Kotaku
Super Smash Bros. Brawl online is not working. Sure, you might find a good match or two during the day, or late at night, but at 9PM Eastern on a school night? Forget about it. Nintendo's forums, our tips box, and my television set are all chock full of Error Code: 85010, which kicks you back to the main menu of the game, disconnecting you from Nintendo WiFi service. It's either that, or "Your connection to other players was lost. Returning to menu". When I reviewed the game, most of my online play was in the wee hours of the morning, and I still had some issues. We contacted Nintendo for comment on the issue, and were told the issue was being looked into, but so far all they can tell is that it seems as if every Smash Bros. owner is getting online at once and the issue would slowly get better. What, as people gave up trying? Their suggestion? If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. How wise.
Trying again is not working either, and I would imagine that once enough people give up and the service starts functioning as it should, the flood of players hopping online once the gaming news outlets reported it would just screw things up all over again. Perhaps we all should get together and work out shift assignments?
They had to have seen this coming. The game had similar issues when it was released in Japan, as Ashcraft reported back in January. If a smaller group of people situated on a much smaller piece of real estate had that much of a problem, how could the U.S. even have a remote chance at flawless online play?
It's frustrating as hell on this end, so I know you guys must be pissed off as well. My last successful online Brawl was yesterday morning around 9AM, so I am currently jonesing for a fix with no relief in sight. In the meantime I've been going through event mode in between trying over and over again to unlock Wolf, who keeps kicking my sorry Hedgehog ass.
We'll keep you posted as the issue evolves. For now, you might want to adjust your sleep schedule or call in sick to work for a chance to play online. Just not everybody at once please.
Comments
WTB Online play since I'm all alone. Playing CPU's as my newly obtained Wolf is LAME-O.
I can only get Friends matches to work, and that's when I'm lucky =/
Well, playing with friends (sort of) works. I was able to get in plenty of friend matches last night, but it seemed every game at least 1 of the 4 of us couldn't get into the game.
I actually had no trouble playing online, but it was moving at like... < 10 fps...
Port forwarding and DMZ setting helps last I heard
@noisome07: You just did that to taunt me, didn't you?
That really is a shame. My buddies were having the same issue. Maybe Nintendo should call up Microsoft for some pointers :).
Nintendo isn't as online-play savvy as Microsoft, and to a much lesser extent, Sony. I'm impressed the Wii is even online in any form. Give them time, they will work out the kinks. This is the same company that just two systems ago was still using cartridges. Cut them some slack, they'll get it right eventually. This is what happens when your competitors drag you into the new online era of gaming kicking and screaming.
I had problems on Sunday and Monday, but I've been playing online all day today with no issues.
Well.. or there is some much people playing online that the servers are overloaded.. or there's simply no one playing online, so you can't find anyone.. if that's the problem, there's nothing that Nintendo can do :P
Weird how I always find someone to play Jump Ultimate Stars on my DS.. most times some japanese person, and I have almost no lag..
I want to laugh at all the Nintendo loyalist that have, in the past, claimed that Nintendo could do no wrong. Seeing them get tripped up in issues such as these should be entertaining.
But really, it's not. My fellow gamers are getting ripped off from a promised feature. And that sucks, no matter how much perceived bad karma certain individuals built up. After all, it's not just the annoying loyalists suffering, it's everyone who bought this game expecting to play people online.
Guys, you have this PC, 360, and PS3 gamer's sympathy. Nothing is more annoying than getting booted from a game repeatedly.
I gave up and gave Brawl's online the bird.
What a complete disappointment.
Between slow load times and complete *^$@& online play, this is the only time you will see me say this is now, "The Wii is underdeveloped under the hood, and for once, it $$%^@&(! shows."
Yeah getting wolf is a bitch but its worth it, and i have not even tryed getting online because i cant, i hate were i live!!!
Hey, maybe this'll be a reality check to Nintendo that online play isn't just "a fad".
*sigh*
I have yet to have one successful match online. It never works for me. I'm just playing the rest of the game and waiting for Nintendo to fix the problem then I will jump online.
@Imashinu: Sure, and then Nintendo could give MS some pointers on how to make a console that doesn't break after 2 weeks.. lol..
I thought nobody cared about online play. Hmm, who would have known? People like to play other people at games that pit two or more people in a competition.
@PapaBear434: Thanks PapaBear. I'm just glad I have my Marth-playing, predictable housemate to beat up over and over.
@Kegwen: Which ports? I would like to try that but I cant find the info on which ports the game needs.
@MarioMan2.0:
Except neither problem has any relation to the Wii hardware! Nice try though.
I keep on getting booted from the network. I just gave up with the online play for it.
Technically the same thing happened in the release of World of Warcraft, if anyone can remember that.
Sometimes, people are just not prepared. Such as Nintendo, or Blizzard. Give them time. They'll fix it.
Subspace Emissary can take a good 6 - 7 hours to complete. Play that?
Haven't really tried online much yet, looking forward to this weekend. I hate getting booted off something, so if I keep getting the boot I may end up just giving up on online play and wait a month and see if they fix it somehow.
It's bloody disgusting, the brawl codes and friend codes should have tipped me off that Nintendo had no clue about online play but hope as they say blooms eternal.
Who didn't see this coming? Nintendo is still in denial that online connectivity is where games are going, not an extra feature on the side. This is their blockbuster release. I mean, even Halo 3 had it's issues, but you could still get in. Since the Wii can barely handle Smash bros, i assume Nintendo hosts dedicated servers. If so, they need more, better servers. Nintendo makes plenty off those "casual gamers" they're raving about, but they sit on their gold like a greedy dragon anyways. I honestly don't think some of these things would be so bad, except Nintendo forces their rules on those who make games for the consoles. If I am willing and my company can afford and host dedicated servers, even program voice chat, etc, why can't I remove Friend Codes and such from my game? If Nintendo wants to ruin theirs, even their blockbuster hits like Smash Bros, fine, but don't force it on others. It's gotten out of hand. Nintendo had no excuse to not be prepared, and here we are, pretending to be Illidan, and telling them that they were not prepared.
It isn't like this is the very first time a company opened some game or service online and had it crash due to unexpected demand. Didn't X-Box Live go down last December, with Microsoft having operated that system for how long? I don't mean to be a Nintendo apologist--its just that this isn't really a big surprise. Ask me again in a week: if they haven't solved or at least made some headway, then I'll be annoyed.
Should've saw this coming. You can't expect Nintendo to add an online element to a big game and have it work, can you? It's the Nintendo strategy: one step forward, two steps back.
I dont even try no more until the problem is solved, takes me like an hour just to get a match, then when I finally get one, the lag is just horrible. I guess Ill be playing team fortress until the issue is solved
Even the "Friend" matches are screwed up, at least for me. I can't connect to one of my friends, though someone else can connect to him. But I can connect to the other guy, though the first friend can't connect to him. Nintendo never mentioned anything about opening ports or anything, so how the hell does that work?
I've had one workable online match with random opponents (out of at least a dozen tries), and I've yet to try out the "With Friends" feature since my main rival is busy trying to move up on the recently-created MLG ladder. I'ma be workin' on that tonight myself given that there's apparently a lot of poor players on the ladder to beat up on (I've witnessed their shoddier-than-mine play myself).
That's where this really sucks. For people who thought that Nintendo had at least given them some way to have ladders and rankings outside of constant local tournaments and painstakingly-gathered results...all us competitive folks, from competitive newbies (like myself) to weathered Melee pros, we're going to be stuck with the same old method of having proper 1v1/doubles matches if this doesn't get any better (not that face-to-face competition was gonna' stop happening, of course). Granted, Brawl may never gain the tournament acceptance that Melee had, but I don't care, it's still too early to tell, and I love the game, and so do all sorts of people, competitive or not, and we want the damn online to work. It just won't.
Can't say I'm surprised, but I can say I'm saddened.
@Shanesan: This isn't World of freakin' Warcraft. You get a free pass if you're an MMO and you're doing everything server-side. You do _not_ get a free pass for peer-to-peer matchmaking.
As far as I'm concerned, this just exposes the bias in the game review world. Broken multiplayer on the first day on any other title would have resulted in a serious ding on the score. But, no, for SSBB, we overlook that because we want to believe it'll get better. As far as I'm concerned, the game is an 8.5 or a 9, not a 9.5 or 10 - and I own the game and love it.
see what happens when u use a free online service to play games?
XBL FtW
It'll get fixed. I mean, Microsoft's service has never gone down, right?
Meanwhile setting the Wii as a DMZ server has greatly reduced the lag. Other suggestion: don't put it too far away from the router, or even better, connect it via LAN. Working for me.
You mean he was hard to unlock?! DAMMIT. I hate my brother for gamefaqsing it all while I was at work. The reward just isn't the same without the work...
Anyways, I got wifi to work this morning at like 2-3 AM. And for anyone who was watching, NO, I did not repeatedly leap to my doom on purpose. The full-second lag between controller input and registration resulted in a lot of bone-headed self-destructs.
Well... Doesn't bother me YET as I don't have time this week to try the online... Plus I suck so much at Brawl that its almost embarassing (I mean... its been two years since I've played Melee... But I can't suck THIS much!).
But in a week or two... I want every last glitch ironed out. You hear me Nintendo? I'm only a couple hours south of Redmond so I will not hesitate to drive up north and hurl my son's dirty diapers at your front door!
Whats sad is that if its the game, there is no way for them to actually patch it.
I was able to play a few game at around 3 today on the east coast. At night I have the same problem. It's like when wow first launched I'm sure it will work out.
I spent 3 hours last night online playing with 5 or six different FCs with each having 0-3 partners on their Wii with almost zero lag whatsoever, and no dropped connections. Brawl's online has been absolutely amazing for me in this respect.
The first two days I was unable to get into random matches, but I only tried once a day specifically to see what a disaster it would be (hey, no popular game's online works 100% the very first day, especially not a popular Wii title). Today though, about 4pm, I jumped into random matches and played for a good 1.5 hours jumping in and out of lobbies with minimal lag and no drops.
Also, to those Xboxers out there that insist that Live has zero lag whatsoever, unless you're playing DOA4/Tekken (the games where lag is obviously a big issue) then you have no idea. Shooters are so lag forgiving its ridiculous. 1000 packets are dropped completely and all you notice is "Hey, that guy took more bullets than usual."
@Lanhoj:
During Christmas time the servers were like this too.
Anyways, the lag is getting better and the disconnecting is happening less frequently. Just wait 'till the ADD kicks in the 13< year olds and Brawl will be great.
And ew, you play as Sonic, Mike. For shame.
This is turning into an Xbox debacle. First, some Wiis can't handle the game(cough mineANDmygirlfriend's, wtf?cough) and now this. C'mon, Nintendo, you're better than Microsoft.
@PapaBear434: I don't remember ever hearing anyone say that Nintendo would get this online thing right. In fact, as far as I can tell people have always doubted that the SSBB online component would be equal to that of local multiplayer.
Besides if every online game was solely judged on its first few days live, I don't think we'd be playing any online games.
As stated above, WoW was horrendous for the first month or so it was live, and it's now sold 10 million copies.
I've been able to get a few matches in during the night tonight. Some went relatively lag-free, while others actually froze on me for 10-15 seconds before moving again while in combat.
This is the 2nd day the game has been out, so I assume to have the same issues Halo 3 did during its release, and the craziness that was Xmas on Xbox Live. So, hopefully Nintendo will actually spend some of its massive profits on some more/better servers for its Wifi platform. This won't be accepted once MarioKart Wii comes out.
well i must be one of the only people in the u.s. apparently that has played excellent online matches...however it was definitely not under the with anyone setting...but most people that i play with after exchanging friend codes i have no problem playing with.
@Mike Fahey: I love your idea of shift assignments. Can you imagine PR people trying to spin that?
OK my friends matches are working fine but With random people I have not once been able to play that mode.
@hoopest2,
Microsoft is probally better with online then Nintendo But they release crap all the time. Micorsoft Only gold is Halo and gears.
Hey, playing laggy online brawl is better than not having brawl to play.
Random matches see a ton of lag, a freeze, and then a disconnect. I totally predicted and expected it to happen - perhaps not to this extent, but thats more because of how enormously enticing an online fight with Nintendo characters can be.
Friend brawls are largely ok. Still see the odd bit of lag here and there.
Personally, if you are attempting to unlock Wolf, I'd recommend Falco (assuming you have him), as he is just fast enough to riddle him with damage and strike a good killing blow. After that, Wolf becomes this gen's new Falco - fast, highly damaging, and a good reach to boot.
lol sonic nub XD.
ANYWAYz, there's still SSE, events, and the entire vault to unlock. And some of those require hundreds of hours of play, so you better get started!
this game has online?
I managed to resist trying out the online launch day/night simply bcause I figured the servers would be hammered. I guess I can make it a bit longer, but come on Nintendo, this isn't raising hopes in future online endevores
Mine is doing exactly as described in the post. I'm so pissed off, but I love the game enough to not hate it for it.
I just really want to play online..
nintendo got into the online game way to late and they are having the same problems sony and microsoft did. It's lack of forethought on their part.
I couldn't connect online, but I could easily watch matches of people playing online. Which is, well. In a way, cool to see that some people are having fun, but on the other hand... I WANNA BE THE ONE PLAYING! Hope it gets settled /fast/.
But, still, amazed they even put it in, cause Nintendo is scared of Wifi. They should be catching up soon, though, once they realize how many play it.
Nintendo can't do online play, now i've seen everything!
What exactly does working match mean? Because I can get a game going through the use of wifiwars.com but the lag is incredible (a delay about 2 seconds).
Btw you can get wolf by playing Subspace emmisary. Beat the last boss then go back to ruins and youll find a door that wasn't there before and you'll fight him.
Who wants to take bets on this same thing happens with Mario Kart?
It's not like you'd get a very good match on wifi anyway, locked at 2 min timed matches as it is.