No way, online would matter to a tiny fraction of the people who would want NSMB, and it would probably fundamentally change the game, and extend development time.

Punchout it would go in, that game was lacking in content, online multiplayer could have made it more worthwhile, but I think WSR and NSMB are good without it, and the sales show.

Online is not as important as some core gamers think. Local mulitplayer is the right thing to focus their efforts on for the moment at least.

They should support their peripherals more, but that's hardly an example of 'laziness', they have limited resources after all. I don't think your other examples are signs of 'laziness' either.

My response to anyone still complaining about the lack of online multiplayer in NSMBWii.
Read the sig

I agree local trumps online on Wii. And online wouldn't affect sales much on those games (would have helped Punchout!, both a friend and I would have gotten a copy if it was online. Instead I settled for the VC version) however there's no disputing there is a sizeable online community on Wii that Brawl and Kart attests too that the Big N ignored by not putting online in NSMBW a game those same gamers would be sure to get. That's lazy in my books.

your sig does not apply, noone is saying they should take out offline multiplayer to put in online, they are saying it should have both.  I find it hard to believe that both would not be better than either one.

It's being economical, Nintendo have limited manpower, money and time. They need to get games out in certain time frames, so they have to focus on what's important. It'd be nice if they could fit everything into every game, but that's not practical in reality.

I agree with you to a point.  But Nintendo is not a small developer.  They have the manpower, it's just a matter of priorities.  If they wanted online on NSMBW it would have been there and still out before Christmas, it may have delayed some other game a bit but there's no question it could have been done.   And money?  Are you kidding?   Nintendo is by FAR the richest software developer.  They are making billions where most are losing millions.   If anyone has the money, it's Nintendo.    If EA (who's lost millions) can put solid online in their Wii games, so can Nintendo.

Those are the three limiting resources. I'd say time is the most important one, but yes it is a matter of priorities, and I don't think online should be a very high one. Personally I think they need to be putting more of their limited resources into WM+ support and bridge titles, but that's just me.

I agree that online should be included in Mario Wii. No, I don't play too much online and I don't really care, but there are a lot of people who care, Nintendo fans that are grown up and don't have the time to go with their friends. Time and money is not an excuse, because Smash and Mario Kart already had them.

Now, the problem is the reasons why IGN call them lazy. No achievements? 2D graphics? No HD? No online? Lazy! Lazy! Lazy! And that's not true, they just had different ideas in mind, it was not laziness it was investigation. Most people didn't had HDTV so that was not included. Most people don't care of online so it was not a priority, and so on, not just to reduce costs for them but for the consumers.

Had they included online but no local multiplayer... would IGN been calling them lazy? I don't think so.

Online Multiplayer in Wii Sports Resort would be really great, but I don't miss it in NSMBWii... It's so much fun for me to play it with my girlfriend or my little brother, but if I imagine that they would sit on their own Wiis and play online with me, than it's not nearly as much fun.

Hitting the nail on the head with this. They couldn't even be bothered to try get Activision to clarify if there was split screen in CoD:MW:R, instead they ranted about Wii Speak even though a minority of their (core gaming) audience cared about it.