New Malstrom article - Secret to the “Casual”

[ksv]

I agree with a lot of his points. Games shouldn't have tutorials, tutorials are boring.

That doesn't mean your game can't be complex, but there are other ways to teach the player. Nintendo games don't have tutorial stages, what they do is they integrate the "tutorials" into the story and the character development. In Zelda, _you_ aren't learning how to handle the sword, LINK is learning it.

Metroid Prime does the same, the first space ship is basically a tutorial, but it doesn't feel that way, because you are thrown right into the action. I think this also his how Nintendo came to the principle of item upgrades in the first Zelda and Metroid games. Your character starts with very few abilities, so you learn how to control it very quickly. Then, as you become more skilled and venture further into the game; you get another ability/weapon, and then you get a lot of game time to master that new ability or weapon before the game gives you more upgrades.

This is the design that is now regarded as classic, and it's a big part of what made the old Nintendo games so popular; very easy to get into, but hard to master.