Pokemon takes Wii online in US
by Ross Miller 
{ Jun 25th 2007 at 1:25PM }
Seven months, six days, in the year 2007. With Pokemon Battle Revolution being released, that will be how long Wii owners have waited for an online game. Had Nintendo waited until the normal Tuesday release schedule, they could have enjoyed triple 7's and some massive Luck bonus. No such, uh, luck.Though Microsoft launched headfirst into online console gaming with Xbox Live and Sony fully jumping in this generation, Nintendo has been more reticent in their approach. Prior to Wii, just one console title utilized a modem: Phantasy Star Online I & II for GameCube.
The Nintendo DS has a rather strong lineup of WiFi-enabled titles, but like the Wii system there are friend codes that must be swapped by both parties in some fashion outside of the game. (Random online play is possible through a matchmaking system, but you cannot save a random opponent's information for a later challenge.)
A few more online Wii titles are coming on the horizon: Battalion Wars, Super Mario Strikers and potentially Metroid Prime and Smash Bros. Brawl. Notice anything missing? Various third-party developers have claimed that Nintendo early on had not provided code for online play, but we know Electronic Arts has managed to incorporate online into its upcoming Madden 08.
[Update: The details of Metroid Prime and Smash Bros.' online capabilities are currently unconfirmed. Wording modified to reflect that.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SP @ Jun 25th 2007 1:31PM
I don't believe Metroid Prime 3 has been confirmed for online play.
a.j. @ Jun 25th 2007 1:37PM
Mario Strikers Charged is awesome...online is lag free and pretty damn fun. Glad their finally starting to get titles out there like this. Metroid Prime 3 has been confirmed BTW.
vidGuy @ Jun 25th 2007 1:37PM
MP3 has not been confirmed.
I'd have no problem with the Friend Code system IF Nintendo made it possible to invite random players to be your friend. A code-swap could happen behind the scenes after the player accepts the invite, and no one would be the wiser to a long series of numbers.
Madden 08 online is the only reason I'm upgrading from Madden 07 on the Wii, but I'm not happy with the implementation of EA's own gamertags; it's just one more thing to forget.
shivr @ Jun 25th 2007 1:38PM
brawl has online? since when?
Fernando Rocker @ Jun 25th 2007 1:40PM
Metroid Prime has not been confirmed to have multiplayer, but its been confirmed that the game will use WiiConnect to download new missions and that kind of stuff.
Lijik @ Jun 25th 2007 1:40PM
I'm going to pretend this title never existed, and celebrate the coming of Wii online when Strikers or Battalion Wars comes out. Whichever comes first, I don't recall which.
The_aNew @ Jun 25th 2007 1:47PM
@Lijik
Mario Strikers CHARGED is July 30th
Battalion Wars II is some time in Sept.
I’ll be buying PBR.
on sale at Circuit City(2pm) and Fry’s Electronics(12noon) for $39.99 this Tuesday.
deaftly @ Jun 25th 2007 1:48PM
the wii's first online title is pokemon and surprisingly enough no one seemed to care or notice, well welcome to the club nintendo only took you 5 years or so
kingofwale @ Jun 25th 2007 1:53PM
could this be possible? Joystiq is cooking up it's own rumours? ;).
heck, it's not as stupid as the "Halo DS" one IGN made up. (SUCK IT HARD)! but it's a beginning.
Pretty Obvious @ Jun 25th 2007 2:03PM
So let me get this straight, it took Nintendo this long to launch its online not to mention it sucks because of this friend code BS. The system itself doesnt even play DVD movies though it does have a DVD drive (figure that one out). Last its not even a next-gen console with almost just as horrible a lineup of games as the PS3.
Yet its selling like hot cakes for $249. This only proves one thing. People are idiots.
hvnlysoldr @ Jun 25th 2007 2:07PM
I thought it was pretty obvious. Common sense isn't common. I'm amazed at how stupid and smart people can be. And Eye patches are for night vision.
Jonathan Tran @ Jun 25th 2007 2:08PM
haha yeah I have a Wii and I kept thinking, I would buy more games if they had online multiplayer. My room is too small anyway to have 4 people waving around like idiots ,let alone me!
It is funny though that I played more games online on my Dreamcast than I can on Wii:
Phantasy Star
Quake 3
Various online extras for Rayman, Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio
Okay so that's not a lot of games, but it's more than 1
I can't wait for brawl and I HOPE metroid has online multi, since otherwise the supposedly perfect controls will be a waste
megaStryke @ Jun 25th 2007 2:08PM
@Pretty Obvious
With a name like that, you seem pretty OBLIVIOUS to the real reason why consumers are buying the Wii in droves...
Free decoder ring with every purchase.
Eggman @ Jun 25th 2007 2:09PM
vidGuy, Nintendo's online service DOES let you friend random people. Upon playing someone, you're offered the option of adding them as a friend (or a rival if the game has that in it). No code swapping needed. In fact, it's been this way for a while on the DS. It very much bugs me that no one ever notices.
blackmajik2021 @ Jun 25th 2007 2:19PM
actually your wrong...phantasy star episode 1&2 used it...and so did PSOIII...an online card battle game...also 1080, mario kart, and kirbys air ride were lan compatible.
PS!CHO @ Jun 25th 2007 2:27PM
Ahhh, PSO... Many hours wasted on this MMO... I just have one question, why did Nintendo use this friend code system again? I can't find the answer...
Vince @ Jun 25th 2007 2:31PM
smash bros was confirmed for online a year ago.
JodyAnthony @ Jun 25th 2007 2:31PM
PBR has a separate friend code because of the DS interactivity. From what I have read, every other game has a single friend code (same code for every game) linked to your specific Mii.
Jonathan Tran @ Jun 25th 2007 2:34PM
That's not true I got every penny of waggle I paid for.
Now if only I had a widescreen TV, and there were about 10 more games like Trauma Center
-Fireman
-Fishing Dude
-Jet Set Radio 3 with SPRAY YOUR OWN SPRAY PAINT
-Club my Sealz
-lego something with motion control lego building
-Tornado Mania with good graphics
-Project HAMMER, hopefully not scrapped
-GHOSTBUSTERS (shoot ghosts, pull them into traps, don't cross the beams, pilot giant french statues!)
hvnlysoldr @ Jun 25th 2007 2:41PM
Now just because there's a statue in Paris and that guy made one for America doesn't mean the Statue of Liberty is French. La La La Ierukana.
sheppy @ Jun 25th 2007 2:44PM
@hvnlysoldr
I was beginning to think I was the only one who knew the secret of the eye patches....
TDub301 @ Jun 25th 2007 3:02PM
To the best of my knowledge, Brawl has not been officially confirmed yet, they've only said that they're trying to impliment online play (which would be stupid if they didn't).
calthaer @ Jun 25th 2007 3:34PM
Now if only I could find a Wii, I could play the game. Seems I still have to camp out to get one, though, which is ridiculous - I'm not that into Nintendo.
Mickey @ Jun 25th 2007 3:33PM
Video showing how to hook your DS up to your Wii via Pokemon Battle Revolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2gTq6nrN2s
Jerk Face @ Jun 25th 2007 3:56PM
@ Jonathan Tran
Club My Sealz!? That is comedy f*cking gold! Ha ha!
Well played, Mr. Tran; well played!
warioswoods @ Jul 1st 2007 11:48AM
Ah yes, I can remember gathering friends for a night of PBR when I was a kid.
arrrgh @ Jun 25th 2007 4:57PM
@ the article
"The Nintendo DS has a rather strong lineup of WiFi-enabled titles, but like the Wii system there are friend codes that must be swapped by both parties in some fashion outside of the game. (Random online play is possible through a matchmaking system, but you cannot save a random opponent's information for a later challenge.)"
Well Metroid Prime Hunters for the DS lets you save "rivals" from random matches to play against at other times...so that kind of renders the above statement on the exact opposite side of truth
Silver @ Jun 25th 2007 5:00PM
"Yet its selling like hot cakes for $249. This only proves one thing. People are idiots." - Pretty Obvious
Actually, what this proves is that 360 and PS3 games hold as much appeal for the masses as Emo records.
Sony and Microsoft are simply getting burned by foolishly focusing all their attention on trash-mouthed tweens. Justice...is served.
Karen @ Jun 25th 2007 5:15PM
"The system itself doesnt even play DVD movies though it does have a DVD drive (figure that one out)."
@Pretty Obvious
Because Nintendo would have to add a license fee for DVD movie playback on to the consumers. Which would raise the price of the Wii. I've got 10 devices that play DVD's in my house, 5 are hooked up to my TV including one up scaling DVD player. Why should I have to pay another licensing fee? I don't need another DVD player!
Dude Love @ Jun 25th 2007 5:19PM
At 14 & 27:
Metroid Prime: Hunters is the exception rather than the rule. I have a good number of Wi-Fi games, and NONE of them (except for MPH) lets you friend random users.
Even then, you're still not friending those people. You can voice chat with people if you friend them. You can't do that with rivals.
If you play a person locally (in the same room, non-internet) witha Wi-Fi game (Mario Kart DS, for example), their friend code will be added to your friends roster. But that's if you're playing via LAN.
Mr Khan @ Jun 25th 2007 5:42PM
Meh
In my case, Wii goes online in about a month, with Super Mario Strikers Charged
That game's gonna kick so much ass (although it'll probably take me about a week to get used to the new control scheme)
PBR is pointless anyway, since you can get random Online Multiplayer matches in Diamond and Pearl, you just have to work for it...
Ken @ Jun 25th 2007 5:57PM
So... What are we supposed to be discussing? Seriously, this article was meant to create 100+ comments.
But everything noted in the article is old news, and we all knew Nintendo was taking its sweet time making online play. Not like it really matters though.
Foetoid @ Jun 25th 2007 6:49PM
I gotta laugh at people like Captain Obvious. "It's taken this long for Nintendo to get an online game". BS, Japan has had Pokemon Battle Revolution and has been playing online since November. Not to mention here in Australia, i've happily been playing Mario Strikers online for like a month. It's only you people in the US getting screwed by Nintendo for online, the rest of the world has been enjoying it for some time.
Also the lineup of games can't be that bad since i own 9 of them, including 6 VC games and 15 A+ GC games. And btw, i never buy shit games.
As for the DVD player comment, #29 wrapped that up for me nicely. I've got 6 Tv's in my house, all of them with a DVD player.
Rubang B @ Jun 25th 2007 11:28PM
"(Random online play is possible through a matchmaking system, but you cannot save a random opponent's information for a later challenge.)"
You can do that in Metroid Prime Hunters actually. You have a friends list and a rivals list. You can play both later, but you can only rock the voice chat with your friends list.
Mark @ Jun 25th 2007 11:55PM
Okay okay there were THREE online games. PSO Episodes 1&2, PSO Episode 3, and in japan there was some other game where u...idk but it was weird and never came out here.
Mr Khan @ Jun 26th 2007 3:59PM
There was one other game that used GC Online that was Japan only, but a third that came out elsewhere that was called "Phantasy Star Online Episodes I & II Plus" which was basically an expansion pack in the days before DLC, in which they also patched the notorious "Shop-dupe" glitch, and its cousin glitches that allowed people to cheat all over that game