Today’s update from the official Smash Bros. website finally confirms online play within Brawl. Players will be able to play either with friends (using friend codes) or with anybody in the world (though, as usual, no communication is allowed).In “With Friends” mod, players can play together freely, see if each friend is online, and challenge them to a game. Within the game players can send short messages to each other, or “taunts”, which are pre-programmed to the D-Pad. How these taunts will translate into other control schemes hasn’t been said yet. With Friends mode allows you to play in other modes as well, rather than just free-for-all, and statistics for all of these matches are kept.

In “With Anyone” mode, you are matched up with strangers in a free-for-all battle. No communication is allowed (not even the pre-programmed taunts), and not even your names are shared with other players, so it would seem that after a battle there is no rival’s list like other games, on which to add players that you’ve fought against that you’d like to fight again. No statistics are tracked for these games, so worldwide online leaderboards are out…

Sakurai-san states that other uses for Wi-Fi and WiiConnect24 are planned, but he’s not saying anything yet.

More images after the jump!