What did I do?

In a special Smash Bros. Direct earlier this year Masahiro Sakurai announced a feature that made as gaze skywards to praise the divine idea — moderating in online play. If players are constantly rage-quitting, playing with an awful connection, targeting a particular player or being naughty in any other way the game will dish out punishments, including temporary bans. A sound concept.. what could go wrong?

Bizarrely, it seems it is going a bit wrong with the release of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS in Japan. It's being reported that in the For Glory mode — in which items are disabled and purists will no doubt gather — those using Peach are being caught out for using Peach's down-special, in which she picks up and hurls a Turnip. Logic suggests — for it's all reasonable conjecture — that the game is mistaking this as an item and assuming these players are up to no good, dishing out 24-hour bans in the process. Peach isn't the only character that has an item-generating special, but she seems to be the only one being wrongly detected in this way by the game — her royal authority counts for nothing in the world of Smash Bros. It may be due to the fact her down special item can be customised for other items, and it's confusing the online moderation code.

We're sure this will be fixed quickly if it is indeed widespread, and will likely be cleared up before the title's released in the West. We'd argue it's better to have a fair online environment with occasional mishaps than lobbies full of cheats and hackers, though Peach aficionados in Japan may not agree right now.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in.

[source pixeldynamo.com]