Edit: On the very same day it was added the online component of Yuzu has been removed following feedback from the community. Can you read Yuzu’s statement about this here.
The original story follows below.
Popular Switch emulator Yuzu has announced that it now has limited online functionality to mimic some of the features of the Nintendo Switch Online network.
Through the Raptor Network two games can now be used online through Yuzu in some capacity – Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Mario Odyssey.
“In Super Mario Maker 2, you can upload and share custom levels with others, while in Super Mario Odyssey, you can play hide-and-go-seek in Luigi’s Balloon World or share high scores in minigames on the leaderboards. Reverse engineering new games is an arduous task, but the service is in continuous development, so keep your eyes peeled for future updates,” reads an announcement.
Through the Raptor Network players can create usernames and set profile pictures to identify themselves when playing.
This is rather impressive and you can see it in action in the video below. This video also highlights some major benefits to playing these games in this way, such as faster level editing in Super Mario Maker 2 thanks to the use of your mouse. In this game there’s also a large amount of player-made maps already available to play thanks to the work of the community.
Looking at some of the comments posted since this announcement and one game that many people are asking for in terms of third party online functionality is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This is because of the poor netcode in the real game that many fans dislike and the lack of rollback netcode. This kind of netcode is rather complex (you can learn more about it in a previous story from us) but the GGPO Rollback Networking SDK is available under the under the open source MIT licence, meaning some enterprising emulator programmers could give it a crack.
That being said, as mentioned by Yuzu, reverse engineering is difficult, especially when it comes to network play, so Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with rollback will be a pipedream for a while.
