http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=99331

- officially called the Super Guide
- allows the game to run through a level on its own
- players can take control at any time
- only available to players that die 8 times in a level
- when you start your 9th life, a green box will appear at the start of a level. This box will activate the Super Guide when hit
- Super Guide uses a game-controlled Luigi to show how to play
- demos are run in-game, and are not pre-recorded videos
- Super Guide doesn't show shortcuts or secrets
- Super Guide should showcase a level run without any deaths
- hit a button to take control of Luigi at any time
- the screen still shows that the level is being playing in Super Guide mode, just with user-input

Wow. So there's your negative consequence. It only kicks in when you could have been incredibly frustrated (and after a point when you could have game-overed with a basic number of lives). It was also told that Nintendo is doing this to "allow designers to make the game devilishly difficult"

Should quiet the whiners, at least.

Seems interesting. Then again, it sounds similar to Splosion Man's option to skip a level after a certain amount of deaths.

Too bad, this won't put Mario in a dress. :P

Neat.
I hope SMG2 has it so that there can be more fiendish bits.

I think this is a great idea for novice players to be honest, I don't understand the belly aching about it.

It encourages casuals to try games like Mario/Zelda/Metroid and not to give up when they get stuck ... that's not a bad thing.

This could be great for veteran players too because now Nintendo has more leeway in making their game's tougher without having to worry about alienating less experienced players. 

Beautiful. Exactly how I would want it. And Super Guide mode does not sound like it can be used to progress past that level, which makes it even better.

It's not broken, and it's not in the way of the experienced mario gamer who will neve die 8 times.

Nintendo delivers.

I think its a brilliant idea, my sister is always asking me to help her get past the hard parts in Mario, now they can make the game super hard for us Mario vets and she can still have fun with it.

Now they just need to get rid of the Lives system so that this can kick in without a Game Over.

Yes, I'm asking them to get rid of Game Overs, because Game Overs are pointless and also dumb.

I was expecting "wii come to help" but super guide sounds better.

Sounds good. So players have to die many times before getting help, eh? That's pretty reasonable.