In 1990, Nintendo of America hosted the Nintendo World Championships, one of the earliest esports events in gaming history, long before the word ‘esports’ was invented. Since then, the event has been held two more times in 2015 to celebrate its 25th anniversary and again in 2017. The events consisted of players competing against each other by completing various tasks in different Nintendo games and achieving the fastest time possible. Now, in 2024, a game based on the historical event titled Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is now available, exclusively on Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition includes 13 NES classics with four Super Mario Bros. games, two Legend of Zelda’s, Metroid, Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus, Excitebike, Ice Climber, Balloon Fight, and Kirby’s Adventure. Across the 13 games are more than 150 speedrunning challenges from simply getting the mushroom, collecting a number of coins, reaching a destination, defeating a boss, completing a level, and more, with the aim of the game being to finish them in the fastest time possible. It may seem simple at first, doing the most mundane tasks, but it quickly becomes addictive with players trying to beat their best time with each attempt.

All 13 games seem to play just like they did on the original NES console, especially Kirby’s Adventure which experiences some slow-down when a lot is happening on screen. Instead of fixing that flaw, it’s left as is, so that players can get the authentic experience. While this compilation of classic NES games may not replace the originals for those attempting to break speedrunning world records, as they’re required to be done on the original hardware, it’s still a great way to help players improve their speedrunning skills.

Players can attempt each challenge individually in Speedrun Mode, where there will be two screens side by side, one for your current attempt and the other showing footage of your fastest attempt, to help you see where you can improve and achieve that S rank. Completing these challenges will earn Pins, of which there are 501 to collect, as well as in-game currency to purchase more challenges or Player Icons to customise your profile or add to your collection.

In World Championships Mode, players will attempt to speedrun five different challenges consecutively, with the time spent on them being tallied and placed onto an online leaderboard. This mode consists of weekly competitions, with the list of challenges updated each week. This is separate from the rest of the game, so your fastest time within this mode is the one that counts, but players can try as many times as they wish before the week is over. It certainly creates excitement and anticipation waiting for the results to see how you compare with other speedrunners.

Survival Mode is a battle royale-style mode. A single player takes on the ghosts of seven other players from around the world in three rounds. All eight screens can be seen at once, showing gameplay from you and the ghosts of the seven players. At the end of each round, half of the players are eliminated until one emerges victorious. To qualify, the player must place in the top half of the leaderboard.

Players can enter either the Silver Division for simple challenges or the Gold Division for the harder challenges. As fun, as this mode is, it would’ve been better to play against other players in real-time instead of their ghosts, which is something Nintendo has done before with games like Super Mario Bros. 35 and F-Zero 99.

The online features this game has are fantastic, but strangely, there is no ongoing online leaderboard for players to compare their times. It might be because it wouldn’t be fair if players reach each challenge’s peak time and make it impossible for others to break, but it would still be fun to try to break them anyway because you never know.

Party Mode is a multiplayer mode for some offline fun with friends. Up to 8 players can join in, making it an excellent party game, just as the name indicates. The added pressure of trying to achieve the fastest time with friends around can create a competitive environment. An online version of this mode would’ve made it a perfect online multiplayer game with friends further away, or even for streamers to create some entertaining moments.

The game still looks and plays just as good in Handheld Mode, but the games themselves aren’t displayed in full screen, so it can be difficult for certain players to see the gameplay on a smaller screen. Survival Mode is even harder to see due to having to fit all eight screens at once. This is of course dependent on the individual.

Those who purchase the Deluxe Set will receive the game itself, thirteen art cards, a set of five pins, and a replica of the Gold-coloured NES Game Pak with a stand to commemorate the 1990 World Championships. The original grey cartridge has a story behind it, being used at the first World Championships with small samples of Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and Rad Racer and only about 90 of them exist, which were given to the finalists.

For the gold cartridge, only 26 are known to exist and were given as prizes in a separate contest by Nintendo Power Magazine. Both the coloured cartridges are extremely rare collectors’ items, with the grey cartridge currently worth over $100,000 US and the gold cartridge at a whopping $1,000,000 US.

The overall presentation keeps things simple but with a lot of thought put into it with a sleek and shiny retro look. Highlighting Survival Mode has a photo in the background that looks to be from one of the three Nintendo World Championships events, but it’s hard to see which one exactly since the photo is blurred to make the menu pop. A relaxing techno track with a very Nintendo feel can be heard while navigating through the menu screens and all 13 games retain their original soundtracks.

Even though all 13 included games can be played via the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition provides a whole new way to play all these games. It feels basic at the start, but quickly becomes addictive with players trying to beat their best times and compete with other players’ ghosts online. It’s also a helpful way to practice running tactics and possibly attempt to break real-world records.

Proper online multiplayer would be nice, but what the game does offer is still plenty to keep players busy. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a fantastic way to honour one of the original esports events in video game history.

Written by: Sammy Hanson