Nintendo talks input lag

[Dark Jaguar]

It's so odd to see a powerhouse like Nintendo actually dig into the nitty gritty that most gamers don't even know about, but here it is.  Sakurai of Kirby and Smash Bros fame has a game developer channel with all the production values you'd expect from a Nintendo Direct.  If you're familiar with things like pulling out an old CRT so you can actually beat Mike Tyson or time those tricky barrel blasts in Donkey Kong Country you'll already know most of this, but I thought it was interesting.

[A Black Falcon]

TV input lag is a thing, but what Nintendo really needs to work on is their GAMES' input lag.  Smash Ultimate, Splatoon 2, and, we now know, Splatoon 3, among others, all have pretty bad input lag.  Splatoon 1 has significantly less input lag than 2 or 3 do -- in fact, 2 and 3 have TWICE the delay of the first game.  I'm not one to almost ever care about framerate or input lag unless it's really bad, but since I've played a whole lot of Splatoon 1 I noticed this immediately and really dislike it.  It's one of the major reasons why I never played much of Splatoon 2 but instead stuck with the first game, and hearing that Splatoon 3 has the exact same problem with absolutely no improvement is extremely disappointing and makes me unlikely to buy Splatoon 3 for full price.  I'll just go play some Splatoon 1 again.  Absolutely exceptional game.

[Dark Jaguar]

As far as that goes, there's "input buffering" and there's true input lag.  Smash Bros. Ultimate has only a frame of input lag when played offline in local play.  Admittedly I'd like a tighter window too and I'd love better net code, but this IS Nintendo here.  I never do play Smash in online mode though, because frankly I can't stand random matchmaking these days.  I only ever play with my friends any more and it is VERY difficult to arrange that with Nintendo's online system.

As for Splatoon, I never did start playing the second one but I adored the first one.

Oh and TV input lag tends to be the worst of the three kinds, so this video really does help.

Ah! Yes that third kind.  The last input lag is controller input lag, and that's dependent on just how the console itself is designed.  The PS4 had rather notorious controller input lag when their controller was connected via USB.  It's wireless connection tended to be faster.  Retro consoles tend to have VERY fast controller input speed, though even then there also comes how often the consoel polls the controller for a change in input.  The NES can only do so once per frame for example, while the PC Engine polls four to eight times per frame.  There's also the matter of WHEN the controller is polled, and modern consoles have some flexibility.  It's usually best, counterintuitively, to poll controller input as late as possible, the very last moment before the frame is output to video if it can be done.