Miyamoto confirms Wii 'demo play'

Part 2 Games often build upon themselves, at least the ones that understand how to build a challenge. You may begin with fledgling skills but through repetition you should in theory develop what is required to overcome the next obstacle. Skipping over one will only make it even harder to climb up the slope, and you'll be left with walls to great to climb over, so you'll "demo play" your way through the rest of the game. If for some this will give them pleasure who am I to say no. My qualm with this idea is that I don't want to see it leading to lazy design choices, or the destruction of a cornerstone of gaming: challenge. Lastly it should be noted that while although I have a first generation Wii it hardly get's use anymore. I really don't care so much about it being on Nintendo games, but again I am largely concerned about what it could mean for gaming as a form of entertainment.

@gamerguy845 You missed this part of my post: "Don't get me wrong video games are entertainment, but at the heart of gaming is overcoming the challenges they present to you, because you are better." I am far from being so biased to believe that all people must devote every waking hour to games to get any enjoyment out of it. This is an interesting genre anymore and people derive fun and enjoyment from many different places. Some it's the social aspect, other's pursue gamerscores, some seek being 100% completionists and others just want to play rock and roll. I will be the first to admit this will help out plenty of casual players, they'll get a lot of mileage out of it. I'll also concede that from Nintendo's standpoint this is a great idea FOR THE AUDIENCE THEY ARE TARGETING (can't stress that enough). But remember this subculture hasn't been growing like it has in the past few years a decade ago. The majority of people who would consider themselves gamers didn't come in with a Wii, and have been dealing with challenges. The problem I see with this idea is that we're going to lose an integral part of video games. All video games present a challenge, all of them. Some are an easily surmountable one, others are radically difficult. If you take away the challenge by providing a system within the game that would move you to the next part what's to keep them from doing it again 5 minutes later, and perhaps even sooner? part 1

I was expecting long-overdue playable demso. This sucks.

If there's one thing that defines the GameSpot community, it's the naive belief that the 10-hours-a-day, knows-all-the-rumors super-insane gamer is the only market of relevance. Then there's the other 80% of the market that buys stuff, too. Their money is as shiny as ours, and they tend to have more of it. For those of us who live (or have lived) entirely indoors under the roof of our parents, with no job or major obligations, spending three hours on a single puzzle or boss for the sake of purity seems normal. For those outside of our tent of lunacy, this product is a pretty great idea.

Ahaha Talk about a game that holds your hand through it the entire time I'm not gonna complain, but I'm sure am losin' a ton of respect for the guy who thought this up

Damn! I thought this was like a "Demo Channel" or something! Anyway, there's no reason to whine about this! It's just an option in the game, for God's sake!

Why not just buy a book rather than blow 60 bucks on a video game to just get the story?

Does that mean this game might actually be hard? Because modern game are often lacking in length and challenge.

Gaming for Dummies :D

"RandyAU93 As several readers have correctly pointed out, this is no different than reading online FAQs and walkthroughs" Well, using FAQs is one thing, but having the game play itself until you're ready to take over again is another. "this will allow them to clear troubled areas and take over when they're ready" Granted, this probably won't be in every game, but still... bad for gamers, good for random casuals who wouldn't go online to look up a FAQ or something, I guess.

great more worthless stuff from nintendo

I understand what they are trying to do and why.... But this is just stupid..

wow... not interested in the slightest, although where was this in the ocarina of time days? It probably would have been the only good use for this. And who the hell would want to see the ending of the game you're playing beforehand? working towards the ending is half the point when you're playing a campaign or story of a video game. With the use of this there would be no point to half the games out there, there would be no satisfaction in completing it or appreciating all the subtle triumphs that come with it while progressing through it.

Gamers definitely have issues with this concept, but please remember that Nintendo knows it has your support. Instead, it's going after non-gamers and families with small children, who will definitely get some use out of this optional feature. If anything, it's an extension of the Co-Op mode that many games on all consoles have. As several readers have correctly pointed out, this is no different than reading online FAQs and walkthroughs. I use FAQs only when I'm completely stuck or getting frustrated, and it's only enough to give me that nudge forward to keep going. This seems like an in-game version of the same thing ... based on the popularity of such online features, Nintendo may well be onto something.

I think that people aren't necessarily "whining" about this. It seems natural to me to be upset when a company builds into a game the ability to whiz past the whole thing without actually playing it because it takes all the credibility away from putting in the work it takes to complete the game. It doesn't matter if a game is 5 hours long or 500 hours long; you should actually PLAY it, and not have the game play it for you. That is, for all intents and purposes, cheating. People who use cheat codes are frowned upon, but when the company builds it into the game options that somehow makes it ok? I understand that it's necessary to make a game that everyone can enjoy, but this is ridiculous. There's no feeling of completion, accomplishment, or satisfaction; it's just watching a movie. Why not just add a movie mode instead? ::rolls eyes::

As long as it's 100% optional, which it is, why not? Although I must admit, I was really hoping this was a demo download service for Wii games. Oh well, maybe in the future.

As long as it is optional. I don't see a problem with this additional option. In the futur they will probably find creative ways to use it as a gameplay element, and not just a way to make things simplier. Still, in difficult passage I would be tempted to use that function, and I really wouldn't like doing that. I just LOVE RPGs, so much that I refuse to read walkthrough until I finished the game once. So I just can't use something that would play the game for me.

If only this article linked to a program that allowed you to check the browser history of anyone laughing at this program, to see if they've ever visited GameFAQs.

What? Why would someone want to use this kind of feature? In a Mario game of all games to top it, those are some of the most accessible, fun and easy to learn how to play, this is unnecessary. You play games for the sake of playing them, not to see a pre-recorded play from someone else. If I wanted to do that I'd rather watch TV. This is one of the weirder things I've heard from Nintendo lately.

Demo play will also probably find a less patent worthy use as a way to demonstrate techniques that a game's playable characters may need to acquire for a new area or level. A demonstration of how to use the move(s) in the current level could eliminate the need for a lot of those overly simplistic training areas that you're typically forced to play through at the beginning of a game. Of course a feature like this is about choice, so as long as you can choose to use it or not, I don't see it being a hindrance to gaming. Perhaps some feel their integrity as gamers would be compromised by accessing "demo play", but I sure would have liked the option for that speeder bike level in Battletoads (never got past it).

i think its good for the casual, it gives them an opportunity to experience story and parts of games without getting overly frustrated and putting them down. It ensures that they get their own form of gratification and dont feel left out when for example their buddy beats a game and they are stuck on a tricky part for them on level 2. It happens with me and the girlfriend, one of us is able to do it the other may not, so with this it means those parts that you just cant tolerate any further are now not really skipable but could even act like a visual gamefaq rather than trying to determine the best path through written example. Besides as for us that are more hard into games, we have the choice to use it or not so it shouldn't effect anyone negatively. If you don't like it don't use it, it just means more people can experience the game and understand/ agree when you tell them just how awesome that ending really was.

Wow for a sec I thought the wii was finally getting a download service, man was I SUPRISED, lol! :) This however sounds like total crap imo, I'll never be using it, kills the fun in games imo!

I suspect this will be yet another Wii product, like Wii Fit, that the Internet ubergamer sneers at but will be wildly successful. Hell, I might use it to fast forward through some poorly-designed stage or side quest. The only crime here is not having this available on the GameCube so I could've avoided all of the levels in Mario Sunshine with the crappy Yoshi mechanics. Would've turned a B minus game into a B or B plus. As long as this feature remains optional, I have no beef with it.

It'll allow Nintendo to create more challenging games. If you get stuck on an area, it's not the end of the game. Although, admittedly, it's kind of like cheating so I'll probably never use this. The enjoyment comes out of figuring out a puzzle yourself.

really? i buy a "game" put it in and watch pre recorded footage...sounds an aweful lot like TELEVISION and not a VIDEO GAME. cmon nintendo this is getting ridiculous i wanna play my games not the game play itself for me

Key word here is "optional". If you don't want to use it, don't. Stop whining.

I'll judge it when I see it actually implemented.

I think Nintendo is trying to take the thinking out of playing games. Kind of like watching TV.

Nintendo is retarded.

The smugness around here is over flowing; if you are a core gamer you play on-line and you usually play FPS with lots of blood. I will speak for myself that when I play a Mario game I usually cannot finish it because there is always something I am unable to do. This time around it is Mario Galaxy and I have been stuck for 2 months. My usual helper has not gamed much in the past decade and could not do it either. We all pay good money for our games and it would be nice to get the most out of them.

Nintendo Perma-fails at life!

Once again proving Nintendo is only worried about selling games to my mom.

@star77241: you'll get demos maybe when the Wii gets a hard drive, what are you going to do, delete everything in the measly 512mb for 1 demo? Then re-download your old stuff back on the 512? Has Nintendo even unlocked the SD card slot to make it easier for gamers to have more storage yet? Or do you still have to delete and upload stuff between the SD and internal Flash memory?

Maybe they should look more into the demographics of people who play their more "hardcore" titles? I'm pretty sure a whopping .1% of the people who purchase these games would actually have a use for this. Better yet, how are these people even going to realize that this option is available? It sounds like a waste of research and development dollars to me. This isn't a kind of feature that is a selling point for a game. THAT is what they should be focusing on, and is something they should be focusing while NOT scaring away traditional hardcore players. Besides, it's not like many of their games are overly challenging these days anyway....

weaksauce. the best part of playing any game is the feeling you get after playing a section and failing a thousand times, only to seemingly miraculously beat the aforementioned part. honestly, how hard can a mario game be?

... :\

Viewing the story's conclusion is your reward for your job-well-done. But I guess in this everything-on-demand age we find ourselves living in, even playing a game is too much work for the jelly-willed masses.

Where is hell was this when we were suffering through th Water Temple in Ocarina of Time?! Oh well. I am not happy about this news, why would you buy a video game for it to play itself?!

if you get stumped playing a Mario game, I think you have bigger problems. Again, Nintendo just keeps reminding me of why I sold my Wii to begin with, thank god they are not the only game company around, this is so far from what they used to be, bring the old Nintendo back.

Yay! Now I can finally get past level 2 in Petz Salon!

So...make games that are already fairly easy...and make it so they are even easier....uhh...no thanks.

Why isn't this thing called Wii cheat?

This is so stupid. Optional or not, it defeats the whole purpose of playing video games in the first place. Though i guess I'm not a member of the "mass-market audience". It's not like Nintendo has given us much incentive to play the wii for a while anyways.

Boooorrrriiiinngggg.

why can't nintendo just let gamers be gamers? if you're gonna play a game, you should already know that you might get stumped once or twice. i guess its cool, but to release it with new super mario bros.? the ds version wasn't hard by any means, and i doubt the wii version will be any harder, seeing that its, well, the wii. watever, we'll see i guess

Nah thanks, I'll stick to PLAYING games

What's the point of playing a game? This is just going to make games look more like movies. Boo.

I'm pretty sure that the Wii doesn't have enough system memory to support real demos...maybe for VC and WiiWare games, but not retail. And I guess this is a good idea for casual gamers. Not really applicable to anyone who visits this site, though.

ROFL. There are many people here that don't know what "Optional" means. XD

It would be great with demos that could be downloaded for free using the wiiShopChannel. I guess in-game walthrough is a fairly good way to make it easier for new gamers though.