Nintendo's Super Guide Revealed

For those of you that don't know Nintendo announced a while back that New Super Mario Bros Wii. would include a demo mode that player's could use to help them get past tricky parts of levels and take back control at any time.  The mode was simply called Demo mode back then, but now has been officially dubbed Super Guide.

In a hands-on demo event Stephen Totilo of Kotaku was able to see the new mode in action and the results are quite nice.  During play, if you fail to complete a single player level eight times a box will appear at the beginning of the level giving you the option of entering Super Guide mode.  If you choose this option a "ghost" version of Luigi will appear and begin playing through the level.  At any point in the playthrough you can take back control of this Luigi and finish the level.  This playthrough will count towards completing the game so it allows you to get past those parts of the level you find too difficult.

Nintendo has said that this will only be available in single player mode and you must have died at least eight times before it's even available.  You cannot enter Super Guide during a level, it will only be available at the beginning.  The ghost Luigi will only play through the level and will not take branching paths to find secrets or hidden objects.  You will have to do that on your own.  Stephen did say that it was apparent that this is not a computer controlled version of Luigi and that it appears that a person has actually played through the level and recorded that playthrough, though this does not mean that video recording will be available.  It was also noted that unlike previous Mario titles where you start with three lives New Super Mario Bros. Wii will give you five lives at the beginning of the game. 

Nintendo did say during this event that they incorporated this mode to allow their designers to create some very difficult or tricky parts of levels meaning that New Super Mario Bros. Wii may be more difficult than platformers of the past.

All in all this sounds like a very welcome addition to Nintendo's titles starting with New Super Mario Bros. Wii.  The option will be completely optional and not interfere with the game play as most players will not die the required number of times for the option to even be available.  I think this, with the addition of making the game more challenging means that we might be able to see more challenging game play in Nintendo's titles going forward.  I like this new option and I'm sure many of you, if you use it or not will have no issues with the feature. 

Source: Kotaku