oobob said:
Mario is an extremely precision based game. In a world 7 castle there's a pipe under a platform that takes a perfect spin jump to reach. If you lag there you're dead. The game was designed so that perfect jump got you there. To some extent that's how all Mario games play. NSMB Wii is even worse with lag because of the immaculate level design. You can tell there's a speed run hidden in most levels, even more so than the old games. What's lag do if you have to time the jump on the koopa perfectly?
Lag in Mario is worse than other games. You can't die as easily in COD or other FPS games. We have spray and pray and lag leading there. There are so many bullets that you have a probability of hitting and they don't usually kill you instantly. In Mario, you miss a jump and you're replaying half the level.
Even LBP has gameplay differences that make it possible for multiplayer. The precision in jumping and timing is nothing like Mario. It feels much sloppier and less reactive with jumps, where as in Mario I know exactly how long and hard to press the button for the jump I need. Additionally there are many respawn points in LBP right before hard areas, each with several lives. In NSMB Wii, you lag, you die. And start over from the beginning or halfway point. That is a fundamental change in the gameplay. Including checkpoints like LBP would have made the game a joke.
If you guys can't find friends to play Mario with or want to play this game so often that you can't play something else at 3am, you guys are more Mario obsessed than myself and my friends. And if there's one thing I learned from SSBB it's that online multiplayer sucks in games where the main joy results from yelling at and laughing with your friends.
I didn't even mention how lag would hurt 4 players. Sometimes you're all on a small platform and one player is bouncing off everyone's heads for several seconds trying to fall in the only open spot. Can you imagine that with lag?
If people think lag wouldn't affect this game they never really understood Mario. You can walk or move safely through most levels and die far less often, but that's not how people play Mario. The point is to run as fast as you can and bounce off everything and anything in a frantic race to the end, perfectly timed. It's like people who stopped running in Sonic. You weren't supposed to stop! Can you imagine lag in carnival night zone?
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This point right here. 
oobob hit it right on the HEAD!
The reason Nintendo does things DIFFERENTLY than everybody else does explains why they have the SUCCESS they do.
They are about QUALITY. And if online ruined the QUALITY of a masterpiece like NSMBWii then to hell with it.
Don't get me wrong. I understand the arguments made for it & feel that it wouldn't hurt to add the option...UNLESS it took away from the gameplay experience.
Brawl's online was implemented wrong & it hurt the game (I think it's better now though somehow...less traffic online maybe?).
Certain games lend themselves to playing better online due to how the information is queued. I think I heard racing games being a no-brainer because there can be break drawing up the stages in real time. F-Zero X on N64 sacrificed graphical texture to better implement flawless speed through 60 frames per second...WITH 30 simultaneous cars! Sometimes there just has to be a sacrifice in order to keep intact the playing experience.
You can make a slight mistake in a racing game & not pay for it. But in precision-centric Mario that won't fly.
You don't wanna be fighting the technology when you're ready to play. Especially not in a game already set for frustration like Mario. Don't even mention multiplayer Mario.
Also I think Nintendo's wary putting their E-rated hometown games online for their family-friendly image. People will cuss playing Mario & that will start an incident between families. Nintendo wants Wii to break the stigma gaming has & people hearing that type of language will unfairly associate Nintendo, bringer of this innocent device called Wii, with that behavior regardless of the preemptive online ESRB warning.
That's why Mario Kart Wii doesn't have voice (I know it came out before Wii Speak but they could have included the capability earlier).
AND online can lead to hackers cheating as well (all those fake times on the Mario Kart Wii Tournaments). Playing too many cheaters ruins the game for others & sours people on the experience. They want the frustration to come from friendly family-based rivalry not anonymous people who might cheat & trick their way through the game.
The spirit of online has differences from the spirit of local & that's just how it is.
Nintendo can do it easily but they won't because they are concerned about the ultimate cost to their product & overall philosophy.
Nintendo is trying to bring people in not push them out. Inclusivity not exclusivity. It drives every decision they make with every product. And while this can lead to annoyance with their methods ultimately it's for the good of all gaming.
This is why I have never begrudged the friend codes. I understand why they are there...as cumbersome as they may be.
John Lucas
