Nintendo World Championships – a nerve-wracking game against the clock

In Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition you play through small gameplay snippets from old Nintendo classics as quickly as possible – either alone, against your friends or online against players from all over the world. Hundredths of a second is all it takes to determine victory or defeat.

The little speedrun challenges are nerve-wracking, entertaining and addictive. But there could have been more.

Modest selection of games with many challenges

The idea for Nintendo’s speedrun game can be traced back to a series of tournaments that the company organised in the nineties. Nintendo fans from the USA competed against each other in three different NES disciplines: Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer and Tetris.

The goal was to achieve the highest possible score within a time limit, which was calculated in a cumulative high score formula for all games.

The final of the World Championship was held at Universal Studios in Los Angeles and is considered one of the most legendary gaming events of all time. Now Nintendo’s reinventing the World Cup, but not as a live event, as a Switch game.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition contains a total of 156 speedrun challenges from thirteen NES classics. Some of them are simple and literally only take a few seconds.

For example, in Mushzoom, I have to touch the first super mushroom in Super Mario Bros. as quickly as possible (my record: 00:04.56). In the Darknut Dustup challenge in The Legend of Zelda, I have to kill all the enemies on a screen as quickly as possible (my record: 00:02.56).

The most difficult challenges in the game last several minutes. In Mario Master, for example, I have to play through the entire (!) Super Mario Bros. game as quickly as possible using shortcuts (my record: 08:24.01). Or complete a dungeon from Zelda II as quickly as possible in Parapa Palace Pro (my record: 04:30.10).

What’s pretty cool is that for super difficult challenges, there’s a virtual game assistant who tells me the best route through the levels and «secret» tricks. This is reminiscent of NES booklets from the eighties. What’s less cool is that the games in the speedruns look a little blurred despite the small window sizes.

The challenges offer plenty of variety thanks to their different lengths and tasks. It’s a shame that Nintendo’s only integrated thirteen NES games into its virtual world championship. The company has released so many more classics on the console that would be perfect for speedrun challenges like these. It hurts that they haven’t included games like Punch-Out, Tetris, Dr Mario and Duck Hunt.

The 13 NES games included

Super Mario Bros (1985), The Legend of Zelda (1987), Metroid (1987), Donkey Kong (1986), Kid Icarus (1987), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), Excitebike (1985), Ice Climber (1985), Balloon Fight (1986), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988), Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (1986), Kirby’s Adventure (1993)

Me vs. myself

I spend most of the time testing single-player mode. Here, I earn coins by successfully completing speedruns, which I use to unlock new challenges and cosmetic items for my online profile.

Every time in a speedrun is given a rank – from the worst grade C, to B and A to the best grade S. The goal is to complete all the challenges with at least an A grade. But that’s not enough for me. «I can definitely save a few hundredths of a second and crack the S rank,» I think to myself and tackle individual challenges over and over again.

I’m at a loss as to why, despite my supposedly perfect runs I seem to only get bad grades, or I just miss the S grade with a very close A++. I don’t give up though and I’m always learning new tricks.

I can’t get the new personal record time sound effect out of my head, I’m addicted to it. If I break my own record and hear the little jingle, I get up from the sofa like a madman and cheer as if I’ve scored the decisive goal in the final of the football World Cup.

Another plus is that I can restart the challenges immediately if my play is rubbish. I also like the fact that if I die in a challenge, the game rewinds to the time of death while the timer continues to run. A smart solution that saves frustration and motivates you to tackle the challenges again and again.

Me vs. mates

Up to eight (!) players can compete in local multiplayer challenges at the same time. I gave multiplayer a go with three different friend groups and three to four players in each.

It was so much fun playing multiplayer sessions. We were shouting at each other, jumping around and throwing our controls on the sofa frustratedly. Emotions boil over, especially when only a few hundredths of a second separate first place from last place. I LOVE it!

It usually doesn’t matter what previous knowledge or skills my opponents have. The challenges are simple to navigate – the Switch controller only has two buttons and a directional pad. Anyone can take on the challenges without much explanation and, with a bit of luck, win. Only the complex, lengthy challenges could be annoying for inexperienced players.

The game modes in multiplayer are somewhat meagre. I can either choose between individual speedruns or ready-made speedrun packages. With the latter option, we play several challenges in succession and a winner is chosen at the end. It’s exciting, but I would’ve liked to have seen a few more creative game modes to add a bit of variety to the multiplayer sessions.

What’s a bit disappointing is the layout of the games in multiplayer mode. Even in solo mode, I have to make do with a relatively small game window. With four players, this window shrinks to an almost ridiculous size because all four are placed horizontally next to each other. The screen area could have been designed better.

Me vs. the world

I was only able to test the online mode a bit for my review, because the servers only started operating in the latter stages of my review. Weekly changing world championships with global leaderboards await me.

Each one consists of five individual speedruns. Over seven days, I can try to achieve the best possible times in the individual challenges. After that, the scores are cleared. It’s a pity that the global leaderboards with the best times are only visible for the challenges that are currently in the championship.

I particularly like the additional Survival mode, which takes place separately to the World Championship. Here I compete in challenge packs against seven ghost dates from participants from all over the world. After every speedrun the worst participants are eliminated. It’s basically a speedrun battle royale. A fun and creative mode I’d also like to see in local multiplayer mode with real players.

I’m also disappointed by the limited range of functions in the online modes. For example, the leaderboards for all the challenges aren’t permanently visible and I miss a «real» online multiplayer mode where I can compete against other players live.

Still, I reckon the online functions will lure me back into the game week after week. Just so I can see what superhuman times the speedrun pros will get in the challenges.