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So, for those of you not in the know, Nintendo has announced a new hint system.

Had a look at the link?

Okay, am I the only one that sees this as the next stage of cheating? The idea of cheating in games that originally started with cheat guides and magazines (Konami code anyone?), and later evolved into cheat cartridges such as Game Genie gave gamers everywhere the chance to succeed at that one game that they just couldn't do. However, these ways of cheating have always been optional and not included as a part of the gaming experience. The inclusion of this idea by Nintendo is another move to cater towards the casual gaming public who may want to move away from Wii Sports and have a go at something a little more complex along the lines of Twilight Princess.

On a positive, this would allow casual gamers to experience a type of game that would not have been appealing to them to begin with. The ability to allow your computer friend to take over when things get too tough and allow you to play once things have calmed down would be an appealing feature to most that have been put off by games that feature difficulty spikes that in reality stop the player from finishing a game. And hey, even the most hardened of gamers has had this happen to them at least once in their life.

But, on a negative does this defeat the idea of the game in the first place? The idea of the video game is that there is supposed to be some sort of challenge or goal to achieve. Removing this goal or making sure that the goal posts are widened when the challenge increases seems to remove the existence of a difficulty curve and turn video games into interactive movies. Where will the sense of achievement be felt? You know that feeling you get when you finish that game that you've been playing for weeks by forsaking sleep, just to see those end credits? Will you still feel that great feeling if the computer did the last few bosses for you? 

It will be interesting to see how Nintendo implements this idea and if, as with the Wii, it will reshape the gaming landscape. Only time will tell.