http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2009/06/67677679/1
On the extraordinary success of its Nintendo Wii video game console, Nintendo says it's due, in part, to making games accessible to wide audiences.
And with an unannounced – but now confirmed – feature built into future Nintendo Wii titles, the Japanese gaming giant is taking this accessibility to the next level.
Beginning with the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. Wii (due this holiday season), players will be able to pause a game during a particularly difficult level and let the game take over to complete the level. Press a button at any time to resume playing. This will help reduce barriers of entry for new or younger players – without purchasing a strategy guide or resorting to websites that list cheat codes.
In an exclusive interview with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary game designer confirmed this optional feature called "demo play" (tentative name) is something the development team has been working on.
"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" confirmed Miyamoto, through his translator. "And yes, we're looking into this for future games, too" Miyamoto says.
From the patent (thanks Pineapple!)
It is possible to start the game from the scene of "temple" by reading the digest saved-data described above. However, in this game, data of the game which is started in this manner is not saved. That is, only the data of the game obtained by a user performing attacking by him/herself are stored, so that a user who performs attacking by him/herself may not reduce his/her interest in the game. Hereinafter, a game play in which the game is started, while the digest movie is being reproduced, in a state where no data of the game is saved, is referred to as a game played in a "digest mode". However, data may be saved in the digest mode when it is unnecessary to consider that the interest in the game is maintained.
[0111]A difference between the user saved-data and the digest saved-data will be described. The user saved-data can be "loaded" when the "game" is selected from the title menu, and the user saved-data is generated and stored when a player issues an instruction for the saving while playing the game. On the other hand, the digest saved-data is different from the user saved-data in that the digest saved-data is previously set based on the game storyline as described above, and is stored as a part of the game program in the game disc 4. As described above, the saving is not allowed in the digest mode, whereas the user saved-data to be stored is obtained only when a user plays the game from the beginning, and performs attacking by him/herself.
