*sigh* The unremitting lag really didn't augment my desire to play.

Well, what to say...he's right

Just update the damn feature already will ya. I´m sick of searching for people with number codes instead of nicknames or emails... I feel like i´m with ICQ again.

You know, the few times I played it online I had no problem. I didn't know anyone else I wanted to specifically play with, so no friend code hassle. Just went straight to "Play with anyone" and waited a moment, then had a full match, and played with little to no lag.

It all worked well for me. But I guess I'm the exception to the rule.

Why old, unofficial boxart? :(

There are some good points raised, but the problems are mainly with online inside games, not online outside of games for other channel activities. In addition, a good part of the lag in online games for Brawl is the fault of people having crappy connections.

Nintendo does need to step it up a bit when it comes to online.

I still have high hopes that Nintendo knows what they're doing, and that once they have online capabilities for a little while, they will figure out what to do. I still hold my position that the Wii is unique in that it's really about gathering together with friends, not playing in cyberspace with strangers. Games like Brawl should certainly have online functionality, but Nintendo is pretty new to this game. Once they get the ball rolling, I'm sure they'll be fine.

Plus, playing Brawl with three of your friends in the same room is still one of the best gaming experiences out there. I'm of the opinion that online is truly secondary in this case.

Yes, there were quite a few matches which just about died from lag, but other than that online play was alright. Granted, it's no X-Box Live but I guess going in with no expectations but standard, friend code plagued, no voice chat / name tag online play helped soften the blow. I knew what I was coming into.

I'd like to see improvement too, but I think the bigger problem right now is the Wii's data storage. Just a thought.

Its not just the lag-- yesterday 4 of us played SSBB and my friends were using their CELL PHONES to talk during the match. Nintendo totally missed the boat with this system. It should have been a communication platform first and a family console second.

Even though its suppsoed to be easy and good for everybody, i have found this alot harder then turning on my xbox and going to join -enter matchtype i like here-, istead i have to go onto my computer get yelled at by my dad (im not allowed to go on the computer and console at same time) find a opponent tell them rules we want then not be able to tell them how much they suck unless i go back to computer get yelled at, and this is when its working at its best, i dont even wanna talk about how lag has killed so many good match's

I'd also like to add that even if online play had voice chat and nametags, it still would be nothing compared to the joy of having four people in the room screaming as the Smash Ball flutters around.

Smash doesn't even let you on half the time with the errors. Seeing as how Nintendo responded to that with a "Keep trying!", don't expect the broken online to get any better.

It's actually getting worse...Pay to Play. Hur...ray....

In my opinion, it was near on unplayable at launch. I don't know if its gotten much better, I gave up on the games online. Even if it was near lag free, it still dosnt touch playing local MP. Its one of only a small number of games that should only be played local MP. Online is just a nice gimmick imo.

100% Agree. Its cumbersome enough just to get online with friends, but then most of the time it doesnt even work. I still cant get a random game going on SSBB.

Sigh, Nintendo did screw up with it's online side of things in many small ways.
Like everyone here, I'm also hoping they get their act together with their next console.

tell me something i dont know

It can't ever be fixed because there is no network, and they don't care either way. I am calling it now; SSBB will be just as horrible at the time of the Wii's death as it is now. The sooner you start thinking of Nintendo like George W. Bush the better, as rather than stressing you'll just give up.

Yea the online play sucks on the Wii, its not going to change either. Nintendo has little reason to when everyone is buying the hell out of the system.

Nintendo's online functionality has been fundamentally broken since it was introduced through the Nintendo DS. It's both technically (lag) and functionally (friend's codes) broken and it will not be fixed with a patch. Let's face it... during the DS and Wii generation, we will not see a Nintendo game that has "good" online.

The only saving grace will be when new generations of hardware come out, post DS and post Wii. I still suspect Nintendo will drop this ball, as Microsoft and Sony have already set a standard that will be hard to beat.

The point? We all already know this. So why the hell doesn't Nintendo know this?

@Lstormy10: "In addition, a good part of the lag in online games for Brawl is the fault of people having crappy connections."

Most of those I've played with have good connections. Another issue is that the CD often needs to be read off of mid-game, which only aggravates the problem.

a smashing failure indeed. For people that really enjoy online play the Wii service is unacceptable. Most people who think it is fine or unnecessary to support online usually just don't use it as much as some of us or think of it as being unsocial or stupid to play with people who aren't sitting next to you. I find online play through services like XBL to be very social and enjoyable. I like voice chat and I love the interface. Nintendo's wi-fi connect is just such a travesty of online "play." Then again, Nintendo doesn't support gamers like me anymore. what can we expect them to do?

@Scazza: I can't believe you just called Online play a gimmick.
That's like.....wow.

Damn Scazza, what the hell, you made me lose my words. :|

@scotty:
second... Oh dear god...

What i hate, is playing online, and you see him on, and he's playing in the public brawl, AND THERE IS NO WAY TO LET HIM KNOW THAT YOU ARE ON AND WANT TO PLAY WITH HIM.

Thas pretty ghey >_>...

I've honestly given up on Nintendo for online play. I'd rather just play against computers than play online in a lag-infested pile of crap.

I camped out for the freaking Wii on launch and all it has done is disappoint me with some of the biggest titles.

This was the one that I thought couldn't be screwed up, but Nintendo and their "family friendly" way of dealing with things have decimated what could have been a fun online experience.

@Scazza: I completly agree, in this day and age its not important to play other people around the world, its not the selling points of games or anything. Online is a distant second compared to things like menu's, i mean if a game has a bad menu, why would we buy it, i dont want to play people around the world because my friends suck, i want to see a pretty way to choose characters. I think nintendo should get rid of there online service because its so bad its not even acceptable in last gen and add in more defined menu's, and diffrent color pointers, because those arent gimmicks, those are the reasons we buy these games.

@DaveKap: For the DS, the online play isn't that bad. The lag for most DS online games is not important (like Advance wars) and even metroid worked pretty good. But your right, the Wiis implementation makes no improvements over the DS system and its effectively broke.

@scotty: I dont mean gimmick in that all online play is. I mean that in the case of SSBB, its a gimmick to me, cuz SSBB should be played local only really. Its too laggy and even with minimal lag it just isnt quick enough or social enough then having someone beside u. Gimmick in that way...

For the first two days the game was out I could play online just fine. I hadn't added any friend codes yet but playing with random people was fast and fine.

Now, however, I can not find a single game at all and most of my friends who I've exchanged codes with are not recognized at all. As if they are still being registered.

I didn't really expect anything from the Wii's online performance and what do you know thats pretty much exactly what I got.

@D Mitsuki: The sarcasm is so strong you could cut it with a butter knife.

I just hope Nintendo is seeing where Brawl needs improvements and applies it to Mario Kart.

@Scazza: The Wii is the king of gimmicks though.

Many people here have said it and I'm of the same opinion: Nintendo will not fix their online functionality this console generation; they will probably fix it up with their next console.

I also think they're going to be FORCED into providing better online-functionality with their next console. Nintendo made a console that tapped into the gaming needs of the masses who had never really experienced any video games before. Great, but chances are that the same people who bought the Wii will not so easily buy Nintendo's next console in 3-4 years. Why? Easy, they're casual gamers. They couldn't care less about upgrading to the next console (PS2 sales anyone?). So Nintendo's next console probably won't be such a big hit as the Wii was and since some form of motion-sensing will most likely be implemented in the next Xbox and playstation, Nintendo will end up having to compete with some other features like online.

Back to Brawl in particular though, since the lag of the matches is dependent on the connections of the players I'm sure in due time people will stop connecting online using a crappy wireless connection coming from their neighbor's house. So while lag might disappear from Brawl's online, there's probably no chance in hell of more online features for any of Nintendo's games this gen.

Signed.

Having to coordinate with friends outside of the network kind of nullifies its usefulness. It reminds me of back in the day, playing Doom via modem connections. Having to call them, give them the ok to call my machine, yelling at my parents to not pick up the phone...
well, not the last part, but overall, Wii online service feels so antediluvian, I normally just skip it.

@Scazza: Things are not gimmicks because they are bad, they are gimmicks because they are gimmicks, in the case of super smash bro's brawl, if online play had not been wtfx screwed up, it would be probally the best feature of the game, so its not a gimmick its just bad

The release of SSBB has shown without a doubt how poorly Nintendo has handled their online functionality. Friend Codes were bad enough, but complaints of failed registration of Brawl Codes(even with both parties entering codes) abound, horrible, game-crippling lag, and frequent drop outs make online basically a waste of time. Even when you do manage a decent connection (emphasis on *when*), the lack of any kind of communication with people you're playing against renders the experience lifeless. For all I know, and for all I can tell, I'm fighting against faceless, lifeless bots. Let's be honest here: through all the hype and hoopla this game has recieved, it has been criminally understated how badly Nintendo fucked everyone over with online play.

Its online was a failure. I talked alot of crap about Smash before release, and then decided to give it a try. The online portion was horrible though the game overal was decent.

@DaveKap: Friend codes, as in the concept of having to mutually agree with somebody in some other medium before you can play with somebody, by typing in a number? That's fine. It's really not a problem. The problem is everything else:

1) No voice or text chat - I understand why they don't allow this with random strangers, again that's fine, but with friends? When they've already made at least one DS game that allowed it? There's really no reason to prevent this (if you were able to exchange codes you obviously have another way to communicate with the person, so there's no security issue). It's just shit.

2) No online communication outside of games and sending each other email. You can't see who's online and what they are playing; you can't chat with them to arrange playing a game; you can't even see whether they have a game you might want to play.

3) Different friend codes for each game. WHY GOD WHY.

If they solved these three problems, they'd have a coherent system that took on board their security concerns but allowed people to play online in a sensible manner. Sadly, they aren't going to do so (maybe #1, eventually, but not the others). Ah well. Perhaps next system.

I just wished they got rid of the whole friend code thing before the Wii came out. It's such an annoying way to do online gaming, even amongst friends. I'd rather they set up usernames like other consoles, but I just don't see that happening now.

So far, my experience playing with random opponents has been a resounding failure. It was painfully laggy.

But playing with friends only, and communicating via aim made it not so bad...

Hey, it works for me. It may not have voicechat or an easy interface, but we should be glad that Nintendo is even dipping its foot into the online pool.

" It should have been a communication platform first and a family console second."

You think Nintendo's new game console should concern itself MORE with being a "communications platform" than being a GAME CONSOLE? WTF.

BTW,I don't know if anyone's tried to play recently,but,uh,it works now. I just played it in fact,it works every time. Unfortunately,it still doesn't have voice chat,so I have to settle for just enjoying the game instead of hearing "I want a motherfuckin chocolate milk." :(

I just random battle everytime, I didn't feel any less enjoyment and didn't really get any lag. Before Brawl I never played anything else online so I can' really say anything about those games but I didn't think that Brawls online was bad at all.

@Aethyr: /agreed

If I could play with anyone online without control lag, anyone, I'd be fine. I don't care about friend codes, I don't care about lack of communication, nothing. I just want to play without lag.

I haven't been able to though, despite having good internet. I shouldn't have to DMZ my Wii and play with someone who is also DMZ'd and uses the same ISP in order to play without lag.

If I can jump into an 18 player game of Call of Duty 4 within seconds and play without lag on the same wireless internet, I should be able to play Smash Bros. Brawl against one person without lag.

I'm going to have to say I'd rather play on PSN than my Wii online. That's saying a lot coming from me.

It's about as full-featured as the original NES modem. So, yes -- FAIL.

All I know is that I can play Smash online without lag, when using a good connection. Good enough for me. We always knew this wouldn't be filled with feautres and Sakurai himslef said it would be very hard not to have lag.