IGN: Super Smash Bros. Brawl online is 100% lag free, 200% awesome
Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 11:10pm by Jack
Sure, the infamous Friend Codes are still very much intact when it comes to online battles in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but other than that the system is apparently working as advertised — and then some.
IGN:
Well, we wasted no time putting Nintendo’s claims to the test. Shortly after we received our import copies of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, we held a few contests between our San Francisco and Los Angeles locations. Bear in mind a couple of notable differences from Nintendo’s own tests. First, our offices are a little farther apart – nearly 500 miles, to be exact. And we lowly Americans don’t have the benefit of one of the world’s fastest Internet backbones, as Japan does. Still, we’re very happy to report that our two-on-two experience perfectly mimicked Nintendo’s own – in other words, one-hundred percent lag free and two-hundred percent awesome.
The custom one liners (text only, no voice chat) also sound like a fun addition to Friend Battles. Is it here yet?
February 4th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
ugh a whole month until it’s in the states
February 4th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Wow…
I am honestly surprised! All this time I thought that the delays were due to problems Nintendo was having with bandwith through their WiFi network, and that the online experience was going to be mediocre at best…
I’m really glad I was really wrong! Can’t wait to have a test of my own.
February 4th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
The hype must stop… i`m dying here!
February 4th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
By the way, and speaking of Friend Codes…
Isn’t it time the Friend Code official lists in the Forums, for both Wii and DS, got updated??
February 4th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
You know what a good addition to friend battles would be? Voice chat. Sorry to be the negative nancy, but COME ON. I’d like to give Nintendo some custom one-liners if you catch my drift.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:57 am
no lagg? just wait until like 5million people get online at once. HA wait and see…
February 5th, 2008 at 2:51 am
I have to agree with CaliHurBoy, it’s probably low populated and once SSBB comes Stateside it’s going to be crowded with matches alone.
Anyway, looking forward to playing against you Infendo listeners; that INCLUDES YOU BLAKE and KYLE…and maybe Scott as well.
February 5th, 2008 at 3:12 am
Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock, man that clock just moves slowly towards the launch in North America. Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock.
February 5th, 2008 at 7:51 am
Good to know.
February 5th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Niice. Brawl is going to be the greatest game of all time. but we still have to wait another month :{
February 5th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Is there any truth to the rumor that the only mode for online play is 2 minute KO-Fest? I hope not, because I pretty much only exclusively play Stock battle.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am
@ Wii Repair
Shut up! At least you have a date!
To be honest, I’m not totally understanding of the entirety of the Friend Code concept at the moment.
It’s a perfectly reasonable mechanism to protect people from strangers: full connection requires that you’re friends in real life and can trade codes much like phone numbers, while playing with strangers is possible, but ONLY play and absolutely nothing else.
What I don’t understand is why oh why after trading codes to prove we’re friends are we then not able to actually communicate? Yes there are those messages, but I want voice chat dammit! I’m not going to be uber-cussin’ or what have you when it’s my brother on the other end (well, maybe I will, but it would be in an acceptable and familiar manner). I’m not saying that Smash Bros is particularly guilty of this, as by most Wii Wifi connection game standards this is actually pretty good. Why have Nintendo gone to all this trouble protecting us, but then not really provided much incentive for those of us who do seek friends. Voice chat should be easy for them considering the DS can do it and that the bluetooth support should make wireless headset connection easy peasy. In fact, why support the bluetooth standard at all if you don’t plan on connecting any bluetooth devices. I suppose it could be part of a wider online plan down the line, but really, what Nintendo game beyond Smash Bros (and I suppose Animal Crossing) is going to take more advantage of online gaming and the potential for voice chat? Come to think of it, Nintendo demoed a fully functional VoIP program for the DS 2 years ago! What happened to it?
Also, as for the lag worries, it probably wouldn’t be on Nintendo’s server end since as far as I know, Nintendo’s servers simply arrange communication and matches between Wiis and the DSs, and then all game communication is handled peer-to-peer, for cheaper and theoretically less laggy play.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:13 am
elmer, there was a great conversation about voice chat a few months back. In fact, it pretty much cemented me on this site as “that guy who’s always really negative and really hates Nintendo.”
http://www.infendo.com/wii/confirmed-smash-bros-brawl-is-online/
(I’m DrewMG, BTW)
February 5th, 2008 at 10:57 am
It’s tough to say if lag may change once more people are using it. They have a japanese copy so it could be routing them through japanese servers still. But I think how most games on wii and ds work is that they only use the servers for matchmaking after that it’s a connecting straight between the systems just like system link but tunneled through the internet, I could be totally wrong about that though.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:21 am
You know, one of the caveats Nintendo gave about lag on SSBB was that it may be more apparent trans-continental, but they really weren’t sure. This uncertainty probably indicated that it’s very little to do with their server capabilities, and more to do with peer/peer communication, which is understadably out of their control. Thems the breaks of running a free system.
@ Andrew-MG
How did you remeber this link? Anyway, a lot of the counter arguments seemed to be about the stupidity of anonymous Halo type cussing shenanigans and how it shames us all.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THIS POINT!!
But in the safe environment that Friend Codes provides, this problem either:
a) Shouldn’t apply
b) Would only happen amongst friends, who’ve already met in some capacity, are not anonymous to each other and so feel reprecussions of disgusting behaviour and would probably swear to each other in equal measure in real life.
This was the whole point of Friend Codes, which was entirely, perfectly reasonable.
As far as protecting our ‘fragile little minds’ goes, the system can be abused as is, simply by inserting horrifying swears or insults into the taunts (though I suppose some type of filtering may apply). Those who may argue swears via txt vs swears via voice aren’t the same, well, I’m sure endless …
“FUCK YOU ASSHOLE SHIT RAPER” …
taunts will get painful quickly ( a thousand pardons for the language - I needed to make a point). Not having voice chat, in this case, protects practically no one. I for one would have absolutely LOVED voice chat in SSBB.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Well, I googled the link. I remembered the thread because it was one of my first drawn-out arguments on this website. First of many.
And yeah, I have no issue with a lack of voice chat in “random” matches online, but most of the fun I get from Melee has more to do with interacting with my friends than the game itself. Taking away that interaction takes away half of the fun of the game. Luckily we have cell phones with speakerphone option. It will have to do.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Hmm… perhaps Nintendo is in cahoots with cell phone and Bluetooth headset manufacturers? Conspiracy theory!
Or, using Occam’s Razor, Nintendo is just being a wet blanket. Again.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Conspiracy theory!
Only in your world, Jack.
February 5th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
@peshue
I could probably answer that question with some testing. I post in the forums when I have an answer.
February 5th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
If all else fails I’ll just make a voice chat on my 360 and then change the tv inputs to Wii. The chat will still work because the sound will come through the headphones. I’m not going to waste minutes chatting on my phone when playing a game.
February 5th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Is that Dr. Mario I see? I may be the only person on the planet that wasn’t really head over heels psyched for Brawl coming out, but if my eyes aren’t deceiving me that may all change.
February 5th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
ehunt3, if your referring to the image of this article; that’s the Melee roster.