Do you consider yourself a champion? Maybe a champion of NES games? Well, Nintendo wants you to put your speedrunning, score-gaining, Power Glove-wearing self to the test in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. So grab some snacks, turn on the CRT TV and flip your hat backward dude, we are going to have a rad time with this one.
California, California, California
Back in 1989, a film was released that resonated within the very soul of every 80s/early 90s kid, The Wizard starring Fred Savage. The film shows three children who travel to California to show just how good they are at NES games. Not only was it a film all about video games, but it also was the debut of Super Mario Bros. 3 to the North American public.
One of the main points of the film was Savage’s character playing in an NES video game competition. The year following the film, Nintendo would host their own Nintendo World Championships across the US, loosely inspired by the events of the movie. The cartridge used for the first of these competitions (known as Nintendo World Championship 1990) was made in extremely limited quantities, and is often seen as a holy grail of prized gaming collectibles nowadays.
This cartridge offered several iconic NES games which were edited to be more focused on speedrunning and getting high scores for the competition. These elements have been a long-running tradition for Nintendo in their World Championship events in the years since. Now, they have blessed us all with Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition for the Nintendo Switch, making full use of modern gaming standards (with features such as online multiplayer), and the larger file sizes even means more games!
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition features the following 13 games:
- Balloon Fight
- Donkey Kong
- Excitebike
- Ice Climber
- Kid Icarus
- Kirby’s Adventure
- Metroid
- Super Mario Bros.
- Super Mario Bros. 2
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
- The Legend of Zelda
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
This is a great list of Nintendo titles to work through and show off your skills. Sadly it’s lacking some of the more iconic titles from “The Wizard” or the original 1990 cartridge such as Ninja Gaiden or Rad Racer, presumably due to those titles being owned by Koei Tecmo and Square Enix respectively. A few more titles would have been nice as this is a very Mario heavy line up. I would have killed for Donkey Kong Jr and Donkey Kong 3 to go along with these.
It’s worth pointing out that while the game has 13 different titles on offer, these aren’t the full titles. Rather, here the focus of each game is on multiple quick challenges rather than giving you access to the NES catalog. If you’re after the full experience of these games, they are all available on the Nintendo Online Service.
Pick any Game You Want, I’m Good at All of Them
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is split into two distinct sections: one is the single-player “Speedrun Mode”, while the other section covers the multiplayer options both local and online. I’ll tackle the single-player offering first and then go over what’s on offer for the more social of you gamers.
Speedrun Mode has all 13 games on a menu with the challenges for each title on offer. You start with one challenge per title and earn coins upon completing them. For example, Super Mario Bros begins with the “Mushzoom” challenge that tasks you with collecting the first Super Mushroom in World 1-1 as quickly as possible. This challenge is ranked 1* normal, and upon completing it you are given coins that you can spend on unlocking more challenges like this that rise in difficulty until you reach 5* Legend. As an example of a 5* Legend challenge, Donkey Kong has you clearing Level 1 to 3 in one run, something I achieved in 01:19.83 to get an S Rank.
While there is no visual hint as to what times get you what rank, the games load very quickly and the challenges (outside of higher ranked ones) are over in a matter of seconds, so you’ll find yourself quickly hitting that “Restart” option time and time again to try and get that lofty S Rank. This is the main gameplay loop of the game, and it brings out that inner speedrunner as you try and figure out where you can shave off any time at all.
At the start of each challenge, there is a short video showing you what you need to do if you aren’t familiar with any of the titles, which was an absolute godsend for me when it came to Ice Climbers. To note, these videos are just demos and don’t show how to complete the challenge. As you enter the challenge the game records your run on the left-hand side of the screen, and if you’re replaying any of them you’ll see your best run on the right-hand side. This allows you to know where you could shave anything off of that run. You can also view these runs frame-by-frame and rewind to get the most out of your “tech”.
The more challenges you complete, the more unlockable titles and other customizations you get that allow you to change up your profile. You can choose your favorite NES game or even just out yourself as someone who hasn’t played NES games before. These mostly tie into the online section of the game, but initially gave me an incentive to show off how much I enjoy the original Donkey Kong game. You could say I’m the King of Kong in my household.
How much you get out of this mode and the whole product solely relies on how much you enjoy score/time chasing. As someone who plays a lot of shmups, I am always focused on getting the best scores or times possible. On the other hand, if you are after a more robust experience you’ll likely find yourself lacking any reason to play this title. Unlike the NES Remix titles from the 3DS/WiiU, this isn’t a bunch of remixed challenges, but more bite size challenges that rely on memorization and frame by frame perfection instead of providing a chaotic and new experience.
I Love the Power Glove. It’s So Bad
Multiplayer is also a massive focus in Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition. As previously mentioned, there is a local Party Mode, and for online there is the ritual World Championships and Survival Mode which offer several ways to play with other players.
Party Mode uses a single Nintendo Switch and allows up to 8 players at one time. You can either choose any of the challenges from the Speedrunner mode, or play a challenge pack. These give you a theme to play through with a handful of challenges, such as a “First Time Speedrunner” pack all the way to “The Ultimate Speedrun” which clocks in at around 20 minutes spread across Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario Bros.
Party Mode is a great local mode if you have friends or family who have the speedrunning itch. Your screen is split as you play the games at the same time and you can see in real-time who’s currently leading the pack. It’s fun local multiplayer that gives you the pure NES Championships experience without having to unlock the challenges, providing that quick pick up and play feeling.
World Championship mode sees 5 challenges picked out and you play them to try and get the best time on the leaderboard. These challenges range from Normal to Legendary and switch out every week, meaning that you’ll keep coming back each week to try and claim that top spot on the leaderboard to dub yourself “The Wizard”. Sadly you can’t view the leaderboard until the end of the week, and there is no way to search certain players so competing against online friends isn’t something as easy as clicking their name.
Survival Mode is much more competitive. It gives you two difficulty leagues and pits you against 7 other players to get the best time and avoid being eliminated. It has all the immediacy of Party Mode but against players across the world. Here you’ll see just how optimal your performance is, where you can improve, and of course get those delicious bragging rights when you avoid elimination and stand as king of the mountain.
50,000! You Scored 50,000 Points on Double Dragon?
The menus and music in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition are deliciously late 80s, with neon lights and chiptune music flowing freely. There are mountains of collectible pins and titles to adorn your profile, taking sprites and backgrounds from the games on offer here. The game has that overly colorful visual style you would associate with Nintendo, especially when you think of the NES.
Outside of the basic menus and profile customization, there isn’t a gallery or museum on offer, which is a shame. For something as prestigious and iconic as the Nintendo World Championships, I would have loved interviews and articles to devour about the history of the Championships, and videos showing previous champions would have just been the icing on the cake.
Verdict
As a budget speedrunning title, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is perfectly fine, though it’s slim in terms of extra content. As this is the NES Edition, I can only hope we go into SNES, Game Boy, and even possibly Nintendo 64 territory in the future.
The game is an incredibly addictive title if you fall into the niche of speedrun enjoyers. For those who are fans of stuff like Awesome Games Done Quick, this is well worth the asking price, and its addictive multiplayer features with Survival and Party mode will see you playing until the early hours trying to shave milliseconds off of your Metroid hi-scores. If on the other hand, you don’t see the appeal of being the fastest you can, you’ll not find much here to justify the price tag.
NINTENDO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: NES EDITION IS RECOMMENDED
If you’re looking for another platformer, why not check out our review of Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble?
Many thanks go to Nintendo for a Nintendo Switch review code for Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition.
Pride of utopia & greatest thing ever, I found the One Piece, Collected the Dragon Balls & won the Mortal Kombat Tournament in one night, it was quiet for me that night! Follow me on Twitter @powahdunk
