The article is fairly long so I'll just post a link to it for those interested.  One of the major points of the article is that Nintendo lost a major opportunity for it's online service with Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

http://www.slate.com/id/2187562

Smashing Failure Super Smash Bros. Brawl: a great game—and another fiasco for the Nintendo Wii's pitiful online gaming service.

By Jack Patrick Rodgers
Posted Thursday, March 27, 2008, at 6:11 PM ET

"The Nintendo Wii brings people together. Fun, easy-to-learn games like Wii Sports have taught the joys of gaming to a wide variety of would-be players: women, little tykes, grandparents, even the Queen of England. There's one place, however, where Nintendo actively discourages its fans from enjoying each other's company. Hop online to play along with your Wii-owning friends, and you're guaranteed to be disappointed."

(More at the link) 

They did miss an opportunity but considering this is Nintendo's first (technically second) foray into the online world, the online service isn't even two years old and its free I think its pretty good. The article has some good points though.

to be fair, all 3 consoles have had opportunities that they could have taken advantage of, but didn't/haven't. online play is just not nintendo's strength or concern, and with the situation that they are currently in, it doesn't look like they want to do too much about it either.

Legend, haven't we all known this? It is crap. We need Nintendo to make more things with it though. (since only konami, pes, and ea canada, moh:h2, seems to be the only 2 3rd parties that got Wii's online right.

I'm not reading the article, but let me just say I agree with what he has to say. There really is no way an article that is critical of Nintendo's silly online service can be wrong.

One of the most ridiculous things in recent memory is how Brawl doesn't track your online record or stats. I know Sakurai said it was so people wouldn't feel pressure when playing online, or become discouraged by getting whipped a lot, but that's not going to cut it. Smash Bros is a series that is now known for ridiculously detailed stat-tracking, yet we don't even get a simple won/loss record for online play. Besides, if people get discouraged from getting beat online, it's not from looking at the stats resulting from the beatdowns, it's the beatdowns themselves that would be discouraging.

As much as I think Nintendo's online service is inadequate, I also think that far too few people consider the problem Nintendo has ...

Whether it is entirely appropriate or not, Nintendo will always have to be far more "Family Friendly" than either Sony or Microsoft due to when they entered the market and how they were marketed through out the 80's and early 90's. This means the "press" will react differently to the exact same thing if it happens on the Nintendo Wifi Connection than if it happens on XBox Live; for example if a 13 year old gets lured and abused it would be the fault of Nintendo if it is on the Nintendo Wifi Connection while it would be considered a danger of online if it was on XBox Live.

There are much better solutions to the problem, and hopefully Nintendo will learn from the mistakes it has made with the Wii's online service.

Im sure theyll manage to fix it up or at least work on making it acceptable, but for the moment i completely agree with the article...i wouldnt care about having an insane loss record honestly, i think its only fair to have a basic win/loss stat

I must say, the friend code service was not the greatest idea ever, why not just have ID's?

Perfect example of how silly and childish the wii is. It tries to get people to exersize with out clean air and sunshine and it tries to get you to make virtual friends who might as well be miis.  No truelly good purpose cant even say hi how is your day or how is the weather in Japan.  Just another way to suck you into the matrix away from the ture joys out doors or the joy of communion with others.

Yeah. Even as a Nintendo fan, I gotta agree. No voice chat. No camera. No friend invites, etc. And I haven't been able to fight ANYONE online in Brawl YET!! I even have friends I met on this site whom I haven't added because it's so cumbersome. I didn't buy the Wii for it's online, but it's one glaring kink in Nintendo's armor.