Star Fox Zero includes an invincible mode for players new to the series, Nintendo design chief Shigeru Miyamoto has said.

Speaking in an interview with Time, Miyamoto revealed the snippet alongside word of extra challenges for more experienced players.

But it was word of the former that set tongues wagging online.

"I don't know why games should be made that autoplay themselves. What's the point?" one fan wrote on Nintendo Life. "Are people really that incapable of any sort of difficulty? So what if a player struggles. It's the only way they'll get good."

"I refer to the easiest settings in games as 'dork mode' or 'wimp mode'," another fan opined. "Also, isn't easy difficulty an oxymoron?"

Response on 4chan's /v/ board was mixed. Here's one printable response.

The mode will offer an invincible Arwing for beginner players to pilot through levels so they can learn the layout of what lies ahead, before tackling levels in normal mode.

Miyamoto also addressed the need for the optional mode, instead of simply dumbing down the overall experience:

"One thing that I think is a misunderstanding, is that I'm not very supportive of simply making a game easy so that people who don't play games can play the game themselves," he said. "Obviously part of the fun of taking on a challenge is that the challenge has to be a hurdle that you overcome.

"Simply lowering the hurdle doesn't necessarily mean that the challenge will be fun. What's fun is you mastering the skill and having that sense of accomplishment-of achieving something that's difficult.

"Action games like this have to have a certain level of difficulty to achieve that satisfaction. And particularly with Star Fox Zero, if you try to complete this game, I think you're going to find it to be quite challenging. But it's because of that, that we have things like Star Fox Guard and the cooperative mode in this game."

But not everyone was against the idea:

"I like this mode," pokefanmum82 countered. "My son is one of those kids who gets mad when he can't beat a level after he has tried a million times. This is an option but you don't have to use it if you don't want to."

There will also be a mode where players both take and deal out extra damage for players who have mastered the game's normal set of difficulties.

And, of course, it's far from the first time that Nintendo has added in systems to help bring inexperienced players up to speed. The Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. series have included similar mechanics, alongside Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. With Nintendo hoping to grow its Wii U userbase as much as possible, surely being inclusive of as many players as possible is a good thing?