Online co-op to possibly feature in future Mario games

"Wii/ Miyamoto stated the reason it wasn't included is not due to lag or technological issues, it was simply because the team wanted players to get together and physically be with each other."

Bullshit. More like they were too lazy and cheap to host dedicated servers.

I appreciate Nintendo choosing to focus on local multiplayer in several titles, especially as it appears to have taken a back seat in recent times as more developers concentrate on online modes. Nothing can top the atmosphere and interactivity generated from a few mates in the one room playing a game together; from Goldeneye to Mario Kart, there are some truly fond memories due to multiplayer. With that said, free time becomes a scarcity as you get older, and arranging get-togethers with friends becomes increasing difficult and inconvenient, making online connectivity the next best alternative. As a result, I can understand some of the anger and disappointment from those where local multiplayer isn't a frequently viable option.

Of course, there's also the possibility that New Super Mario Bros. Wii could have suffered from terrible latency in an online multiplayer mode, even if it was simply restricted to friends. In that sense, perhaps it was for the best that it was left out and that the "fun" of multiplayer wasn't tarnished.

Whilst the online experience will vary from player to player for a wide variety of reasons, the general consensus has been that Brawl suffers from frustrating latency issues. To be fair, Miyamoto does specifically mention the technological aspect of the online connectivity, but this statement alone is already being taken as more evidence that Nintendo is completely out of touch with the enthusiast userbase.

EDIT: On a lighter note, it's good to see that the WiiWare Demos have been successful enough to garner continued support for the service. Hopefully this is a good sign for the future. :)

As I suspected knew, Nintendo lied about NSMBWii not being online due to tech limitations as they originally claimed.

That said I'm not excited for this at all. 2P in Galaxy was very meh and the co-op in NSMBWii was pretty rubbish. Mario just doesn't seem to work in co-op.

Read an article on IGN like last week or so, claiming how Nintendo are just right out lazy. This just seems to prove that point even more.

Co-op NSMBWii is heaps fun, if only because dying repeatedly because of the other players is funny. I think it's worth getting off your butt and all getting at one house to play it. Similarly, playing Brawl locally is way more fun than online, especially when everyone starts yelling and making crude jokes :P

Well it is fun when just murdering each other, for a while at least, but it sucks if you actually try to beat levels. The VS multiplayer is waaay better. I still regard the NSMBDS multiplayer as one of my favourite VS modes ever.

Again, Nintendo seem to continually make the choice for us.

Give up on Mystery Dungeon.

Couldn't have made that much of a difference, there's already loads of latency as an offline multiplayer game - the damn thing keeps stopping and starting every few seconds. Annoying as hell.

The Power up/Death Pause in a four player game is admittedly quite annoying; despite my best efforts to anticipate it, it still leads to quite a few mistimed jumps and careless suicides. Fortunately, it becomes much less intrusive with fewer players, but just imagine having that sort of pausing non-stop throughout the entire level... let alone the pause on top of the actual pause. You would be lucky to complete one mere stage in half an hour. :D

Heh, when I was playing it with friends I think we WERE lucky to complete one stage in a half hour :P
Everyone kept dying/getting killed/bubble fail that often, I think we only actually completed maybe two levels, the rest all had to get skipped.

Which is why co-op Mario is fail, it makes the game 2-4x harder instead of 2-4x more fun.

Which I hate, but to be fair Nintendo has a lot of good reasons to not listen to fans (see: DS, Wii, Windwaker, etc).

With teamwork I thought NSMB: Wii multiplayer was actually a lot easier, and a lot more enjoyable... I've started but yet to finish it single player.

Don't really have the desire to, to be completely honest.

This sort of thing I could see being the reason online for Nintendo won't work... it certainly hasn't been a priority for them, and they really haven't put a great deal of effort into it.

So many hilarious moments playing online in MK: Wii with their crazy approach to online...
"I finished 2nd! Yes!"
"Wait... Great, finished 5th."