News: Nintendo's Easy Mode Demo Play Expanded Page 1

Nintendo's Easy Mode Demo Play Expanded

06.10.2009

Due to debut with New Super Mario Bros Wii on November 25th in Europe, Demo Play, now called 'Super Guide', will allow players to let the computer take over play if a particular section proves too difficult for them. Until now this was all we knew about the feature, and many feared that this would be an example of dumbing-down the experience. Not so, as a matter of fact.

A Kotaku hands-on with the game provides more insight on the feature, which becomes available by way of a green block in a level after you've died Eight (!) times. After doing so, Mario changes into Luigi, who carries on through the level by himself, and you are able to resume control at any time with the press of a button; handy if there is a particular part of the level you can't beat. The completion of the level still counts if you use this feature, so lesser-skilled players can see more of the game instead of giving up early.

A couple of things to note about this feature, is that it is completely optional to use it, and if temptation proves to be too much, it should be changeable in the Option Menu. Also, the inclusion of this mode in NSMB Wii, and in future games, will allow Nintendo to significantly ramp up the difficulty level, as they will be doing here.

More details on the game itself have been unearthed from this hands-on time with it. There will be 8 worlds, with branching pathways much like the DS game. Mario will be the sole available character in Single Player, aside from temporary 'Super Guide' Luigi, and of course the plot involves him saving Princess Peach from the clutches of big bad Bowser.
Speaking of Mr Koopa, he, his son Bowser jr, and the grand return of the Koopa kids, will be your foes in this game, and there will be Toad-rescuing missions in already-cleared levels for extra replay value.
Multiplayer will of course have a co-op mode for the main story, but there are Free For All and Coin Battle competitive modes too. Free For All is a High Score battle, and Coin Battle is self-explanatory, featuring stages like a ghost house, and even World 1-2 from the original Mario Bros.

Would you like to see Super Play integrated into any other games that need a boost in difficulty level? Zelda Wii maybe?.

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Glenjamin 06.10.2009#1

Liking this new info about the game, and I'm so glad the Koopa Kids are making more of a comeback in recent games... I also think it's funny that Bowser Jr and the Koopa Kids are now causing mischief together.

( Edited 31.05.2013 19:20 by Guest )

Robertd1138 06.10.2009#2

um...did they just say the Koopa Kids are back?

THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!

( Edited 12.11.2012 09:06 by Guest )

Ikana 06.10.2009#3

Also, the inclusion of this mode in NSMB Wii, and in future games, will allow Nintendo to significantly ramp up the difficulty level, as they will be doing here.

Oh, excellent. NSMB was great, but far too easy. I'd like to see the return of some SMB3-level frustration. Smilie

Darkflame 06.10.2009#4

Good, allthough you can only use it from the start of the level, not midway.
(its essentially a playback of player movements in the game engine...thus it would actualy be quite hard to do this in a non-liner, non-level game like zelda)

It's another move that pushing me away from Nintendo's games. Whatever happened to easy, medium and hard settings?

They vanished because they were god-awfull.

Mostly those settings just increased enemy healthy or adjusted speed.
Neither makes things harder in a "fun" way.

Of course, sometimes you got stuff like mega-monkey-mode, but that adds a lot of extra development work.

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Canyarion 06.10.2009#5

Would you like to see Super Play integrated into any other games that need a boost in difficulty level? Zelda Wii maybe?.

Haha, stop asking questions you already know the answer to. Smilie

Phoenom 06.10.2009#6

Ha ha, just opening some discussion. Smilie

Personally I'd love to see it in an F-Zero game, imagine how hard they could make it! Smilie

meeto_0 06.10.2009#7

Marzy said:
I used to be for this... until this:
Also, the inclusion of this mode in NSMB Wii, and in future games, will allow Nintendo to significantly ramp up the difficulty level, as they will be doing here.
In my opinion, games are already at a good difficulty level. I think Galaxy was spot on and I found World 8 on New Super Mario Bros. to be too hard, I'm still stuck on it. I don't want to have to feel forced into using this system because Nintendo games will be too hard now. (I'm not that good at videogames
It's another move that pushing me away from Nintendo's games. Whatever happened to easy, medium and hard settings? I'm going to feel like a cheat if I have to use this system.

How old are you? Thats a serious question, not an insult. I find it hard to imagine anyone who isnt new to gaming to find nintendos latest works easy. Although the end of galaxy kicked my arse, granted I was trying to complete it cold turkey for a friend who is really young.

L 06.10.2009#8

Ikana said:
Also, the inclusion of this mode in NSMB Wii, and in future games, will allow Nintendo to significantly ramp up the difficulty level, as they will be doing here.
Oh, excellent. NSMB was great, but far too easy. I'd like to see the return of some SMB3-level frustration.

I totally agree man, I want it to be even harder than SMB3. It'd be such a laugh with 4 people. The most recent games have been way too easy, the difficulty on them is just laughable.

Faust_D 06.10.2009#9

meeto_0 said:
Stuff.

Seeing how Marzy decided to drop out of the thread,, He\'s around my age I believe, so around 18?

I actually really like the sound of this.
I\'m all for making the games more challenging, especially after having completed some Mega Man platformers and having played some Nanostray(2),, Harhar =3

Though I have no problem with the games being as \'easy\' as they are, a bit more challenge wouldn\'t exactly be a bad thing - As long as they made it challenging and not cheap.
The problem I\'ve found with a lot of games these days is that they resort to cheap tricks to give the gamer a bigger \'challenge\', but in actuality they just become frustrating and annoying to play.
I sincerely hope Nintendo will keep this in mind and make the games challenging and not cheap -_-\' ..

( Edited 06.10.2009 18:41 by Faust D. Stroyer )

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gatotsu911 06.10.2009#10

Hmmm, it is shaping up to be more elaborate than a lot of people (myself included) have given it credit for. I'll probably get it at some point - but why can you only play as Mario in story mode?? I ALWAYS prefer playing as Luigi!!

As for the "Super Guide"... I'm still a little bit uneasy. I can appreciate how its inclusion allows for a greater level of difficulty, and I like that it's only made available after 8 deaths. But nevertheless, I think that there should be a system in place to provide a player with strong incentive NOT to use it. Does dying detract from your score? Do players have limited lives? Will using the "Super Guide" detract from your score or limit the possibility of getting coins or items? Will there be some kind of in-game Achievement-like system that will only reward players for completing levels without the use of Super Guide? Dedicated players should have a very compelling, in-game reason NOT to resort to this feature.

And HELL NO to having this feature in a Zelda game. In Mario, that works fine, because it's an action game. But for Zelda, there are puzzles, and being able to just get the answer completely defeats the purpose, and unlike in a game like this, once you've seen it done there's no challenge in going back and doing it yourself. If they must implement this feature, it should be used to give you hints, Professor Layton-style, or at the very least should only become available after you've been attempting to solve the puzzle for at least an hour or something - and it should only be available for non-optional puzzles/dungeons.

PMD 06.10.2009#11

"Dedicated players should have a very compelling, in-game reason NOT to resort to this feature."

They do. It's called dignity. I doubt any of us here are going to think about using this feature. It's for little kids and players just getting into gaming. Nintendo doesn't want them to scare them away.

I play Mario Kart and Wii Sports/Play with my cousins all the time, but they never want to play Super Smash Bros because it is too hard to control. There exists an audience that loves to play games but can't play many because they are unable.