Give Smash Bros. Brawl a voice ... with Xbox Live

by Richard Mitchell { Mar 10th 2008 at 7:00PM }

Alright, a quick disclaimer: this post is not about an Xbox 360 game. it is about a Wii game. Thank you. Now, if you own a Wii (and some of us do here at X3F), chances are you have picked up (or plan on picking up) Super Smash Bros. Brawl. If you have done this, you'll know that it is one of the few games that supports online play. If you know that, you probably know that it does not support any kind of voice chat. So, how do we fix that? With Xbox Live of course! After the break we have come up with a quick guide for getting your Brawl on complete with voice chat.

What you will need:

Friends (you'll need to enter Brawl's onerous friend codes to play with them)
Xbox 360, controller, and headset (wireless is ideal here), Halo 3
Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl

So, first thing's first. You'll want to set up a chat connection on your Xbox 360 with whomever you plan to play. "But wait!" you say, "you can only have one other person in private chat!" Ah, but that's what Halo 3 is for! Actually, any game that includes multiplayer lobbies will work, so long as those lobbies don't have a timeout. All you have to do is fire up Halo 3 and host a private room for your Smash Bros. buddies. Have them join your Halo 3 lobby, fire up Brawl, and have them join your game. Voilå, Smash Bros. with voice chat.

We should mention that this workaround should also work using Skype or any other VOIP app (or a plain ol' cell phone for that matter). However, the Xbox Live method comes with the bonus of being able to play rounds of Halo 3 (or your 360 game of choice) in between rounds of Smash Bros. We should also mention that if you don't have a wireless headset, you will have a 360 controller tethered to you at all times. Be sure you pick it up along with your Wii controller if you have to stand up for any reason. We tell you this from experience, as we sent our 360 controller flying when we stood up to answer the phone.

So there you go! Enjoy your Smash and Halo sandwich.

Tags: halo-3, smash-bros-brawl, super-smash-bros-brawl, xbox-live

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Beffy @ Mar 10th 2008 7:09PM

The funny thing is, I did this exact thing last night xD And I probably will today as well.

Samuel Vimes @ Mar 10th 2008 7:16PM

Or you could just use Vent/Teamspeak....

Jason @ Mar 10th 2008 7:22PM

Hmm, I guess 360 dashboard should allow multiperson chat.

Tyler @ Mar 10th 2008 7:27PM

DId this today with my friends. I had this planned out way long ago. I love SSMB!

Mrblonde @ Mar 10th 2008 7:32PM

Anyone got smash bros? My gamertag is: Mrblonde57 and my brawl code is: 2878-9268-9799. Anyone that wants to add me and join in on this feel free.

Mrblonde @ Mar 10th 2008 7:38PM

Anyone that does add me, leave your brawl code so i can add you. Im up for some brawl whenever

Van @ Mar 10th 2008 7:38PM

Or use ooVoo if you want to see the faces of your opponents squint from the pain you are dealing them. It allows for up to 6 person video conference chat. There's also a version for mac, but its not at oovoo.com. its some other random site that i forget.

Also, what happened to the reply button in these comments. They don't exist!!!!!!

qbix @ Mar 10th 2008 7:45PM

Xbox360fanboy*.com. I respect other consoles and their games, but come on, this is the site where I didn't want to hear about smash bros. brawl (despite the disclaimer). Oh well. I'll be eagerly waiting for Condemned 2 while you guys share friend codes.

StevenRafael @ Mar 10th 2008 7:57PM

I'd rather invite my friends over. Seriously, the lag hurts. It's bad at my place, and it's worse at my buddy's house.
We both have DSL connections though. Maybe it'll be better with a cable connection.

E.J. @ Mar 10th 2008 8:12PM

Give em a break qbix. If you don't wanna hear about Brawl, just skip this article and don't bother commenting.

If you had Brawl, you'd know how Nintendo's online service is extremely crippled. It sucks that we have to this friend code crap and it's really frustrating. This is a pretty good idea, considering you can't truly communicate with people on Brawl's online component.

It just sucks that we have to result to using two consoles (in other cases, a PC) to decently play one game online together.

Project Ekim @ Mar 10th 2008 8:24PM

Brawls online has never worked for me...

el swordo @ Mar 11th 2008 8:41AM

my gamertag is El Swordo. my wii friend code is
3483-1966-1311-5812 if you add me send me an message let me know on live or if im on psn my name is MamaMia88 on there. is there a separate code for brawl?

NvM @ Mar 10th 2008 8:39PM

Yeah I'm loving Brawl.
But I doubt I'm going to go through the trouble to do this.
Plus this will only take more bandwidth.
Brawl online with one person is playable but lag can be a bitch.

oOo BioShock oOo @ Mar 10th 2008 8:48PM

this is dumb, Id just use Vent with the computer next to me.

Saccia @ Mar 10th 2008 8:48PM

Of course, you could do what I'm doing which is NOT buying this game. I do have a Wii and I'm exceptionally pissed at the piss-poor online capabilities. So, I'm not buying games that do support online and stuck at it. The friend code and game code thing has gotta go. It completely cripples the way online play should be done. The way to make Nintendo understand is to NOT buy the game. Then they will see that people want to chat or talk in game with others or they won't buy a game.

Ejab @ Mar 10th 2008 8:48PM

Keep this crap at Wii Fanboy(btw smash sucks)

NvM @ Mar 10th 2008 9:13PM

@Sacci

Or you can have real friends come over?

Josh @ Mar 10th 2008 9:30PM

@NvM

"real" friends?

you mean ppl he knows in real life? fine.

but what if he plays online with his "real" friends. i mostly play with my "real" friends online, b/c we live x minutes away from each other and the drive isn't always worth it, especially when we just have to go to our respective couches and fire up our xboxes

ALH @ Mar 10th 2008 9:35PM

it comes to something when to enjoy a game pwnd by stupid restrictions you have to use ANOTHER CONSOLE.

WhoDey320 @ Mar 10th 2008 9:36PM

ah man i was expecting some sort of hack (i love brawl but the wii controllers aren't doing it for me)

horngreen @ Mar 10th 2008 9:38PM

Wow what an awesome console the Wii must be.

Hoffer @ Mar 10th 2008 10:44PM

I've done this for DS games like Clubhouse Games.

Urza @ Mar 10th 2008 10:47PM

Figured this out with warhawk. Two of my buddies were idiots and decided to get it via the PS store and never got headsets.. I bought it retail packaged with the headset so yeah.

It's a good idea for Wii also. Now if Wii codes weren't so stupid.

David @ Mar 10th 2008 11:20PM

So this is how Halo 3 is going to regain the top xbox live spot.

DeadPlasmaCell @ Mar 10th 2008 11:24PM

That's what I've been doin.. I use UNO though

Matt @ Mar 11th 2008 2:26PM

Christ! What's with the Wii haters!? How could anybody be so pathetic!?

All three systems have fantastic games! Why do people need to bicker over this nonsense? Bicker over something WORTH bickering about! Like politics, phylosophy, music, art, even sports. You know, something important.

wa27 @ Mar 11th 2008 1:47AM

Better yet, use UNO! If you've got webcams then you can watch people acting like fools when they die!

Preston Crawford @ Mar 11th 2008 3:28AM

How sad this is for Nintendo. Microsoft's online service is so superior that Wii gamers have to use a 360 to get an adequate gameplay experience online with the Wii. Wow.

Nick @ Mar 11th 2008 3:56AM

Crispy holy crackers, Batman. I love all things 360, and it's taken the place as my system of lovin', I've not touched my wii since getting it in November, however Brawl is a game that's worthy of my time. It's a great game and a great franchise.

Now - online support. You know WHY it's crippled? Because the Wii is a family system. Everyone uses it After playing countless TF2 games with utter MORONS who are simply foul mouthed a##hats, as a parent I wouldn't want my kids chatting it up with other people either.

Seeing as the primary fan base of Brawl users are under the age of 18, and the Wii userbase is also focused on a family market, voice chat makes no sense.

Yes there's the "Parental settings" option, or the "only chat with those with friend codes" as well, but Nintendo made it clear from the DS days that nothing was going to change.

It's a shitty system, sure - but that's Nintendo's choice, and although I don't LIKE it, I understand it. I wouldn't have bought a Wii if I was going to be hung up on this, and anyone that DID with the expectation that it was going to be different is sorely mistaken.

I'll never forego my 360 over the Wii, but you can be damn sure I'm going to love every minute of Brawl, voice chat or not (likey "or not")

Yahtzee Crosshaw said it best in regards to Nintendo - they milk the crap out of the franchises, without much "innovation", yet they still get people buying up games like they're addicted to crack. Heck, I bought Mario Party 8 knowing that they changed NONE of the flaws left in the previous ones, but it was a good party game I can play with my wife and friends.

Again, all reasons why the 360 is better, however it doesn't have Brawl, I can't fight as Solid Snake or Kirby in a well designed and kick butt fighter.

I'll also probably use this option, my wireless control p0wns for that ^_^

manifest @ Mar 11th 2008 6:15AM

Conspiracy to get Halo 3 back on top of CoD4.... I'm not buying it!

DiFiasco @ Mar 11th 2008 7:03AM

all that effort to enable voice-chat?
Stick to text - play some music.

Adam @ Mar 11th 2008 9:14AM

I dont know why people are bitching about smash bros and saying they dont wanna hear news about it here.I welcome any game like smash brothers myself.Its games that get hyped like mgs4 and such that irritate me most.It wasnt like the mgs series has been anything special.Super smash bros has always been a real aaa title.

If sony made smash bros and it was a ps3 title i wouldnt biutch about it i would buy a ps3 possibly.There titles onthe ps3 now and coming are garbage.

Dahk @ Mar 11th 2008 10:56AM

@ Adam, really only 2 people complained so whatever.
And seriously you're complaining about the PS3 just as badly as they're complaining about Smash. No one even mentioned MGS4 here.

Anyway, lol I had to buy 2 gamecube controllers cuz nunchuks suck with Brawl =/.

But yeah, UNO probably works best lol. Though PSN is rather helpful cuz of the Bluetooth headsets.

Boff @ Mar 11th 2008 11:07AM

My mate and I used to do this when we were online with the PS2's. Laptop, Skype, Bluetooth dongle and the Bluetooth headset for my mobile phone.

It was messy but it did the job!

Fafhrdd @ Mar 11th 2008 11:58AM

I don't have a Wii and I am not here to bash or flame any Wii owners or anything. But wouldn't you think that Wii would have Voice Enabled Brawl? I think this is insaine. and ppl are all the time saying Wii online is free and it better then Live... Ha. You pay what you get for, I'll stick with my Live thank you. Paying that small monthly fee is WELL better then the patch work that goes on with the Wii and PS3.

Again I am not flaming or trying to start anything. I am just pointing it out :)

Mark @ Mar 11th 2008 12:40PM

Halo 3? Why not something free like Aegis Wing?

JT @ Mar 11th 2008 1:43PM

www.skype.com

this would be so much easier. plus someone should just create a permanent skype lobby for all smach bros. players.

Saccia @ Mar 11th 2008 7:24PM

@Nick, I don't see why you have any understanding for a stupid system. If Brawl was on your 360 and you don't want your kids using voicechat to talk to a$$hats, then you simply restrict their gamertags to not be able to use it. I'm a parent myself and I think it's stupid to completely cripple everyone's experience because there are dumb parents who don't take the time to care about monitoring their kids and using the tools the consoles give them. It's inexcusable.

qbix @ Mar 11th 2008 7:32PM

@Matt: The site is called 360 fanboy. Is it all that surprising to see readers express their dislike for other systems? The word "fanboy" kinda gives away target audience of the site.

Now, personally, I don't hate the Wii, I actually own one. Not using it is a different story, but I don't hate it or whoever owns one. However, I am surprised to find stories like this in X3F when they seem like a better fit for sites like Joistiq.