, and I don’t understand how Nintendo fails to understand that.
Jack, SSBM is one of my Top 3 Gamecube games. I have very high expectations for a sequel. I don’t want to be “satisfied”, I want to be blown away.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Looks great but I hope this isn’t the September surprise….
September 18th, 2007 at 8:44 am
“The random battles will not be ranked and you will not know the names of your opponents.”
Why the hell not? DS games like Mario Kart a Clubhouse games do it.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:45 am
There’s a lot of room between “voice chat with strangers” and “not being able to chat with your friends at all”. Once again I think Nintendo is being overly cautious, but I guess any game with cartoon characters is one that parents are going to buy for their 7 year old kids.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:24 am
I really think that to most gamers, voice chat during gameplay is pretty creepy. Like, really creepy.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:37 am
I love it. I didn’t want this game to have online because I was ticked about the way metroid prime hunters leaderboard turned out. That was a debacle, in case you didn’t know. The last time I looked at the leaderboard (months ago) some one, who obviously cheated somehow, led every category by an unrealistic margin. I don’t think those numbers could have been reached if the person bought the game day one and played 24/7 even right up to today.
The detail I see that I love is random battles are unranked. This is the answer to my prayers. It eliminates the random cheater (read sub-human) that has to be on top no matter what. He can cheat against his friends and hopefully, after time, he won’t have friends anymore and won’t be able to rank anymore.
The downside is, I guess a pair of players could pad their stats by continually drubbing each other. Say maybe you can have two online identities to each wii, you would have one character for takin’ a lickin’ and one for layin’ down the smack and you could take turns rackin up stats.
I’m speculating on all of this of course. I don’t even know for sure what the ranking is. Is it local, or is it actually a worldwide leaderboard. Does it rank via win percentage or totals. Does it take the oponents win ranking into account to determine a strength of victory? (Man that would be sweet!) I can only hope that the leaderboard is as comprehensive in stat tracking as Melee was. I love checking my distance traveled on the ground, in the air, etc.
To sum it all up, JoE is STOKED!
September 18th, 2007 at 9:43 am
“Why the hell not? DS games like Mario Kart a Clubhouse games do it.”
As someone on Digg pointed out, people also disconnected like crazy when they were going to lose on Mario Kart DS so they didn’t ruin their precious records and it was incredibly annoying. Sometimes I could barely get through a single random match-up without the other idiot(s) DC’ing right before the end of the race because they were losing. Now they have at least less of an incentive to annoy everyone by DC’ing.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Guys, no offense, but will you ever be satisfied? This game is clearly a fanboys dream, i don´t see any of the other two companies delivering so much fanservice, nothing that people has ever asked for in Smash Bros is missing, NOTHING, and yet when there is still a ton of info to come out, people loves to bash the tittle and they haven´t played it yet.
This is gonna be the game of the year, i could bet on that
September 18th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Hmmm…well at least its been confirmed. I’ll be interested to see how it goes and how limited the play will be.
Oh BTW it does use friend codes, it just looks as thogh this site forgot to mention it:
http://au.wii.ign.com/articles/820/820666p1.html
September 18th, 2007 at 9:56 am
Is it wrong to be more excited for the single player campaign than for the online multiplayer?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Not to beat a dead horse, but I just named something I think is missing - communication with an online partner.
And I’d say that Halo 3 is a good example of Microsoft playing the Fan Service game very well.
I’m very excited about this game, but I doubt I’ll take it online. If I do, I’ll probably just have a phone conversation with my friends while I’m playing them.
Online play, the way they implemented it in Strikers, and the way it is coming in SSBM is more accurately described as a new difficulty level called “random.”
September 18th, 2007 at 10:25 am
@ StickNutzman: For this game, yes. For something like Halo or Metroid (had it had online), no.
@ Jack: I’m not sure it’s fair to say something concerning how unsatisfied we are about online of a game that was said to be an online launch title. Launch came and went, with no mention of Smash, not even an apology if I remember correctly, and then there was so little talk of online…
Starving us and then giving us a little food that we already knew was coming? You can surely see why people might be a little bothered.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:33 am
It’s good to hear that it’s finally confirmed. Hopefully the online multiplayer will be as playing with four friends was on melee. I think I could leave voice chat. Never had any use for it myself. In fact if they did include it I would hope they would leave an option for turning it off. I have no need to hear people gloating about victory or crying about loss. The score at the end says all that needs to be said.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:47 am
“Online play, the way they implemented it in Strikers, and the way it is coming in SSBM is more accurately described as a new difficulty level called “random.”
DrewMG, I love that quote. It is dead on. The way Nintendo has implemented online play is a joke IMO. All it is is a checkbox feature for them. It adds nothing to the gameplay the way it is implemented. Not only is it “random” difficulty, you also get the benefit of added lag to your game experience.
Voice chatting with your friends is critical. It makes the online experience so much better. I really can’t understand anyone who defends their lack of this feature. I usually chalk it up to people just not knowing what they are missing.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Notice how every time a game does something they should people are never happy?
Taunts with the D-pad is a nice touch, I’m glad you can play with strangers, though it’d be nice if there would be a tournament mode to fight great players online once in a while. Anonymity however definitely keeps the game from having a rank system that could quickly be exploited by cheaters.
Concerning lack of voice or many of the other faults, I’m sure it’s more Nintendo’s fault than the Smash Bros. team. Still, we don’t know all the features just yet. Voice would have been nice but maybe Nintendo hasn’t figured or bothered to make a wireless or wired mic that each player can use on the Wii without resorting to something like the mic on Boogey.
Personally, I can deal with the lack of these options, I’ll be playing my FRIENDS anyway and we can talk all we want later (or we can get together and beat down other people online if that’ll be allowed).
September 18th, 2007 at 11:35 am
DrewMC and cygnus:
While I partially agree with you - Nintendo’s online endeavours on Wii have been very simplistic thus far - I would actually defend Nintendo, as well. They are still very early in their online experimentation on Wii, and I would imagine that their offerings will feature more robust online modes in the coming years.
Plus, the service is free. It is difficult to complain about a free online service that allows you to hook up matches online with strangers, play friends, track stats and climb virtual leaderboards. For free.
As for the voice chat…yes, it is certainly disappointing. Games like Battalion Wars II and Smash Bros. Brawl absolutely scream for voice chat, particularly the prior. I’m also hoping Nintendo addresses this glaring omission in later games by giving those who want voice chat the option to use it.
All in all, this is a great - and surprising, in terms of timing - announcement. When they announce on a random Tuesday morning that the game has an online component, it makes you wonder what other interesting nuggets Nintendo has yet to reveal about this game.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:37 am
I’m not excited about this at all.
They announced it would be at E3 years ago.. the big question is will it suck horribly like Strikers or be a somewhat decent online system.
If it’s REAL online play.. that is, being able to play with friends no matter where they’re located (down the street or another country) and some at least basic form of communication with FRIENDS (I don’t care about not talking to randoms) then I’ll be really really frickin happy. A text input with the Wiimote would be backwards but still something.. Not being able to communicate in any fashion with people you have added to friends is a joke.
So… I may be excited when they reveal more, however if it ends up being as poor as Strikers (as the upcoming DragonBall game seems it will) it will be a feature I never use so I’m not holding my breath.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Well I just read somewhere that you can use your DS for VoIP. Just use your DS to communicate with your friends while playing this game.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
yeah, wanted to ring in to say, you can never satisfy people these days. alot of these kids need to go back to xblive and leave us gamers alone so we can enjoy our games/news in peace.
instead all they do is expect the world to revolve around them and never be happy with what they have.
people beg for online news from the beginning, when it was only said that it might be done, not will definitely be done.
they finally get the news then you hear that now they cant be happy because it took to long to hear the news. or the online isnt good enough even though they should have known it wouldnt be good enough since they already have a taste of online because of strikers and forever blue.
its irritating my good day to keep coming into these positive posts to hear the same complaints rehashed for the dozenth time at least as if they have to play the game or dont have xb360 to satisfy their online needs. no system has to be the same. if you dont like something then dont buy into it. you do not have to like it. you can just not buy it or dont play online. it does no good to ruin the day for people who just love to play games.
all people wanted to do in the beginning was fight others, now you cant be happy unless you are talking to friends online instead of over a phone like normal people.
maybe in fps games i can understand the more instant voice chat, but in a fighter?
only thing i will say that isnt a negative so much as an omission is keyboard support for txt entry. now that the OS has support, i wonder when games will start implimenting it.
i also hope this doesnt take out animated taunts. so it does the taunt animation while you talk. but that actually keeps me excited, waiting to find out about all the possibilities.
guess i am very lucky that i can be happy getting more then i was before, seeing constant improvements, not whining that its not everything i can idealistically dream up, or the same that somebody else is doing. otherwise i would have to whine left and right about xblive service for still being behind PC online gaming because its still not flexible as some great pc games.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
From now on, you may refer to me as “Negative Nancy MG - The Ruiner of Good Days”
In fact, I demand it.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
Wow, I never witnessed so much bickering, whining, complaining, and moaning in a blog entry. This is a sad sight.
There is NO NEED for Voice Chat; I don’t want my ears mutilated by idiotic kids.
I don’t CARE about not knowing random opponents.
I will deal with the fact that battling anyone outside my country will be laggy, its a FREAKING free online service: DEAL WITH IT!
If you don’t like online multiplayer for this game, DON’T USE IT.
And finally, I am GLAD that SSBB does have WiFi multiplayer. I feel that my preorder is now just.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Hey, the article closed with a question: “is Brawl shaping up to be everything you hoped for?” I answered the question. It’s everyone else who doesn’t seem to be content with letting me have my own opinion.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
YES. IT WORKS ON GAMER NAMES NOT FC’S! NINTENDO WINS! NINTENDO WIIIIIINS!!!!!
September 18th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
You know what works pretty well in the absence of in-game on-line chat? Unlimited long distance + speakerphone.
September 18th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Agreed, David. I’ve done that a few times with Mario Kart and Tetris on the DS. It’s just an option that shouldn’t required, I feel.
September 18th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
The people who complain about unsatisfied CUSTOMERS should go back to the Gamecube, that didn’t have alot of features people asked for, it didn’t end too well for Nintendo did it.
People complain/mention features so often because they’re missing, missing where on the competitors’ systems they exist and have done for years.
Providing an online mode that is so limited that it’s actually more of a frustration than not even having it is no good for anyone.
Fact is Strikers is the first flagship online title for the Wii, and it’s not a very good implantation in any way.
It’s protocols are poor, many many people experience horrible latency… This is with people in the same region. People outside the region don’t even have the option to add their friends in a different country because Nintendo put a stop to that by making the FC’s incompatible in different countries.
So, you expect customers to praise Nintendo for doing half assed work?
People note concerns because they’ve spent their money on products only to be let down and want them to be improved the next time.
Online gaming (Free…) has been the norm for a decade, it can be done cheaply and with excellent results. I don’t really care about voice chat, I can use a computer with Skype, but some basic communication for friends is important.
Also Nintendo need to work on their infrastructure, playing with friends in another country is no problem for 99% of games with free online play I fail to see how it’s so hard on Wii unless the system itself is flawed.
People are unhappy cause they keep getting let down with shoddy implementations from Nintendo.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Funny how it’s taken them this long to confirm a feature that was mentioned in the initial announcement…
And so far it all sounds good–beating on the punching bag is an extremely welcome alternative to watching a loading screen, in my mind. As for voice chat, I can honestly take it or leave it. The option is really only necessary/useful for cooperative play and team-based competitions … And when voice chat isn’t useful it’s often more annoying than anything (it completely ruined random battles in Halo 2, for instance).
September 18th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
I agree with Ripe Melons: voice chat is something I have to endure in games like Halo 2 because they are necessary for team strategy, but I’d rather not have it. In fact, in Halo 2 I usually mute the voices when I’m playing “rumble” games (everyone agains everyone, no teams).
Brawl is the kind of game that doesn’t need voice chat!
As for the question, “is Brawl shaping up to be everything you hoped for?”, my answer is no, it is MORE than I had hoped for: I was thinking Nintendo would not be able to pull off the online multiplayer!
September 18th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Online, yeah! No records, wtf? So, I can compete and compare records against friends in Brain Age, but no in Brawl? Someone get this in the game, please.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
@ Drew MG: I understand that you’re just expressing your opinion / answering the question, but I still don’t understand why you think voice-chat is a feature so “standard” that it “must” be including in a game. I agree with the above postS: While I don’t play games like Halo, or others that feature co-op play, it is in these types of games that voice-chat can be intuitive and useful. But for games like Smash, I see absolutely no purpose for Smash - as an option, I guess it would be neat, but I don’t understand why you want / feel the need to talk to your opponent. What would you say, “Take that, you f****** b******!” or “Sucks for you, p****!” ? That doesn’t heighten the experience of gameplay. Little taunts definitely have potential to piss a person off. Imagine making yours like… ‘Haha, sucks,’ after beating the crap out of somebody — or having one as ‘are you serious?’ after you dodge some major attack of theirs. This feature has a lot of potential!
Also, consider that Nintendo is a video game company: Sure, video-chat may be a feature found in video games, but it is essentially a feature that requires the internet. Obviously Microsoft has more experience in this area… you can’t expect and then harshly criticize Nintendo to have this elite (in my opinion, unnecessary) online feature if they’re in the beginning stages of internet-video game integration. It would be like asking Kellogg’s to start making automobiles, or something. It took the first Xbox at least a year to have an array of solid online games. Whether you consider Nintendo “late” or not is your business, but this game is really chock-full with online features already (more than I was expecting!) and the director himself said there is more to come.
You just take such a negative tone to your responses: It’s possible to express your opinion without doing so in a fashion that instigates arguments.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
@ Drew “Hey, the article closed with a question: I answered the question. It’s everyone else who doesn’t seem to be content with letting me have my own opinion.”
It seems these fan boys love to accuse people of ” Complaining” when they are merely stating an opinion, and mentioning how a great game could, possibly, be even better.
You see, like you, I think this game will be absolutely GREAT.
But, also like you, I feel that the OPTION of allowing voice chat should be implemented. After all, its been going on since last gen with other online console games, why not have the OPTION to do so here? If one gamer wants the option they use it, if not ,they block out peoples voice. Just like on X-box live. Every body wins.
No one is complaining, really . All you Fan-boys need to stop thinking that if someone likes a game, BUT sees room for improvement, that they are complaining. This is clearly not the case. Constructive criticism on a great game is NOT complaining.
Nintendo is the best Videogame company in the world. So, I see no reason for them to not implement ideas in games that have already been staple since last gen online gaming.
It is that simple.
Do I not like the game? NO, I lover the series.
Am I “complaining” about the game? NO. I am mentioning an aspect that I think would make the great game possibly even BETTER. Its called Constructive Cryticism, and personal opinion.
And Drew, keep your constructive criticism and opinions coming, not EVERYONE here is a mindless fanboy…
September 18th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
There is a big difference between voice chatting with strangers and voice chatting with your friends. It is very inconvenient to not have an in-game way to talk with your friends while playing online with them. What about between game sessions when you want to ask them simple questions: “Do you want to go again?”, “What map do you want to play?”
Sure, you can use a phone. Or you can use your xbox 360 to voice chat while you are playing your wii (provided that all your friends have that console). The point is that it really should be integrated in the game.
Is it a game-breaker to not have the feature? IMO, it kinda makes online multiplayer with my friends much less convenient. And possibly may make us decide to play something else while not in the same room.
I will repeat, I have no desire to voice chat with total strangers. But I had hoped that Nintendo would’ve had this feature for friends since their competitors have had it for a while now.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Wii Wii and cygnus have pretty much said all I could say, and probably said it better. Thanks for backing me up guys. Glad that someone else sees where I am coming from.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I still don’t think voice-chat is a feature that “should be” integrated into the game. Obviously there will be ways to communicate with your friend(s) about playing again and choosing maps, items, etc. But what none of you are realizing is that there is more to adding such features than a snap of the fingers. YES, this game has been in development for a long time, but I don’t think even the director of the game (who is the best thing to happen to Smash Bros., in my opinion) was even CONSIDERING voice-chat since the beginning of this game. It just isn’t necessary! Are you suggesting that EVERY online (multiplayer) game should have voice-chat? Wouldn’t that destroy feature’s novelty? Again - it’s something that should be used in co-op games!
And I don’t think your comments are “constructive criticism”: This game shouldn’t be graded / thought of any lower because it lacks voice-chat: THAT’S what’s bugging me. If the DIRECTOR of the third Super Smash Bros. game doesn’t believe voice-chat is an essential feature and therefore doesn’t think it should be included in the game, that’s a decision they made — it doesn’t mean Nintendo isn’t capable of or is completely disregarding voice-chat… so stop acting like that. For all you know, voice-chat COULD be an option to some extent (or to a full extent!); it could also have caused the game to greatly slowdown (Brawl has the most detail / most stuff happening on-screen, and unlike in Halo 2 and 3, keeping such a chaotic scene @ 60fps with many players from DIFFERENT interent connections + tons of items + QUICK, fluid motion + tons of bright colors and on and on and on… + voice chat? This isn’t Nintendo’s or the director’s fault… I don’t think ANY internet connection or video game could support all those features at once… if of course, you want such a smooth framerate with all the details!
Start thinking about everything that comes along with online multiplayer for a game like Smash. This isn’t Halo where you just walk around with little movement on the screen just shooting people.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
And it definitely is NOT constructive criticism: If just saying what else YOU want is constructive criticism, then no game could ever completely satisfy someone. Even if voice-chat is included and everything miraculously runs @ a solid 60fps (which is technically impossible in a game like Smash), people like you will still bitch about this or that OBSCURE character that wasn’t included in the roster.
There is a HUGE different between giving constructive criticism and just listing the features you want in a game.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
There is also a huge difference between “complaining” and listing the features I want in the game.
For the record, I’m not even clamoring for in-game voice chat. Simply between-game voice chat would be nice, and perhaps they will implement that. But right now, they haven’t stated as such.
And if you think that voice-chat for a game like Smash Bros. is useless, try getting some friends together in the same room, and playing Smash Bros. without talking to each other. In game discussion is half of the fun of the original game. Even if it is 100% friendly and not malicious in nature, it’s half the fun of the game.
And for the record, I am absolutely insisting that every multiplayer game online should have at least optional voice chat. The whole point of online play is to simulate the experience of playing with people locally when that is not an option. If you can chat in the same room while playing a game, you should be able to chat while playing on wi-fi.
Either that, or via keyboard. And keyboard is not an option with the Wii. Even if the Wii supported input via a wireless keyboard, I wouldn’t want it. It’s unnecessary clutter.
And maybe the tone of my first post was a tad negative, but it’s not like I’m calling the game gay, or saying it’s retarded for not having voice chat. If you think that my posts are negative, then this must be the only video game website you have ever read.
September 18th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
There is a big difference between an foolish FAN BOY and someone who enjoys Nintendo, but wants to see better features, someone who has opinions, not blind faith fanboyism.
We are entitled to our OPINIONS and our Constructive criticism. Yes, it is constructive criticism, fanboy. You cant even admit that, because if you DID, then you would have to address it ,instead of just calling it “complaining”.
Drew -” Wii Wii and cygnus have pretty much said all I could say, and probably said it better. Thanks for backing me up guys. Glad that someone else sees where I am coming from. ”
Many see where you are coming from, and our opinions, and criticism, are NOT words of complaints. No matter what the fanboys say, it is just a way for them to ignore our constructive criticism instead of even contemplating the actual ideas.
After all, all we are talking about here is a SIMPLE OPTION that a gamer could CHOOSE if they wanted to use. You know, OPTIONS? No one would force anyone to use it, if they so choose not to. So for those opposed to the idea, you would just not USE it. Simple enough for even the dumbest of fanboys.
Anyways, this is like beating a dead Fanboy with a stick, I mean horse.
Later.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
I wouldn’t mind a lobby system with chat for friends…even if it was text chat.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
It’s more than I expected, they could have gone without online, that would have sucked but I would still buy the game.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Okay. Just found out it IS still using friend codes. This is it. We still have a good few months till the game comes out. Sakurai doesn’t seem to like the online features the game has so far. Let’s start a petition. We want:
-The elimination of friend codes or at least having the wii friends you’ve already registered auto-registered
-Some form of communication beyond small text bubbles (voice chat being the most favorable)
-A Ranking mode
And?
I don’t know how to organize or start a petition, but if someone does, make it, and post a link here. This is Nintendo’s hardcore crowd-pleaser. If it doesn’t make the hardcores happy, they got trouble.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Add playing with friends in other countries… The fact that Nintendo purposefully restricted that in Strikers is shocking.. Sure make randoms region specific for lag reasons, but if I CHOOSE to play with my friends in Japan I should be able to…
Besides if the games use even half-decent network code the latency shouldn’t be a big deal… I play a fair amount of online games (free services on the PC/Mac) and with friends all over the world and the lag is almost always pretty minimal regardless of physical location..
Online play when it’s just with people down the street seems kinda pointless :-/
September 19th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Actually, latency has always been a pretty severe issue in fighting games, at least on a more competetive level. This is, granted, made much worse by the fact that many of them require reactions that are accurate to individual frames of animation, something which Smash Bros has to worry about much less, but it’s still pretty debilitating even with a game like Brawl. For the typical PC online games (discounting MMOGs, but they typically have even less problems), latency is much less of a consideration, either because, in the case of FPS, we have much better prediction algorithms, or because, in the case of the RTS, the slight differences are pretty irrelevant. Fighters have had relatively little development into latency hiding, since there have been far far fewer online enabled ones than online enabled FPSers, and they’re not comparable to the techniques you can use in a FPS so they need to be built from the ground up. Ontop of it, they don’t have the RTS benefit of not needing to worry about synch differences that are less than a few seconds apart. Latency hiding alone probably isn’t sufficient for the genre, and you’d need to move to changing gameplay to be a bit more lag tolerant. Doing so, of course, will make subtle changes to the percieved responsiveness of the game, possibly even in local multi and single, which isn’t exactly desirable.
So, at least for now, it’s going to be exceptionally difficult to get a perfect online experience with a Fighter, and if you read the actual Dojo post you’ll see that that’s really all he was trying to warn against. My only issue with what he said is that while latency is naturally higher the further away the connection is, that’s not the only reason you can have latency problems. Just because someone is nearer to you doesn’t mean you’ll actually have better performance. And *any* time you have a latency issue gameplay is going to suffer to varying levels. Sakurai probably didn’t want to get overly technical with the readership though, so he simplified it as best he could. I’m sure Nintendo is actually rather worried about this, and the Brawl dev team even more so. Hence the warning against potential issues well in advance. I’m willing to bet that it’s more than acceptable in most cases, but it can’t provide the same level of play as local multi or single would.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
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.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
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.