Playing the games

Most games that utilize Nintendo online Wi-Fi do so at their own risk so to speak.  There’s no umbrella system like Xbox LIVE and it’s up to the developers to lay out what they want to do.  Whereas everyone complains about friend codes, most of the games outside of Nintendo first party games do not use them. And even in Nintendo games if you want to jump right into a game you can do so without friend codes.  This works great in games like Dr Mario Rx or Mario Kart WIi, but horribly with a game like Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  A downside of all of this is the fact that you can’t add people to your friends list after playing them randomly.  While I can understand Ninty’s stance on wanting to protect people from other people (in a sense anyway), it’s very annoying to have a good match with someone in a game and then probably never play them ever again due to not being able to add them to your list.  Again, backwards I say.

EA has the best online structure for the Wii and The Big N would be wise to take notes.  There are game lobbies letting you see who’s online, texting, and you can invite people to a friend list on the EA servers.  This is honestly not that big of a gripe as it appears.  I mean if you just want to turn your system on, get in a game and play, on a game like Dr. Mario Rx or Mario Kart Wii you can be doing your thing in 2-3 mins on a good day. But on a game like Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Good luck.

Once in the games, things are generally pretty smooth.  The worst online experience I’ve personally had with a game is with Brawl, between lag dropped connections and just trying to get into a random game, it really can turn into a bummer.

But I’ve played Medal Of Honor 2: Heroes‘ 32-player matches without so much as a hiccup.  It’s a lot more hit than miss from my experience.

All in all

Nintendo has come a long way with tipping their feet into the online pool.  Sure there are no demo services for upcoming games,  online chat, movies, or the option to save your personal credit card info.  But the way I look at it, they can only grow and get better from here, and with the commitment that they’ve shown to the user-base of the Wii so far, there’s a good chance that eventually in some way, shape, or form they’ll knock one out of the park.  Or in the very least load up the bases.