So now he's saying what he probably should have said from the beginning, that they *could* have done it, but their priority was crafting a local multiplayer experience

ONM: Was online multiplayer considered for the game at all? Was it just too difficult to get it to work without any lag?

SM: Well, it's not for purely technological issues that it wasn't included. After all, as you know, we already have online play in Smash Bros., and technologically speaking, I don't think it's creating a high amount of lag. It's just a matter of our priorities when it comes to the creation of a game. We just prioritised on making a multiplayer mode where four players can sit together and play while seeing each other's faces.

We thought that this was more important as far as this New Super Mario Bros. was concerned, but we don't know about the future. Because network environments are getting better and better every day, it may be possible in a future edition to incorporate that type of multiplayer online mode for a real-time action game. But I am just talking about the technological aspect here. What's more important, of course, is if it's going to add to the fun aspect of the game.

This explanation seems like the most appropriate, though that statement about Brawl not generating a lot of lag has to be a poor translation, or he has really never tried it...

Full interview here: http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=14117

It wasn't included because they didn't want to spend any extra time on the game to put it in. End of discussion. The game was a rush job to get it out before the holiday season.

It's an awesome game, but no online is an absolute shitfest.

and brawl is unplayable. The online simply does not work.

rolstoppable-

Don't trust people with Kim Possible avatars!

"The Wii and DS are my life. I would take a bullet for Nintendo."

Another Mario, baby! NSMB Wii IS GIGANTIC!!! Bigger, better and more badass.

That is all I need to know ;)

The thing here is that he's not dismissing the technical reasons, just saying that they were not the primary driving factor.

This is unrelated, but let me tell you a story.....

Last week, I went with my friend to Blockbuster, to see what 360 games they had that he could play locally with his GF.

Looked for 20 minutes and found none. He then told me he was seriously considering trading in his 360 for a Wii to compensate.

Last year, a 360 is all he wanted, but that is because the only one who would play it. If you have more than 1 friend willing to play videogames with you, a game with local multiplayer is key. NSMB would be unused by me if I bought the game. I'd rather play with my friends and family. That's just me.

It's perfectly true. Local multiplayer is by far superior for this game. Online multiplayer would be incredibly dull and boring.

Local multiplayer > Online

I don't trust people with Kim Possible Avatars and their random statements

I can believe that. They wanted to concentrate on the local multiplayer, make that the big focus of the game. And it worked. What is everybody saying they like about the game after playing it? Multiplayer. I think a lot of people are buying the game for that. Online would have overshadowed it. If you want online, go play xbox. I'm perfectly happy without it.

I'm actually more shocked that he didn't tell them the truth this time.

It is because Nintendo can't handle skirt physics online. A player on one side of the world would see the skirt flipping up on the front, while the other players might see it flipping up on the back. This would totally screw up character interactions, so they had to remove both online and skirts.