Nintendo "Demo Play" Coming to Handhelds

[ThatJagoGuy]

Naaaw, I'm going to join the unpopular side of the argument and say that I'm anti-demo play. The sense of satisfaction when you finally crack a difficult bit of game is the whole point, surely!

Furthermore, I started gaming on titles like Super Metroid which isn't exactly a walk in the park when you're seven years old. The learning curve is all part of gaming and I think this move only serves to alienate Nintendo from the gaming community in favour of untapped markets.

 

[dochmbi]

It's just like Shamus said, instead of skipping a challenging point of the game, the easy mode of the game should have a checkpoint in front of every somewhat tough spot so you could retry it as many times as you want without having to go through the level over and over again.

 

[Mr. Fister]

I'm amazed Nintendo is actually implementing their patent into the Nintendo DS. Makes me wonder how though. Will it be a firmware update or will the demo play be in each cartridge?

It's going to be in the individual games, not something you would have to install.

And as long as this doesn't lead to developers adding this as a way of weaseling out of making certain parts of their game actually beatable, I don't mind having this in games. It's not like it's going to make games even easier to play or anything like that.

 

[KaZZaP]

I first thought what the hell games use to be hard now they play themselves? But really its a good thing because now they could actually make some harder stuff and give the soccer moms and 7 year olds a way out.

 

[Woe Is You]

Naaaw, I'm going to join the unpopular side of the argument and say that I'm anti-demo play. The sense of satisfaction when you finally crack a difficult bit of game is the whole point, surely!

You can still do that, though. It isn't like the demo play mode activates automatically after you fail a certain amount of times. You have to specifically decide to use it for it to do anything for you.

 

[randommaster]

I just don't see how this is in any way good.

The worst case scenario would be if this is in Scribblenauts though. My god..

Actually, since Scribblenauts's lexicon is about five times larger than the average person's it would be cool to use this to see just what it can come up with. This would be especially cool with the mode that doesn't let you use the same word twice. Even limiting it to one of those puzzles would be cool to watch.

If limited to only ONE puzzle, then it might be cool, but only if it always did the most absurd of absurd things, everytime.

Think about it, you've solved one puzzle seven different ways, but you want to waste some time. With demo mode, the game would have to go through its lexicon and find new ways to solve the puzzle. Even if the game uses five words per solution, that's still two thousand solutions. Once you got past solution fifteen or so, you probably would never have thought of solving the puzzle the way the computer did.

As for demo mode itself, the game will probably reward you for not using it, just so people will know that you did everything yourself.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I have no qualms against Demo Play, but only under one stipulation: They do not hold back a single bit on difficulty. Seriously, the whole reason games have been getting easier over the years is because the harder a game is, the less copies it tends to sell because casual players don't want to have to become total masters of a game's every mechanic just to beat it.

So with Demo Play giving players a way to get past harder bits, there is no excuse for the game to remain easy to play for the sake of the casuals. Super Mario World still gives me a hard time on some levels. I could play-through New Super Mario Bros on the DS without even a hint of difficulty.

If the next Mario game has a mode that plays the game for you, then I want the days of Super Mario World back, where I could spend a whole day on a single level. The day would feel worthwhile simply for beating that one challenge.

 

[Nu-Hir]

I'm all for this if they make games harder. Games anymore are so short and easy I could use them as bathroom reading material. I say bring this on if they're going to make games Nintendo Hard again.

 

[Lost In The Void]

Meh if it comes I won't use I like my sense of achievement, just another feature to fall through the cracks of me not caring

 

[ThatJagoGuy]

Naaaw, I'm going to join the unpopular side of the argument and say that I'm anti-demo play. The sense of satisfaction when you finally crack a difficult bit of game is the whole point, surely!

You can still do that, though. It isn't like the demo play mode activates automatically after you fail a certain amount of times. You have to specifically decide to use it for it to do anything for you.

I realise this but let's put it this way... would climbing Everest be as satisfying if there were loads of people getting lifts up there in a helicopter? Personally, I don't think so; progression through skill is my reward in games and if I knew other people were getting through without trying, it'd defeat from my satisfaction.

Weird, I know. Other people's game playing should not be affecting my enjoyment, but it does. I'd find it tollerable if perhaps they implemented the sliding difficulty scale of Fallout and Oblivion, but DemoPlay is too far.

 

[Nutcase]

When I see a movie, I don't parse together my own choices of separate cuts, and I don't particularly want to do that for a game either.

So what I'd like games that have difficulty and other play-altering settings to do, is to clearly indicate which setting the developers think the game is best experienced at. For an arcade port it would obviously be the difficulty of the original, for a strategy game like Civ it could be the difficulty with the best AI and no boost or handicap, and so forth.

I wouldn't mind if playing on the "optimum" setting or harder was required to reach some portion of the game. Contra: Shattered Soldier does this. You get four selectable levels to start with. Level five opens up after beating the four. Players on Easy difficulty get an ending after level five. Players on Normal continue into levels 6-7, followed by a different ending. As a result, saying you completed the game has a quite specific meaning; you need not specify this setting and that setting. More importantly, the game gives a real reward for your trouble.

 

[AceDiamond]

Once again the complaints about a feature that isn't even mandatory confuses me. Frankly I don't care if other people use it. Mario was damn hard for a 3 year old to play and I should know because that was me back in 1990. Am I saying I would've used demo play to beat it if it existed? Maybe. But the fact remains this feature is optional and therefore does not actually matter if it exists or not, unless people are so tempted by it...

Personally I'm not going to use it and I'm not going to let its existence bother me.