It's looking like difficulty is a new trend Nintendo is retaking! I am happy about it!

Even without the Super Guide feature, I think they could still make the game more difficult without much fear. A lot of the people who are going to buy this game are the same ones who have the first, so they are already familiar with how the game works. Besides, like the first one, you'll probably need only half of the stars to complete the game, so people can pick and choose whether or not they want to collect the difficult ones.

Yeah, I'm really glad they came up with the Super Guide so that gamers with a range of abilities can enjoy the games.

Does anyone else thinks its odd that its not listed as a feature on the back of the NSMBW box?

Assuming the "casual/non-gamers" whom the Super Guide was made for don't read manuals like most "core/hardcore-gamers"*, how would they know about the Super Guide? What if some really impatient people gave up after dying just one failure short of activating the super guide? They'd be discouraged from th game for no reason.

*if they don't read manuals then this just proves that they're more like "us" than we think...

8 deaths dose seem like a high number to activate a feature teh casuals know nothing about.

I didn't check the back of the case other than to see if it had a Nunchuk icon, so I didn't know it wasn't mentioned. That does seem odd. If Nintendo wants this feature to be a new standard for their games then I would think it would be something they'd want to advertise. I could see it being a selling point for certain people.

was i the only one to check the back of the box? I was so curious to see how they advertised it, but.. nothing!

also, i haven't even played the game yet :( I'm a horrible gamer.

Well, have you been too busy? Because if you've never had more than 30 minutes free to play then I would say keep waiting until you can have a nice lengthy session.

i meant to play it saturday night with my girlfriend after the nintendo event, but we got sidetracked watching movies.

sunday i was out with family all day, and although i did have some time to play it while i was home I promised my girl i'd wait for her since she really wants to play it. Besides, i definately wanna play with at least one other player on my first go, otherwise it'd be like playing another "boring ol' mario game" :P

This reminds me I need to get Galaxy 1...

Speaking of which I received my prize for stumping Zach back at the Metroid Marathon. A Super Mario Galaxy players guide.

I felt that Galaxy's difficulty was balanced.Early on it was pretty easy but later on it was challenging without being frustrating.

I'm not so sure they'll add in the Self-Play feature. The 3d Marios have 4 times the number of missions (levels) as NSMBW, and that much more work might interfere with Miyamoto's afternoon nap. Imagine all the extra time spent in the office working past 3pm when he could be home gardening.

He got a cat now too.

He could've planted the cat in ground.

All you see is the cat's smiling head with a flower sprouting out the top.

Ninkittree

I agree. When I first played Galaxy I thought the game was easy, going as far as to give away lives as if they were running out of style. But as I progress the challenges became harder and more insane. I had to eat my own words, and its why Galaxy is so amazing.

Exactly. Although, I thought the first Galaxy was already fairly challenging, striking a nice balance and smoothing over the frustrations of Sunshine. I hope any increase in difficulty is design-based, like having enemies that actually attack instead of just saunter around the level.

In Super Mario Galaxy the fear of failure exists and that, to me, is what is needed regarding videogame difficulty.  A game is too easy if I never fear that I can't succeed.  A game like Wind Waker for example is too easy because I beat it without dying even once.  After spending enough time with the game it became apparent that dying in the game was not likely to occur and thus there was no feeling of accomplishment.  But with Galaxy I died enough that the fear exists.  I didn't feel industructible and that's really all you need.  Really good games actually give you that feeling without being so hard that you do actually fail a lot.  They just make you think you'll lose but you don't very often.  It's all "I didn't think I was going to make it but I JUST barely squeaked by" so you feel like you could lose at any time but you're so awesome you don't.

So on that note I have some concern with upping the difficulty here because I don't think it's that necessary.  I don't want another Lost Levels.

The Super Guide is a great feature though because it keeps Nintendo from nerfing games for non-gamers.  It's the ultimate compromise.  Though I agree that Nintendo hasn't really marketed it at all.  Maybe they don't feel it's so important for the North American market.  How are they promoting it in Japan?  That's where core gaming is seriously threatened.

You could always avoid picking up the heart containers that the bosses leave behind.    It would make the game much more challenging but you wouldn't miss out on anything (like you would if you avoided the heart container pieces scattered throughout the world).

but how long does it take for the super guide to win the game without player input?

If I have to intentionally avoid power-ups and TRY to make the game harder for me, then, sorry, the developers failed.  You should be free to just play the game in a normal fashion and not feel like there's no challenge.

Games are meant for more people than just you.

I'm pretty sure the developers intended for people to skip heart containers if they felt the game was too easy. If they were mandatory then you might have a point, but the heart containers are like selecting your difficulty without making you feel like a wimp for choosing the "casual" setting.

Either way, at least they don't have the expanding the blue ocean excuse any more.

The reason Wind Waker has heart containers is entirely because the original Zelda had heart containers and it's become a series staple.  I suppose you could make that point about the original Zelda but that game is pretty damn challenging and appears to be designed under the assumption that the player picks up the hearts.

This is going totally off topic though.  I was just using Wind Waker as an example of Nintendo game with a weak difficulty and how Super Mario Galaxy didn't have that problem.

If you get hit, it's gotta HURT.

Some of the earlier levels were challenging. The Cookie Platform Hell made me feel weak a couple of times.

Pathetic.

I don't make up artificial challenges in a game.  I pay money to have game designers make up challenges for me, I shouldn't have to do it myself.

Word, dawg.

You don't like it when game designers give you options? No wonder Nintendo games are typically lacking in them...

Mop_it_up does have a point. Way back on the NES in Zelda 1 there were lots of ways to change the game and make it more challenging than it was. A more recent example is RE4 there are different ways to play the game. A Grenade launcher run, Knife Run, Handgun run. Of course you can play it normally and it is challenging the first time through.Or on any new game starts.

I was going to make a joke about how back in my day, we had to make our own challenges, AND WE LIKED IT.  But it was Lindy who posted, so that kills the joke.

no it doesn't.


Back in my day, we had to make our own challenges, AND WE LIKED IT. One time we created a GIANT NES CONTROLLER so that we could finally play Super Mario Bros. at the same time. I control the D-pad and my cousin controlled run and jump. Now that's how you did co-op back in my day.

What's the real difference between making up artificial challenges for yourself or having someone else make up artificial challenges for you like Trophies or Achievements apart from the shiny picture or meaningless number that other people online can see? (This isn't bashing trophies or achievements; I think that they're good things when used well. I just don't see a real difference between doing them or doing challenges you made up yourself.)

The game can be designed for the ones the developers create, while the ones gamers come up with aren't always exactly meant to be done via legitimate ways.

That said, some games, especially earlier ones, were designed for gamers to create challenges.  Some RPGs, like the ones where forced fights give no experience, for example.  I think that developers are realizing they can point out certain challenges is a big plus, but sometimes designed challenges don't get mentioned for being too challenging, or for some other reason that eludes me at the moment.

I shot mario from the cannon onto the top of the igloo nearby for a star this morning. It was awesome. Beating Zelda with only 3 hearts is awesome.

It's about the journey, not the end credits.

Think of the heart containers like a difficulty setting. If you want to play on easy, you collect them all. If you want to play on medium, you collect every other one. If you want to play on hard, you collect very few or none of them.

The heart containers are like a cleverly disguised Super Guide feature...

bah. make the enemies harder and the heart pieces HARDER to get.

get hard.

see, i always looked at the heart containers as a challenge to collect, along with the milk bottles and skultulas.  I always thought rupees were useless in the world of zelda and to this day they still are.

Well yea, what with the bad economy and exchange rates and all

SOMEONE ASKED THE HOLY GRAIL. VICTORY!

I want someone to attempt this. Die 8 times and then put the controller down.

I guess I could do that on another file.

Well it seems that you can't do that. Once you use the Super Guide on one level you have to get more 8 more lives to lose to use on the next level. There isn't a "Die eight times and you can use the Super Guide for the rest of the game without doing anything."

Basically it would take longer to beat the game than just playing it yourself.

Basically if someone wanted to do this they would have to get 99 lives then start at 1-1 again and replay all of the levels till they had 1 life then get 99 lives again then continue where they left off. Not really worth the time and in a sense might steer people from using the Super Guide as a way to beat games thus making them want to do it themselves.

I see. It's a little counterproductive then :(