Demo Shows Off New Super Mario Bros Wii "Super Guide" Feature - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 05 October 2009 / 5,297 Views
Kotaku began reporting on what came to be Super Guide way back in January. Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed it's inclusion at E3 earlier this year. Here are the details from Kotaku.
[quote]Any hesitation about revealing the mode ended this morning when, in a hotel demo suite in New York, Kotaku was shown how the Super Guide works. Nintendo is using this new help option to offer an unprecedented amount of in-game assistance, but it will only be available to players using the game's single-player mode who have failed at a level eight times. Nintendo's intent is to offer Super Guide as a helper for its less skilled customers and to allow its designers to make some of the game's levels devilishly difficult.
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.
The recorded Luigi playthroughs are run in-engine, not as pre-recorded video. They are, essentially, the equivalent of "ghost modes" commonly available in racing games, though the player can only watch Luigi do his thing, not play alongside him with Mario.
The Nintendo rep showed Kotaku two Luigi super-guide runs. She explained that these would be simple zips through the game's levels and would not reveal shortcuts and secrets. The runs were definitely not the perfect playthroughs that a gamer might find if they searched YouTube for an expertly played Mario Bros. speed run. A more faulty human hand was evident. In fact, in this pre-release version of the game, the first Luigi run that I was shown ended prematurely when Super Guide Luigi died halfway through the level. That's not supposed to happen in the final build, Kotaku was told. In the second Luigi run, the Mario brother got through the level on his own without any trouble.
The levels of New Super Mario Bros. Wii I saw today seemed harder than those of the last side-scrolling Mario platformer, New Super Mario Bros. on the DS. Super Guide does appear to have given Nintendo license to make the new game tougher and may provide the relief some players need to get to the end of the latest Mario world-hopping adventure.[/quote]
Look for New Super Mario Bros. Wii later this year when it launches on November 15, 2009 in the US and November 20, 2009 in Europe.
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I'm happy they're making it harder than the DS Mario, that game was so easy it took away from the fun factor.
I love how they make you try eight times before you get the easy way out. Encourages you to try.
So this will allow them to make games harder?
I really love the idea.
For some of us games are about challenges and self improvement.
Nice. :)
ah, and lol to the Super Guide leading Luigi to die! lol
games are less and less dificult, arf, I remember playing Mega Man for one full year before seeing the end with the help of a "game genie" I think, most of the games were far too hard, but short so... now the games are ridiculously easy, I think this Super Guide is for kids under 5 years old.
Good news...nsmb ds was way too easy (so was galaxy for that matter!)
Guess they (nintendo) don't wanna alienate newcomers, but this is probably a better way of keeping both types of gamers appeased...
that's perfect. I really like the idea
This game just got better.I've been skeptical about the 4 player co-op cuz I was scared dat they'll try & make it too family friendly.Seeing that me 7 my two brothers are hardcore,we can get a 4th person to join us and all get frustrated together!I lol'd @ nordlead & rendo's posts!
So... this is not a bad idea at all.
+1 to Nintendo, the only thing that N need to do now is make hardcore games with Super Guide
Perfect for my stupid moron brother in law who can't beat ANY game without googling some FAQ/GUIDE/getting someone to beat it for him. YAAAY $60 for a game to play itself, he'll be AWESOME AT THIS GAME. :b
lol, super guide told me to jump down the pit and I died!! :-P
Sounds exactly what I thought it was.
Also, I like the sound of this game upping the difficulty a bit. Though a couple levels in NSMB on DS did take some trial and error to get past.
I like it! Very elegant implementation.
Yes i was correct about this Super Guide thing being a good idea. I was the only one who supported it back on Eurogamer and guess what? it is a great idea. This will mean that al core gamers are even happier because Nintendo is making it harder for them. as for new people go ahead and use the super guide the first time around and then later on on the second time don't. This is awesome. Now no one can complain that ninty doesn't care about core gamers.
@ Soleron
Exactly, when I was 6yo, Super Mario Brothers was a frustrating game, lol, so it's just instilled to help the kids be able to play this game w/o losing hope, haha
When it comes to game design, Nintendo sure is the king^^
I might even try this, just to see how the ghosts do it. 'Cuz in 2-D platformers I'm tempted to speedrun through on my first try for fun, and then try it slower to enjoy the beauty and secrets right after. Could be neat to see some of the dev ghosts takin' 'er easy.
Sounds like we'll be seeing tough levels like that of SMB2 Japan version.
@wyvers, i remember it being that it shows u what to do BUT you still need to play it to beat it. Just bcoz Luigi does it its not so easy to just skip parts.
It shouldn't be that simple and it isn't. Using it as an alternative player is great(bros are helpfull), only using it on single player is inspired. It leads back to the moral decision on multiplayer, do u help or hinder?
Cool stuff Miyamoto.
Interesting. I won't use it myself as I hate to used help like this. However, it will definitely help the millions of new gamers the Wii has brought into the fold who may not die 20 times on a level without giving up as us more core users will.
Hell yeah, it's even better than I expected. It will let the noobs keep up with us, instead of slowing us pros down! And the levels will be harder! Woooooooohooo!!!
@Buzzi
Some will always find reason to complain :)
Anyways, it's a great concept. It's nice that you have to try a level a few times before you get the option to use the Super Guide.
@ Soleron
I was in the same boat. I couldn't beat it on my own when I was in first 2nd grade.
If it keeps it accessible while allowing hard sections, I like it.
No experienced Mario player should use it. But I remember how hard SM64 seemed when I was seven.
It's prerecorded? Wasn't the ai supposed to find it's own way and you can jump in anytime?
Now there's no reason to criticize it anymore right?
