Smash Bros. Brawl’s Online Component Missed the Mark

From the Vault — originally published April 7, 2008. Some links, videos or prices may be out of date.

Every time I play Brawl it upsets me on how they missed the mark with the online component. I just don’t get how they can obviously spend that much time and effort into the Subspace Emissary adventure mode (which most people will only play once and most will never even bother with) and at the same time leave out important online components.

There are three major things that I think should be addressed in some sort of update or patch to Smash Bros. brawl:

1. Co-op versus anyone NEEDS to be added. Its ridiculous that you can play one player versus anyone but no two people on the same machine can play anyone online.

2. Friend codes. Ok, so maybe friend codes are here to stay but why cant we see what our friends are playing or send them a message if they are on their Wii to request that they play a game? The friends list in brawl in a practical sense is pretty useless. friends are never on and if they are playing another Wii game you have no way to know or contact them to play brawl.

https://vimeo.com/870536

3. The online system itself sucks. It takes forever to find matches and when you try to join games there are all sorts of errors and dropouts. See my video for an example.

The bottom line is that Nintendo should release a patch to allow co-op “against anyone” online brawls. An Wii Online channel with game invite system would also work wonders. I am skeptical of Mario Kart’s upcoming online offerings at this point. I am expecting to find even less friends to play on brawl when Mario Kart Wii drops and longer wait times during anyone matchmaking on brawl. It takes too long now. I dont see how any publication can give this game a 10 with these flaws. It’s still a great game but the online component is currently lackluster.