Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch is the largest game in the entire series. Thanks to its “Everyone Is Here” theme, it features a roster made up of 86 characters (counting Echo Fighters).
However, it would seem that all of this content being rendered with these impressive graphics has come at a high cost. It’s been well established at this point that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is cursed with the highest amount of input lag in the franchise.
Naturally, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has around six frames of input latency. Unfortunately, this problem is escalated while playing online.
No matter how good a connection is, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will add another four frames of lag during online modes. On top of the already six frames that are present offline, that means that a move won’t come out until 10 frames (one-sixth of a second) later whenever a player presses a button.
Of course, this is only the best case scenario for playing the game online. If there are any issues with the established connection, the input latency will become even more problematic.
Some time ago, there was an online campaign on X focused on pushing for improvements to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s netcode. This seemingly worked to an extent with the release of patch 8.1.0.
Though fans were hoping for the implementation of rollback netcode, it instead provided minor tweaks to the online infrastructure. Masahiro Sakurai commented on how the team attempted to apply something similar to rollback netcode, but too many side effects came up during testing.
Just recently, a modder known as Blujay released the “Latency Mod” for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In a previous post on X, Blujay talked about reducing the game’s offline input lag by about three frames.
I’m deciding to release the latency mod tonight. Excited to release it, but this tweet will also be a thread explaining some things about why it’s taken a while and what to expect in the future.https://t.co/ygugBzlDW0
— blujay (@sterillo_) February 19, 2026
Over the past couple weeks, I decided to dive back into Ultimate and ended up reducing the game’s native console input latency by 3f (~50%)!
~6.5f (Left) -> ~3.4f (right) native on console
Huge thanks to @SSBM_Arte for testing and providing these graphs. Details in the thread! pic.twitter.com/NEbDZJH0iH
— blujay (@sterillo_) January 19, 2026
Those that have tried the mod have described the online experience as being about the same as offline. This implies that the four frames of artificial online latency have also been removed.
Of course, this does present an interesting problem. It’s pretty clear that, during Elite Smash or online tournament sessions, those using the mod have innate advantages against those without it.
We’ve actually seen this situation with Street Fighter 5. Someone created a PC mod that aimed to address several issues with Street Fighter 5’s netcode.
Though Capcom officially shunned the usage of this mod, it did seemingly prompt them to apply fixes to the online experience in an official capacity with later updates. Needless to say, the work of the modder proved to be a great boon to the entire community.
Could we see something similar happen with the Super Smash Bros. series in the future? As time has gone on, having a stable online experience has become increasingly more important with modern gaming.
Development for Kirby Air Riders was recently concluded. According to Masahiro Sakurai himself, there are no plans for DLC for this title.
Due to this, many believe that Sakurai could already be working on the next entry for Super Smash Bros. Some have even theorized that it could end up being an enhanced Switch 2 port of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
If so, maybe this new mod will act as a catalyst to inspire Nintendo to create a new Super Smash Bros. entry with the best netcode the series has ever seen. We’ll just have to see if things play out that way.