Today’s WTF: Nintendo’s “Kind Code”

nintendo-kind-codeLots of people crack on Nintendo for not making hardcore games anymore. Today, a patent went public that may confirm this suspicion for many people: Nintendo’s Kind Code. What is it, exactly, you ask?

Though there is a lot of techno mumbo-jumbo to the patent and not many specifics are known yet, basically, the Kind Code allows you, if you get stuck at a point in a game, to become “unstuck”. This works by choosing a hint in a menu, or selecting an option that lets the game take control. If you’d like, you can also just load up a developer’s saved game with full stats/health/etc, and jump into any point of the game you want.

The idea is that this will turn more casual people on to hardcore games, so they don’t have to worry about getting stumped, or they can start the game from where ever they want, or they can just watch the game play itself.

While there are those out there that think this could lead to a birth of even more hardcore games (since casual people can now enjoy them), I’m not so optimistic. While I like the idea of being able to load up a game from wherever and enjoy an old boss or level, it seems to me that this gives developers a cause to be lazy. I thought the fun of games was actually in playing them? Sounds kind of like that giant “DO” button that people used to joke about for Nintendo controllers.

At the very least, it’s optional, so that’s a positive. What do you guys think? Is this fair or potentially a foul move by Nintendo?

By the way, you can view the patent here. From the images included, it seems that this is definitely meant for games like The Legend of Zelda.

Source- Kotaku

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12 thoughts on “Today’s WTF: Nintendo’s “Kind Code””

  1. up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A!
    So they’re basically making cheats for people too lazy to look them up. It’s a pretty dumb idea, but I don’t see anything wrong with it, per se, but it’s not something I would personally ever use. Nonetheless, hardcore Nintendo gamers will still probably gripe about it.

  2. Heh, saw this elsewhere a few minutes ago, and totally thought this would be the subject of today’s WTF. I’m a bit split on it. By and large, I think this sort of system would just promote mental laziness. It’s already easy enough to put down the controller and consult a faq or game guide – do we really need to place all the solutions at the flick of a wrist? The only draw of it for me would be the ease of going back and replaying favorite scenes or scenarios in a game without having to trudge through all the lead-up. That and maybe a very hypothetical game with horrible gameplay but an interesting story, where you could still follow the main plot points and ending.

  3. If you would ask me, that’s a big load of bull[censored].

    I mean, what is the point of playing a game, in which you can just press a button and finish it ?
    The devs are just plain lazy, because, the most difficult part of the game is making it hard, but playable. Like valve’s games, I mean, they were some hard points, but you didn’t need 8 days to figure it out. And, if you have read the book about the making of half life and its predecessors, you would know that valve pay attention to this. Like, with all the training, before doing in portal and all that stuff.

  4. Hopefully this means that games will get harder and people who find them too hard can just press a button.

    Hopefully this doesn’t mean that devs will get lazy…

    Slippery slope is slippery.

    I will personally never buy one.

  5. [quote comment=”3698″] Nonetheless, hardcore Nintendo gamers will still probably gripe about it.[/quote]

    We all jumped ship a long time ago.

    Still don’t regret selling my Wii. This whole idea is just sad really, if you don’t want a challenging game, don’t buy it. Don’t let it play itself.

  6. This is a bunch of dolphin doo. I think this will make people even noobier. Why not use your head a bit more? Oh, is that soooo 18th century!?

    But a feature I really like to hav is replay vids, like Anthony mentioned. It’s always fun, watching yourself, defeating an enemy while jumping off a clif to avoid the crashing helicopter.

  7. I’m not so sure it would be good to try and slide “casual gamers” into hardcore ones like this. It kinda has to be the persons decision to try beyond getting stuck at a particular boss fight or puzzle, otherwise they’re just still being casual or playing a watered-down hardcore game due to the skipping of hard parts. They have to give it a real genuine try themselves, otherwise they’re not actually trying the game. Anyways, I’m not so good at explaining things but I think I got my thoughts across.

  8. Hmm….I can think of one gaming situation where I can tell you all I wanted was to skip a mission more than anything. Ace Combat 6 mission 12 I believe. Downing the Agion and its guard ships was so annoying!!! Iv done it twice and each time its kind of a pain. This is the only situation I can think of where I would want something like that.

    It…kinda is stupid but if you think about it it makes sense. I think it does because people dont always have patience for things. Shoot, when Half Life first came out I rented it on xbox and I got stuck on the first level, couldn’t figure out what to do. Never finished the game. People may get stuck and will want to just move on.
    Thing is, thats what FAQs and stuff are for, the internet provides tips and stuff.

    Hmmm….dunno. I dont think its needed, but if its there oh well, cant stop em. The replaying parts of stuff will be fun, but I dunno

  9. It seems kind of stupid to me. I thought that’s what things like FAQs and Strategy guides were for.

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