14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has always been keen on making sure that as many people as possible can play its videogames. That's the strategy behind the Nintendo Wii and the company is set to take a step forward via something called, at the moment, Demo Play, a feature that players can activate so that the computer plays the game while getting through the harder sections.
The first title to benefit from the feature should be New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, which is coming this fall.
Shigeru Miyamoto, lead game designer at Nintendo, told USA Today that “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. And yes, we're looking into this for future games, too.”
A patent for a feature that looks a lot like Demo Play was filed sometime in January. The patent mentioned three different modes for the help feature, ranging from a walkthrough played without actually interrupting the videogames to an option for players to choose where they wanted to start a level, allowing them to skip the more difficult sections.
The Demo Play addition sounds like a very good idea to get more casual players into games that rely on trial and error, like a platformer. After all, if death is putting them off, they can always turn Demo Play on and allow the computer to get them to the end of the stage.
The only downside is that more experienced players, who are used to completing the game and then bragging about that, will feel a bit cheated by the fact that anyone can use the Demo Play feature to get to the end of a game.
Presumably, Nintendo will make sure to balance the new feature in some way so that no unfair advantages are gained. As the release date for New Super Marion Bros. for the Wii is getting near, the Japanese company will probably offer more details on how it all works.