任天堂似乎为《马里奥奇迹》和《塞尔达：TOTK》申请了更多专利

Nintendo, an organization that is known for its love for patents, has recently revealed some new ones following a banner year of gaming in 2023. However, instead of focusing on future developments, these patents seem to concentrate on mechanics that are already familiar to us. This move could potentially place certain features of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom under legal protection.

Naoya2k, a user on Hatena Blog, highlighted these patents in a recent post. According to the post, the patents were submitted earlier in 2023 but were only made public between November and December of the same year.

The first patent that naoya2k discusses seems to be related to the 'Ghost' mechanic in Super Mario Bros. Wonder's multiplayer mode. This feature allows a downed player to attempt to come back to life by making contact with an item or character. The patent, which was originally submitted in August 2023, defines the 'ghost' mechanic as taking control of a temporary character until an acceptable respawn point is reached. This is a feature that any player of Wonder's multiplayer mode will surely recognize. You can find the patent in full here.

The other patent that was highlighted in the blog post was made public on 12th December 2023 and appears to once again concern Tears of the Kingdom (TOTK). Nintendo has submitted several TOTK-related patents in the past, and the one in question looks to focus on Link's Ultrahand ability and its specific applications.

The patent provides an information processing system that can improve usability when connecting virtual objects to generate an object made up of a plurality of virtual objects. In simpler terms, the patent focuses on TOTK's mechanic in which a player can select one item and move it close to another to 'glue' them together and act as one. The patent can be read in its original Japanese here.

While Nintendo is known for releasing a lot of patents, it is important to note that even those that are approved are normally related to the specific implementation of the feature rather than the mechanic itself. The company's patent filings may appear aggressive, but this does not mean that there is no room for similar features in games to come.