When Nintendo World Championships NES Edition was announced during a recent Nintendo Direct, I was immediately reminded of NES Remix. One of my favourite games on the Wii U, the bite-sized retro gaming challenges were enormous fun, mashing up multiple classic games to put a fresh spin on some old favourites. Nintendo World Championships NES Edition doesn’t have the remix element, but does feature a selection of old-school speedrunning challenges, only with a far greater emphasis on worldwide competition via weekly challenges. Indeed, the week-to-week challenges have become appointment gaming for yours truly, as I desperately try (and fail) to climb to the top of the leaderboards on Nintendo Switch.
Initially, however, I spent most of my time in the Speedrun single-player mode, where the aim is to work your way through more than 150 challenges across 13 different NES games.
You’ll start off with simple challenges like collecting the first mushroom in Super Mario Bros, climbing a ladder in Donkey Kong, and completing a lap in Excitebike.
You earn coins for completing challenges, which can be used to unlock the next set of missions, culminating in LEGEND challenges that last longer and require a lot more skill.
One of the LEGEND missions tasks players with completing an entire dungeon in The Legend of Zelda, while another challenges players to complete the first three levels in Donkey Kong, which is no easy feat.
Not only is this a good mode for practicing all of the different events, but also for collecting the game’s many unlockable pins for your profile.
It’s fun grinding for coins and attempting to beat your personal best, but the lack of competition means you’re unlikely to keep coming back to the Speedrun mode once you’ve unlocked everything.
Also, while there’s a decent number of games and challenges to keep players busy for the next few months, I’m hopeful Nintendo will add more NES titles and missions via free content updates or paid DLC.
Of course, the real highlight of the game is the World Championships mode, where each week you’re given five challenges to complete in the fastest time possible.
You don’t have to complete all of the challenges to take part, and you can try each mission as many times as you want, with only your fastest time being entered into the competition.
You won’t find out how you placed until the following week, when the results are announced for each individual challenge.
Simple missions that could be considered boring in the single-player mode are transformed into high-stakes challenges where every fraction of a second can make the difference between a middling placement or top-ten finish.
Not only is it incredibly addictive trying to beat your time by a hundredth of a second, but it’s actually quite fascinating to see how the elite players manage a pixel-perfect run.
It makes you look at these games in a different way, analysing potential shortcuts and experimenting with different methods to make it to the top.
This does, however, bring me to my first big criticism of Nintendo World Championships NES Edition. To really get the most out of the game, you’re going to need a Nintendo Switch Online account.
The additional cost is offset by the game’s budget £24.99 price tag, but honestly, I’m not sure I would even consider buying it without an online account.
The local multiplayer is also somewhat flawed, although this is something Nintendo could easily fix with a future patch.
The game features an offline party mode for up to eight players to play competitively. The trouble is, all players are forced to play at the same time, which is every bit as chaotic and confusing as it sounds with any more than four players.
I would like the option to take it in turns to post the best score, and for Nintendo to add an online party mode for a more convenient way to play with your friends.
The game also features a Survival Mode, where you compete in weekly elimination challenges against ghost data of other players. It’s another solid game mode, but again is only playable with a Nintendo Switch Online account.
Nintendo should add some sort of single-player endless mode (where you only have one life), which would give solo players more incentive to keep coming back.
Personally, however, I can’t get enough of Nintendo World Championships NES Edition, although I’m not sure I would be saying that if I wasn’t subscribed to Nintendo Switch Online.
It’s a clever way for Nintendo to utilise its extensive back catalogue, and gives old-timers like me another excuse to visit these classic games.
Bring on Nintendo World Championships SNES Edition, so I can show off my Super Metroid skills… or not.
VERDICT – 4/5 (with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription)