I am speculative at Super Smash Bros. mayhap you are too ! We could listen to our betters , who claim the only tactfulness for improving is to “ get gud , ” or we could employ the time - honored tradition of modifying our hardware to make our gaming a little less icky . This is n’t me advance you to enforce some shady mod that lets you cheat though . These are peak for upgrade you swap through with dongles , controller , and show devices .

Get off wifi

The Switch does not come standard with an Ethernet port so you might assume that the only way to get at the internet and play your Quaker is via wireless fidelity . But in a game where essential plays can be ruined by a few milliseconds of unfit timing , wireless fidelity is not your champion . Wifi can be prostrate to singultus , which lead to lag . WLAN on the Switch , in particular , is also pretty dang slow , which makes download update or new games an hour - foresightful slog .

Ethernet is much immobile , and when you plug your Switch into its dock , you ’ll detect that there are three USB - A port on the twist , any of which can acceptNintendo ’s $ 40 Ethernet transcriber . Just plug in , restart , and you ’re good to go .

But if you ’re cheap , or a gadget blogger who seems to have USB Ethernet adapters lie all over the household , there ’s great news : Most third - company Ethernet adapters should work as well . I say most because I have n’t essay every single one out there , but you could find them for as small as$12 online , and you might be in portion and have one or two already lying around that you could test yourself . So there ’s no harm with experimenting before investing in Nintendo ’s official adapter .

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Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)

Get a better controller

The Joy - Con control are tiny marvels of technology , but the joysticks can feel inaccurate when you ’re trying to pull off a immediate uppercut and instead find yourself yeeting off the map .

luckily , there a few options available that will better your carrying into action . First , you could pluck up the Switch Pro Controller , which has an MSRP of $ 70 but can always be see for less . ( Amazon is presently sell it for $ 55 . ) From bioengineering to joystick manipulation , everything about the Pro is an climb from the Joy - Cons .

If you ’ve in the first place played Smash antecedently on a GameCube controller , you could also pick up the new wireless Gamecube style controller made byPowerA for as fiddling as $ 50 . These comptroller are built for the Switch , which means that have all the buttons necessary to bring other Switch games as well , and they even have a family button in case you need to hop-skip into the main menu .

Photo: Alex Cranz

There are two USB ports on the side and one under the cover between the power and HDMI ports.Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)

But like the Joy - Cons both the Pro and the PowerA controller are wireless , which means there could be some interim in gameplay . So a third selection is to either pick up an old GameCube controller online , or settle around in your closet for the one you might have shoved back there in 2008 . Then you’re able to get a USB arranger . Nintendo makes one , but any USB to Gamecube adaptor should shape . Just plug it in and head into the comptroller configurations to try out it .

The prescribed one retail for $ 70 on Amazon presently ( MSRP is technically $ 20 , but its sold out everywhere ) and is guaranteed to work , but you could find third party ones intended for the Wii U or PCfor under $ 20 . I happen to have an old one I buy for my PC that was built well before the Switch was announced , and it make dead after I specify it up .

Set your TV up right

The above proffer all take for granted that you ’re slotting your transposition into its included dock and play on your TV , and you might remember simply plugging and playing is enough . But not all !

The native closure for Super Smash Bros. on the Switch is 1080p , and the framerate should be a liquid 60 frames per second . For the purest result , you should play on a TV with a native 1080p firmness of purpose and 60Hz refresh pace .

If that is n’t possible , or fair , that ’s ok ! The vast legal age of TVs now days are 4 1000 sets with a aboriginal 60Hz refresh pace . 4 K sets upscale 1080p content , but it ’s broadly not as messy as it was when 1080p readiness would have to upscale 480p message . 4 K is another direction to say the TV has a closure of 3840 by 2160 picture element , four times more than a answer of 1920 by 1080 pixels . The content should look skillful and liquid , although it may finger like everything ’s a little larger than you ’re used to .

Photo: Alex Cranz

Hell yeah, love to GameCube control things.Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)

What you do need to be cognizant of is all of the processing your TV might do to improve the picture . That processing can lead to tiny amounts of lag . To be dependable , psyche into the video configurations , set your idiot box to a Game fix if useable , as this will turn off the spoiled offenders and improve reactivity ( though moving picture quality will take a hit ) . If a secret plan setting is not uncommitted on your TV , or you do n’t trust it , then head deeply into the options . alas , every TV is unlike so I ca n’t tell you exactly which options to twist off .

What I can tell you is that you should look for ones that alter the movie by make the image sharp or tranquil . Also face for options that have musical phrase like “ Noise Reduction ” in them and release those off as well . last , hunt down the configurations that give your video that add “ max opera effect . ” These options often have Motion in their claim , like “ Motion Control ” or “ Motion Smoothing ” or “ TruMotion ” .

And if you really want to test the lag and see which options improve picture calibre at the cost of reactivity , you may pass $ 95 on the excellentLeo Bodnar Lag Tester . Configure the setting you want on your TV and then plug away the gadget into the same interface that you design to utilize for your Switch using the same cable . Then follow the instructions to see what produces stave and what does not .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

And after you ’ve done all that you should be good to go and have a set up that ’s built for playing Smash as stave free as possible to give you a lilliputian chip of an edge . And if you still suck ?

Get gud .

Correction 12/26/18 – This piece of music antecedently state the Ethernet transcriber retails for $ 70 . While that is the current go rate on Amazon due to a shortage , the MSRP price is $ 20 . We ’ve updated the copy to ruminate that and justify for the mistake .

William Duplessie

Please do not pay more than $ 20 for an Ethernet adapter .

Consumer TechGameCubeNintendo Switch

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