Nintendo World Championships NES Edition has become appointment gaming since launching in July. The weekly speedrunning events are super addictive, tasking players with completing retro gaming challenges in the quickest time possible in order to top the global leaderboards. This includes simple challenges like collecting a power-up in the original Metroid, to completing the entire Super Mario Bros campaign using warp pipes. Playing Nintendo World Championships NES Edition this past few weeks has got me thinking about how other companies could use their retro gaming libraries in a similar fashion. I think we need more retro speedrunning games like Nintendo World Championships NES Edition, and these are the studios that could do it.
SEGA World Championships
Forget PlayStation and Xbox, if you grew up in the 1990s, then it was all about SEGA vs Nintendo. With this in mind, there is perhaps no better company than SEGA to release a similar retro gaming speedrunning game featuring titles from the Master System and Mega Drive.
You could have a ton of Sonic the Hedgehog challenges, from collecting 50 rings in the original Mega Drive release, to completing the entire Chemical Plant Zone in the fastest time possible in Sonic 2.
SEGA could also include games like Golden Axe, Streets of Rage and Ecco the Dolphin, not to mention Alex Kidd in Miracle World and various Shinobi titles.
This could include challenges like collecting magic pots in Golden Axe, to completing the first stage in Streets of Rage 2. The first motorbike level in Alex Kidd in Miracle World also seems tailor made for a speedrunning challenge.
It would certainly make a change from the recycled compilations SEGA tends to release, and something that would undoubtedly give Nintendo a run for its money.
Konami World Championships
Arguably the king of the 8-bit era, Konami has an absolute boatload of games that would be perfect for speedrunning challenges.
You could make an entire speedrunning game from the Castlevania series alone. From simple challenges like defeating five zombies, to more complex missions like defeating the Grim Reaper, it really is a case of take your pick.
Then there are other classic games like Gradius, Contra and the old Metal Gear series, which have a ton of speedrunning potential.
Konami could task players with fully upgrading their ship in Gradius, or clearing a room without being seen in Metal Gear.
With Konami compilations available on multiple platforms, the company clearly sees the value of its back catalogue, so here’s hoping they try something different in the years to come.
CAPCOM World Championships
Another company with a huge back catalogue of 8-bit and 16-bit games, Capcom could easily put together a speedrunning game featuring many of its famous IPs.
You could have Street Fighter challenges where the aim is to beat someone like M Bison as quickly as possible, to missions involving Arthur from Ghosts ‘n Goblins, where you’ve got to collect a power-up, defeat a set number of enemies, or defeat a boss.
You could even extend it to some of Capcom’s PSOne-era games, maybe with a challenge to kill the first zombie in Resident Evil, or collect an item by moving a box.
Capcom is another company that has re-visited and re-released its older games, so this definitely feels like something that could happen without much fuss.
Do you want to see more speedrunning games? And if so, which developers and games would work in this format?