We have been told, by none other than Shigeru Miyamoto himself, that Super Mario Galaxy II will be a much more difficult game than the original. He has justified this by maintaining that those playing the game will have played its predecessor, so they will have no need to learn how to play the game.

It may also, though, be something to do with a new feature about which we have only heard rumours, up to this point. It’s been called both Nintendo's Super Guide and the Kind Code, and is intended to give in-game tips to less than experienced players. We have heard reports, however, that this is only going to have the adverse effect of developers making the games harder to begin with, and a recent interview conducted with Miyamoto by kotaku.com has revealed that the first game to showcase the feature will be the newly released Super Mario Bros game.

The proof is in the playing, and now that Super Mario Bros, the first side-scrolling Mario game in 18 years (discounting Yoshi’s Island as a Yoshi game!) has been released with the feature included, gamers can see for themselves. An interesting element to the Super Guide here is that when your character has died during a level for an eighth time the computer can take control and finish the level for you. Any thoughts on this, and the repurcussions this may have for future gaming?

So whether or not Super Mario Galaxy II features the Super Guide, we can expect it to be a much trickier and more challenging game.