@Reask, I understand your concerns there, and that's what I meant by hoping it's not intrusive. I'd like to think there'd be low, moderate and high settings for hints, or the standard Navi/Midna like hints you get in Zelda, and then you have this hint system as a seperate option. 

E.g, you attempt something for the third time, 'Navi' gives you a more detailed hint, and suggests you try out the hint system? Or, if you can turn OFF the system, you just get a more detailed Navi tip? The most important thing for me, is that I always have the choice to say "No thanks, I'll figure it out myself". I'm sure that will be the case, I don't think Nintendo will want to alienate the core market any more, after all, we are a profitable bunch, and are most likely to keep buying during the recession.

This system is designed for accessibility, not to turn your game into an extended cut scene or something along those lines. A game can be accessibile and difficult, and I think that's what Miyamoto will be hoping to achieve with this patent, and perhaps with the next Zelda. 

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for concrete clarification.

@reask: My father, who ever played only one videogame in his whole life (Pinball on NES), taught me the essence of videogames 20 years ago: they have been programmed to lose.
Due to this very nature of videogames, the developers have been taking the difficulty level down for ages to expand the audience in order to get more sales, which have ended for a number of games having a single player campaign as more like a tutorial for online multiplayer, where you can play in competetive fashion to get the challenge that is lacking from the single player campaign.
Then the language barrier, if the game isn't available in a language you know, you run into a dead end the moment you need to understand a hint, given on a unfamiliar language (Subspace Emissary in Brawl had awesome storytelling in the sense).

Arcade style of games were designed in a fashion, that you couldn't advance but only up to a certain point unless you were skilled enough, to beat it. Today the same thinking lies only in a form of boss battles (and this is still a remnant from arcades; if you managed to beat the level, there was still the boss to beat and waste your coins into).
If you find a way to have two skill levels at the same time, preffeably the one that adjusts accordingly to your skill level, it's definately golden.

Problen with playthough vids/guides and cheat codes is, that the people who need them the least, are the ones that find them most easilly.

@bbdbd
Excellent post I would not disagree with any of your points.
I have gone on and on about crappy sp for ages to no avail.
Nice to see someone feels the same way.

But ever since OoT there have been a hint system in the form of Characters like Navi...

There have been hints in games since, well, adventure games in the early nineties and even before....

Didnt MP3 have somthing like this. I know the game has a hint system, but i dont know how efective it is since i always play without it.

I like it too, as it allows for games to up the difficulty in more creative ways

Beware the wrath of videogame fans who are given hints for no charge.  I remember a time Sega bundled strategy hint guides with their RPGs for the Genesis.  Well, fans COMPLAINED about these TAPED UP strategy guides came with the game, and making the game too easy, so Sega stopped doing it.

There are some people who just want to play through a game, enjoy the ride, but not be challenged too hard by it.

Btw. how was Phantasmagoria, if i recall, it had built-in walkthroughguide in it?

@Reask: Yeah, i've been ranting it too for ages (and this goes for a number of "old school" reviewers too).
I remember the blasphemy that was Tekken for it being possible to assign a special move to a single button or (auto)save function to the excact spot in the game where you are when saving or Super Mario World in which you could save your progress. They made games a lot easier and took away from the challenge (which in a lot of cases equal the longevity of the game, but having too high challenge, may cause frustration).

Yeh I suppose its a fine line alright.

Checkpoints too little or too much so I suppose we all grunt and groan at certain ppints in games.

It is a novel way of approaching this probably.