Nintendo confirms auto-pilot cheat code for Wii
Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 5:03pm by Boss Hog
Nintendo games are about to get a whole lot easier.
In an interview with USA Today, chief creative designer Shigeru Miyamoto announced that the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii would be the first game to support an optional auto-pilot mode to bypass difficult parts of a game.
“In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, if a player is experiencing an area of difficulty, this will allow them to clear troubled areas and take over when they’re ready,” said Miyamoto. “And yes, we’re looking into this for future games, too.”
First known as the “Kind Code” patent filed last year, the Nintendo endorsed cheat code has been tentatively named “demo play.” And I think it’s brilliant.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
At least everyone will make it to the end of the game. Everyone may not earn it or enjoy it as much as they should, but the end of the game will no longer be out of the range for everyone.
Plus there are just some things in Mario games that everyone has trouble with, there’s no reason they should be punished for the one or two things they can’t do by not being allowed a simple way to the next level to play it and potentially beat it.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Soooo…….why do I want to play this game then? Might as well call it the “Special Needs” code…..
Think I’m reaching the end of my rope with Nintendo.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I have absolutely no problem with the inclusion of this. I just don’t think I’ll ever use it. I like the feeling of accomplishment, even if it takes a ridiculous number of tries.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
@ Kale,
Relax man, nobody is gonna force you to use it. Just like you didnt have to use the Konami code on Contra. Theres probably a lot of people who cant beat Contra without it.
NSMB Wii is no Contra, and I have no plans on using the “Demo Mode” . But I loved NSMB DS, and now I can play with 3 others at the same time. Thats why I intend to play it.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Hmm… This is kinda redundant. The only time I could ever see myself ever using it is when I get stuck for 4 hours in a Metroid or Zelda game, give up, come back a few weeks later and have no idea what to do.
At least it’s optional. Maybe now my girlfriend can beat a Mario game lol.
Oh and for those who are complaining, that makes no sense. Who complains when a feature is added to a game? No one is forcing you to use it.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
What’s next? A game that will play itself for the entire game?
Seriously, cheat codes and strategy guides is one thing, but this? It’s just insulting.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Doesn’t this game just look amazing? Seriously, look at that screen shot.
I personally like the idea of “demo mode”. I am a gamer that has no problem getting online to look at a walkthrough when I get stuck. I still enjoy the game even though I had to get some help online. Now I don’t have to do that anymore, I just have to let the game do the cheating for me. Props Nintendo!
June 15th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Nobody has seen it in action yet, so I think its a little early to complain. Then again, this is the internetz, so never mind that point.
NSMB on DS had a lot of hidden paths and secrets to get all the coins, to complete the game 100%. Will this demo mode give you those? I cant say for sure, but I doubt it.
And what about the people who buy strategy guides? They will probably love this feature, cause it will save them money.
And its an option, not a requirement. If you dont like it, dont use it.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
NSMB for DS was already way too easy.
If they’re going to include this sort of auto-pilot, then the game had better be more difficult than Mario games.
June 15th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I guess Nintendo assumes people have never heard of GameFAQs or Youtube…
June 15th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I think this is awesome. It’s a great idea. This will be especially cool for little kids.
Heck, if I die in some part of a level 20 times in a row, like I do at some point in every Mario game, I might use it myself.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I think this is a fantastic idea. Although, unlike James, I think this could be BAD for kids, if it teaches them to give up because an easy workaround is readily available. One of the things video games taught me in my youth is that if you are persistent, you can do things you thought looked impossible. I hope we don’t lose this benefit of gaming. Also, what about us parents. I would be pretty disappointed if “little johnny” got a game for christmas and by that afternoon had “beaten” it simply by repeatedly using the demo mode. But even so, I really think this is a great idea for most people who can control themselves and only use it as a last resort. It’s really no different than reading a walkthrough in many cases. And until we see it implimented, we should reserve final judgement.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Just another notch added to Nintendo’s belt of innovations and improvements that will see mass replication by other hardware and software companies in the gaming biz.
Add it next to:
The D pad
Shoulder buttons
the analog stick
rumble
motion control
etc…
People will complain for no reason, but will forget about in the future when its a standard feature in alot of games.
June 15th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
@ razorkid:
You win at life.
June 15th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
“Doesn’t this game just look amazing? Seriously, look at that screen shot.”
The game does indeed look incredible.
As for the cheat mode, I think it’s ok. Not a lot of casual gamers know about GameFaqs or Youtube, so I think this will be good for them. Of course, us “hard core” gamers will never, ever use this. Right?
June 15th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
If games of this generation (and I mean most games, not just Nintendo or Wii ones) are already to easy, this just takes it to a new all time low.
How about to offset this they make a harder difficulty mode as well?
June 15th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I’m using this while I eat. I’m fat, I’m lazy, and there are just some stages I do not like Mario games. Like the underwater ones. Anyone can beat them, but how many can do so with pizza in one hand and noodles in the other? Everyone after this hits. If I had this option in Super Mario 64 I’d never play the dungeon paintings again. I dislike the music for the fire and sand worlds. The sand place is all about patience, and the fire is about persistence. They’re both kind of dull and are only useful for seeing Mario lose his hat or for enjoying a bully fight.
June 15th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Getting offended about this or calling for Nintendo’s head is like getting pissed about the weather in Egypt when you live in Los Angeles. Or getting pissed that your cable operator just added a soccer channel when you hate soccer.
Seriously, people complain about Nintendo just to complain about Nintendo these days. It’s the shovelware complaint all over again. No one is forcing anyone to do this or to buy the software.
The is an OPTION.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
@ Jack
I actually caught this story yesterday on a different video game board (one dominated mostly by Nintendo haters), and according to them, the world is about to end, our kids are doomed to be the stupidest generation of kids ever, the video game industry has just signed it’s death warrant, and any and all video game talent has come to a sudden and complete halt all due to this one optional feature.
The funny thing is that what Nintendo is proposing (not even verified as to what it’s actually going to do) is a whole lot less offensive then cheat codes (actually what Nintendo is doing isn’t offensive at all, seeing it’s an OPTION that you can use or not). With a cheat code I can skip entire levels or become indestructible. Yet when asked about the difference between this and a cheat code, not a single intelligent answer is given. “It just is” is the the common reply.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
frankly i don’t see what the big deal is. its optional. so what? it doesn’t change gameplay for you and i. it however can help people who are new to video games, or don’t play them often. its really a win win. i still don’t understand the big deal.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
razorkid really has the insight here. you missed one thing though…..the vitality sensor.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
@ srkelley. you got some good points. i guess its pretty useless to have a game sitting on the shelf, and played through only 10% because it was too hard and someone got completely stuck, than to have a game that was experienced all the way through and beaten, but not in the traditional way, and therefore not enjoyed to the full extent. in the latter, it appears one would get more of their money’s worth in the end, as they would have been through the whole journey of the game, some as the spectator, and some of it as the player.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I really don’t care if the option is there. I just hope that there’s some sort of penalty for using it, such as not being able to see the true ending, or making it impossible to get a high score. It doesn’t have to be super harsh, but there should be some sort of penalty for essentially cheating.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:10 am
I think UsedCisco brings up a good point. When I was a kid, it took me hours to beat a single world in Super Mario Bros. and it was that length and persistence that allowed to me to keep playing Super Mario World and Super Mario All-Stars for YEARS. It didn’t matter that I sucked. I still enjoyed playing them thinking I might someday beat them.
MY worry here is that it will cut down the value of the game if you can sit back and beat it without any input. I might be a little too tempted on that last level and use it and then regret it. Kids might just beat the game in a sitting in order to say “they’re done”
I just hope there is something more to it than pressing pause and clicking “beat it for me, please.” Maybe like in Boom Blox where if a level is too hard you can earn the money and buy it? Maybe while it’s “playing itself” you have to do something as well? This is Nintendo we’re talking about so I’m sure there’ll be something more to it.
June 16th, 2009 at 1:22 am
I think this is a great idea. Many people need to realize that while a game might be ’super easy’ to us, the game is not easy to everybody. My wife has only gotten to world 2 in New Super Mario Bros. and she can’t pass one of the levels. With this feature she could skip the part that she can’t pass and then move on to enjoy the rest of the game.
My wife also really likes the puzzle solving and exploration of Zelda, but hates the boss battles (she has me play these parts for her). If this was put into a Zelda game she could skip the parts she hates and get on with the parts that she loves.
I also don’t get why people are complaining about it– it is an option. You don’t have to use it (how is having more options/features in a game a bad thing?). Plus, this could potentially be used to ramp up the difficulty in latter levels for us ‘core’ players without leaving individuals such as my wife frustrated. I’m sorry, but it seems like a win-win situation to me.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:06 am
I don’t see the big controversy (if they wanna put it in, they can since I won’t use it), but to call it revolutionary? That’s even more of a stretch.
June 16th, 2009 at 7:56 am
I think this is the completely wrong way to get people playing games. The fun for me in a game has always come from beating anything and everything a game contains, across all genres; enemies in FPS’s, puzzles in adventures etc etc. Newcomers to gaming who can freeride to the end aren’t going to enjoy games half as much and so are less likely to continue playing.
Plus the longer it takes me to beat a section the greater the satisfaction when I do. Whether it’s a really tricky bit or just some forehead slappingly simple thing I’ve missed it’s all part of the experience and this feature is in danger of removing that experience for some people.
I’ll never forget the ‘I’m awesome’ feeling of aligning mirrors in the proper way in Wind Waker or the ‘I’m a retard’ feeling when I spent about 6 months clueless as to how to get to the next section on Prime 2 before I accidentally activated a visor which opened the path for me.
Obviously I’ll never use it – I used to use walkthroughs until I decided I didn’t want to cheat anymore, and have enjoyed games even more since – so it won’t affect me but I can see this feature creating an even bigger divide between the types of people who play games, and I really really don’t want that.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I honestly don’t care. I’m not going to use it, so it doesn’t affect me.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Well, I see a lot of complaining about this. I have a question. Do you want to keep seeing games with any level of difficulty in them?
Because let’s look at what’s really happening here.
There are many different types of people in the world. These many different types of people have many different types of taste. They enjoy many different types of things. If you sit them down in front of the same game and watch what they do, you’ll find that even though they’re all playing the same piece of software, they’re actually all playing different games. Some are playing because they find the gameplay elements fun, in a light entertainment way. They like running around and jumping, but they don’t necessarily care if they get all of the hard to get things, or beat all of the challenges. Some like exploring the game worlds, they want to see everything that they can. Maybe they like the art or the level design, and that’s what they want to be experiencing. Some like really mastering the game, beating all of the challenges and doing all of the really hard things. Some play for the stories, and just want to see what happens next. And some play for the multiplayer aspects. They like to interact with other people in whatever way.
These motivations are at times mutually incompatible. People that want to explore the world or just have a light casual time aren’t going to appreciate having very big road blocks placed in their way; they don’t want complex sequences of button presses that they have to master the timing for. It stops them cold, and they have a big hump that they have to get over before they can start enjoying themselves again. And that’s just one example of an issue of conflict. There are lots and lots of others.
So when there’s a conflict between those incompatible drives in the players, which players should be given the most creedence? Which drives are the most valuable? Well, the answer to that is pretty simple from a developer point of view. Whichever view has the widest market share and thus can provide the highest amount of profits (Hint, the people that really like soulcrushing challenge tend not to be that big of a market segement). This is simple good business sense, and less an attempt to cash in on a growing market. Games are becoming increasingly expensive to make, and they need to sell increasingly better to even break even. Big budget games can’t really afford to continue to pander to a tiny market. Now, this is not to say that niche games won’t continue to get made, merely that the bulk of resources will not be devoted to games that can only capitalize a tiny segement of the market.
So what’s the fallout of all of this? If your game cannot be enjoyed by the less skilled gamers, your game has little to no future. This is obviously bad. As a developer you don’t want that. So you have two general solutions to the problem; you make the game so that it directly targets the less skilled gamer, or you make the game so that it’s inclusive to the less skilled gamer while still favoring skill. If you do the former, you see stuff like Wii Sports and Wii Fit. If you do the latter, you see stuff like this, and more besides. Mario Galaxy’s second player is another good example. If you do neither you condemn yourself to the niche, with all that that entails.
In the end, if games are going to continue to have any layer of challenging gameplay to them, they need to go about doing so in ways that are inclusive to non-skilled players, that have ways to ease them into things, or bypass layers of complexity so that they can remain approachable. If steps like those are not taken, you’ll see an increasingly small number of “challenging” games. This is needed step if those older genres are going to continue to exist as something that remotely resembles what you know and love.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I am glad to see the elitist attitude of the “hardcore” gamer continue to be undermined. The online gamersphere has become way too full of itself in recent years, proclaiming the realm of videogames their own private domain. Nintendo takes another step towards destroying all videogames as we know it, and I applaude them for it.
This is the real threat of Wii. Wii allows non-gamers to find enjoyment in videogames, and that makes the elitist hardcore angry. Wii gamers are not “real” gamers, they cry. Nintendo is ruining videogames, they weep. My mom is hogging the TV with her stupid WiiFit, they whine. The industry is now being controlled by consumers who never played FF7, or don’t know all the combos for Street Fighter 2. The horror…
I thought it was explained that Kind Code would not be without penalty. One example was that Kind Code could play through a level, allowing you to watch how it is done, but the player must actually solve the level himself in order to save his progress and move forward. Hardly a game breaker.
The gamersphere cries that Nintendo is destroying the industry. They are too stupid to realize that Nintendo is TRYING TO SAVE THE INDUSTRY. In order to do that, it is the elitist hardcore gamersphere that must be destroyed!
June 16th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
May be I would be mad back in the day but Mario games have always had this. You had warp zones and other things and tricks. We mostly liked the tricks and breaking the rules. But seriously if you are still feeling bad ass you and just play the game with out it. Then sit in awe as the hardcore demo shows what a hardcore player is made out of. I know I’ve played all eight worlds on most mario games just for the challenge.
Another funny thing is this breaks the idea that a game is about story only. This will actually promote replay since most gamers don’t have true hardcore big brothers to beat the games for them.
The funny thing is if kids are show excellence then they are more like to figure out how to get that good. The ones that give up are just that quitters.
I love watching other play yet nothing is funnier than playing your way. Most games don’t even let you do that.
June 16th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
i think this is great, i take finishing a mario game in my stride, but my 5 year old nephew absolutely loves mario, and there are often tricky jumps that he just can’t do, when I’m not around, he has to wait till he sees me again so i can do it for him, this kind of thing is perfect for that, if he really can’t do it, just use this and he’ll be away.
Just have to make sure that people don’t overuse this, or it could end up spoiling games, taking away the challenge entirely
June 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
“Or getting pissed that your cable operator just added a soccer channel when you hate soccer.”
I’m assuming you’re meanings adds a channel that you have the option of purchasing extra, or at the least is added with no charge. Because I would complain if an all soccer channel was added to my cable lineup and my bill went up.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
As long as the game’s stats keep track of how much of the game you passed without using the help, we should all be fine…
And, by the way, Nintendo is not the first developer to think of this: SEGA included such a cheat in Space Channel 5. I use it all the time when my 2-year-old daughter used to have me clear the game like her mom does, except her mom can do it without any cheating. I can’t!
June 16th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I for one look forward to this feature. If the original Mario Brothers game had it I might have finished the game… even once!
As it is, with having to start over at the beginning every time I have never completed the original game. Level 7-3 (?) is as far as I have ever gotten. And I have been playing the game since it first came out on the original console.
I have since downloaded it from the Virtual Console and I continue to play it… to no great success. I enjoy it to no end but it would be nice to be able to get past one of the level.4 ‘your princess is in another castle’ levels without losing half of my lives.
Maybe if I had this feature to demo play I would have learned a trick or two that I could then use as I try to beat it on my own.
Maybe then I would have finished the game.
Maybe then I would have bought another game. Not until Galaxy came out have I bought a Mario game. I hear Mario Brothers 3 was ok. Not that I have ever tried it though.
So if this feature, which is totally optional, might show a player through a tough spot and help them on, keeping them a satisified customer that will buy and play more games… how is this a bad thing?
June 16th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
“Plus the longer it takes me to beat a section the greater the satisfaction when I do.”
Not me. The anger and frustration I feel can linger on significantly past the point when I do eventually succeed. In fact, there are some difficult parts in games I played over a decade ago that still make me angry when I think about them.
For me, gaming is about the adventure and the discovery,not the challenge.
June 16th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Hardcore gamers are pissed simply because this will enable non-hardcore gamers to “beat” games without having 733t skiIIz, which will make hardcore gamers even less note worthy. When everyone who ever buys Gears of War has “beaten it”, that hardcore gamers achievement will seem less significant. This scares them shitless, since it’s all they have.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I take it I was being tl;dr yet again
June 17th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Oh my god. I hate this new nintedo! Why do they think every gamer has some special need where they cant play the game! The most fun parts of some games are parts that you need to keep doing to beat! I these cheat codes suck.
~~Jesse
June 17th, 2009 at 10:16 am
So, have cheat codes in PC games cheapened PC games and made for worse PC gamers?
No.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I understand the view point that it allows people to get past parts of the game that are too hard. But come on, the challenge and repeated failure and trial and error is part of the fun of games, especially platformers. It allows your to learn more about the game, the charecter, and it makes you a better gamer when you acctually get past it (Before you jump at my neck, I don’t mean better as in above others, but your skills as a gamer improve by working hard to get past the difficulty.)
This idea by Nintendo, really disappointed me.
June 17th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
I have played all Marios platformers but Sunshine is too hard for me.
I could’ve needed this demo mode in that game to be honest with you.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Maybe it should show you a simple route or direction instead of autopilot?
A lot of people sure seem upset about something meaningless and not of value.
June 24th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Yeah, let’s make nintendo games even easier.
This is actually not that great an idea. I don’t think NSMB Wii will be difficult enough to have to give players an autopilot mode. There’s very little chance of me using this as I actually play games to have fun and experience a challenge. If I get stuck I’ll leave and come back later to try again. The game has to be truly mind boggingly difficult for me to consider using such a mode.
For instance, I have a cousin who only plays games on easy mode (despite the fact that he decimates those games). I constantly encourage him to amp up the difficulty so he can grow as a gamer and appreciate the game more. Now with this little feature appearing on Wii, I think he would buy the game, set it to autopilot and never play the game itself and just watch the game play itself. Waste of time and money.
I’m all for games playing themselves (i.e. Phoenix Wright, and you know it’s true as it doesn’t matter what options you pick or evidence you choose, it’s always specific, so the game is more of a trial and error book IMO. However Phoenix Wright is awesome). But for something like Mario it’s not needed. There are plenty of sources around for gamers to utilize such as the internet, or better yet, friends.
I remember back in the day, we didn’t have internet or fancy guides. We relied on the good ol’ Nintendo magazines and class mates to figure out how to clear stages in games.
But I’m rambling, and for those who want to use it great, I won’t, and I really hope that this will NOT be implemented into Metroid Other M or Legend of Zelda.
August 16th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
In the end it’s all about choice. The player decides how to use feature. Either never, sparingly, gratuitously or completely. If it’s that important to you, don’t associate with those people. Make them feel bad about enjoying their game.
A feature like this combined with Miyamoto’s idea for the ultimate game is very similar to game I wanted to make on the PSP/PC. Why can’t we be the antagonist by controlling the environment and giving Mario a hard time? Let’s try our best to stop Mario from beating the game. That’ d be fun as heck.
October 10th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I thought it looked hard, from the videos I’ve seen. That bums me out. I’d love an EASY multiplayer Mario platformer. One that I could play with my family. And being able to set your guy on autopilot is no compensation as far as I’m concerned. I’d much rather have it just be easy.