Tendo City

http://kotaku.com/5127251/nintendo-paten...-in-design

It seems that the step towards "casual friendly" involves embedded hint vidoes during gameplay, and a cinematic mode that plays the game FOR you until you want to jump in.

At first the gamer in me screamed "no this is aweful" but now I'm of a more supportive mindset. Here's why.

If done right, the hint mode can be disabled completely so you can wander around aimlessly for weeks like Cranky Kong intended. In other words, thinking further, this would mean that not only could you play the game without these incredibly obvious hints, this would also free up the team to make very hard puzzles without fear of shooing away the casuals. They get frustrated too quickly? They can use the hint mode.

As to the cinematic mode, from my perspective that basically is like including that great story you wanted to share with your non-gamer friends in movie form so they can just watch it that way.

So I'm actually cautiously optimistic about these features.

I had the same thought process when I heard about this. I was appaled at first, but then I realized it would allow game companies to make more challenging games. Games have gotten a lot easier and while there is occasionally a challenging game for the most part I can get through them without a sweat.

Yeah same here. Truth is though, why hurt your own 900 number? I dont expect it to be all that helpful and more of a tool for retards to 'watch' the game. Having said that, some games need replays and spectator modes and oddly do not have them. For some reason. coughpoordevelopmentandnoimaginationcough