Nintendo doesn’t have nearly the online expertise that some of its competitors have acquired, so a little naivety can be expected in setting up the hardware to get a game going smoothly online. You know, being able to handle massive bandwidth and server load – things like that. However, when your “practice runs” are Pokemon Battle Revolution and Mario Strikers Charged, it’s hard to get a large enough audience to prepare for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. A spokesperson cited pipeline strain as behind the lag and disconnect problems encountered with the game.

“As with the launch of any online-enabled game, especially one as popular as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, everyone wants to play at once. This puts a strain on the pipeline. We have seen improvements in online play performance every day since launch.”

Here’s hoping this serves as a prep run for getting Mario Kart Wii online with few problems next month.

PC World