Nintendo Helps Casual Gamers Beat a Title with “Demo Play”
Nintendo is keeping its commitment to promote their console as ‘casual’ friendly because the company is going to debut a feature in the ‘New Super Mario Bros. Wii‘ game. USA Today talked with the legendary Nintendo game designer Miyamoto. He spoke about how players will be to let the computer take over spots they can’t pass, and continue playing when they feel like they can successfully proceed.
“In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, if a player is experiencing an area of difficulty, this will allow them to clear troubled areas and take over when they’re ready” confirmed Miyamoto, through his translator. “And yes, we’re looking into this for future games, too.”
I’m not sure how I feel about this. To me, it’s encouraging the player to almost cheat. Look, I would love to say I would refuse to use this new feature, but having it there would certainly make it tempting to beat an area. Sure, with practice I could do it and that should be the only way — but having this new option would entice me to take advantage of it. Especially if I wasn’t enjoying a particular part of the game.
I also feel it helps the perception to some individuals that videogames are a second rate form of entertainment. You could never do this in another medium and have it make sense. Imagine watching a movie and fast forwarding scenes that you find uninteresting. If you do this, chances are the film wouldn’t make sense during the conclusion of the story.
One of the greatest feelings in videogames, is the achievement of beating the whole game through trial and error. But with Nintendo introducing this “demo play”, the casual gamer won’t get this self entitlement.
Why call it a game when you don’t have to PLAY by the rules at certain points?
June 15th, 2009 at 4:36 am
You misconception:
“Why call it a game when you don’t have to PLAY by the rules at certain points?”
They are changing the rules, do not keep your rules on their game.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:12 am
NO! NO! NO!
June 15th, 2009 at 8:00 am
The Wii is the T-Ball of game consoles. Can’t pitch or hit a ball that is moving? Don’t worry about having a weak arm, the game will just hold the ball there for you. It has a bunch of kid friendly games, and now, if you can’t play, it does it for you.
On the upside, there are a few games that I put down because I just could not get past one part, this would have been useful. However I normally start playing them again later and beat it. I think that this would become a crutch however, and it would be depended on more and more while playing. Take Doom for instance, it’s probably the only game that I know all the cheat codes by heart, but only because I don’t think I have played it the right way in years(not that I’ve played the original Doom in years, but you get the point).
June 15th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Did you guys complain when they added “easy” mode to games?
How about “hard” modes? Which is the true game?
June 15th, 2009 at 8:43 am
That’s a good question TheDyedGuy.
June 15th, 2009 at 9:44 am
this defeats the entire purpose of videogames
June 15th, 2009 at 10:05 am
thomas:
It defeats your purpose of the video game. Which may not be the same thing as the purpose of the video game creator.
Now, whose purpose is correct?
June 16th, 2009 at 6:22 am
There are a certain level of expectations when playing video games, one being a challange.
It makes sense that this feature is to be implemented to assist those that are not used to video games, but at what cost?
If it is a success, then this argument is moot. But I would challenge, that while the game might sell because it is a ‘mario’, eventually nintendo will see a decline of interest in their games if this continues to be a feature. I am using the term feature here to suggest that there is no negative consequence in-game for the use of it.
June 16th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
“There are a certain level of expectations when playing video games, one being a challange.”
I disagree with this statement. The expectation I have with a video game is entertainment. I do not expect a challenge.
June 17th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
“I do not expect a challenge”
I expect both Challenge and Entertainment… though Entertainment does come first. I play games to exercise the brain.