Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

I’ll admit that I came into Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition a bit cynical, but it really did win me over in the end. The game’s presentation and modes are very well-built towards the end of funneling the player back into trying to better their best times, and it can even help improve your skills at the included games. I wish there was a little bit more meat on the bone, but the live modes are going to keep me coming back to this game for a while. Those without any interest in time-attacking won’t have their minds changed, but otherwise I would call this release a champ.

Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition is a fantastic way to discover or reminisce over the titles that formed the basis for many of the franchises that still dominate gaming today. The compulsion to get better and better is perhaps the purest distillation of video gaming available and the more competitive modes offer a challenge for a long time to come. Any Nintendo fan (or gaming fan in general) should pick this up and take on the clock. I look forward to seeing you all on the World Championship leaderboards!

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a wonderfully put-together package, its 150 challenges so addictive to play, its presentation slick and implementation of multiplayer a surprise hit. Sure, we’ve seen these games repackaged over and over to the point of delirium, but when they’re done so in such a fascinating and entertaining manner… well… bring on Nintendo World Championships: SNES Edition is all I can say.

This compilation of retro games put together with a bunch of challenges in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a must-play treasure for all players. The compilation is made so that it doesn't only appeal to veteran players but also newcomers in a way that they will probably fall in love with everything the game has to offer. Especially regarding what veteran gamers may expect in this game collection, visually Nintendo has done a splendid job of keeping the classic appeal intact. Whether you play by yourself or aim to challenge other players, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is top of its class.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition offers a pleasingly brisk and enjoyable format that makes it the unexpected party game hit of the Summer.

Nintendo Championships NES Edition presents itself to the fans as an authentic love letter to the history of the Japanese giant, with an eye on the phenomenon of speedrunning which on the iconic 8-bit home console has its most archaic roots. It is a title capable of challenging even the most experienced players but at the same time incredibly accessible thanks to a control system that is rather simple to master and a user interface that is always clear and legible. It is certainly a product designed for multiplayer use which perhaps loses some of its undeniable charm if played solo but we are sure that it will delight anyone who wants to give it a chance.

Fresh, fun, light-hearted, immediate, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is the quintessence of gaming of yesteryear, when you played and replayed the same software over and over again until you learnt it by heart and did home-made speedruns. A joy of nostalgic gameplay.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is both a loving celebration of the event's origins and a fun and exciting introduction to the world of speedrunning.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a game tailor-made for speedrunners, and played alone it risks losing its appeal in a short time. It's a creature made for a well-thought-out competitive ecosystem, which with online challenges could keep the interest of its select audience high for a long time, or at least until the arrival of an eventual SNES Edition. Perhaps not for everyone, but intriguing if the challenge doesn't scare you.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a great collection of challenges from NES classics. The way everything is presented, results on a super fun videogame that everyone can enjoy.

Nintendo World Championships NES Edition is a wonderful introduction to speedrunning, rewarding, fun and non-frustrating. It’s also a great way to discover or rediscover some NES classics.

The reality is that Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is an experience for a particular audience. While the presentation and formats are casual, this challenge is not for average gamers. Of course, it's an extraordinary workshop for understanding how speedruns work, but that's all. There is no game preservation. It's more about giving a new presentation to a concept you already know, which can be entertaining for a while.

With a fast-paced and addictive gameplay loop, not to mention a solid amount of multiplayer content to keep things feeling fresh, I can see myself coming back to NWC: NES Edition time and time again, even if it’s just to shave a millisecond from my reigning records.

A great tribute to the legendary Nintendo competitions, showing us that classic NES games are still very playable and fun, even in the format of short speedrun challenges. With a large number of games and various offline and online modes, this edition offers more fun than you might expect.

This compilation of classic NES games from which excerpts have been grabbed for speedrun challenges provide a nostalgic feeling. Playing the many challenges alone is great fun; even more fun is playing against each other in multiplayer. A more than fine party game that creatively handles the classic NES library.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition perfectly translates the simple gameplay of the 8-bit era into a competitive-focused release that adds a fresh spin on retro titles. The UI is well designed making it quick and easy to replay challenges, incentivizing you to improve on your last attempt. Each game remains in its original format and due to this, newcomers may struggle to get to grips with the more rigid movement of certain games. With a wealth of online options on its way and chaotic multiplayer, this could be a standout title for retro enthusiasts and become a staple in the speedrunning community.

A fun retro romp that's not flawless, but downright addictive.

Quotation forthcoming.

Nintendo World Championships NES Edition is a great tribute to the great classics that marked a generation and a fun and refreshing experience to enjoy 13 iconic works under a new approach. By bringing the speedrun mode to a wider audience, Nintendo once again demonstrates its great development skills.

Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition is a fun collection of Nintendo mini-games, bringing together more than 150 challenges inspired by the studio's classics. Mario, Metroid and Zelda are all part of the package, but you won't know for sure.

If you loved NES Remix, you will also appreciate Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, which, in addition to several new challenges, offers a small essay on game design. Otherwise, the package is a bit pricey (€29.99, to which you have to add the cost of a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to enjoy all the features), and not all “remixed games” have aged well in the same way.

While Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition offers a rich representation of the original 8-bit console's history, this feels like the first leg of what could be a longer marathon. While we appreciate a good sprint, we're hopeful for a longer marathon down the road.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition has a lot to love, and it would be great to see a similar treatment for SNES and N64 in the future.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a game that wants to bring the fun of the world of speedruns to all kinds of players using classic Nintendo titles. With a lot of challenges and collectibles, and a rich multiplayer mode, this is a good game for those who enjoy retro and competitive gaming.

A modern game with a retro style that will delight speedrun fans, providing hours and hours of fun with some of the best classics in Nintendo's history.

Whether it is through beating records, enjoying the chaotic party mode, or competing online for a chance to take the top spot in the World Championships, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition truly tugs on our nostalgia and brings back that childlike glee that many of us first felt when picking up one of these classic titles.

I have my frustrations with the game’s coin system to unlock additional content, and unfortunately, most, if not all, of the games in the collection do not stand up to the test of time. But as a means to highlight Nintendo’s history, participate in some nostalgia with local friends, and play classic games for exactly as long as they’re fun, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition succeeds in its intention.

It’s a bonafide party game staple and easily captures the spirit of the original Nintendo World Championships from back in the day. It’s best played with others, but even alone there’s enough to keep you entertained for a while. Once the initial enjoyment starts to wear off, however, it remains a joy to head into Survival Mode and go for the top ranking. Here’s hoping Nintendo is secretly at work on an SNES followup. In the meanwhile, I strongly recommend adding NWC to your collection.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a game aimed at those who like to be challenged. The controls can work against us but it is nevertheless enjoyable for individuals who enjoy pushing themselves.

It has plenty of flaws that are very easy to see, and I’m sure those will frustrate lots of people. But at the same time, these games are classics for a reason, and even if the experience isn’t wholly perfect, the package is still enjoyable enough that it’s sure to please pretty much everyone who plays it.

I enjoyed my time with Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition and will continue to do so thanks to its fun weekly challenges. I hope that this means we'll see indieszero's Retro Game Challenge 1 + 2 Replay release in the west soon.

As an approachable, bite-sized introduction to the world of speedrunning through the lens of some bonafide classics, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a decent enough package. It lacks a little added flavour, but the way it gently teaches you to find those perfect lines, hidden quirks and cheesy hacks makes for some very rewarding moments, and it doubles as a surprisingly good party game.

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.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition joins generations of gamers around a celebration of the retro side of the videogame. The lack of realtime multiplayer stops it from going further.

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.

The game consists of an array of new, competitive, and addictive challenges, carefully tailored in a way that helps newcomers feel at ease and lures in veterans eager to try out their skills. The source material and overall environment have been optimized enough to fit with our day and age while remaining faithful to the classics, and the online leaderboards ensure plenty of global competition.

The Nintendo World Championships NES Edition is a nostalgic collector’s item with a high price tag, offering limited gameplay that’s best suited for hardcore retro enthusiasts. While it holds significant historical value, the experience itself is more about owning a piece of gaming history than about engaging gameplay. It’s a treasure for collectors, but casual players might not find it worth the cost.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition gives a number of Nintendo classics a new lease on life, but the overall package is a bit light on content. Those who live and breathe the Big N will enjoy this new take on the classics, but there’s not enough for more casual fans to enter the competition.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is above all a nostalgic journey through the challenges of the 8-bit era, offering players the chance to put their speedrunning skills, acquired through a lot of trial and error, to the test online or locally. For the more casual players, or even new players, although it's a way of getting to know 13 NES classics, it could be short-lived given the limited and repetitive range of challenges on offer. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition seems to me to be an excellent idea that will quickly become a title only appreciated by the niche of speedrunners and more competitive party gamers.

The Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition can be enjoyed by everyone but its ultimate value will be most appreciated by a select few. Its focus on attaining high scores by repeatedly playing the same levels could become tiresome, and the Joy-Cons may not be the best choise of gamepads for the required accuracy.

If you've played these titles before and think a competitive twist on them might be appealing, there's a lot to like about Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, despite the game's lack of content.

This flashy package makes great use of Nintendo's classic catalogue to spark nostalgia, break the games down for a new audience and make the joys of speedrunning accessible. But once you've given your best effort in the 150 or so challenges there's not a lot to do, besides local couch competitions and checking in for the weekly trials.

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!

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. The small library has more winners than losers – the shorter and more instantly repeatable the better – and even the silliest of tasks (like refilling Kid Icarus’s life by wallowing in a hot spring) can be goofy fun. Challenging yourself to improve or competing with your friends has some lasting appeal, but the weekly cycle of the online events artificially limits the fun. With its lovingly portrayed and accurate pixel art, music, and gameplay, these sample-sized portions of chopped up ROMs can serve as a good entrypoint for discovering and understanding their appeal for the first time.

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.

It’s a great attempt from Nintendo to join leagues of gamers who keep their titles alive via speedrunning. There are moments that make you feel like Jimmy from The Wizard, with Fred Savage screaming at you to grab the warp whistle. I loved revisiting the golden days of the NES and doing it while collecting cool unlockables and trying my hand at beating great times. Beating a time and seeing an S-rank never gets old, but the life and enjoyment of this game depend on many moving parts and a passion for retro gaming, which might hold this back from being as brilliant as Nintendo would like it to be.

Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition feels more like a platform than a game in itself. It's a set of tools to gently introduce players to speedrunning, and to encourage some light competitive hooks. Even the "NES Edition" part of the name suggests this is envisioned as an ongoing project with room for further exploration in the future. I hope it does, because this could serve as a great introduction to invite newcomers into the speedrunning community.

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.

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.

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).

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition's recommendation highly relies on your own background and circles. Local 8-player on the same big screen is amazing, the Legend challenges are a piece of video game history, and the selection is an accurate journey through Nintendo's late 80s and early 90s, respecting the flavour and even the glitches and framerate drops of those gems.

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.

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.

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.

Despite its limited appeal, there's plenty packed into Nintendo's speedrunning challenger - if you've got the patience for it.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is an interesting idea for a compilation, but it's hard to enjoy when so much of it reveals a game that blatantly feels rushed, be it in its weak online modes or the uneven spread of challenges with little variety. There are definitely nice challenges here to tackle that put up a good fight, and hints of clever inclusions like the Classified Information guides, but there's too little here at the moment to keep anyone hooked beyond a few hours at best. Sorry Nintendo, but this won't even get you the bronze.

Nintendo World Championship Edition: NES Edition doesn't bring anything particularly special, but it's a good ride for lovers of classic NES games (made by Nintendo itself) who want the opportunity to play iconic beats, be it solo or with friends.

Nice repurposing of Nintendo's NES classics, but the local multiplayer mode in particular lacks the options to become a real party hit.

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.

The Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is still an oddity. The number of challenges tucked away within falls short of what would be expected from a collection like this, while also doing very little to honor its namesake. What is there is a fun little collection of retro classics reduced down to minigame-sized chunks. How much you enjoy it will really come down to your fondness for NES games. This game is very much for speedrunners or people who are up for a time-based challenge.

This game is absolutely “for” certain people – speedrunners who enjoy a good challenge, competitive online gamers, or those looking to indulge their nostalgia – but fitting none of these categories, I found myself wanting more from Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. Despite a moreish opening loop of mini-games, it’s not long before the game’s lower depths are plumbed.

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.

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.

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.

I can’t help but wish Nintendo offered a skew for the game in the West similar to what has been offered in Japan, where players had the chance to buy the otherwise Switch Online-only NES/Famicom replica controllers with the game in a package not too dissimilar to what we see with controller bundles for Super Mario Party. As a freebie with a controller, this game would feel like a neat curio, and while still not wholly satisfying as a standalone experience would likely offer just about enough to satisfy as a pack-in title. Otherwise, this feels more like a first-round knockout than a championship-winning shot at glory.