Speedrun up the championship leaderboards
By Paul Hunter
I'm old enough to have played games like Kid Icarus and Metroid when they were released on the NES, way back in the 80s. Back then games were challenging, very challenging, and often more than a little obtuse with their puzzles and secrets. It got frustrating at times, but that was the era we all lived in and that's just how games were designed.
Thanks to Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, we can revisit 13 of Nintendo's most iconic NES games in short bite-sized speedrun challenges. They've taken all the fun bits we remember from these classic titles, like getting your first Super Mushroom or reaching your first flagpole while eliminating any tedium associated with completing these tough games from beginning to finish. It's all action, all the time.
Only older gamers like myself have probably seen or heard of the classic movie The Wizard, which starred Fred Savage who set out to compete and win a live video game tournament, similar to what would become the Nintendo World Championships. Thanks to Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, we can now experience the thrill of competing in a 90s Championships and rival players from all over the world in weekly online challenges.
If the premise of playing short minigames of classic Nintendo games reminds you of NES Remix for the Wii U, you aren't alone. That title focused on 16 vintage NES games and presented players with over 200 remixed minigames that altered or expanded the games in novel ways. Nintendo World Championships does none of that and instead, gives us speedrunning challenges based on the original versions of the 13 included NES games. Intuitively I would have thought remixed versions would be more interesting to play, but surprisingly, after spending several days with Nintendo World Championships I prefer how this game approaches the challenges.
Challenges come in three basic difficulties, Normal, Hard and Master, that increase in difficulty as you move up. A normal challenge in Super Mario Bros. is as simple as 'grab the mushroom' while a Master challenge is usually longer and more involved, such as 'grab 30 coins in the shortest time possible'. I found myself entering a hypnotic state doing simple tasks like 'grab the sword' in The Legend of Zelda in the shortest time possible. Replaying challenges can be done instantly, letting you hop back in one more time to try and shave off another second, or even milliseconds once you get into the groove. The satisfaction of capturing a Super Mario Bros. flagpole half a second quicker than your personal best really cannot be understated.
The bulk of this package is contained in the Speedrun Mode, which offers 150-plus challenges across iconic titles like Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Ice Climber, Kirby's Adventure, The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link, and my personal favourite, Excitebike. You're graded on a letter scale up to A++, or S-rank if you're that darn good, and you'll be awarded coins based on your performance. Coins are used to unlock further challenges.
The final and most expensive unlockable challenge for each game is called a Legend challenge and they're the longest and most involved of the bunch. You might be tasked with completing the entire Super Mario Bros. game (using warp pipes, of course) or completing an entire dungeon of The Adventure of Link to get the fastest time possible. These are true speedrunning challenges that require deep knowledge of the game and gameplay mechanics, along with immense skill and a bit of luck to get that fastest time possible.
The most fun I had with Nintendo World Championships was playing with my family, despite my child's unfamiliarity playing most of these games. The game includes a Party Mode for up to eight players on a single Nintendo Switch console, so everyone can join and have a blast. This mode lets you play individual challenges or play through themed challenge packs with everyone competing for the fastest time possible.
One neat feature that makes this title accessible to everyone is the automatic rewind should you mess up or not complete a challenge. Rewinding lets you redo tricky portions as many times as needed, but of course, every rewind adds precious seconds onto the clock. But for kids or new players trying these games for the first time, there's no way to fail the challenge with this handy feature.
Once you get brave enough to go online and compete against other players, the first place to check out is the World Championships Mode. This mode lets you test your skill against players from around the world in five weekly challenges, usually nicely spread out with a few Normal, Hard and Master challenges. You can replay each challenge as often as you want during the Championships period to continuously improve your times before the submission deadline. You aren't told where you rank on the leaderboard until after the Championships finish, which actually is a good thing as I found the mystery of not knowing to be one of the exciting parts, not to mention the results reveal once the competition concludes. You can also see how you compare against players in the same birth year as yourself, which I thought was a neat touch.
Another online mode is called Survival and this has you take on challenges in the Silver or Gold Divisions. Each competition has you face off against the ghost data of seven other players across three rounds, with half of the players eliminated after each round. While it would have been nice to have live competitions like what Nintendo did with Super Mario Bros. 35, the good thing about the ghost data is it takes the pressure off and also means you retry challenges over and over again until you nab the first place position.
Another cool aspect of this game is how you can personalize your profile, including choosing your own personalized Hype Tag and letting other players know what your favourite NES game is (I had a tough time choosing between Battletoads and Defender of the Crown!) The best part though is how you can choose from hundreds of player icons, the vast majority of them requiring accumulated coins to unlock. There are so many icons to choose from, Kid Icarus alone has over 50 to pick from, so your icon can be anything from doing an Excitebike wheelie all the way to choosing your favourite Kirby transformation.
If you enjoy unlocking achievements, then you'll have a blast unlocking the 180-plus trophies in this game. I huge swath of these trophies are acquired by earning an A-rank or higher in each challenge, but there are other rewards for completing a certain number of challenges, competing in World Championships, winning a Survivor mode competition, and many other surprises.
Final Score: 8.5/10 - Great
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Party, Platformer, Action, Racing
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
A key was provided by the publisher.
By Paul Hunter
I'm old enough to have played games like Kid Icarus and Metroid when they were released on the NES, way back in the 80s. Back then games were challenging, very challenging, and often more than a little obtuse with their puzzles and secrets. It got frustrating at times, but that was the era we all lived in and that's just how games were designed.
Thanks to Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, we can revisit 13 of Nintendo's most iconic NES games in short bite-sized speedrun challenges. They've taken all the fun bits we remember from these classic titles, like getting your first Super Mushroom or reaching your first flagpole while eliminating any tedium associated with completing these tough games from beginning to finish. It's all action, all the time.
Only older gamers like myself have probably seen or heard of the classic movie The Wizard, which starred Fred Savage who set out to compete and win a live video game tournament, similar to what would become the Nintendo World Championships. Thanks to Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, we can now experience the thrill of competing in a 90s Championships and rival players from all over the world in weekly online challenges.
If the premise of playing short minigames of classic Nintendo games reminds you of NES Remix for the Wii U, you aren't alone. That title focused on 16 vintage NES games and presented players with over 200 remixed minigames that altered or expanded the games in novel ways. Nintendo World Championships does none of that and instead, gives us speedrunning challenges based on the original versions of the 13 included NES games. Intuitively I would have thought remixed versions would be more interesting to play, but surprisingly, after spending several days with Nintendo World Championships I prefer how this game approaches the challenges.
Challenges come in three basic difficulties, Normal, Hard and Master, that increase in difficulty as you move up. A normal challenge in Super Mario Bros. is as simple as 'grab the mushroom' while a Master challenge is usually longer and more involved, such as 'grab 30 coins in the shortest time possible'. I found myself entering a hypnotic state doing simple tasks like 'grab the sword' in The Legend of Zelda in the shortest time possible. Replaying challenges can be done instantly, letting you hop back in one more time to try and shave off another second, or even milliseconds once you get into the groove. The satisfaction of capturing a Super Mario Bros. flagpole half a second quicker than your personal best really cannot be understated.
The bulk of this package is contained in the Speedrun Mode, which offers 150-plus challenges across iconic titles like Super Mario Bros. 1-3, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Ice Climber, Kirby's Adventure, The Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link, and my personal favourite, Excitebike. You're graded on a letter scale up to A++, or S-rank if you're that darn good, and you'll be awarded coins based on your performance. Coins are used to unlock further challenges.
The final and most expensive unlockable challenge for each game is called a Legend challenge and they're the longest and most involved of the bunch. You might be tasked with completing the entire Super Mario Bros. game (using warp pipes, of course) or completing an entire dungeon of The Adventure of Link to get the fastest time possible. These are true speedrunning challenges that require deep knowledge of the game and gameplay mechanics, along with immense skill and a bit of luck to get that fastest time possible.
The most fun I had with Nintendo World Championships was playing with my family, despite my child's unfamiliarity playing most of these games. The game includes a Party Mode for up to eight players on a single Nintendo Switch console, so everyone can join and have a blast. This mode lets you play individual challenges or play through themed challenge packs with everyone competing for the fastest time possible.
One neat feature that makes this title accessible to everyone is the automatic rewind should you mess up or not complete a challenge. Rewinding lets you redo tricky portions as many times as needed, but of course, every rewind adds precious seconds onto the clock. But for kids or new players trying these games for the first time, there's no way to fail the challenge with this handy feature.
Once you get brave enough to go online and compete against other players, the first place to check out is the World Championships Mode. This mode lets you test your skill against players from around the world in five weekly challenges, usually nicely spread out with a few Normal, Hard and Master challenges. You can replay each challenge as often as you want during the Championships period to continuously improve your times before the submission deadline. You aren't told where you rank on the leaderboard until after the Championships finish, which actually is a good thing as I found the mystery of not knowing to be one of the exciting parts, not to mention the results reveal once the competition concludes. You can also see how you compare against players in the same birth year as yourself, which I thought was a neat touch.
Another online mode is called Survival and this has you take on challenges in the Silver or Gold Divisions. Each competition has you face off against the ghost data of seven other players across three rounds, with half of the players eliminated after each round. While it would have been nice to have live competitions like what Nintendo did with Super Mario Bros. 35, the good thing about the ghost data is it takes the pressure off and also means you retry challenges over and over again until you nab the first place position.
Another cool aspect of this game is how you can personalize your profile, including choosing your own personalized Hype Tag and letting other players know what your favourite NES game is (I had a tough time choosing between Battletoads and Defender of the Crown!) The best part though is how you can choose from hundreds of player icons, the vast majority of them requiring accumulated coins to unlock. There are so many icons to choose from, Kid Icarus alone has over 50 to pick from, so your icon can be anything from doing an Excitebike wheelie all the way to choosing your favourite Kirby transformation.
If you enjoy unlocking achievements, then you'll have a blast unlocking the 180-plus trophies in this game. I huge swath of these trophies are acquired by earning an A-rank or higher in each challenge, but there are other rewards for completing a certain number of challenges, competing in World Championships, winning a Survivor mode competition, and many other surprises.
The Verdict
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition has a lot of content and replayability, especially given its budget price. Not only are there 150 challenges to complete, but you'll want to replay your favourites over and over again to improve your times, be it seconds or even milliseconds. With the World Championships, Survival Mode and Party Mode rounding out the offering, there's something here for everyone. Considering this game is called the 'NES Edition' it makes me wonder if we'll eventually see a SNES Edition, and if so, I'll definitely be there on day one.Final Score: 8.5/10 - Great
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition details
Platform: Nintendo SwitchDeveloper: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Party, Platformer, Action, Racing
Modes: Single-player, Multiplayer
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
A key was provided by the publisher.