Always ahead of the curve, these guys. While Nintendo's reaping the harvest brought by the WiiDS Phenomenon, they are certainly not lazing around on their arsenals waiting for the next generation. Insider game forum to the stars, NeoGAF.com, dug through the U.S. Patent entries to discover a new Nintendo patent that could possibly rewrite the script on game design. And, of course, it's designed by who else but Nintendo's creative mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto.
Let's see what this is all about...
Called Kind Code, this proposed gameplay system operates by breaking up the play sequence into 3 modes: Game, Digest, and Scene Menu. The Game mode lets players play the old-fashioned way with the option of embedded hints within the gameplay (which appear in top right corner of TV screen); The Digest mode allows players to watch a video of the developers playing through a game laying out the game's scenario from start to finish; Scene Menu allows players to skip to select scene of game to play without watching any Digests or loading saved games.
In Digest mode, players can jump into the action of the game at any time with the press of a button and they will be equipped with the appropiate character attribute, tools, or items for that scene. However, saving isn't allowed in Digest mode like it is in the original Game mode and the ability to jump into the action fully packed is allowed by preselected game saves automatically downloaded through a network.
The purpose for this is part of Nintendo's ongoing inclusivity aims to get all people playing by providing a workaround for difficult areas of a game that tend to deter uninitiated people from playing certain games. To be able to do this and still have a game that the more experienced can play. Details on the exact implementation and presentation of the code are not spelled out yet but if done successfully, the kind code can bridge the experienced and inexperienced together on one game. On the other hand, there's always the problem of removing all the teeth from a game by reducing its challenge too drastically.
By the way, even though the patent application for Kind Code was approved on January 8th (filed June 30, 2008) if you look under 'Foreign Application Data' you see a July 4, 2007 date. Obviously, Nintendo has had this planned for a long time. Wonder what will come out of it...
Credits to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and NeoGAF.com
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