Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition Reviews
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a release held together by sentiment and atmosphere, partly because that aspect of the game is so good and partly because the remainder of the game is so devoid of merit.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition for the Switch valiantly tries to evoke the speedrunning spirit of Nintendo's real-world, 1990 competition, but the challenges are too flimsy for a 2024 release.
For retro enthusiasts with access to likeminded friends and family, this Switch challenge collection is a genuine local multiplayer hit. For solo players and those looking to compete with others online, however, it’s a far less impressive package.
To sum up, I do find Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition to be a fun distraction and a half-decent party game. Local multiplayer is obviously more exciting than playing alone but joining the weekly championships is fun too. The weekly challenges are engaging as is the Survival Mode. I just wish it included Red Racer too, or at the very least Tetris. If the game entices you purely for the NES nostalgia then you're golden, but if you are looking for a recreation of the 1990 championships then this isn't the title for you.
While I’ll surely continue to chip away at my best times, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition feels more like practice than the big game itself. It’s a great way to learn the basics of speedrunning, but the outlet for those acquired skills is in another castle. Maybe it’s all building toward the return of the real Nintendo World Championships. If that’s the case, cue the ’80s training montage music. I’m going big time.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a nice flashback with some cool features, but still feels limited in ultimate approach and concept. You will love the nostalgia, but those who don't have a competitive itch are best to dig out their oldies.
Ultimately, I’d imagine most players will likely get about an hour’s worth of satisfaction from Nintendo World Championships NES Edition before finding themselves exhausted, though parties with a bunch of players will help sustain that feeling. Players who are utterly focused on besting their own scores — or those of others online — will likely spend far more time with things. It’s ultimately up to you if that offering is worth its $50 AUD asking price.
It feels like it would fit better as an additional mode to some sort of NES Remix compilation. And that’s ignoring the fact that NES Remix 2 already had a mode based on the Nintendo World Championships. Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition is a celebration of the classic console; it’s just one that lacks excitement and is too exclusive for its own good.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition lets you re-experience the classics in challenges that test your speedrunning skills. With quick mini-games that are easy to dive into, there's something for casual players and aspiring speedrunners. However, this game won't let you re-experience the classics in their glory; it's all about speedrunning. If you aren't into practicing well into the night to shave milliseconds off your record, the appeal quickly dwindles.
Overall, there is plenty to devour in the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition package - a history trip through Nintendo's original hits in bite-sized, repayable chunks. As a speed-running package, it very much ticks all those boxes. The lack of remixed content and visual tweaks does hinder its potential, however. There is opportunity there, though, for Nintendo to expand the package if they decide to going forward. All in all, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a nostalgic treat for competitive players that's well worth a go or two or three!
For a game that’s all about speedrunning, it’s ironic that Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition feels rushed. Although I certainly had a great time going for an S-tier rank in all the challenges presented, the obvious omissions makes the game feel more like a missed opportunity rather than a complete package. If you’re interested in learning the basics of speedrunning or wanna take a nostalgic trip down memory lane, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is sure to provide many hours of fun, but otherwise, the larger library of NES titles offered to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers is probably enough to suffice.
Consequently, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition feels like a release schedule filler. While the multiplayer features are robust, they’re hardly innovative, and really it’s just a package of sliced-up classic games with a timer attached to them. I’d never call a game development project “lazy,” because they’re not, but the minimum work has gone into this, and while it will become a competitive obsession for a small minority, there could have been so much more done to draw in a much broader audience and really celebrate the deep heritage of these games (as well as Nintendo in facilitating competitive play).
I can't say I didn't have fun with Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. Far from it. This collection just goes to show how timeless these classic NES games were. However, they're still just relics of a bygone era, and this collection doesn't bring anything new or extra to the table to justify such a hefty price tag.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition doesn't make a great first impression. It's a downgrade in many ways to NES Remix and there's not as much variety or effort put into the challenges, nor any graphical tweaks to speak of this time around. However, stick with it, get into the competitive mindset, and start collecting up all the pins, icons, and top-ranked times on offer, and you may find yourself fully entertained. It's a slight thing, purely speed-focused, but we expect that'll suit plenty of folk who want a competitive outlet to display their old-school skills. And hey, it also doubles as a handy history of some iconic Nintendo gaming moments and mechanics.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition presents a promising concept, but a lack of features to support either dedicated speedrunners or any sort of serious online competition limits the package's appeal. There's certainly fun to be had revisiting this lineup of golden oldies, but Nintendo has only scored a bronze at the Nostalgia Olympics this time around.
Nintendo World Championships is a fun introduction to competitive speedrunning with tons of nostalgia, even if its customization tools could be more robust.
A tribute to the timelessness of some of Nintendo's earliest classics and while the whole package is rather thin it's impressive how entertaining it still manages to be.
Like NES Remix and WarioWare before it, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition offers a good way to revisit challenging moments from a selection of classic NES games.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a love letter to all fans who grew up with the 8-bit console, but it's not a game suited for every player.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition delivers a very nostalgic challenge. If you have the option to play against other players in local multiplayer with up to eight participants, you can have many hours of fun. If you're close to pro level, that's additionally the case in the two asynchronous challenge modes Survival and World Championship. But if you play solo (not being a pro) after maybe five hours you've seen anything the game has to offer.
Review in German | Read full review