Shigeru Miyamoto can be credited for the revival of the game industry after the crash. His games on the Nintendo Entertainment System brought much needed life and variety to the industry. It’s because of many of those games that I am a gamer today. So obviously, Mr. Miyamoto is an innovator, right?
Well, he may be going a touch insane. After tapping the casual market in a big way with the Wii, Nintendo is taking their next step into making games more accessible for a casual audience. In a recent interview, Miyamoto confirmed what a patent earlier this year had us all suspecting. He calls it “Demo Play”
“Demo Play” will be launched with New Super Mario Bros. Wii this holiday season. This system helps the player complete tough parts of the game, without having to play at all. In an interview with USA Today, Miyamoto says: “if a player is experiencing an area of difficulty, this will allow them to clear troubled areas and take over when they’re ready.” So, imagine if you will, back in the NES days. You were playing a challenging game of Mega Man 2, and you just couldn’t beat Air Man. Well, all you would have to do is press a button, and the game would beat him for you. If you never pressed the button again, it sounds like the game would just complete itself. <sarcasm>Yay!</sarcasm>
I’m hesitant to this new development. It will be interesting to see how it is implemented. However, I can honestly say I will never use this feature beyond testing to see how it works. Sure, it will bring a ton of new gamers who otherwise wouldn’t have the ability to beat the games, but what are games without the challenge? The whole point of gaming is to have a feeling of accomplishment when you beat a game/match, be it AI or human. But that’s ok with me. If Nintendo wants to cater to that audience, they can go right ahead. But if you ignore the fans that got you to the point of your success, you’re in for more hurt than you know. The casual market is a finicky one.
So what do you all think? Is this the next big step in our industry, or is Nintendo going off the deep end?
June 15, 2009
#1
I agree that this isn’t really the way games should start going. The reason people buy games is because they want to play them, not watch the computer play itself. The only way this would be entertaining to me was if it was a really cool video or something of beating a boss. But even then, it would only be an extra, I’d still beat the boss myself.
June 15, 2009
#2
I was initially raging at Miyamoto when I heard about this some time ago, but it’s been awhile since then, and I’ve thought about this some more.
This isn’t a means to dumb down games or otherwise deteriorate the challenge of a good boss fight. Nintendo is just trying to bridge the casual and core market. Their first attempt at connecting the two very different consumers this generation was with the actual console. The console was cheaper and less intimidating and, to the casual audience, more appealing overall. Mission accomplished, at least partly, as the Wii has popped quite a few cherries in the metaphorical sense (more than my total for certain). However, despite a few core franchises like SSBB there was little Nintendo did to cater to the core market. They even appeared to be neglecting their die hard fanbase. However, this new feature seems to lean more in favor of the core gamer. It looks like Nintendo’s first step to transition the massive casual market(the one they roped in with motion controls and cheap pricing and family priority) into the core market. What does this mean for the existing, AAA starved core market? MORE GOOD NINTENDO GAMES. The absolute worse thing I see coming out of this is an annoying little notice popping up after I die to Ridley for the third time informing me that because I suck I have the opportunity to skip the boss and spare further humiliation. Of course I promptly decline. Being an OOT vet, I’m used to nagging hints/bitching.
In regards to challenge, I can only reason that this gives devs an excuse to make games more challenging. “Sure go ahead and give the boss PCP and a chainsaw, the player can skip it if it’s too hard.” There’s no reason to dumb down something that can be autoplayed.
June 16, 2009
#3
I agree with Carlos. All this is doing is giving a players a chance to get through the parts that are just too hard. If their intention was to dumb games down, they would make them so easy that this feature would be useless. However, I actually think it’s rather smart. As was stated, this will help bridge the gap between casual and core gamers. I’ll be the first to admit that if a game is too hard for me, I stop playing. In many cases, I never go back to it again. It’s been over 10 years and I’ve still never played Friday The 13th on NES again because I remember how hard certain parts were. And I completely gave up on EOE for PS2 because I couldn’t beat one of the bosses. Hell, I almost gave up on Indigo Prophecy because the L-R challenges were so painful for my hands. If I had a way to skip over the certain parts that are harder than they should be, I would probably use it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very adamant about completing games on my own, especially now. But there are times when this feature would at least give me some sort of comfort.
Demo Play is an excellent way to attract casual gamers to games they otherwise wouldn’t consider. Some people don’t want a ridiculous challenge. Making a game hard doesn’t make it fun. Many of us play simply because we like the storylines (this was the main draw of the Final Fantasy series). This can help people enjoy their favorite elements of a game without having to get killed by a certain boss 50 million times. Besides, I really doubt the feature will be available at any point in every game. They’re probably planning on having certain checkpoints set up to use with this. You know, to help you get over a big jump, hit a target, etc. Maybe I’m wrong, but I really doubt that you’ll be able to pop in Final Fantasy, turn on Demo Play, and watch as the game levels you up for a couple of hours.
Whatever they’re planning, I’m sure it will have specific limitations. I’m also sure it will help them rack up sales. Hardcore gamers will see this as idiotic and pointless, but I’m fairly certain that casual gamers will see this as genius. It’s also good for kids who haven’t developed the logic for solving complex problems presented in many games. After all, they’re not really given the option of Elmo and Barney games anymore. Children games are mostly a thing of the past (Disney’s the only company I ever see developing them anymore).
June 16, 2009
#4
Good points! I think if it gives the developers a little more confidence in making some of the more core games harder, I’m all for it. I’m hardcore gamer through and through, and not at all opposed to casual gamers coming into the market. I just don’t like it when game experiences are dumbed down for the sake of the casual market. But as Carlos pointed out, this is more of a bridge than a dumbing down. And yes, I expect to see countless prompts to press that button when you die from fighting a boss, but I could probably get used to that. Now, if we could just find the justification in the Wii Vitality Sensor…