Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition review: 8-bit is almost enough

In an age before esports, video game hobbyists had to prove their superiority in more creative ways. Back in the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System, people used to show off their high scores by taking Polaroids and sending them in to Nintendo Power magazine. It was a primitive time compared to the internet age. While Nintendo can't exactly bring back the old Arena challenges as they were first printed, the publisher has opened the door for old-school players to compete across the games they grew up with. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a strong collection of challenges from over a dozen original NES titles. It's a game that's enjoyable in small doses, though there could be enough doses to last a very long time.

On your marks

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a pseudo-collection of 13 NES titles. The idea isn't to play them straight through, but rather to take on bite-sized challenges and put up the fastest times possible. It's a collection that's put out with the expectation that audiences will know exactly what they're getting into. There are some short tutorial videos displaying an optimal route for each challenge, but outside of that, Nintendo is fully expecting players to be familiar with all of these games. Yes, that includes Ice Climbers. Fortunately, these games are pretty easy to get into, even if you never grew up in this era.

Nintendo didn't design this collection for long sittings. Each challenge in Speedrun Mode can be as short as a few seconds. There's a satisfying rush that comes out of putting up better and better times in trials that involve collecting a Mushroom in Super Mario Bros. or defeating a Lynel in The Legend of Zelda. With that said, this collection is a bit of a paradox in that it simultaneously feels like there's a lot here while also feeling like there isn't quite enough. By the time I hit the end of the Super Mario Bros. list, I was slightly disappointed that there weren't additional challenges or more creative ideas put into place. For example, there was one challenge that had me collect 22 coins as quickly as possible and there weren't too many other outside-the-box ideas like that across the other games.

I was also somewhat disappointed that the number of challenges across each game felt uneven. I love Super Mario Bros. 3 and, given its place in Nintendo World Championship history, I shouldn't be surprised that it offered the highest number of challenges. Sadly, only seeing about six or seven challenges for games like Excitebike and Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels gave me the sense that more could have been done. Fortunately, this is the type of game that can easily be expanded upon, so there's always a chance that Nintendo could revisit this collection down the road and add more challenges and maybe even more games.

There are also "Legend" challenges, which await players at the end of each game's batch. These are much lengthier trials and can last several minutes. I appreciated the thought put into these, especially with each of these being accompanied by a larger tutorial feature showing tips and optimal routes in more detail, similar to the old Nintendo Power players guides. These are the contests that hardened players can sink their teeth into.

That, unfortunately, leads to some of the collection's other shortcomings. Unlike traditional competitions or speedrunning attempts, the challenge won't continue through a player's death or if one of the challenge's rules are broken. Dying will rewind the player to moments before their death, at which gameplay immediately resumes. That sounds nice on paper and, in some circumstances, can save some time. However, this rewind feature will sometimes take players back to another precarious moment and cause them to die again instantly, leading to a chain of rewinds that cost precious seconds. Worse yet, there's no button or option to try and start the challenge over from scratch. If a player determines that their current attempt is doomed to failure, they have to take the extra steps to quit back out to the previous menu and jump back in to try again.

Of course, all of this is just a practice run for the true competition ahead.

Race to the finish

Where Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is at its best is when it taps into the spirit of competition. This game has a few ways to play with others, where everyone can compete for personal glory. Nintendo will assemble a rotating set of featured challenges on a weekly basis, which is where players can either look to jump ahead on an individual leaderboard through the World Championships mode. There's also a leaderboard separated by birth year, which is a nice touch for people of a certain age.

They can also test themselves in Survival Mode against ghost data collected from players around the world. Like World Championships, Survival Mode focuses on a rotating set of challenges and has eight players compete across three rounds. The challenges rotate, so winning means there's a small degree of luck involved. You might want your toughest test to come first so that you have the flexibility of finishing in the Top 4 to advance. This variable does give Survival Mode some extra replayability, as it encourages players to keep practicing while also aiming for that right challenge order that can help them get over the hump.

There's also the option to play against actual humans. Party Mode allows for friends to compete in challenges a la carte or in bundles to see who in the house is the best. While there's some fun in picking challenges individually, the themed bundles are laid out perfectly and suit a lot of different tastes. Just about anybody can jump into these with no trouble and the helpful time estimates on each bundle offer an idea of how much time to set aside.

Overall, that's one of the biggest things Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition has working for it. This game doesn't take long to jump into and play. Those who want to play just a few minutes can dive in, get a couple of challenges in, and call it a day. Those who want to commit more to trying the Legend challenges and get a little more involved can do so as well, but even these lengthier trials won't eat up more than a half hour. This is an ideal pick-up-and-play game, one that will be fun to check in with as the weeks go by.

NES museum

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a loaded package, but as noted, it feels like there's room for much more. Even with dozens of challenges available, they fly by quickly and it leads to a desire for more. World Championships and Survival Mode do help extend the package and Party Mode is a solid activity for groups of friends under one roof. There's no direct online play with friends, likely because latency issues could affect the way these quick competitive sessions play out, but the local options are laid out well.

Nintendo does offer some replayability in the form of unlockable coins and dozens of unlockable profile icons. Some of these icons can get pricey, giving further incentive to keep practicing challenges and earning more coins. Like the games themselves, it feels like even with a lot here, there's still room for more.

Overall, while Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition offers a rich representation of the original 8-bit console's history, this feels like the first leg of what could be a longer marathon. While we appreciate a good sprint, we're hopeful for a longer marathon down the road.

This review is based on a Nintendo Switch code provided by the publisher. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition will release on Nintendo Switch on Thursday, July 18 for $29.99 USD. The game is rated E.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?