Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat for GCN/Wii is the first game, to my knowledge, that had mini-videos of how to improve your beat score. Maybe it was a testig ground for demo play?

No one argues that “casual sex” is any less fun/enjoyable then the “core” or “monogamous” kind. (In fact, one might argue that it’s *more* exciting.. )

Casual simply reflects a level of attention, or devotion. A level of interest outside the time you are actually playing. Ie. How much do you think about it when you are NOT doing it? Since we are all “core” gamers and enthusiasts, we think about games a lot, even when we aren’t playing them.

But that doesn’t mean the “casual” player, when playing, isn’t having just a good at time or is just as invested in their particular play session. “Casual” gamers can still have a “hardcore” amount of fun when playing their particular game.

NSMBW is hoped to be the game to help bridge the core Nintendo audience with the mainstream. If anything can, Mario certainly seems to be person to do it and as I brought up on the podcast, Mario Galaxy didn’t seem to succeed in this regard. If I want NSMBW to be the game that I can play with my “casual”/”mainstream” family, then this feature will surely be a welcomed one.

Failing at a game means frustration. Long time gamers are used to challenging this sense of frustration into a sort of “challenge” to overcome (up to a point, usually when the controller is thrown into the television ). However those with only a casual interest in the hobby probably aren’t willing to put up with as much of it as we are.

So rather then having my unskilled family get frustrated and give up on NSMBW, Nintendo has decided to give them the option of having the game help them. While “taking control” seems a tad invasive, it is a particularly competent way of solving that problem. (Having a “bot” take over in Left4Dead when you enter “idle” mode (to go to the bathroom etc) works particularly well).

Traditionally this help would have taken the form of me saying “here, give me the controller” and doing it for them. Since its’ a co-op game, that could be difficult. Plus it’s nice to know they can still play without me around.

Will I use it myself? Maybe, maybe not, in that sense it’s really no different then other “cheats”, which have been in games from time to time. This is just a more “accessible” version.

So if this helps this game bridge the gap between “casual” and “core” Nintendo fans, so that we can all have a “hardcore” amount of fun, I whole-heartedly support it.

If I have a problem with this, it’s that it doesn’t seem tightly integrated into the gameplay. I can understand the need for a feature like this, but why not make a game out of it, in and of itself?

Professor Layton comes to mind. The game has it’s own built in gamefaqs, and yet, it never gives you completely the solution, instead providing you hints in degrees of obviousness.

Taking on a hint comes at the price of a coin, something that I feel would work nicely in Mario (and afterall, why do we collect coins for anyway?) and additionally there is an aspect of ‘buyers remorse’ when you finally do buy a clue.

In Layton, often times the answer so obvious that you end up saying, “ooooh, why didn’t I think of that!?!”, and immediately regret expending a coin. This creates a kind of metagame where you are constantly weighing the pros and cons of using hints, to say nothing of your own personal pride that is at stake, should you constantly rely on hints.

A system like Layton applied to Mario could allow everyone to have their cake and eat it too, newcomers can have their auto-play and veterans can keep their pride. Win Win?

If only every gamer could have this realization then we wouldn’t have all the outrage that flurries constantly at every new decision and idea Nintendo has.

In anycase I even liked that you touched on the difficulty setting in Nintendo games, or lack there of.

I personally have never found a difficulty setting necessary. For the most part there wouldn’t be much that Nintendo could do to implement it. I mean what would they do for a Mario game at a higher difficulty level? Pull a Mega Man 9 and have every level over again but just with more enemies, or perhaps buzzy beetles (akin to the original Mario Bros. game).

Maybe Small mode where you play the game and die after a single hit (considering even a powered up Mario only takes two hits to die).

Zelda titles and Metroid titles also allow a lot of flexibility to play the games without extending ones health bar. Zelda can be beaten with 3 hearts and it can be a challenge without proper supplies and strategies. Metroid is beyond too difficult for me with only a single energy tank (dare I say Metroid Prime 3 is impoissible with one?).

The only thing in those cases is the gamers habit is always to collect as much as possible, which makes the game easier undoubtedly. Treasure hogs and 100% completists are probably to OCD to let a single important item slip by.

I think Nintendo’s philosophy in terms of difficulty has always been “the player chooses how difficult the game is”… which unless a gamer is forced to, they will likely take the easier path.

Just some pieces of thought for perhaps a future discussion on game difficulties.

really, looking at it from this perspective, it’s a very clever business move because it allows nintendo and 3rd party developers to cater to a more hardcore gamer crowd with the challenge level and complexity of their games without simultaneously alienating the broad base that has mad the wii successful as a system.

Personally I’m inclined to dislike this feature. I’m open to having my mind changed so I can’t officially hate it until it’s out there and I can see what it is but this sounds really lame. The frustrating part is that I’m having trouble elaborating on why that is. Obviously I prefer the Mario World Model where if you have trouble with stage A sometimes you have a secondary path to go around it, but just because I have a better solution doesn’t logically invalidate the current solution. After all candles DO work as a light source even if light bulbs are better.