Nintendo is set to make games easier for its legions of casual Wii gamers this year, if a new patent is anything to go by.
Nintendo filed a patent application in the US for a cartoon-character assisted system which will help gamers negotiate those particularly difficult sections of the next Zelda or Mario game.
Nintendo fans in the TechRadar office were predictably aghast at the idea that a little cartoon man might pop up to 'spoil' the purity of their gaming experience. (While everybody else shrugged and said "sounds like a good idea, will stop me having to check GameFAQs every two hours…")
Miyamoto's latest plan
None other than Shigeru Miyamoto is listed as the inventor of the new cartoon hint system, which will either be installed on a game disc or made available online.
"In some of these games, a volume of the story or the scenario is too large, and therefore a lot of time is needed for clearing the game," explains the patent application.
"Further, in some cases, various puzzles are set in the scenario... However, there is a problem that these puzzles and the like are too difficult, and therefore the game may be stuck halfway, and the game may not be cleared to the end."
"As means for solving the problem, disclosed is a game control method for lowering the difficulty level of a game by presenting, while the game is being played, a hint for allowing the game to be continued."
TechRadar has contacted Nintendo UK for further information on this intriguing (or, for hardcore fanboys 'game-ruining') system!
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
mpeskett
January 12th
4. To enjoy a game you have to feel challenged, but not so challenged that the task is impossible. If a game is too easy we don't see it as being worth bothering, if it is too hard we get frustrated and give up. The optimum point is a feeling of "hell that was pretty tough, but I made it"
Thing is, that point is at wildly different difficulty levels for different gamers. There's those who have been playing for as long as they could stand and know intuitively how to pick up and play most games, then there's those who... haven't. You can either include a selection of difficulty modes, or include ways of altering the difficulty along the way.
I know Half-Life 2 will alter how much damage you take based on how much health you have, to prolong the "oh **** oh **** oh ****" phase for as long as possible before actually killing you, so that if you pull through it hits that optimum point. Got to be careful with it though - if it's too blatant the apparent challenge disappears because you can't fail.
This in-game hint system would be another way to give a struggling player a little nudge on the way to getting over the challenge at hand and prevent the frustration of not knowing what it is your supposed to be doing or how to do it.
Could actually allow them to make more hard games - the "hardcore" crowd can go through as normal, and instead of it being inaccessible to everyone else, they can be prompted along by the hint system until they get the hang of it.
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watcherzero
January 12th
3. Now that would be frightening, reminds me of the parodies where the staple "helps" you write a suicide note.
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weezer
January 12th
2. Or, how about a system that intelligently watches your actions, decides you're an noob/idiot/whatever and stealthily makes the game easier for you. Rather than break the willing suspension of disbelief with the Staple bloke out of Word...
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watcherzero
January 12th
1. Action Replay for the 128 bit generation?
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