July 17th 2024.
The Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a unique compilation of bite-sized challenges for classic games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. It's a speedrun-oriented game that tests your gaming skills in a fun and exciting way.
When it was first announced, many feared that this game would be a low-budget, low-concept title that would mark the end of the Nintendo Switch's life. However, the June Nintendo Direct revealed a surprisingly exciting lineup of new titles for the rest of the year, making the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition stand out as a one-of-a-kind game.
This game is a spiritual successor to the NES Remix series, specifically the second installment. It's Nintendo's latest attempt to bring their classic NES games to a modern audience. The theme of the game is centered around the Nintendo World Championships, a series of public tournaments in the early 90s that are considered the first ever esports events. The tournaments were even briefly revived in the mid-2010s.
Just like the NES itself, this game is predominantly targeted towards American and Japanese fans who have fond memories of playing these games in the past. For younger fans, the way the games are broken down and presented may seem confusing, but overall, the end result is surprisingly entertaining.
The game includes 13 titles, such as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, and more. Each game has a dozen or so speedrun challenges, similar to microgames in the WarioWare series. For example, you may be asked to beat a boss in Zelda or complete a circuit in Excitebike. The game provides a pre-recorded video of someone else completing the task, which you can watch before attempting it yourself.
Completing the challenges is not too difficult, especially on lower difficulties. However, the real challenge lies in completing them quickly. You are given a grade based on your speed, and if you achieve an A or above, you unlock a virtual pin badge to show off your skills. Unfortunately, if you're playing solo without a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, there isn't much else to do besides completing the challenges.
On the other hand, if you do have a subscription, you can participate in weekly challenges where you try to beat five unique goals and achieve the highest score in the world. There's also a survival mode where you compete against the ghost data of seven other players, but there's no option to play against others live.
To make up for the lack of online features, there is a local party mode for up to eight players. In this mode, you can compete against each other in the same challenges from the single-player mode. However, all the challenges are already unlocked, which takes away the element of surprise when playing alone.
The best way to play is by choosing a "Challenge Pack" that groups together challenges with similar themes and indicates their difficulty level and estimated completion time. Again, there's no online option, so it may be challenging to find eight competent players who are skilled at these 35-year-old NES games, but at least the option is there.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition didn't require a significant budget to make, and it's priced accordingly. It's clear that Nintendo understands there's only so much they can charge for a collection of diced-up NES games. Despite its simplicity, the game does a decent job of presenting the challenges in an interesting way, although a proper online mode would have been a welcome addition.
The visuals can be a bit overwhelming, with one screen showing your gameplay and the other displaying your best time. With eight players, the screen can become chaotic and confusing. However, this is a minor issue that doesn't take away from the overall experience.
This game may not have been necessary, other than to fill out Nintendo's release schedule, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do effectively and efficiently. It's hard to say if it will get people interested in speedrunning, but it's an excellent way to practice and improve your skills in these classic games. If you've ever struggled to play older Mario or Zelda games, this is a fun and entertaining way to train yourself.
Overall, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition will be of most interest to veteran fans of these classic games. However, it's still impressive how these games have stood the test of time and remain entertaining decades after their initial release. If Nintendo decides to release a SNES Edition in the future, we certainly won't complain.
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