Fire Emblem Heroes is a reminder of how terrible friend codes are

Fire Emblem Heroes uses a version of Nintendo’s archaic friend code system, which the company has still yet to abandon. Unlike its predecessors Miitomo and Super Mario Run, the game doesn’t have any other options for players to connect with each other. They must either trade 10-digit, randomly generated numeric codes or go it alone.

This will be familiar to anyone who played multiplayer games on Nintendo DS or Nintendo Wii, systems which predate Nintendo’s gradual acceptance of modern online communication. Even some recent Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games use friend codes, but they’ve mostly gone by the wayside in the last few years.

Super Mario Run ushered their return with its December launch on iOS. That game has one big thing going for it in the multiplayer department over Fire Emblem Heroes, however: Players can connect through Facebook and Twitter to find “recommended friends” that they can add to their friends lists.

Intelligent Systems/Nintendo via Polygon

That’s not an option at all in Fire Emblem Heroes. Instead, players have to search by user ID exclusively, even though they’re asked to link up their Nintendo Accounts before launching the game.

Both of these frameworks are recent additions to Nintendo’s hardware, but they have yet to be implemented as expected. With the advent of the Nintendo Switch, which launches in March, we hope that online play will be a much less arduous process than it has with consoles past.

It’s remarkable that Nintendo’s foray into the fast-paced world of mobile has seen the company reverting back to its old ways in the meantime. We’re still excited about Fire Emblem Heroes — and would be happy to exchange user IDs! — but this is certainly a major disappointment with the company’s latest mobile endeavor.