Super Mario Galaxy 2 comes with free how-to-play DVD
From the archive: published May 4, 2010, 16 years ago. Details may have changed since.
Super Mario Galaxy 2, a.k.a What I’ll Be Doing All Summer Until StarCraft II Arrives , will come with a bonus DVD designed to show players how to control Mario. This is, to my knowledge, the first time a game has ever featured such an extra.
The DVD will form a guide for beginners, showing how to use the Wii Remote and nunchuk together, and explaining Starbits and other in-game details. Basically, it’s designed to make everything easy for the Wii’s predominantly ‘casual gaming’ audience, so there are no tears of frustration at the rest home.
“But a tutorial DVD?” you might ask. “Is that not what in-game tutorials are for?” Well, previously, perhaps. But Nintendo looks like it wants to make learning how to play a game even easier. The solution? Sit people down in front of a DVD and let them watch.
“Isn’t this just spoon-feeding and patronising people like babies?” you might also ask. Perhaps it is, but I think lowering the accessibility barrier does no harm. If you’re an 82-year-old who’s never seen a videogame in action before, these things probably seem pretty damn intimidating.
Oh, and amusingly enough, the DVD (like all other DVDs) won’t be playable on the Wii itself. Arf.