Nintendo describes 'Demo Play' option in New Super Mario Bros. Wii

by David Hinkle on Oct 2nd 2009 7:10PM

Nintendo's finally dropped the curtain on Miyamoto's "Demo Play" idea for upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii and it turns out the option is less of a handholding through the entire game and more of an instructional tool on overcoming those tough spots.

Nintendo of Europe updated its site, saying that while watching the demonstration go down in real time, the player can choose to intervene whenever they wish and take control themselves. We can't imagine the need for this system much in NSMBW, though. We're sure the game tape can be solved through a combination of running, jumping and, uh, running and jumping.

[Via Siliconera]

Source

Tags: demo-play, new-super-mario-bros-wii, Nintendo, Platform, Wii

Reader Comments (73)

cause mario is soooooooooooooooooo hard.

i found it fairly simple, actually.

Not overall, but we all run into those little stumbling blocks once in a while, especially on some of the more optional stages. I could get a little bit of use out of this if it applies on some of the secret levels (and depending on how hard they are, of course)

dude Mario 3 is NOT hard.

Hmm, I was hoping for a video that shows how it works, but this works just as well. I'm glad it's not just a skip feature, as you'll still have to do it yourself, but at least you'll know. It's just like having a strategy guide built into the game.

And since I know this is gonna happen anyway, shitstorm in 3...2...1.....

Predicting a shitstorm is a surefire way to be ignored.

Yeah, you would suck as a weatherman.

I have similar opinions of weathermen, market anlysts, and fortune tellers.

I leave it up to you to guess what those opinions are.

ugh...what happened to the good old days when games were supposed to be hard???

They ended back in the PS1 era, thank goodness.

You're also limiting your thought by just saying "hard". You're forgetting things like "boring" "frustrating" and "redundant". Some people don't like doing the same jump over and over again. You might as well rip on warp zones as well.

I play games to have fun, not to "accomplish" something.

There are still plenty of hard games out there for people that are looking to pat themselves on the back.

What happened to the good old days when people thought before they spoke?

Get this, bro.

You don't have to use the option if you don't want to. You want the game as hard as it should be? Leave it off.

This option is for those who might really need it - you know, kids, grandmothers, whatever.

Whatever happened to the idea that options are actually a good thing and shouldn't be frowned upon?

@arkimbald

have you played super mario bros ds??? i did ( yes, i really did) and it was REAlly easy. even a 7 year old kid or a 99 year old grandma could beat it. this game is similar to super mario bros ds...so yea.

i meant to say that to FUn dmc.

i swear he changed his name just right now.

"while watching the demonstration go down in real time, the player can choose to intervene whenever they wish and take control themselves"

How is that not hand holding????

GOD DAMMT I HIT THE BACK BUTTON! WHY DOESN'T THE BACK BUTTON UNDO THE REPLY????? WEIFHAWOFIHSALEFHSNDFLGIHARILGHALSERIHALSGHALRIGHRLGHADLKRGIHALRKDICKS

Ninja Gaiden. Play it and shut up.

I'm still against the whole thing. I understand a lot of people have had games run short for them because they aren't very good, but I miss the days when people had to figure things out. It honestly seemed to have made people smarter.

We lost that after people got the Internet.

Why back in my day, we didn't have tubes or faqs. When we got stuck on a boss we had to figure it out ourselves. I spent three years trying before I finally beat the Axel Rangers.

The last time I truly needed a walkthrough was in Twilight Princess, in the dungeon where you get the boomerang, and it doesn't tell you that you can lock on to multiple things before you throw it... I kept individually throwing it at those 4 things that you need to hit to open the door, and it wouldn't open. It was clear that this is what I needed to do to open the friggin door, but the game didn't give me the info that I needed to know the mechanic required to execute the puzzle. Under Demo Mode, the puzzle would be ruined for the player. By simply explaining the mechanic, the player would still have to solve the puzzle.

Maybe I'm just an idiot and rushed through the explanation.. But that part pissed me off.

Old act is ooooold.

If you need to use something like this at all, I'd say you're doing it wrong

But if you need this for nsmb wii, you should probably look into a new hobby...cause you suck at this one.

Can any of us truly say we've never needed hints or walkthroughs? Not to say that a 2D Mario game necessarily needs them (especially since this'll probably just help you get through the level, and not glean it's secrets, and the challenge of 2D Mario was always more in the doing than in the knowing). But this could be a handy substitute for a quick jaunt over to GameFAQs.

I needed a guide for contra 3, or any of the other ridiculously hard games back in the SNES days...but I didn't have one, so I learned how to beat it on my own.

I'll probably need one for Demon's Souls, but like always I'll get through it without one.

Why buy a game if it's going to play itself?

I agree with tmac. NSMB is way too easy to need a walkthrough just to beat the game. If you suck bad enough that you need demo option, you're going to suck way worse at every otger game and pribably not enjoy gaming in general.

Unless you have the patience to work through more difficult games to enjoy them, in which case you would never have needed demo option in the first place. This logic really says "drmo option caters to non-gamers," and non-gamers destroy games.

You are so fucking cool Tmac. That's why when gamer's around the world beat a game after stopping at some point to look something up in a FAQ/walkthrough they think to themselves "Damn I'm awesome for beating this game, but not as awesome as Tmac. I bet he beat it without even using the internet. I hope one day I can be that awesome at single player videogames".

Only in America will the non-lazy and smart people get criticized for being that way. Sorry, but I don't support hand holding over letting someone figure it out on their own, that's one reason why this country's full of dumb pussy kids now

I'm still not sure if this thing plays the game for you (and lets you jump in whenever you're ready), or if it just shows you a video on what to do then lets you take control back from where you were before the video started.

The second option I don't mind so much, even though I feel like it's a waste of space with sites like GameFAQS and Youtube, space that could be used to add more content or add other options.

The first option just seems like the cheap way out. It takes all the achievement out of achieving. I mean I use FAQS all the time and watch Youtube videos for help, but I don't ask someone to do it for me. I still go in and do it myself, I just prefer to know what's ahead of me so I can better prepare before hand.

No one's being criticized for being smart or "non-lazy." Go play martyr elsewhere.

Besides, the world doesn't measure intelligence or industry by gaming abilities.

"Nintendo of Europe updated its site, saying that while watching the demonstration go down in real time, the player can choose to intervene whenever they wish and take control themselves."

Well, that's exactly how we always thought it would be.

Personally, I absolutely love it (not necessarily for myself, but in general).

This Demo Play is like the Public Option debate of videogames.

It's an OPTION that benefits those less fortunate who are in need; and uptight assholes bitch and moan to no end and say its going to ruin the future.

It's a really, really retarded way of helping the user. But sure, I guess I'm an uptight asshole just because I want games to fix their design flaws instead of adding this horseshit.

I can't see a big problem with this. For kids and casual gamers it can help them figure out how to get past a frustrating part of the game, everyone else can just ignore the feature.

Or how about the designers don't create frustrating parts of a game?

That assumes everyone has an equal level of frustration. I'm awful at first person shooters, they might be particularly frustrating to me but very easy to you.

I think that it's important for designers to make their games challenging but accessible to all of the people who desire to play it. Just because I'm terrible at first person shooters doesn't mean that I don't ever want to play them, so optional tweaks to make them easier for me are much appreciated.

Yes, you are right and that's why pretty much every FPS has multiple difficulty modes.

FPS difficulty is just amount of enemies, health, damage, etc. It's a lot harder (and kinda stupid) to do multiple levels of difficulty for jumps, puzzles, etc.

It's not that much harder. Just make the platform 20 pixels wide instead of 10. Display hints to the puzzles on easy mode.

Bobby, I want to slap you in the face with my dangalang without actually slapping you in the face with my dangalang.

The issue is to prevent people from giving the game up in frustration. Now, from the original NSMB, i don't think that will be a problem for a lot, but i think we've all seen someone with less gaming experience struggle on some level or other, get stuck at that one point that they just couldn't surpass (and many of us felt that way ourselves when we were new)

It seems like this is basically Brawl Replays + ability to pick up from the replay, which is what i had assumed. Video would be too costly

If someone struggles through one of these games, they just can't be gamers. NSMB was so freaking easy, if you can't beat it, youcan't beat anything. I know many non-gamers who like Mario 3, and Mario 3 is harder than NSMB. So the issue, at this point, shouldn't be catering to the people who can't beat the easiest games out there. They will be sorely disappointed when they pick up pretty much any other game.

Bobby Kotick... I mean... seriously, man... you're just going to get yourself killed saying things like that.

I'm reposting this, cause I'd love to be a part of this discussion:

"while watching the demonstration go down in real time, the player can choose to intervene whenever they wish and take control themselves"

Someone tell me how this is not hand holding?

Because it's just showing you how to get past a certain point and then letting you try it for yourself, not letting you skip over it entirely. It's more of a built-in strategy guide, not a device that plays the game for you.

Perhaps I read it wrong. I thoight it let you intervene during the demo and you would be picking up where it left off. That's not so bad if that's the case.

"New Super Mario Bros. Wii is also the first Nintendo game to feature a dynamic help system, which allows you to access a mode showing how a level can be completed if you are stuck. The best thing about this mode is that you are free to jump into the action you’re watching on screen at any time!"

So, from the first part it sounds like it just simply shows you how to do it. The second part sounds like you can let the game play the level for you. Maybe it's both. You have the option to do it yourself or have the game do it for you.

Levi: shut up no one cares, we get you hate the idea.

Cody: it's called a fucking comment thread, what else should we do with it other than leave comments? I'm open to suggestions..

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Nintendo describes 'Demo Play' option in New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Reader Comments (73)

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