Topic: Wi-Fi Battles Re-Confirmed for SSB Brawl

[Jonnyboy117]

The new Smash Bros. game will support up to four players online, and you can play with either friends or strangers.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=14419

 The official blog of Super Smash Bros. Brawl has finally squashed the fears of many fans, confirming online play for the full complement of four players, well over a year after the feature was last mentioned by anyone at Nintendo.    

The two main online options are "With Friends" and "With Anyone".  The former allows you to see a list of friends with the game; it's not clear whether the list is comprised of Wii system friends or only those who have registered a game-specific Friend Code.  After gathering up to four people to play, you can pre-set four short bits of text to be used as taunts (mapped to the D-pad) during the battle.  It is not clear how the taunts will be used with the Remote-Only control scheme.  "With Anyone" sets up a battle with strangers.  You will not see their names or be able to send them messages.  Also, no battle records will be kept from these anonymous matches.    

The extent of battle modes and other features to be made available with online play is not yet apparent.  The blog promises that more details about Wi-Fi Play will be revealed in future updates.  There is also a warning (and apology) that the gameplay speed is directly tied to connection strength, so the game may not play optimally between players who are separated by large geographical distances.  In other words, the game will allow you to play matches between Japan and America... but there will be considerable lag.  Regional matches are recommended for the best performance.

[that Baby guy]

Nice turn around time.  I'm very impressed, Jonny.  

[Kairon]

I can';t think of anything to type. I CAN"T THINK OF ANYTHING TO TYPE!!!

[Magus19]

It's funny that most fast news blogs I visit didn't yet talk about this and that here would be the first place I see it(well I saw it on the smash blog first). Good job.  

[Mario]

Great news. I wonder how the "With Anyone" option will work, because it could be bad if it just grabs random people from around the world for lag-tastic brawls, hopefully it searches for people closest to you. Its a FANTASTIC idea to have no records for random matches as it stops people being morons defending their precious record and ruining others.

[Jonnyboy117]

I'm on the ball.  Ran a one-paragraph version at first, then immediately went back in to add the details.

[Crimm]

I am so glad I stayed up tonight.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

This ain't no Sonic the Hedgehog announcement.  When's the real news coming?

[AzureNightmare]

Quote
Originally posted by: Professional 666
This ain't no Sonic the Hedgehog announcement.  When's the real news coming?

This IS the real news fool!

[Svevan]

Quote
"With Anyone" sets up a battle with strangers. You will not see their names or be able to send them messages. Also, no battle records will be kept from these anonymous matches.

How kinky. Whatever blows your skirt up, I guess.

[NWR_insanolord]

Quote
Originally posted by: NewsBot
...it's not clear whether the list is comprised of Wii system friends or only those who have registered a game-specific Friend Code...

Yes it is. Take a closer look at the second screen shot. Next to ENTER FRIEND CODE is 0000-0000-0000. 12 digits, not the 16 that a system code has.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

-2/10 for online fail

[Michael8983]

I don't see what's so terrible about the friend codes.
I mean with the Wii-mote pointer it takes, what, like five seconds to enter one?
Personally I think I prefer the games having individual friend codes as opposed to all using the system code.
This way you can go on a forum and send out your friend code for some Brawl opponents and not have them all sending junk to your Wii inbox.  Then take the kids who play Wii, the last thing you'd want is for them to seek out Brawl friends on forums only to end up getting inappropriate messages and invitations from pedos.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Another weak attempt by Nintendo to steal thunder from Halo3.

[Mashiro]

I knew there would be online, never doubted it for a second. =)

Awesome update. <3 Nintendo.

[Sarail]

So glad they were able to implement 4-player online.  Now my fears are gone..  

[Shecky]

My first thought was that the internet is going to be a bloody mess today

[Pale]

Is anyone else somewhat nervous that the announcement basically admitted that there would be some lag?  :-/

[Shecky]

Only if your in the camp of light speed to slow...

Actually it sounds as if the game speed it adjusted to lag, I hope that it doesn't fluctuate to much during the match... I'd rather it be consistent.

[UERD]

If you're going to be playing someone halfway across the world, lag/latency is a physical fact of life. (At least until we figure out how to communicate faster than the speed of light.) I'm just surprised that they managed to get it working with four players.

[msharpee20]

Quote
Originally posted by: Michael8983
I don't see what's so terrible about the friend codes.
I mean with the Wii-mote pointer it takes, what, like five seconds to enter one?
Personally I think I prefer the games having individual friend codes as opposed to all using the system code.
This way you can go on a forum and send out your friend code for some Brawl opponents and not have them all sending junk to your Wii inbox.  Then take the kids who play Wii, the last thing you'd want is for them to seek out Brawl friends on forums only to end up getting inappropriate messages and invitations from pedos.

Exactly its in short like a phone number.
Friend codes is the price you pay for being a family company and doing business in the US.

PS
The longest amount time it took me to enter an FC was 7 seconds.

[Ceric]

Quote
Originally posted by: UERD
If you're going to be playing someone halfway across the world, lag/latency is a physical fact of life. (At least until we figure out how to communicate faster than the speed of light.) I'm just surprised that they managed to get it working with four players.

Actually, we can but none of that stuff is straight to the home.  Thats the real problem actually.  Upload speeds are pitiful compared to download speeds for most home connections and most interent connections are vastly slower then the common 100mb LAN.

[NWR_insanolord]

Quote
Originally posted by: Shecky
Only if your in the camp of light speed to slow...

Actually it sounds as if the game speed it adjusted to lag, I hope that it doesn't fluctuate to much during the match... I'd rather it be consistent.

Well it would be ludicrous to believe that light speed is too slow.

I do think that as long as the speed stays about the same throughout the match, even if it's a little slower than usual, that it will still work.

[planetidiot]

so they're sticking with per game friend codes.  score another point for xbox live

I really don't see how nintendo or anyone can deny how awesome and robust xbox's online is.  MS ripped off plenty from everybody, there's no shame in ripping off live.  

[darknight06]

Who the heck didn't see the lag coming and speed drops coming?  This is how you deal with fighting games online.  It's either drop the speed or have to deal with button input delays which probably for Sakurai and a lot of others would kill this game.

As far as FC go, at this point if you're still aching over it you've got two other alternatives.  Either use them or pipe down.  Nobody ever said this was gonna be X-Box Live on the Wii to begin with and you know damn well a company like Nintendo ain't footing the bill for something like it.