What Games Could Benefit From Nintendo’s Self Play?

Remember that patent by Nintendo that detailed how it would be possible for a game to play itself to help you out of a tight spot or show you the ropes? USA Today managed to get a confirmation out of Miyamoto regarding implementation of the feature in future Wii games, starting with New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

“In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, if a player is experiencing an area of difficulty, this will allow them to clear troubled areas and take over when they’re ready” confirmed Miyamoto, through his translator. “And yes, we’re looking into this for future games, too” Miyamoto says.

The game will allow you to pause it at any time and let the help feature take over to complete the level or until you make it stop (done with the press of a button).

Note that he doesn’t mention if all future first-party games will contain the feature or only a select few. I can certainly see it being present in Super Mario Galaxy 2 for some of the harder platforming sections and admittedly, Metroid: Other M would likely benefit from the feature as well, what with all the shinesparking and wall-jumping and bomb-jumping the games traditionally require.

Keep in mind that the help feature doesn’t need to be the same in every game. Using Metroid as an example again, the “help” feature could simply allow you to perform advanced moves more easily…sort of like an “auto-combo” feature. Really, those three Etecoons down in Brinstar were no help at all.

How do you think Nintendo should use the “help” feature?

Note: You have no idea how hard it was to resist cracking a “No Play Control” joke.