Kotaku

Ok, that is pretty spiffy.

The one question on my mind is what difficulty the CPU will be set to. If the player drops out, it should be obvious if he/she suddenly becomes incredibly easy or incredible difficult.

Glad to know that the whole process is streamlined in an easier way.

That's a great idea.

Thank the Gods, someone finally has the sense to implement this. The idea has been around for years, but Sakurai finally delivers.
This should come standard in pretty much any game that plays online, especially anonymous Wii ones. What I wouldn't give to have this excellent decision apply to Mario Kart, Starfox, and other coming Wii attractions.

Not a bad little idea, although at this point I'm getting a little bored of rules and system updates. Yes, we know how to play Smash Bros. We want to know who's in it, what they can do, and how awesome they are.

...repeated reminders of the removal of Wavedashing is also fine in my book. :D

@Tonx: Oh, and Mario Party online requires this feature.

It's such a shame you can't have names or messages though. Annoying strangers is almost as fun as annoying friends.

Surprisingly fantastic idea

Umm.. Maybe I posted in the wrong place before.. but that gem about Hidden Characters is nice.. Make me wonder whom is yet to be revealed in Brawl. GAME ON!

Yeah, but the satisfaction of kicking someone's ass is gone. And it doesn't keep track of scores. That's why the wii is still last gen. But I guess that's bettter than getting pissed someone disconnect in the middle of a game. Wish more games would do that...on other platform.

My favorite part of the update is this one:

"Names won't be shown and messages won't be sent. Neither your identity nor your opponents' will be known, so you can play without any worries."

Worries of what ? Hey there's this guy named XxX_CoolBoy_69 who wasn't playing very fair with me online ! I'm going to find him and beat him to his death !

great update and yeah sakurai is great

Dropped connection and computer takes over for you + no stat tracking or ranking + anonymous play = being able to play match after match after match without ever having to deal with complete assholes.

I knocked some of these decisions as much as the next guy, but Sakurai is really bringing this all together. I will gladly sacrifice stat tracking and not being able to know who I'm competing against (and vise versa) to be able to sit down and play an endless stream of matches with no disconnects or incomplete matches.

@nxp3: it doesnt keep track for "with anyone" battles. The way Sakurai worded the actual update leads me to believe that it will keep track of your record of battles against friends

If your connection drops, are you able to reconnect and take control back? That WOULD be awesome...

Even better would be if the game paused (hear me out) if a friends connection dropped and the other players wait for the person to reconnect so they can carry on battling what might be a particularly intense fight. So ok, that idea goes completely against what this news post is about, but it would be a nice option if it were between friends only and would get rid of any frustrations where you're playing online with a friend, having a great time, then suddenly all your fun is taken away when the game says you or your friend has lost connection and your thrown back to the front menu.

I need to learn to write shorter sentences...

that sucks because now we will have a ton of people who suck letting the comp play and get their stats up

Personally, I never understood why they haven't done this in the past. I saw people doing that to my friend constantly on whatever Street Fighter he was playing on the 360. It would just get marked down as a "draw."

I say take it a step further, and if one person disconnects and another one doesn't, the one who DID get disconnected gets a loss on your record. Not that the Wii keeps records or anything, but I'm speaking for the fighting genre as a whole.

Command and Conquer had this feature... (any excuse to bring up one of my top ten games of all time)

But yeah if it still marks down the loss on the disconnecting players stats that's awesome. If a player has a tantrum and quits, they will know that somewhere their namesake is being beaten to a pulp by the remaining players :)

I wonder if there will be any kind of leaderboards or something. (oh, note: I haven't read any info on the online features of the game so if my leaderboard question is already answered somewhere online, sorry for asking)

Well, it seems all well and good to have this With Anyone feature, but the more I hear about it, the more it seems like the player's experience with that mode of online play will be very very similar to simply playing against the computer. In fact, they could program the game to go through a couple bells and whistles of connection screens just as a ruse to make it look like it's finding an opponent, and then just have you play against the computer anyway hahaha. I'm not saying they would, but how would we know the difference? Playing a nameless, faceless entity that can disconnect from the match to be replaced by a computer, having no way of knowing this has occurred, just doesn't sound to different to me than playing the computer in the first place.

@callahan09:

I hear what you are saying. The difference is, with computer AI, they fight the same way almost every time. No variation. With humans, it is a different match every time. People play slightly different.

"I love this man, and I'm not ashamed to admit it."

Why would you be ashamed?

Not knowing who you're playing against, no stat tracking, and the computer takes over if someone dorps out...sort of defeats the point of it being online doesn't it? You never even know who you're playing against, or if you're even playing against a person.

Wow, great idea. Now all Nintendo needs to do is simulate like it's actually connecting online when it really isn't, and begin the game w/CPU players. They can then tout to unsuspecting gamers (because every one just loves the minimalistic effort they put in anyway) that there isn't ever any lag.

Man, I love Nintendo. Yeah!1!

Brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant.

If nothing else, it will encourage people to finish their matches.

@Archaotic:
There's a reason we're getting so many BS updates. When the game was delayed 2 months, all of a sudden 8 weeks worth of updates had to be manufactured. Expect it to continue sucking at least a little longer.

Disconnecting happens, but it is pretty rare and usually they don't even do it on purpose. Also, it would be nice to have a lobby to find people to team with and get some idea of the skill level of your opponents. Maybe set up a rematch. Not everyone plays online just to act like an idiot! Also, if it is just 'connect and play' is there any matchmaking? If not, then I'd rather just play offline.

@KeFkA666: No, the computer won't boost stats. Read the post and you'll see that there's no stat tracking on the with anyone play set.

This is a huge blow to 14 year olds everywhere - Great idea!

@whiptcracker: Nope, because a person will play differently than a computer. For example, beating Tekken with the Bruce Lee knock off guy's low kick, or beating Mortal Kombat by sweeping everyone doesn't work so well against a real person.

Personally, I think it's the best of both worlds since you get the gameplay variety without any of the anonymous online douchbaggery.

@JakeLL:

All we're waiting for is some new characters or even presentation of old ones, but I think they've shown all the ones they were willing to, so now we'll get poor updates til it launch !

Damn, Nintendo is still #1 for all these years. Why should we question them? Buy a Nintendo game, have fun. No reviews needed.

Get N or Get Out!

@smitty1123:
Well, you still get anonymous online douchebaggery, just it's LITERALLY anonymous now so the people getting harassed will never know who was doing it, since there's no name or voice to couple with a douchebaggy action. That could either promote more douchebaggery or end up being a deterrent, depending on the tenacity of the douches on Brawl. I'm sure something will appear to ruin the online experience though, just like every WFC game seems to have (Snaking in MKDS, Trunks-whoring in Jump Ultimate Stars, Signboard graffiti in Animal Crossing, etc...)

...and yes, I just like saying variants of the word "douchebaggery".

@grrargghh: living under a rock, are ya?

I love this update. Still i wish they'd update something on Zelda. Nothing's on her since he update.

"Names wont be shown and messages wont be sent. Neither your identity nor your opponents will be known, so you can play without any worries."

Maybe they just decided to not implement "With Anyone" and instead you just play against the Wii.

With no voice, messaging, or player identity, how can you know that you aren't playing against the Wii to start with? Or that 90% of your matches have players that quit after 10 seconds?

This seems like a fundamental flaw to me. You have to know there is a human on the other end of the internet connection in order to get satisfaction from beating an opponent. That is part of the fun of internet gameplay. Otherwise you might as well just play alone.

Nintendo really just doesn't get this. They get human interaction in the living room. They just don't get that they have to extend this interaction to game play over the internet. It makes it fun!

We don't see names, we don't see stats, and players may or may not be AI.

...

How exactly do we know that we're playing online?

Awesome idea. Does this mean that the person that disconnects still gets the lose added to their record?

@smitty1123: I hear you but that's not always true. I play alot of VF5 online. There are players that clearly haven't learned their character very well and will spam the same combo. Pai and Leon are good examples of this. jab jab jab kick, or low kick, high kick, knee drop are popular for skilless bastards in VF5. Normally this wouldn't be an issue if the VS match was offline. Just side step the combo or block. But online, some matches get laggy and for some reason in matches that seem like they're running smoothly, blocking becomes inconsistent and sidestepping becomes nigh impossible. This is where spammers get their wins. It's as if VF5 online favors offense, which ironically is so not like VF. In these cases, cheap tactics become viable because the counters needed to win aren't always working like they should online even when you see the cheese coming.

I hope SSBB addresses that problem and doesn't favor offense at the expense of defense. I'd like my blocks and counters to work like they're supposed to offline as well as online.

I don´t care at ll with the delays since this game will last for years.

I´m sure the character roaster is full of secrets even until now, just by his statment on DOJO "if you battle someone with a hidden character that will be spoiled online since the internet does that already" thing.

I´ve Heard about Geno and Megaman.. I´m almost sure about megaman but woudn´t a Black Mage like Vivi from FFIX, or Mog , would be a nicer choice from Square? I quess sony holds the rights even for those characters now? Wierd.

I dislike this update and wish that CPU replacement was a selectable option. CPU and human opponents are very different. I should be able to say, "if my opponent(s) drop out, end the game."

If it was made an option, I could set it how I want, and others could leave it as is. But meh. This is a very small blemish on what is otherwise shaping up to be one hell of a game.

@irkedpenguin:

Thats the trick, you actually are not, and it is Nintendo telling you that you are, and blind devotion, you just trust them!

(sarcasm)

@PapaBear434: Yes, indeed. I see what you mean. People play different than computers, more variation, more guess-work as to what you can expect them to do. Maybe it'd be decent practice for when you can't play against your friends. Improve against human players between matches with your real friends.

@JakeLL:
Maybe that or maybe they are holding the beans since revealing everthing on a site beforehand would be wierd...

like revealing the son of a major character on a book before you read it "wtf Harry potter will have a son, omg?". Or a Star Wars DVD with Darth Vader on it´s cover yelling "I´m Luke´s Father.".

Do you imagine how it would be if Tekken 5, after the preview trailer that Stated "HEIHACHI MICHIMA IS DEAD" showed up "Tekken 5, with Heihachi Mishima as a hidden character"?

@ well... naysayers in general?

Yeah, we get your point. No names, no stats, humans replaced by computers, it's just like playing offline, right? Oh, except for the other side of the argument, where it's that computers behave differently from humans - I know I do.

But that's not the point. The point is that there is absolutely no reward or penalty for winning or losing, so there's no point in disconnecting if things aren't going your way. But even if you do, the remaining players still get to see the battle through to the end.

How many of us have played games online - fighting, racing, sports, whatever - where the seconds are ticking down, you're moments away from victory, and the match ends? Me? I wouldn't mind if a computer took over that jackasses account for the five seconds after he decided to unplug his modem. I'd rather see a win/lose screen than a disconnecting jackass screen any day.

There's been plenty of solutions to the disconnecting opponent problem tossed about - penalties, lower rankings, lower connection rating, automatic losses, and more - but this by far is the best solution. There is no reward or penalty for disconnecting, and your opponents can continue without you. This is a great solution. I am gladly giving up seeing names for this function.

@Archaotic: sure you still get "anonymous online douchebaggery" but i dunno how this can "promote" it even more ,considering this "anonymous online douchebaggery" is mute in audio and messages.

seriously, if all you got is a bunch of pent up "anonymous online douchebaggery" who can only express themselves via the battles itself, i swear it'll be like throwing a starving tiger into a ring, who'll attempt to type out "GAY" using supersmash moves in frustration.

its going to be GLORIOUS. :)

I guess if a connection cannot be made in a short time, that you will simply face a CPU character with the average consumer being completely unaware.

@Wyld: uh...no...Square holds the rights to all of the characters represented in FF. Sony hold...nada, zip..character rights for any FF characters.

@Langis: yeah, I think an option to use that would be best. Like I mentioned in my last post, some players will spam like a bad AI computer opponent so which level AI does the Wii default to when a player cowardly disconnects? If the computer takes over and is too hard then it seems like the other player is cheating. If they're too easy then it's a way for people to dog pile on the lame guy and get easy points. Since no one is notified when a player disconnects...how would you know what happened? Now that I'm thinking about it, this doesn't seem all that great.

@papabear

"the one who DID get disconnected gets a loss on your record. Not that the Wii keeps records or anything, but I'm speaking for the fighting genre as a whole."

This is the way Mario Strikers works. Its great, when someone quits out they get a loss on their record and you get points for all the goals you scored. Keeps people from quitting out nearly as much. Hopefully they do this on brawl as well.

@smitty1123:

Tekken 5, and Virtua Fighter 4 had an arcade mode which used AI that based on how people played the Arcade game.

But hey, at least I'll have the pleasure of feeling like I'm playing against a real opponent if they sweep kick a lot.

One last item that I find particularilly brilliant...
Even in online battles where I don't necessarilly choose item selection or the stage I battle on, the incredibly robust music feature means that I NEVER have to listen to the DK Rap. Seriously - I just realized that even online where an opponent chooses the stage, they don't choose your music - the music feature revealed a while ago is personal preference. And why would four anonymous players be forced to listen to the same music when it has no effect on gameplay? So I can listen to a Mario remix while my opponent (God help them) chooses the DK Rap.

Hurray! No more DK Rap!

@Tonx: Look, he's got a coconut gun and it fires in spurts. If he shoots you, dude... it's gonna hurt.

@Tonx:

Yeah, we get your point. No names, no stats, humans replaced by computers, it's just like playing offline, right? Oh, except for the other side of the argument, where it's that computers behave differently from humans - I know I do.

True, but games are becoming so good AI wise you cant tell the difference.

Take NHL08' for the 360 for example by EA. The AI is so good, and if someone disconnects you continue playing the CPU, but the AI is so damn good and random, that it was raved about in reviews on how you couldnt tell the difference between CPU or Players.

Of course I am sure that was a nightmare in coding, but at least they got it right!

@Archaotic: Well, I'm defining anonymous douchbaggery as the various voice chat/text flaming the would get you put through a wall if you said it to someones face, not gameplay exploits or "cheap" tactics.

@Striderhayasa: Oh absolutely. What I was mainly thinking of were those situations where the AI on a character makes you alter your style to the point where you think "this would NEVER work against a real player", but totally works against the comp. Usually a human vs. human match is pretty organic (not always, but usually).

I do believe the "anonymous online douchebaggery" is going to be limited to the text-macro'd taunts, which is fine for me because I've surprised many people who have thought they'd been a safe distance away from my character when they started taunting. >:D

@EnigmaNemesis:

But obviously the AI thing is a game per game basis!

@subnet6:

They better do what you said, that has been the staple of almost every online game with ranking and stat tracking, since ever!

There are several brilliant bits in this:
1. The aforementioned CPU-taking-over is nice.
2. CPU won't take over for friends. I like that, because if you're a douchebag that drops when you're losing, I want to know so you won't be my friend anymore.
3. Acknowledgement of the internet as being The Great Spoiler. Most people get all huffy about the internets ruining their "surprises" or their "twists". At least Sakurai is pragmatic about it.
4. His use of the word "Epic"

@Tonx: awesome point as well...hmmm I really need to think about that for a minute. Funny thing is Metroid Prime Hunters and MArio Kart were notorious for lame asses that would quit out with seconds left in the match. I think the idea is good in theory. I guess what bothers me is the lack of names/voice chat, etc. I guess just simply giving us online is good but I want the community aspect too. Nintendo is still trying to maintain this family friendly online image but what nintendo still doesn't understand is, there are assholes in the world. There's some jackoff that's going to want to be ignorant just because ...well....they're ignorant. This doesn't mean that online play with voicechat is some evil that has to be eliminated like Nintendo is trying to do.it just means that people simply act retarded online sometimes and this is by no means, Nintendo's fault. They've implemented parental controls...they've implemented a friend's list that can be edited at anytime. Why do they need to police the online experience like we're all 10 year olds?

There's a flipside to that though. I remember playing Mario Kart online and one guy had a nazi symbol on his kart. Even though there was no voice chat in the game, it was understood that no matter what happened, that dude with the nazi symbol couldn't be allowed to win. Myself and the other two players dog piled on that guy. Combo-ed him with red shells, green shells and banana peels and kept him in 4th place. Awesome.

Its a cool idea if the wii had voice chat! If the game's AI is good enough, i won't bother going online in a Wii game. Plus I got friends and family to play with so not a big deal to me, If the AI sucks and I have no one to play with, i'll try the game online

Can we put this idea in Winning Eleven 08? Then I wouldn't have to put together poorly translated "Ha-Ha" statments to every single "Brazil" user that I've gone 3-0 up on in the first half with good old England.

I want a wii a little more now. After reading this i won't be as satisfied with melee ever again :o

As others have already said, I don't find this feature to be all that appealing. It doesn't necessarily deter douchebaggery; douchebags will be douchebags. All it means is that if you get a series of matches against people who D/C, you might as well have been playing single player the whole time, except with your choice of stage, items and so on. Sakurai is pretty big on giving some options, but taking away key ones as well. Would adding rooms with game stage, item switch etc. listed really be so game breaking or family unfriendly?

I can't believe anyone is thinking this is a good idea. Why the hell shouldn't we just play single-player then? Who's to say we even started off playing against anyone in the first place?

I'm all for setting the players to CPU if they drop out, but at least TELL US. I don't want to sit and waste my time online playing a bunch of computers when I could be looking for actual opponents!

This is some of the worst news regarding the online since friend codes popped up again. -_-

i dunno… when i read the whole spoiling hidden characters thing. i assumed that hidden characters are merely the unlockable characters as opposed to characters sakurai doesn't post in the smashbros website.

for example: by default you start off with x characters. if you choose to play online right away, you may run into a player who plays with snake who isn't unlocked on your system yet, thus spoiling you because you haven't unlocked snake yet (furthermore spoiling those who don't know read up on the smashbros website on what characters are in the game). even though the smashbros website did mention snake as a character, he's still considered a hidden character in the end whether or not you read up on it.

of course, i think it'd be cool if i was just wrong and there are actually more characters that sakurai isn't going to mention at all.

about the disconnect CPU pinch hitter thing... i think it would be nice if there was some sort of signal letting someone know that someone disconnected in a middle of a match (or at the very least, let them know at the end of the match that they only beat a CPU). i guess something that would be better than that is to have personal stats... even though it's anonymous online play doesn't mean you can't have your own stats on the wii. i mean i really hope there is some sort of extrinsic motivator implemented for "with anyone" online play.

@nxp3:

Scores are WHY idiots disconnect.

To say that Brawl's lack of one makes it last gen is stupid since score tables are not at all revolutionary. In fact, they've been around since arcades. That by no means means that any and every game should use them.

How are we to know when we are fighting a cpu or a human? Who's to say that you don't even go online to play this mode and they just throw you in with a bunch of CPUs.

I don't think Nintendo would be that mean, but it's something to think about.

@SeriousStu:

And what if your friend never reconnects?

That's entirely the issue.

@KeFkA666:

No stats.

The next evolution in Turing Test multiplayer. They're bragging that it's 100% indistinguishable from a botmatch.

I wonder if it works both ways? Like, if you turn off your router as soon as the match starts, will it switch everyone to nameless CPU opponents?

What if the router was never plugged in in the first place?

It would be hilarious if it were found that SSBB never had an online mode to begin with, and all the time you were really playing against the CPU.

@smitty1123: I understand. Those organic matches is where the community aspects that Nintendo avoids, come into play. I've made so many friends online because we've had some great online matches in VF5, Resistance, Warhawk, Armored Core Metroid Prime Hunters, Tony Hawk etc.... This interaction isn't limited to platform. Obviously most of us are fans of SB. To find other players online that are truly good and provide a great match that makes you think on your toes and comes down to the wire is where the community thrives. I love what's being considered and done with SSBB online (minus the lamer friend codes) but Nintendo really needs to get with the voice chat and a true lobby system.

Like I mentioned in another post...I've seen Gamefaq matches on Metal of Honor Heroes 2 more than a few times. I've also played against a "Kikizo" Akira player on VF5 just a few days ago. I've run "kotaku" matches in Metal of Honor Heroes 2 as well. Nintendo is blowing it when sites like Kotaku have fans of their games that frequent the site but can't communicate in the same games we discuss here. SSBB needs a true, dedicated lobby system.

looking at one of the screenshots, it looks like the "with anyone" is gonna be done with time instead of stock. i'm impartial to time/stock as they have their own advantages especially on the online playing field.

It's a nice touch. Except Nintendo makes online play like playing against a computer from the beginning.

Its a brilliant solution. When I'm playing online, I want to play to the finish, win or lose. If I'm on the other end of an ass-whoopin' I keep playing, never giving the satisfaction to another for running, and I expect the same in reverse. A draw (that isn't skillfully played out) or a disconnect is so unsatisfying.

I'm reminded of an old, old quote. "Playing online with others is great! Except for the people part."

@Striderhayasa:

that's true, even if they're not going to give us voice chat or messaging they should at least allow us to see people's names and have some kind of lobby system. I mean they said they want people to play without worrying, well if they don't have voice chat or messaging I don't see how displaying our names would make us worry.

I admit though, I wish they would at least indicate when someone DCs.

They seem to be supporting the DCer more than those still playing...

"If you get cut off, your character will get taken over by the CPU without your opponents even knowing-it pinch hits for you!"

...despite the fact that the people DCing are the douchebags.

I'd like names too, but that's not happening considering Nintendo's "THINK UF TEH CHILDREN!" stance on online. But they could easily add an indication.

The people whining that there is no difference between this system and playing CPUs are deprived because they have obviously never played against anyone with the least bit of skill or creativity in tactics.

However, I do agree that it'd be nice to know if everyone DCed, that way I could just look for another match.

After you reach a certain stage (like Piaget's concrete operational), you can tell pretty quickly when a bot is playing rather than a human opponent. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not going to hang around to knock those last 4 stocks off of a computer, no matter how fluid and "unnoticeable" the transition from drop-ee to "challenging and intense" opponent may seem.
Seeing this sort of policing from Nintendo is routine, but getting old already. Enable the OPTION of voice-chat, and if parents don't want their kids listening in, that's what the parental controls are for - or they can just not get their kids a microphone. According to Sakurai, this game WAS supposed to be all about options, wasn't it?

@irkedpenguin:
Well, you guys could all be extremely good AI bots too... so I guess I shall trust the internet, that you´re all real people.

As well as I will when playing SSBB online, that I´ll be connected with people.

Eh?

heheheh...

But I´m sure that when I see some Ice Climbers wandering around pressing left and right, or some Mario crouching like a retard , I´ll be sure that it´s not the PC.

@irkedpenguin:
This is my exact thought. Without ANY voice chat or text option, how do I know that I'm playing online, other than tracking packet data on my router or something similar.

With its separate friend code system, no way to type what I want to friends or even strangers or voice chat to verify I'm actually playing a human, Brawl is quickly becoming less and less appealing to me.

@Tonx: H-H-H...Here we go!
So they're finally here, performing for you
If you know the words, you can join in too
Put your hands together if you want to clap
As we take you through this fun-ky rap! HUH!

D. K.! Donkey Kong!

* He's the leader of the bunch. You know him well.
He's finally back to kick some tail!
[Break: 2 Measures, Monkey Yells](1)
His coconut gun can fire in spurts
If he shoots ya, [Monkey Yell] it's gonna hurt! (2)
He's bigger! faster! and stronger too!
He's the first member of the DK crew!
D. K.! Donkey Kong! HEY!
D. K.! Donkey Kong is here!

[Break: 1 Measure]
This Kong's got style, so listen up dudes!
She shrinks in size to suit her mood!
[Break: 2 Measures]
She's quick n' nimble when she needs to be
She floats in air and climbs up trees!
[Break: 2 Measures]
If you choose her, you won't choose wrong
With a skip and a hop, she's ONE COOL KONG!
[Break: 2 Measures]
D. K.! Donkey Kong!
[Break: 4 Measures]

He has no style, he has no grace
This Kong...has a funny face
He can handstand when he wants to
And stretch his arms out just for you!
[Break: 1 Measure]
In-flate himself just like a balloon
This cra-zy Kong just digs this tune! HEY!
D. K.! (D. K.!) Donkey Kong!
D. K.! (D. K.!) Donkey Kong is here!

[Break: 2 Measures]
He's back again, and about time, too
And this time, he's in the mood!
[Break: 2 Measures]
He can fly real high
with his jetpack on...
With his pistols out, he's one tough Kong!
He can make you smile when you hear his tune...
[Break: 1 Measure]
But, Kremlings beware
'cause he's out after you!
D. K.! Donkey Kong!
D. K.! Donkey Kong!
(fading)
D. K.! Donkey Kong!
D. K....

Fi-nal-ly, he's here for you!
It's the LAST member of the D. K. crew!
This Kong's...so strong, it isn't funny!
Can make a Kremling cry out for Mummy!
[Break: 2 Measures]
He can pick up a boulder with relative ease
Makes crushing rocks seem such a breeze
He may move slow; he can't jump high
But this Kong's one heck of a guy! Hehehe...

[Break: 2 Measures]
Come on Cranky!
Take it to the stage!

** Walnuts, peanuts, pineapple smells!
Grapes, melons, oranges, and coconut shells!
** REPEAT
Oh, yeah!

[Break: 4 Measures]

* REPEAT (and fading)

@Striderhayasa:
They had exclusive rights to characters and FF games that were released on a sony console. And have until now. That´s why there´s not a Final Fantasy Tatics 2 on DS but a "Final Tantasy Tatics X - special alternate" wierd version or "Final Fantasy Special Blauerght Cristals Yadda Yadda No We Don´t Have Cloud Your Stupid Fanboy" until now... no Final Fantasy VII will ever be released outside Sony on a console. Pc´s are swell since no console gamer cares for PCs..
But good heavens, I hope nothing gets plagued with that crap again. Cloud and sephiroth on party Minigames every week if it could be.

Does anyone know if you can do public stock matches? What he said about not "worrying" about setting has caused quite the opposite reaction.

@StupidDufus:
Super Smash Bros Melee, do you like that game? If you do, why you woudn´t like it´s sequel more?

Expectations can destroy a good game. If this keeps on, people will say that Smash Bros Brawl is crap because it doesn´t show up Batman on it as a character and doesn´t have a way to customize Mario with a Mii´s head, or "insert-creative-wierd-and-possible-feature-that-you-imagined-here"

@StupidDufus: Honest question (I'm not being facetious or trying to be a jerk), does it really take a chat function to tell you that your playing against a real person? If the gameplay is so shitty (conversely, if the AI is so good) that you cannot tell the difference between the way a computer plays and the way a human plays, why does it matter?

lolz, still no chat function?! how do i know if im facing a human nor not? the machines are taking over!

k.

@Striderhayasa: See, I can't see myself being friends with a person just because we played together once in an online game.

My Microsoft Internet Hearts game has been doing this for years!

Anyways, it is awesome, and I wish they had stuck it in Mario Kart DS. I hate when you end up racing against 1 person, that's not what Mario Kart's about.

I would have really liked to see an option to play online matches without items. I know that in all my SSB career, my friends and I have never played with items. There is just that special, warm fuzzy feeling you get when you know hat you just beat the crap out of him with your bare hands (or extensions thereof).

@GoddessVesta: Why even bother with Mario Kart then? There's tons of great item-less racers to choose from! Unless you dig Mario and his gang, I guess.

So if online play is just like play against an AI character - to the point that you can't tell whether you're playing against a human or a machine - then what's the point of playing online at all?

what happens when a sucky player turns into a demon? (high level comp)

Its a good diea to finish matches but half of the time I will be wondering if im fighting real people or not. Again not saying its a bad idea.

A bad idea is Friend Codes, let the flaming begin!

oh and I lol'ed at this comment he made:

"Names won't be shown and messages won't be sent. Neither your identity nor your opponents' will be known, so you can play without any worries."

omg Im going to be raped!!!! D:

oh btw the dojo site should have a forum, its logic. Unless it has one already o.o

@brello: the karts dont have special powers so thats why the items are there

all the fighters in brawl have special powers which items are not needed. IMO I hate items, it can change a match just by picking up a bat, bomb, star,etc.. put real skills into it, dont rely on items.

@ragingmime:

exactly my thought. I see no reason at all to be glad about this.

That's cool to see something different like that. At least Nintendo is trying to do something right? But i was playing GH3 at a friends house and everytime i would play online the other person's wii would allways disconnect so it's a auto win for the other person with the better net hook up. But Isn't this nintendo's like 4th online game don't they need to fully need to test out the bugs before going online cause the games they have now can barely use the online function.

@ragingmime: you act as if they are charging you a monthly fee to play online or something. besides, its a fighting game. i could see if this were an fps, but you really dont need voice chat for anything. ok, maybe you need it for before and after matches, or maybe if you were playing a team match and wanted to do some kind of strategy (which never really happens when you play offline anyway, because the other people are sitting right next to you and can hear your plans) but thats about it. during the actual match, no one gives a crap about "human interaction" and all that other stuff. people only care about winning and kicking the crap out their opponent. anything else would just be mindless banter

Crazy.

@brello:

? He said Smash Brothers why did you bring up Kart?

I think everyone is kinda missing the point. I doubt that a match will continue if everyone left, and I think you'd be able to tell if everyone left you on your billy tod.

Its been done before (CoH has AI take over if someone leaves)

@GoddessVesta:

Well congrats, because that option's there.

@bigman88zz:

How do you get out of his statement that he acts like they are charging a fee?

A little inner feelings coming out in your post it seems!

during the actual match, no one gives a crap about "human interaction" and all that other stuff. people only care about winning and kicking the crap out their opponent. anything else would just be mindless banter

Only Nintendo games can get away with less features of online I suppose. If other games tried this, oh boy!

And with that statement, again is the question, if you dont care about all that interaction, and you dont know if you are online other than Nintendo said so, then why even bother, since it will feel no different than offline!

@ Everyone who says "how do i know its not a computer player?!?!"

Network traffic. Learn how to view it.

If these matches are a realtime representation of a match with four people, your network connection should be flipping out every time you start it up.

Another easy way to find out is if the person walks. For whatever reason, the AI in Smash Bros. likes to walk. Nobody in reality walks.

This is great news. No names, no chat, no taunts. That keeps the douchebaggery at bay. So far at bay, in fact, that I can't easily foresee a way for anyone online to insult someone else. I'm sure the young'uns will find a way. Pre-teen male aggression, after all.

I propose a new term for when someone drops out and you can tell they're a comp by the play style:

"Dude that loser just comped out!"

:P