I think it's alright...

Okay, I'm lying. Sorry. :(

Hmm, pretty even spread so far. How ever will be extrapolate usable information!?

I didn't have any lag problems when I played it. I was, however, in the level all by myself. It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be.

"Good Game!"

/predetermined text number 4

The true answer is Irreparably Bad. The entire online system, including how the store works, needs to be completely overhauled.

I'm pretty sure I'll figure out how to get to the person's house and play a few games in person before I 1)actually get an online connection with them and 2)get a lag free game with them.

And these are the random people I'm talking about.

Irreparably bad. Because just about everyone is connected via WiFi, which is inherently not great, the online service is built on a crappy foundation.

Add in that Nintendo does not really seem to care ("It's not working? Try again!"), and you have a formula for disaster.

I'm going with irreparably bad considering how Nintendo probably won't be able to make any client-side changes to deal with the current issues.

Shouldn't the poll be "How bad is playing SSBB online"? Because I'm sure there are two other online games on the Wii. :P

Ugh! Wii online so very, very frustrating....

Hmm. Since I don't have either of the other next-gen consoles, I don't really have much online experience.

All I know is, my matches with friends have been pretty darn good, lag-wise. Very little. Which is completely awesome.

People go to tournaments for Smash Bros, and the fact that you can play pros online now without traveling a buttload is actually amazing. I love it.

Perhaps the online functionality of the Wii is poor, however I'd like to point out that bitching about the lag in a fighting game is pretty much pointless. It sucks in Tekken Online on the PS3, it sucks on Virtua Fighter 5 on the 360 and... big surprise, it sucks on Brawl for the Wii. There's a pattern here, fighting games + online sucks.

I've played this at my friend's apartment, and though it was really awesome that we couple play locally AND with 2 friends in totally different cities, the lag was terrible, making the game stutter pretty horribly all the way through. Everything seemed half speed and choppy.

I'm still |--| far away from buying a Wii just for this game, though.

If there's any fix in latency across the network for all Wii games, I might just have to give in when the new Mario Kart comes along.

This is kind of the last straw. Nintendo needs to get their act together, and the first thing that needs to go is Friend Codes.

It is probably just "Bad," though, the features outside of actual gameplay (e.g. Weather, News, surfing the web, store) work very smoothly.

The issues I can see with Wii online is that few games support it yet, there aren't as many standard or available features as other online services, there are friend codes, and more specifically, P2P Brawl online is bad for people with bad connections (servers would be able to help out much of the lag).

I've only tried once. It took a couple of tries to get connected, but then it worked fine with no lag.

But I'm not real interested in online gaming. I like gaming to be social.

Couldn't even get online thing during the first three days. And sorry everyone, but I can get into games pretty regularly now with no problems, and no lag. But enough people are having a problem that hyperbole aside, it's definitely Really Bad. Nintendo is still just dipping its big toe in the warm water.

I've been playing random matches for a while now and it's been pretty good. Ocassional disconnects but hardly any lag. I'm also playing late at night (10pm in Los Angeles).

I tried to play Guitar Hero 3 online and waited about 45 minutes to get a game going. Then about a minute in it lagged so bad that it shut down my console.

Awesome, actually o.o;

The key is to have a bunch of net friends with good connections. I've only played 'with anyone' twice. It also helps to be in a chat room with a laptop nearby. Is it ideal? No, but it certainly makes online play freaking sweet.

I usually find a game online in about 1-2 minutes and I'm playing it in the UK.

Personally i think it's fun.

It's not BAD, it just needs work.

I think by the time Animal Crossing Wii comes out, Nintendo will have grasped the online thing. Although people have been saying Ninty's got online RIGHT with MarioKart Wii.

We shall see in ten days.

DMZ'ing or opening a port for your Wii is almost essential in getting a good connection with others. If you play someone and you both have really good internet, you should be able to play without lag.

As already stated though, wi-fi ensures that 99% of the people you find randomly online have horrible connections.

It's weird though, I could play Mario Strikers Charged online just fine, with no lag, and it found matches pretty quickly. Perhaps it's because it's always only 1 Wii connected to another (although, I still easily get lag in 1 on 1 Smash Bros. matches.)

This better be fixed by the time Kart comes out or I'm gonna be really really really really pissed off.

I didn't have any problems with Guitar Hero Online or downloading games from Virtual Console. But after renting SSBB this weekend, it totally changed my perception on the online service. Lag made me play the game like 5fps or waiting too much time for people to join a game (if any), i even started dreaming if Kirby will explode for eating so many punching bags.

And i mean the game is awesome and even more when playing in the same room with other people.

Still i believe all these performance issues can be worked out by Nintendo but they should hurry up as i'm really starting to have regrets for buying a Wii instead of a Xbox360 or PS3. Nothing make me more angry than wasting money on something that doesn't work as intended.

Well most of you want online in every single game, well deal with the freaking lag...

I don't really mind it. Against random people its perfect every time, finds matches in seconds, always, and lag free every single time.

Playing against my friends through, so so so much lag.

I don't play it online much though anyway, its much more fun getting a gathering at someones house.

This is a Wii thread so I guess I should be the first to say that I my Wii has been (sold/gathering dust). I mean since (Twilight Princess/Wii Sports/Galaxy) there has been no games for it. I am (glad/about to) sell the thing while I can still make money off of it. It is just a (fad/Gamecube 1.5/fad and gamecube 1.5).

I think I covered it. Oh, on a serious note, the lack of voice chat sucks.

Pretty lame poll.
I don't have brawl, but I've played quite a few other games online and they've all been fine, other than FC's of course, which fortunately you don't need them to play.

Yay for all the people voting who don't own a Wii. That's me actually. Maybe the only one lame enough to do so :P

I do know how it's like though, from word of mouth (friends).

@Candlejack:

maybe if they put the choice "i dont own a wii", i'd vote for that. i voted for the second to last one. :)

Anyone who says they played perfectly has to be lying. I played over 100 online matches and not a single one was lag free. It wasn't always bad, but it loses its intensity. It can't be my connection, because every other game works fine.
Damn I pretty pissed. To make me happy again the thing Nintendo can do other than get rid of the lag is either get rid of the Friend code or have a ranking system.

...
I'm not sure what to pick...
FC's suck, but I haven't had any problems online with or without them...

Bad, Bad, Bad or Bad?
GOD! I can't decide!

Kids, Wii Online is bad, m'kay? Don't play Wii Online (until Nintendo fixes it), 'cuz it's bad, m'kay?

Huge wait times in brawl anyone, gimped brawl anyone mode in general, ANOTHER FRIEND CODE SYSTEM, and the lack of communication between the friend code systems (none of the 4 people I have friended on both have been detected by smash so I could send levels or replays)... make it a crap online experience. Some lag is to be expected in online fighting games, so I'll throw them a bone with that.

Nintendo, please let me pay you extra money to make this suck less. The game connected to the crap online rules, just hook it up!

The Wii's online capabilities are it's biggest weak point, I dont think I can ever see it as a console to provide me with a full online experience.

I think the problem is lack of online infrastucture/poor design. Nintendo obviously wanted to put as little time and money into it as possible. They knew that they had a multi-million-first-day seller the minute that they started planning the game. They should have taken a cue from XBL and how their set up was and emulate it. Instead they slapped some lame-ass crap together, seemingly as if the online play was a last second add-on.

I know I can't expect the same level of performance from a free service, but this makes the PSN look flawless by comparison. With no previous online games or servers in place to handle a game of this magnitude, it just make the "Big N" look as amateurish and "toy like" as the console it self.

I've tried to get games six times, each time I end up waiting endlessly, and each time I give up disgusted. Screw all you anonymous people anyway, I want to put a name to my hatred.

So far, the only name I've got is Nintendo.

Aside from some minor lagging, the single matches in brawl were alright, but team battles were intolerable.
Generally, with a lack of contact with other players, as featured on other consoles, this isn't very good especially with friends.

I used it with a pal of mine and we had 1 good game, but we tried a few days later and it was a slide show.

At least it has more online functionality than the Gamecube.

ugh the DS and especially PSP online is better

Wipeout pulse online>>>>>>>>>>>>>Brawl and probably mario kart online

I think that it is incredibly bad, but not irreparably bad because the technology is present for it to be good. I just don't think that Nintendo cares enough to make it work and until it starts to hurt their bottom line, they won't care. I have always said that this generation of consoles is and will be defined by online play. Lag doesn't concern me nearly as much as the lack of true online features. A lot of people say that you cannot expect Nintendo to do things right in online, but in the time leading up to the Wii's release, online was a large part of the sales pitch.

Someone needs to confront Reggie and ask him the tough questions, but the gaming press is too reactive rather than proactive.

And Nintendo can win me back with voicechat enabled online multiplayer virtual console games. I don't want them to change the ROMs, just their emulators. I am fine if they want to restrict it to friends only (although having a way to let your friends know that you want to play would be nice) if they would just add this feature. I can't believe that I could play SNES games online with the XBand in the early mid-90s, but I still can't play online with the Wii.

Im a fairly tech savy person and I can barely get it to work. I can once in a while connect and shop the store but its insanely slow and playing SSBB isn't even close to working. I've even tried opening multiple ports on my router with no luck. I think I might try one of those USB ethernet cables.

I vote for "not that bad".

it sucks plain and simple. weakest online performance on this current console generation. downloading old console games != killer online performance people.

I've yet to face someone I have on my Brawl Friend List that I actually have no lag with. Some matches were better than others, but it's sad.

Granted, I'd prefer fighting games to be played with friends in person, but I'm hoping this gets improved somehow.

I say irreparably bad, as the whole online model is screwy. Those of us used to the online gaming experience from PCs or xboxen come from a world where 'online' happens before 'run game'. By doing this backwards, Nintendo is creating a model where 'online' means different and incompatible things with each new gaming experience.
This works OK on the DS, as portable gaming doesn't yet have the same expectation of internal storage, or always-on networks, but with larger, and more stationary devices, both are the norm.
For full disclosure, I've been a Nintendo fanboy for 22+ years (and an apologist since the GameCube). Even with that history, I have to say they sure made some unwanted sexual advances on the pooch this time.

I'm surprised to see so many complaints about Brawl's online gameplay. It was a little rocky for me the first few days after its release, but ever since, it's been working smoothly! And by that, I mean 95% of the 800-some matches played With Anyone online are absolutely lag-free (yeah, my sister and I are complete Play-With-Anyone addicts).

Am I the only one not plagued by lag?

@Chiru:
I haven't been having lag problems lately and I usually play a few hours of "With Anyone". Also, is it me or is the Spectator mode gone?

See, the thing is, I've had positive experiences with Nintendo games online before. Animal Crossing DS and Mario Kart DS both worked perfectly, with no lag, ever. Mario Strikers Charged worked pretty well also, although there was a little lag from time to time.

But Smash? There's some lag, to be sure, but the game is frenetic in nature, so even the slightest lag can throw off an entire game. I play as Sonic, as well, who absolutely needs exact precision in order to be able to compete due to his speed.

So basically, for me, the problem in Smash is not finding players, friend codes, or an excessive amount of lag. The problem is when there's even the slightest disconnect between when I press a button to attack and when the attack actually begins, which throws off everything and makes Brawl online unplayable to me. As much as I don't want it to be the case because I love this effing game, Brawl online is, right now, inherently flawed and thus unplayable at all.