Better reason to invite friends over. Win win, coupled with the fact I don't have to hear a 7 or 35 year old bitching at me.

Apparently unlike CaffeinePowered, I personally don't own a laptop or have a computer within range of my Wii set-up. So, I am definitely going to miss voice chat. That is, however, only if I decide to play online. I'm pretty sure I'd rather just buy some new Wiimotes and play with my roommates. As Rockvillian said, win win.

I, for one, think it kind of sucks. I would have loved it in Strikers. I mean, it would obviously have a mute option.

@B - Having people over is always better, just if I want to play with someone I know online, its nice to have at least something, even if Nintendo is being retarted. At least friends should be able to chat

Bad decision. Nintendo should give us the choice. If we choose not to use it, so be it. However, I tool don't like the idea of screwing around with a man's original vision.

Know what's funny? When I used to play ragnarok online with my friends, the easiest way to set up voice chat was by starting a halo 2 lobby, inviting everyone to it and just chatting away in there. Wouldn't it be silly if I ended up doing the same thing for brawl?

Angry homophobic 12 year olds can't call me racial slurs all game? I don't have to mute half of the players.

It's not that bad...I was disappointed that there's no leader boards, but you can't really have that when the rules of every match can be different.

Play brawl for fun, join the tournament scene if you want to be a ranked player. I'm sure they'll do some ranked matches online in a regulated way through friend's lists

Nintendo, all the pedobears are playing Halo, stop jerking around and deliver us some decent multiplayer...

voice chat would just lag online play anyway. check Dark Resurrection online.

No leaderboards or score keeping...

The LEAST they could do is allow voice chat with friendplay.


WHY does Nintendo refuse to offer BASIC online features? Why?

Man, Nintendo just keeps on surprising me. Whereas voice chat and a bunch of other online capabilities seem old hat to Sony or MS, Nintendo can't get past Interwubs 101. I just hope the online mode in acceptable, and runs near-flawlessly.

Nevertheless, I'll be waiting in line for this puppy.

Yeah I agree with Deiga.

I really thought the Wii would be different with all of the online features they've implemented out of game (like the online VC shopping, Miis, etc.)

But at the same time they're still leaving their in game online functions back in the stone age.

I'll still have a blast in SSBB but I would have really liked there to be some sort of competition aspect online I could partake in.

Nintendo is lying. Although you were all naive to think they would include voice chat in the first place.

There's no rules and regs preventing voice chat. Sony and M$ have been doing it for years already.

Nintendo just doesn't want to have to deal with the uncensored and out-of-control atmosphere that online chat often breeds.

Smart for them, sucks for us. But please don't think there's some horseshit "rules and regulations" preventing it from happening.

They just don't want to have to deal with the blow back that comes from when little Billy and his friends steal the neighbor's WiFi and learn all the cuss words in existence in an evening.

After all the other online features they've shot down, was anyone seriously expecting Nintendo to implement this?

I'd like to have voice chat for friend matches, but this still isn't that big of a deal. The multiplayer will rock just as hard without hearing random strangers insult your sexuality constantly during the matches.

Seriously, you guys expected anything less? We are still talking about Nintendo right?

Who cares, people usually just take the opportunity to belittle people or come up with some inventive way to be an asshole. It's not like you need to talk strategy with a friend or something.

Not a deal breaker at all.

Not complaining because Nintendo is known for it's online incompetence is stupid. Why do we continue to give them a free pass? Their online system is shit, friend codes are shit (stop kidding yourselves, people), and their online store interface is shit.

If you don't want to use voice-chat for fear of little kids screaming, than that's fine. There should be a choice for that, though. On XBOX if you don't want to hear people talking that aren't on your friends list you can do that. You can auto mute everyone other than the people on your friends list by going to your settings.

At least let us talk to the people we know. This whole fear of child offenders is retarded. If Nintendo is going to treat it's system like a child's toy than so will I.

"you could set up Skype by your game station and go at it with a friend if you like"

Oh, that's fucking convenient. For a system who pushes simplicity over a long list of features, that's ass.

Oh come on now, Nintendo are just protecting us all from those notorious pedophiles on the internets who try and get us to play porno games like Mass Effect and other murder simulators.

I would much rather prefer an environment where I can't communicate whatsoever to the pedophiles + be able to play a fighting game that ISN'T a murder simulator because it is Nintendo and all and they have the limp-dick approach to gaming right now.

Dude, why the hell are you still surprised with that? brawl is already out in japan, we'll get the same game but in english. we already know everything that is to know about brawl.

@Luigitakesover

Yes Virtua Fighter 5 does have voice chat, as does any game with online features on a console that isn't a Nintendo one, its a rather basic feature.

Nice to see the defenders as usual, no wonder Nintendo does so well when they morons like you guys on their side, "I don't wanna hear some kid calling me a fag so who cares", right that's fine but voice chat has many uses, say you want to play with a friend that's far off, maybe a family member, can't do it now other Caffeine's ridiculous idea of setting up Skype(because all of us own laptops right?).

Voice chat is optional in any game really, if I'm alone I don't use it but if I play with FRIENDS I'd like to chat with them, Nintendo as usual doesn't give you the choice.

And of course people will still buy their products and defend them.

Most Dtoiders seem to game with each other while talking on Vent anyway, so I don't think it's a big deal for our community. I can see why Nintendo might want to do it, though, given how people are always jumping on the Wii and DS as portals to pedos and such.

Christ people, what's all this "win-win" bullshit?

Voice chat could be disabled by default. Less ideally, but still okay, would be the ability to voice chat with friends only. Y'all act like the only thing voice chat is good for is trash talking but I generally play Smash Bros with my brother and our friends. When I'm not in the same house as them—which is going to be usually for Brawl since we all have or will have our own Wiis—I'd like to be able to talk to them just like I would if we were sitting on the couch.

We play games not just to "play the game" but also because we're all friends and we like hanging out and a big part of that is talking, both about the game and other stuff. Saying the lack of this ability is somehow a good thing, as if it would have gotten in the way, is ridiculous. Not all my friends have a laptop or the equipment to be online with two devices in the same room. I do, but not everyone I'll be playing with.

This is complete bullshit. Nintendo reminds me of the Chinese government sometimes. Next thing you know they'll be limiting how long you can play a given game within a 24-hour period and citing it as a "feature", and the game developer, like Sakurai, will advise some equally ridiculous workaround like buying a second or third Wii or running multiple games on multiple memory cards.

A bit extreme and exaggerated, but it's in the same vain.

I don't check The Dojo often because I've got a lot of stuff I'm busy with, so this is the first I've heard of the feature cut. I was really looking forward to it, too. :(

Just think, though: People are posting upskirt videos and images. Do you really want to take that chance with voice chat?