Just to finish off my Brawl review after playing the online stuff...
Simple and effective is the basic style of the online play, since it has minimal editing to the type of brawl you can have with random strangers, this can be expanded when battling with friends, which is arguably a good idea since with random selections you don't always want someone to 'spice' it up without you knowing until the match begins...
The gameplay doesn't lag at all I felt, and the time spent waiting for other people to join or select their character/stage choice is well spent, as instead of staring at the stage screen for a long time, it takes you into a practice session by yourself... I like this idea, as it gets you ready for the battles, where in most cases you'll be playing vastly greater players, hence using every trick your fighter has and learning them 2 seconds beforehand is always good... Also you get to beat up the infamous Sandbag, which is definately great
Brawl gains a 8.5/10 from me after the online mode being decent, but only substantial to friends, and a lack of rankings and other bits lose it some extra points...