[Rapid Review] Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

System: Switch
Release date: July 18, 2024
Developer: Nintendo / indieszero
Publisher: Nintendo

Nintendo World Championships NES Edition was revealed by surprise a few months back, and now it’s finally available. In a way, this game is a kind of spiritual successor to the NES Remix games on Wii U and 3DS – they’re all made by the same developer, in fact. This time around, though, the game focuses on taking a more competitive approach to the genre. In doing so, it makes itself accessible to both casual and hardcore gamers, as well as introducing a bunch of classic NES games to a brand-new audience. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was made with a wide audience in mind, so there’s something here for everyone.

At its core, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a minigame collection based around several first-party Nintendo games. In total, the minigames and challenges available are based on 13 different games: Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus, Super Mario Bros. 2, Excitebike, Ice Climber, Balloon Fight, Super Mario Bros. 3, Zelda II: Adventure of Link, Super Mario Bros. 2, and Kirby’s Adventure. Each of these games has a collection of timed mini-challenges in Speedrun Mode, in which you try to clear each objective as quickly as possible. There are over 150 challenges in total, so there are plenty to choose from.

It’s easy to lose yourself in replaying these challenges several times in a row going for the best possible time, especially because you earn coins by doing so. You can then use these coins to unlock more challenges or buy profile avatars and decorations from the in-game shop. It’s safe to say, then, that this game focuses on replayability of its challenges. Not all of them are easy, either – while some are easy, like collecting a few coins in Super Mario Bros., others are as involved as clearing an entire level. There’s a high variety of challenges here, and there’s bound to be a game you like thanks to the solid selection available. Collectible pins are also included that you can earn for achieving certain feats in Speedrun Mode.

In addition to Speedrun Mode, Nintendo World Championships also includes some online features worth checking out. Every week, you can connect to the World Championships mode to play the same bite-sized challenges as Speedrun Mode. Except here, your scores are uploaded and eventually compared to other players around the world. There are different challenges available each week, which offers an incentive to boot up the game and play in short bursts. With that said, the leaderboards don’t immediately tell you how you rank compared to other players. Instead, you’ll need to check in at the end of the week to see how you did. A somewhat strange decision, but it isn’t a major drawback.

There’s also Survival Mode, which is an elimination battle against replays that have been uploaded by other players. That might sound disappointing at first, but the reason Survival Mode pits you against replays rather than real-time players is so that there’s no wait time to start playing and so that there’s no online lag. It consists of three different mini-game challenges, and if you do well, you’ll receive lots of coins in exchange. These opponents can be incredibly tough (especially in the Gold Division) because you need to place in the top three to move on to the next round and earn any rewards. If you do wind up playing the Gold Division, you’ll often notice your opponents using advanced techniques to get excellent times. You’ll really need to practice to be able to contest against these records.

Nintendo World Championships is also home to Party Mode, a local multiplayer mode that lets up to 8 players compete on the same screen. You can select from many different themed challenge packs or opt to select the individual minigame you want to play yourself. It’s very easy for people to jump in on the action and compete for a few rounds, and the ease of access here will no doubt appeal to those who grew up with the NES but haven’t played a Nintendo game in ages. In fact, that’s almost certainly the intent with Nintendo World Championships; to appeal to NES nostalgia with an easy to play, easy to understand local multiplayer mode. If you have friends or family who would be interested in playing a few rounds, we’d definitely recommend this game as something to break out during a party or get-together. No online multiplayer with friends is a little sad, though we suppose we can’t expect online features like that for every game.

There might not be much to Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition other than replaying the same challenges over and over again in hope of a high score, but it’s incredibly accessible for both casual and more dedicated players alike. If you’re playing solo, it’s a good game to play in short bursts. The online features aren’t bad, but they are essentially the same as the single-player ones plus the addition of leaderboards. In other words, there isn’t a ton of variety here, but for what it is, it’s a solid package. Local multiplayer is where Nintendo World Championships really has the chance to shine, though, so if you can play this with others we’d absolutely recommend it. The $30 digital price tag makes this an affordable party game, which certainly works heavily in its favor. Some extra games might’ve been nice here (something like Mega Man, Dr. Mario, Mario Bros., Yoshi, or even Donkey Kong Jr.), but the lineup is generally rather good.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition copy provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.