Super Smash Bros. and online play aren't a 'good fit' for each other says Masahiro Sakurai
The Super Smash Bros. franchise has featured online play in its games for 15 years at this point, but their lacking features and implementations for fighting people over the internet has made it more difficult to enjoy those aspects.
Series creator Masahiro Sakurai recently discussed online play in his Super Smash Bros. Brawl development video wherein he states he doesn't feel that netplay is a good fit for the games.
"The Wii had online functionality built into the console by default, so it was essential that we supported that," said Sakurai. "Personally speaking, though, I don't think online play and Smash Bros. are a very good fit for each other."
Sakurai goes on to explain that Smash is at its best when "players can become champions among their friends" in an offline setting, but subjecting them to online competition can "cause people to lose confidence," which he doesn't really like.
He also discusses the limitations implemented that has to synchronize the inputs of up to 4 players simultaneously, which limits the range and scope of players you can find a good connection against along with introducing lag into the mix.
Most of these connection issues are only a major problem, however, in the scope of fighters that use delay-based netcode to keep matches in sync, which Brawl, Smash 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate all rely on.
Rollback netcode has been a solution available since Brawl first released though and opens the door across longer distances and more varied connections.
At this point, pretty much every other platform fighter around currently including MultiVersus, Rivals of Aether, Brawlhalla and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl all have rollback netcode implemented. It's pretty much just Smash stuck in the old ways.
Sakurai did state back in 2020 that his team were testing something similar to rollback for Smash Ultimate, but they eventually had to give the feature the ax.
It's easy to see where Sakurai is coming from considering fighting games, and especially Smash, are at their best experience wise when sitting down with people in the same room.
That's just not the reality of where the genre is at anymore, however, and online play has become the primary way of fighting other people for the most part over the past generation and especially since the pandemic.
Perhaps Sakurai may feel a little differently now if Smash Ultimate performed better online, but it's his opinions on the games he created at the end of the day.
It'll never stop players from asking about rollback though or going so far as to put it into the games themselves like we've seen for Slippi and Melee.
Source: EventHubs
