Editing Frame delay

Frame delay is often confused with [[Wi-Fi lag]], though it is in fact closely connected with it. The player's system must send what their input currently is every frame (60 per second in the ''Smash'' series), so that the other systems can know what to do. However, communication between systems over the internet is not instantaneous. If at least one system has not received the input yet, the game must wait until it gets the input, causing lag. The game attempts to compensate for lag and make it feel less noticeable by intentionally not acting upon the input for a few frames; this is the frame delay. After the number of frames that the frame delay specifies, the input is acted on.

While it's possible to have no lag in a match, frame delay will always be present, even if by a tiny amount. This makes online matches much more prediction-driven than their offline counterparts.

''Brawl'' wifi also shows the extent of frame delay. At the side of every person registered using friend codes, after completing at least one match and quitting (not restarting), a large dot will show up, being colored. People have discovered that this dot refers to the person's connection. The color coding from best (3 frames) to worst (more than 15 frames) is as follows:

In Super Smash Bros 4, seven frames of delay between pressing the button and the game actually outputting the respective action are always present[https://youtu.be/9nT2VOLwrqk], regardless of controller, although slower monitors have more input delay.

In ''Ultimate'', roughly six frames of delay between pressing the button and the game actually outputting the respective action are always present regardless of controller, marginally less than ''Smash 4''. The issue of slower monitors having more input delay still exists.