What do Zelda, Mario and Donkey Kong have in common?

To improve its customer service, video game giant Nintendo of America has chosen a new e-mail and Web form response system.

The company has selected an online customer support solution, called Banter Reply, from Banter to respond to consumer e-mail inquiries. The system uses sophisticated semantic analysis to analyze each customer message and then determines the most appropriate response, according to a recent press release from Banter.

The software is said to provide natural language processing of imperfect content, analytical semantic modeling and content classification that is accessible and tunable, as well as feedback mechanisms that enable real-time learning and rapid, automatic adaptation to changing business environments. Those features are designed to allow Nintendo’s consumer service department to increase efficiency and decrease response time, Banter says.

According to Mark Debelack, planning and systems manager for Nintendo of America, the company has chosen the software as its primary consumer e-mail processing system.

Says Mark Brewer, VP of worldwide sales for Banter, “Banter Reply’s real-time learning and response capabilities ensure Nintendo of America customers will receive immediate attention and highly accurate responses to their online inquiries.”

Nintendo of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its home video game systems, which include Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and the upcoming Nintendo GameCube. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1985, Nintendo has sold more than 1.4 billion video games worldwide, creating such icons as Mario and Donkey Kong, and launching such franchises as Zelda and Pokémon.