Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Review: 5 Ups & 3 Downs

Downs...

3. Online Multiplayer Is A Mess

Granted, stable online multiplayer has never really been Nintendo's strong suit, yet despite launching their online subscription service recently, they've offered little to suggest they're going to put those fees to work crafting a stable online ecosystem.

Simply put, the first few days of Smash Ultimate online have been a mess. The most frustrating thing is the total lack of consistency: sometimes games will be buttery-smooth, more often there will be debilitating lag, and often you may well end up with the infuriating "communication error" preventing you from even starting a match.

It's well-documented that the Switch's WiFi functionality is mediocre at best, but even tested with an Ethernet adaptor on a 100Mbps connection, the results are still disappointingly spotty.

You can't even really pawn the blame off on the game's P2P connectivity, because other Switch titles have managed this fine since day one (Splatoon 2 in particular).

That's not to forget the disappointingly piecemeal matchmaking options, which really shouldn't be a problem for any game releasing in 2018.

Simply, given how brilliantly crafted the core gameplay is, it's frustrating that the online experience alternates violently between great fun and rage-inducing trash.