Review: Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

My wife accuses me of brainwashing our five-year-old into loving Nintendo as much as I do. As much as I don’t believe I have a defence, he sleeps with a Build-a-Bear Bowser we got him last year, I find him a useful gauge to help determine how much of that love is nostalgia versus timeless gameplay.

Growing up in the time of the Nintendo Entertainment System, or Golden China as we knew it here in South Africa, without realising we were playing knock-off consoles, I have a lot of fond 8-bit memories from my formative years, so I eagerly jumped into this game.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a litmus test for nostalgia and an interesting way to get into the world of speed running, completing a video game level or campaign as fast as possible.

As a collection, it brings together 13 iconic NES games, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid, offering a series of speed-based challenges that demand precision and quick reflexes. The premise is simple: complete each challenge as fast as possible to achieve the best score.

The game shines brightest in its Speedrun mode, where players can revisit these classic titles in bite-sized challenges. Mastering these tasks, like grabbing a flagpole in Super Mario Bros. feels rewarding, especially as you gradually shave seconds off your time.

The more you play, the more you begin to understand the intricacies of each game’s design, making this mode an unexpected crash course in the fundamentals of classic game mechanics. There are more than a few duds amongst the gems so a combination of NES and Super Nintendo games might have worked better as a compilation.

However, the nostalgia trip is somewhat marred by what’s missing. The full versions of the games are not included, which feels like a missed opportunity to fully immerse players in the era.

Instead, after perfecting a challenge, there’s no option to jump into the complete game and apply what you’ve learned. This omission, coupled with the lack of substantial historical context about the original Nintendo World Championships, diminishes the overall package.

I understand this was possibly done to get gamers to subscribe to Nintendo Online as a way to play the full games on that and while it’s relatively cheap to do so.

I play around 262 games a year, which works out to just over 21 Rand a month and I get to play online, have cloud saves and have access to a number of retro games across console generations. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition would been better if you could unlock the original games as a last challenge.

Multiplayer modes are where Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition begins to stumble. The local Party Mode, which supports up to eight players, suffers from an awkward split-screen design that makes it difficult to focus on the action. The screens are unnecessarily small, making it tough to play with precision unless you’re on a large TV.

My wife was at a bit of a disadvantage as she grew up playing PC games and not Nintendo, so I had to slow down here and there and not totally dominate so that she would continue playing.

I thought the multiplayer would be more of a hit but it wasn’t. I recommend Warioware if you’re looking for a more accessible and frantic party experience. The online modes, while intriguing in concept, don’t quite deliver either.

The World Championships mode allows players to compete in weekly challenges, but without live competition, it lacks the tension and excitement that could have elevated it. Also, the stages only refresh after a week so if you have a particular stage you suck in, like some of the Zelda 2 stages which weren’t fun at all, you have to wait a whole week before trying another challenge and hoping another subjectively poor stage doesn’t replace it.