Nintendo Patents Game Walkthrough Tech

Nintendo's efforts to attract casual players without totally isolating its core base may be seeing a new tool soon, thanks to a patent filed by Shigeru Miyamoto and reported by Kotaku. The patent describes a form of video walkthroughs built into games, that a player can use to see firsthand how to tackle a tough obstacle or puzzle. It lets players jump in and out of gameplay at any time to watch the walkthroughs, but doesn't overwrite the player's save data. The patent lists three types of help offered to the player. The first, "Game," is quite simply playing the game, with optional video hints that pop up in the corner of the screen. "Digest" is the aforementioned video walkthrough, wherein a player can press a button to jump into the action using preloaded saves downloaded from a network. But, players can't save the game using the Digest mode, so they'll need to accomplish the feats on their own to continue as ... (link)