NES Remix seems meant for friendly competition, with its bevy of quick time challenges based on classic games. Nintendo's first attempt at encouraging such spirited activities got off to a rocky start, though, as the company had to cancel a contest due to an exploit.

Game director Koichi Hayashida explained his reasoning for the cancellation on the Miiverse page (via Polygon). Note that you'll have to be logged into Miiverse to see all of the follow-up comments, including Hayashida's explanation.

"Unfortunately, we confirmed that there is a way to exploit the challenge to achieve a faster time," he said. "In the interest of being as fair as possible, we decided to terminate the event without recognizing the fastest time. We know that you dedicated a lot of time and effort towards achieving your fastest time possible. We sincerely apologize for this matter, particularly because the vast majority of people played fairly."

Though Hayashida didn't detail the exploit, users seem to have pinpointed the trick. The challenge had players control two Mario characters at once, and had them race to finish the stage as fast as possible. But by pausing and unpausing the game repeatedly, players were able to achieve faster times.

NES Remix was a surprise last month, as Nintendo announced and released it on the same day. In it, players are tasked with completing quick snippets of gameplay or remixed samples from classics like Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong.