Demo Modes in Nintendo Games - Yay or Nay?

[wanderingshadow]

I'm imagining the demo play to work a bit like the hints in Retro Game Challenge. For those of you who haven't played it before, the game contains instruction booklets, magazines, and a friend who will sometimes tell you things he heard from his friends at school.

There's a few things about how it works. Firstly, it's optional. You don't have to read any of it and the friend won't give you hints unless you ask. Secondly, they don't reveal everything at once. After you beat a few challenges, a new issue of the magazine comes out with new cheats.

Ideally, demo play for each level would only be unlocked after you attempt a level a certain number of times. Even then, you'll have a basic walkthrough. Only by either further or better play would you be rewarded with demo play that shows you secrets in the game.

[wanderingshadow]

Well, the speculation about demo mode is over. The guys at Kotaku have seen it in action.

You can read the whole thing yourself for more details. A few things in the article were relevant to some concerns raised in this thread. First of all, the Super Guide Mode (that's official name) will only be available after you lose eight lives on a level. Second, the Super Guide will only give you a straight walkthrough. No shortcuts or secrets will be revealed.

[Deleted]

I still think Super Game Whatever is lazy gaming. There was neeeever anything like that in games when I was a kid. I never got past Marble Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog and I had to fucking like it. XD If I'd actually owned a Genisis, I could have dedicated the time to get better. I mean, it's not like Super Mario Land or Megaman II just beat themselves, you know?

Christ, I feel so old.

[Manspeed]

Please remember that you have to die eight times in a row in one level, then the game gives you the option of turning the guide on, it doesn't show how to get anything hidden or secret, and once you turn it off you can't turn it back on again until you do the die eight times again for that same level.

[Deleted]

Oct 5, 2009 18:41:08 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

Please remember that you have to die eight times in a row in one level, then the game gives you the option of turning the guide on, it doesn't show how to get anything hidden or secret, and once you turn it off you can't turn it back on again until you do the die eight times again for that same level.

Yes, I'm fully aware it's optional and I'm fully aware it's targeted towards shitty players. Doesn't change my standpoint. You think I didn't die more than eight times in Marble Garden Zone on any given time I played? If I ever want to clear a platforming game I have too much difficulty on I want it to be by my own merits. XD Super Hold Your Hand Mode is Nintendo's way of drawing the casual crowd even closer to suckling the teat of ineptitude.

It's only downhill from here. Downs syndrome Zelda, here we come!

[Manspeed]

I really think you're making too big of a deal outta this.

[Deleted]

I think your MOM is making too big a deal out of this >8( WHAT NOW BITCH

[Johans Nidorino]

I understand Tei's feelings. But I'm still not disappointed or satisfied by that Kotaku report because it still doesn't answer all my questions ^_^'

In trying to understand this new feature, I was pondering over this:

1) I guess even Super Mario Bros. 1 has a demo of sorts if you don't press start when turning on your NES. Same for Super Mario World (which showed one of the most hidden levels in the game). Maybe Shiggy thought "let's look back at SMB, examine each detail and evolve it".

2) Other games already do something similar when your performance is low. The difficulty of a level lowers automatically if you fail many times in Equilibrio. You get a free Final Smash if you die many times in Brawl. So yes, it's just that games are changing, just like when they introduced the Hint Blocks in Super Mario World.

3) Imagine they hadn't highlighted or patented this mode in the first place. We'd all play the game and enjoy it because we won't die 8 times even in the very last stage (by "we" I mean the ones that are shocked by this sudden change).

4) The big thing of NSMBWii is the multiplayer mode, and this isn't available in multiplayer mode, which is even better than "being available but optional" for those who really hate this feature.

[Erik Aston]

I think this is good implementation.

Hopefully on the maps and game file, it is marked if you beat the level with Mario or Luigi. So for starting players, they could beat the entire game and see all the content, but with a few Luigi flags, especially on the later levels, and replay the game to "beat it all with Mario."

I can never play old games with no saving, where it becomes impossible to see all the content in the game. Replaying things you've beaten without ever getting to see the final boss guy sucks. I bet some gamers thought game saves were going to make a generation of sissy gamers, and maybe they were right, but it is a much bigger generation of gamers.

Today, maybe a lot of people don't play games because leaving the game to do a Google search for a typewriter-font FAQ just sucks. Now you don't have to leave the game and can go on and see the next level. Maybe that will make a generation of sissy gamers, but maybe it will be a bigger generation of gamers.

And unless the game auto-saves after you beat a level, you can use it as a replay, and then reset the game and go beat it yourself. That's the most I can imagine myself using the mode, but I feel like I'm wasting my time after I Game Over and start back in Green Hill Zone. If other people feel the same way after dying 8 times on one stage, I don't begrudge them the ability to see the next level.

...boy did I change my tune, eh?

[Fryguy64]

8 is a lot of lives to lose in a stage. I don't think I've lost that many lives in a 2D Mario game since Super Mario World nearly 20 years ago... and even that was attempting to get to secret areas. And it's still optional.

So no, I think this is fine here. Of course, I am still concerned that it won't be as well integrated into ALL games. But it seems relatively harmless in this way.

But if you can't get past a bit because UR DOIN IT RONG but don't know how to do it right, then this will show you how to mend your ways. I still think a walkthrough tips video for multi-fails (ala. Jungle Beat) would be better.

[Hiker of Games]

All this does is take out that extra step of going to Youtube and finding out how to do it there.

[nocturnal YL]

Not all people literally live in the internet.

I personally don't think this is much of a big deal. New SMB Wii is going to be the first game to do a whole list of things, and if anything, I'll be anticipating this game with joy.

Now the only thing I want to know is that whether I can play as Luigi from the get-go. I don't normally even see Mario in action when I play New SMB DS now.

[Hiker of Games]

Oct 7, 2009 11:30:08 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

Not all people literally live in the internet.

I've never heard of these people.

[Erik Aston]

Oct 7, 2009 11:30:08 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

Now the only thing I want to know is that whether I can play as Luigi from the get-go. I don't normally even see Mario in action when I play New SMB DS now.

From the Kotaku article:

New Super Mario Bros. gives a starting player of the game five lives. So, to activate the Super Guide option this morning, a Nintendo representative had to sacrifice her Mario character five times, then use a Continue option to replenish her lives before losing the rest needed to enable the help. Once she did that, a floating green box appeared at the start of the level she had repeatedly failed at. Hitting it with Mario — the only available playable character in single-player — will restart the level in Super Guide mode. Mario is replaced with a computer-controlled Luigi, who then proceeds through the level on his own.

[nocturnal YL]

You could have said the same on DS before it's out - because there's no way to find out if Luigi is available as a secret character at that time point. Same here.