Early debate over Nintendo's patent for built-in help systems in upcoming titles brought the relevance and necessity of such a feature into question.  The company confirmed at this year's E3 that New Super Mario Bros. Wii would be their first game to implement a "Super Guide" in-game help system, designed to help struggling players.  Nintendo has since been able further demonstrate how the Super Guide works, and it's not as intrusive as originally feared by entrenched gamers.

Speaking to the press at a roundtable discussion in New York yesterday, Nintendo producer and Mario all-father Shigeru Miyamoto highlighted the optional nature of the Super Guide, which players can access in the form of an in-game "hint block" after losing one too many lives at a level proving too problematic for their skills (for example).

Tapping into this hint block will allow players to view help videos, providing walkthroughs for the level either in its entirety or in particular sections.  According to Miyamoto, Super Guide videos "unlocked" normally (i.e. through your suckage) will never demonstate the paths to any secrets that may be hidden in a given level.  Though this may smack of hand-holding for lazy players, Miyamoto himself joked that unlocking the "normal" Super Guide hints are a dubious achievement, in his humble opinion:

"If you die eight times in one level the Super Guide block appears... but I find if that happens, I feel guilty that I let that happen.

"I've already done this bad, now I definitely have to clear this level on my own. And people who clear every level without ever having a hint block appear will get a special something on the title screen after they've finished."

This implies that not all hint videos are strictly business.  Indeed, special hint videos can be unlocked by collecting secret items.  These bonus videos will instead showcase more skilled playthroughs of levels, much like the "super play" challenge videos made popular on video sharing sites like Youtube.  Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to any sign that users can create their own New Super Mario Bros. Wii hint videos to share with other players.  To be sure, Miyamoto himself does not seem adverse to the possibility of leveraging user-generated content in a future (Mario?) game.