Topic: Your Online Experience with Brawl

[ThePerm]

at first it was laggy and rarely connected, it was so laggy i haven't tried it in a while, so laggy that nwr had to do a survey.

[EasyCure]

Hows my online experience with Brawl?

I'll let you know after i finally play some online matches in Strikers.

But seriously, it hastn't been great. At first I wanted to hold off on replying to this thread because I'd only recently been able to connect to the WFC service enough to brawl online. I felt that I didn't have enough online experience to properly make an opinion on the matter. Now I'm realizing that Brawls offline frustrations are part of its online experiences.

Before I go into detail with my experience with brawl, I'd just like to backtrack a little and mention that before Mario Strikers Charged launched I had purchased the Wii LAN adaptor straight from Nintendos online store (before they were easily available at retail locations) in preperation for not only that game, but for Brawl as well. I thought that on day one, with Strikers, I'd be easily able to connect to the servers and play against the lot of you reading this. I was wrong. I've stopped playing the game because of how unreliable its online service is. I don't have many friends nearby to easily come over and play so I thought playing against "friend-code' friends as well as anonymous gamers would be fun and be worth the $50 price tag. I might as well of bought the original Strikers for half that if it was just going to be sitting there collecting dust.

Now to Brawl, the game I just KNEW would have awesome online becuase it was Nintendo's goal all along, their promise to the fans. I was also wrong. I really wanted to believe that the games delay was to ready up more servers for the flood of gamers that'd be connecting to eachother for some awesome matches, but that wasn't the case was it? Attempt after attempt, after attempt and I couldn't brawl with friends or strangers, close or far. So I spent $50 on a game and something like $35 on a LAN Adaptor (not to mention the great length of cable to connect my router to said LAN adaptor) to spectate matches that SUCK?! I could start ranting about how I should return the game and the system and use it as credit towards an xbox 360 or something, but I won't.

I will say this, howerver, that after weeks of trying to brawl online and constantly being disconnected from the service, I've tracked down a used Wi-Fi USB adaptor for my PC to see if it would change my luck, and... it has. To my surprise its outshining my direct high-speed cable connection and I've been able to face off against some people on my friends list (2 so far), and with minimum lag I might add (varying on number of players and levels of course..) so atleast things are just starting to turn around for me. It just annoys me that I spent the money shipping the LAN adaptor to me from Nintendo and I won't even be using it anymore. This is, by the way, after returning a used wi-fi adaptor from a best buy a few months after wii's launch because I was unable to use it at the time. Now its discontinued! So even if I didn't want or need this for my Wii but wanted to use it to get my DS online (which I actually do since I've never played that online) I wouldn't be able to without effort in tracking one down because Nintendo decided to cut this option.

So in away I still cant comment much about my actualy ONline experience with brawl, because I haven't had enough time with it, but I sure as hell can tell you its been a crazy ride just to get where I am. Too many headaches and too much money have gone into this. Even if I was able to get online right away and didn't spend so much on all the extra equipment, I would still call the service bad, because Nintendo doesn't show any signs of wanting to fix it. Their "wait it out" approach is just disgusting. I can play Brawl now but its killing Mario Strikers Charged's online gameplay (awesome slideshows), and when Mario Kart Wii comes out.. whats going to happen then? I get the feeling more people will be playing Brawl over Mario kart, so maybe I should just take a "wait it out" approach with that game.

I'm with S_B when he says he'd gladly pay a fee for a GOOD online service from Nintendo, because I would too. I think alot of us would over what their giving us now. Sure its free, but thats no excuse and I'm tired of it being thrown around as one. The only reason I bought Mario Strikers Charged over the original title (which I never owned but loved playing at a friends house) was because I could play it online. The reason I dished out another $50 bucks for Brawl is because I could play it online. If i knew I wouldn't be able to use those online features, I'd stick to playing Melee for 10mins and getting bored at not having another person to play with. I didn't pay for the graphics or the new items or modes, I payed for the online capabilities, so why isn't any of that money going to building a better online structure and keeping it "free" for us? Like I just said, I didnt buy Brawl for its graphics or sound, hell even Nintendo said it doesn't want or need to compete graphically, thats part of the wii's package right? Well I might as well be playing GC games like Melee on the system. I can't play them online and I'm using the same controllers anyway

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I'm using WiiBoat + Chuck the Nun and a wireless connection.  I AM SOOOO NEXT-GEN

[Omix]

Hi to all,
I REALLY love the ONLINE feature of Smash Brawl.

When i play with friends i usually have no lag. Yesterday i played with a friend in my same country (Mexico), played like 30 games and there was never a lag.

When i play with ANYONE, it lasts like 5 minutes to get someone to play. After the first 2 or 3 games, a new person, or even 3 persons at once, comes. if you don´t leave the group, you won´t have to wait any longer and everything is going on perfect !!!

My expirence is telling me that depends of the users conections, the lag of the game, because when you kill the 'slow-user', then the game comes fast and everything is normal.

I really enjoy playing with FRIENDS and ANYONE !!!

My internet conection is: 1.5Mb

[TAYREL713]

It is as if we are playing two different games and it makes me wonder how is that possible. Most of you seem to have had a really bad on-line experience and I am the complete opposite and we all seem to be doing the same thing so how is it I can have such a positive experience, and others so craptacular?

[Deguello]

What's interesting here is that the people with good experiences don't care about the problems of people with bad experiences.  It's almost like last generation when people complained about Xbox Live being very laggy on some games, and it was usually met with "your connection sucks" followed by "sucks to be you."  Of course, being a pay service usually leads to more anger as lag there is a denial of service based on a contract, but what's interesting nowadays is that a free service that appears to be good for most (remember, content people rarely complain) and the few its bad for are vocally vocal about how much it sucks, usually only to hear the wind answer their cries.

I guess they may now know what it feels like to be on the other end of "sucks to be you."

[Armak88]

Online has been pretty hit or miss for me. It hasn't been as bad as some of the people here have been saying though. I don't have problems connecting and my personal friends all connect to me fairly well. One friend has a crappy router so I find his connection to be a laggy, but my other friends are pretty good. Then every once and a while things slow right down no matter who I'm playing.

Am I happy with it? Yeah, i guess. Could it be better? of course it could. But the way I see it I can play my friends when driving to their house isn't an option and the lag is only unplayably bad every once and a while. I've even played against some NWR forum members with very little lag, even though I live in Canada and I'm pretty sure they live in the US.

PS. I wish they had the option for voice chat calling my friend on the phone every couple matches is lame

[juanm_12]

Very Very bad, i have played every once in a while online matches with anyone but are very laggy and unplayable, i was expencting something more quick and fast paced like mario kart ds...

[Shift Key]

What's interesting here is that the people with good experiences don't care about the problems of people with bad experiences.

Where do the PAL users fit into this equation Deg?

I'm using WiiBoat + Chuck the Nun and a wireless connection.  I AM SOOOO NEXT-GEN

Did you hack the WFCGIBSON with one hand while crushing the spirit of opponents in Brawl with the other?

PS. I wish they had the option for voice chat calling my friend on the phone every couple matches is lame

Skype says hello. And the discussion about integrated voice chat has been done to death - move on.

[Nephilim]

What's interesting here is that the people with good experiences don't care about the problems of people with bad experiences.  It's almost like last generation when people complained about Xbox Live being very laggy on some games, and it was usually met with "your connection sucks" followed by "sucks to be you."

But that was server baised, it was easy to look down on someone with a 500+ping, as they are either downloading or on 56k.
Alot harder with wii, as its either you, them or matching server at peek.

[planetidiot]

I couldn't get on the first few times.  When I finally did connect, I found out the game doesn't remember your control preferences unless you specifically pick your name on the character select menu so the match didn't go well.  The next time it was laggy and unplayable.  I've come to admit to myself that I don't really like the game.  The controls are terrible and I just don't get the hype surrounding it.  This coupled with Nintendo's much-hated friend code system and servers that can't handle the traffic has me wanting to sell the game.  I haven't played it since about a week after it came out.

A much better game would have been a 4 player online version of the Mario Vs. Luigi game on The New Super Mario Bros: Tight controls, easy to pick up and ridiculously fun. 

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Last night's AUSTRALIA VS. CALIFORNIA SMASH PIETRIOT EXTRAVAGANZA was EPIC.

Of course, Berto and I were playing around midnight PST, while the rest of the country and the 12yr old Smashing majority is asleep, but it was remarkable we maintained a stable connection with Mario and Infernal Monkey from ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN (i do believe they're playing Yankee Brawl).  Lagged? oh of course.  Playable?  hell yeah

Actually, this session played just as well (if not better) than most of my 4on4 or 3on3 Yankee-exclusive matches (complete halts).

Goes to show how sensitive the game is to peak-period WFC traffic, your personal network integrity, and how well your ISPs play with each other.  If not, it's an interesting case study.

[Halbred]

Question:

One of my friends is online. I join his game. I select a character. A little message pops up that says "the rules have been changed." I'm disconnected. I curse and scream, but try again.

This time I succeed...in getting to the Sandbag waiting area. The fight never actually begins, and when the timer hits zero (nobody else is apparently fighting, even though...my friend has set up a game) I'm disconnected again.

So, I guess my question is...WTF?!?

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

The first time, you were manually rejected.

The second time, I don't know, cuz you didn't provide enough detail on the disconnect message.

[vudu]

Its far from the worst, yes, but could have been MUCH better. Even if we were warned to expect lag with players living very far from each other it is VERY surprising that even players that are living right next to each other are getting slideshows for battles.

You don't even own the game yet.  I find it amusing that you have so many opinions about playing a game you've never played.

[FoxxMcCloud]

My matches were ok with minor lags here and there.

I have crappy internet so i was expecting it to go slower but, hey, I'm not complaining.