''I WANT TO BE THE VERY BEST, LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS''
Developed: Nintendo
Published: Nintendo
Genre: Compilation/Speed Run
Release Date: July 18th, 2024
Platforms: Switch
*PRODUCT PROVIDED TO ME BY NINTENDO
Nintendo World Championships NES Edition is a speed running compilation title that is developed and published by Nintendo. With the Olympics on the way, Nintendo decides its once again to bring back their own form of the Olympics, only this time in video game form. But is this compilation of games and challenges enough to entice users to make a purchase? or is this a case of ''why did they even release this?'' only one way to find out, so on your mark, get set, Go!
''ADMIT YOU, YOU HEAR THE THEME SONG IN YOUR HEAD''
HISTORY:
The Nintendo World Championships has a lot more meaning to it than people realize, especially to the modern day E-Sports leagues and other gaming tournaments and their actual existence till this day. Beginning in 1990, a significant milestone in the gaming landscape started in relation to competitive gaming, with the inaugural event of The Nintendo World Championships that toured 29 cities all across the United States. This event garnered the attention of thousands of participants who had the one job of completing challenges designed specifically for titles such as Super Mario Bros, Rad Racer and even Tetris, all of which was played on a custom NES cartridge. Which, if you find the original for sale anywhere, in a rare case, good luck on even thinking of purchasing one, because the prices for it is insane. You're better off letting Wario steal one for you, even though he'd probably get caught due to his massive farting problem. In order to win the competition at this event, gamers would add up each games score they achieved, cumulatively, and the highest score in the group participating would advance further in the tournament, with the grand finale ultimately leading up to the monstrous event at Universal Studios in Hollywood, where a true champion should finally be crowned. The prizes given out for this event were 10,000 dollars in U.S. savings bond, 40 inch rear projection TV and even a golden Mario statue, which sounds pretty awesome. However... the REAL prize and winner in all of this wasn't 11 year old Jeff Hansen, nope, it was all of us at home who were able to bare witness to the greatest advertisement disguised as a movie called, The Wizard. A movie that was a nearly 2 hour advertisement for Super Mario Bros 3. Not only was it the most epic reveal for a video game in movie form of all time, but for some reason. It made you obsessed with wanting to go to Californiaaaaaaaaa.
The success of the Nintendo World Championships in 1990 ended up becoming quite the pivotal moment for competitive gaming sports going forward that at that point in time, solidified Nintendo's active role in promoting or at the very least, began supporting video game competitions. This same held true to the rest of the industry, that gave rise to gaming competitions and even what you see in todays market with modern day gaming tournaments and leagues. That's right, all the gaming tournaments you look forward to nowadays, its all thanks to ''Californiaaaaa''. What? go away Jimmy, your time allotted in this review is over, go play with Pee Wee Herman at the dinosaur statues or something. Like I was trying to say, most of the stuff you look forward to today in regards to tournaments is due to the success of the NWC in 1990. However, as quickly as it roared onto the scene, when the world needed it most, it vanished, and 25 years passed before we were able to get a glimpse at it once more with its revival in 2015. This was a much hyped shock, especially for me who literally wasn't even around yet when the 1990 event took place and now I was able to experience the wave first hand. With technology at a greater height now than it was in 1990, this go around, all potential qualifiers and participants would gather at their local Best Buy and compete using the Wii U title, ''Ultimate NES Remix'', and when successful, would then be able to travel to ''Californ...''. Jimmmy! STOP IT. Qualifiers would then travel to Los Angeles in.... Los Angeles in..... hmm, guess were safe now. All participants then traveled to Los Angeles, California to partake in a tournament involving both a mix of classic titles and this time to shake it up, modern Nintendo games as well. ''Californiaaaaaaaa''. DANGIT JIMMY!. Much to the delight of myself and millions of people worldwide, this event was a massive success, with the ultimate winner being the champion, John Numbers. Guess you can say, he had everyone's.... NUMBER that day, right guys?. No?. Alright I'll shut up. Once again the NWC proved to be a hit and success, giving both older fans and newer fans to experience a dose of nostalgia and a taste of gaming's past, with a modern twist to it. Following this success, the event once more returned in 2017, this time letting players take part in challenges in Mario Kart 7 for Nintendo 3DS and the finals taking place with returning champ John Numbers taking on Thomas G, in a face off the lead up to one final challenge in Super Mario Odyssey, which was super intense. It made me kind of jealous though in a way due to my speed running history in Super Mario Odyssey, at one point being in top 20 in the world with completion time of 1 hour 24 minutes for the game back in 2017 and 2018. But to be fair, it was their first time trying the game and they did awesome, so they get a pass. Watching this event live on stream was a great experience and one I hope gets brought back once again. Hopefully it won't take 25 years this time.
''WAY BETTER THAN NICK ARCADE''
Till this day The Nintendo World Championships lore extends far beyond a singled out event itself and became the ''idea'' that was built on further by the gaming industry with the original 1990 iteration of the competition actively being the precursor to modern E-Sports events and showing that video game tournaments can be just as competitive, mainstream and exciting as other sports can be. I mean if we can have someone eat like 100 hot dogs in 30 seconds, surely video games can get their highlight of the day too, right? But... what if I told you, there was another? an event that has not been spoken of in tongue for many generations and an event that even makes Obi Wan Kenobi say ''Yes, now that's a name I have not heard in a long long time''. An event so mythical that it pre-dates even the Nintendo World Championships and till this day reminds both an oddity and substantial time in gaming history. What am I talking about? the legendary Atari ''SwordQuest'' tournament from the 1980's. Back in the stone age and the age of the dinosaur, Atari held an extremely ambitious and groundbreaking event that aimed to make you feel like you were a real life treasure hunting adventurer, but in the confines of both your own home and in the realm of one of the most unique gaming competitions that has ever taken place in gaming history. This tournament revolved around a series called SwordQuest, which is a series that was comprised of four games called Earth World, Fire World, Water World and an un-released title named AirWorld and each game was designed for the sole purpose to lead players in the competition and around the world in search for hidden clues and puzzles deep within each game. Which seems pretty weird thinking about, this is Atari were talking about, with the 2600 and 5200 not exactly being known for their ''graphics'' to say the least. I mean, it's not as bad as Magnavox Odyssey with only using one strand of light as a player indicator and then leaving the rest up to your imagination, as long as you had the TV pads that stuck to your screen to use as your graphics. VERY primitive times, but Magnavox Odyssey talk can be a whole topic altogether, maybe we'll get to that another day in a ''GameNChick's Gaming History'' video special, we'll see. But for now, we want to focus a bit more on Atari's tournament that pre-dated NWC, before we dive fully into the game review itself. For those of you thinking ''who cares, go bury this review in the desert like they did to E.T.!'', then all I have to say is, that's pretty dang rude. E.T phone home? oh you bet he is, I'm going to have him call your parents and you'll end up getting more of a butt whooping than Ralphies friend did in A Christmas Story. So watch yourself kid. Anyways, moving on.
Each one of the games in Atari's tournament came with a comic book that acted as a players guide that gave everyone narrative content and additional hints that they might not have been able to figure out on their own that attempted to blend storytelling in with interactive gameplay - this was both innovative but also a very mixed bag. Players who were smart enough to figure out their clues and decipher hidden messages within each games had to submit their finding to Atari and should your answer be correct, you were then invited to the championship stage to compete for the grand prize, at Atari's main headquarters. What was so unique about all these tournaments is each game had a different challenge that pertained to its element it was portraying and same goes for its prizes as well, with prizes like a Gold Talisman for Earth World, a chalice for Fireworld and even a friggin Crown for Water World. No... not THAT Water World with people drinking their pee like Costner or the endless red sea of Nintendo Virtual Boy Water World, no no, its far tamer than that thankfully. With the prizes each valuing at around $25,000 dollars and the un-released Air World's prize being a jewel riddled sword that is valued at $50,000.. it leaves you thinking one thing - NOW it makes sense why Atari went belly up and caused a gaming crash. I mean who can afford that stuff, especially if we judge for inflation, is nearly $200,000 for just the jewel sword alone. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING. Due to the financial stress of Atari itself and the way the market was in the early 1980's, obviously the SwordQuest series itself and its affiliated tournaments were cut way short before they all had their moment in the sun to take a bow and finish due to the market for the video game scene crashing in 1983. Guess you can say it was an ''Atari Shock''.. ok I'm sorry, I keep making puns but that one was actually pretty mean, so I apologize. Due to the dang gaming crash though, this lead to extremely harsh times at Atari and forced them to restructure their company or go the way of the old Pong machines and lead to the cancellation of AirWrold, which was supposed to be the grand finale of this entire historic event. With the event being canceled, but the prize still existing, I wonder what ever happened to it, I cant remember if we actually ever learned where it went, but if it exists still somewhere out there, It better be hanging on someone's wall to display how freaking awesome it is. Even though this tournament ended in a financial failure due to Atari's own corporate decisions, the tournament still remains a significant chapter in video game history, that even while mocked, still will be remembered for its imaginative fusion of video games, comic books and real world treasure hunting - it truly was one of the first ''interactive'' set of video games before the term even became popularized and over-saturated like it is in todays market and can even be credited as one of the first large gathering gaming tournaments that shaped the market, giving way to the eventual success of Nintendo World Championships, years later down the line. But wait a minute... isn't this review actually ABOUT the Nintendo World Championships? oops. I guess we really should get to that now, shouldn't we
''STAB WITH A GOLDEN SWORD, WEAR YOUR GOLDEN CROWN, DRINK FROM GOLDEN CHALICE''
GAMEPLAY:
Nintendo World Championships NES Edition is a harkened echo of nostalgia that takes you back of decade old NES games and remixed with a series of challenges that can put even seasoned veterans of gaming on the edge of their toes when attempting to complete some of them. But before we move on to get into the nitty gritty of the game, I just have one question. Nintendo, why do you have to roast us on the very beginning screen of the game when it starts. Like what the heck? saying our biggest challenges of not being around back in the day was ''not yet being born''. That's pretty savage, Nintendo, the only thing more savage than that is the game over screen for Friday The 13th on NES. Now my feelings are hurt before I even start the game!. Savage Nintendo and jokes aside, this compilation of games in this pack taps into the competitive spirit of the original Nintendo World Championships from 1990, with its core focus being on retro titles, over a more traditional modern theme that the 2015 and 2017 iterations were. With this package focused on a handful of familiar NES titles that involves you speed running through challenges and even competing against others around the world, players themselves will find the experience really engaging and maybe even give you a bit of PTSD from the days of your lunatic level button mashing. Well, unless you owned an NES Advantage or a Max Pad, then that's just cheating and you need to bloody your fingers just like the rest of us - its just initiation rights at this point. If you don't do it, then were just not going to let you into our Skull and Cross Bones like Illuminati called The Nintendo Power Club, so I'd re-think my position if I were you cause remember, were always watching... ALWAYS... WATCHING. Mwhaha. Ok we aren't, were too lazy for that and takes away our time preparing to fulfill Butters prophecy from South Park and getting ready for the release of Hello Kitty Island Adventures that will be releasing next year. But were severely off topic, so lets get back to the game now, shall we.
Here in this collection of titles, you're offered 13 classic NES games for days of our past that are presented as escalated tasks, each having their own scale of difficulty that ranges from Normal, Hard, Master and then the hardest challenges of all, Legend. Throughout each difficulty and level of challenges, specifically in Speed Run Mode, you will be tasked in taking on rough 150 trials to complete across fan favorite games like the original Super Mario Bros, The Legend Of Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Doki Doki Super Mario Bros 2, The ORIGINAL Super Mario Bros 2 known later as The Lost Levels, Kid Icarus and even Zelda 2. Oh no, dang it, not YOU, why oh why was this game included. I think Nintendo saw my Tears Of The Kingdom review and saw how much that title annoyed me and decided to pull a prank on me and insert it into this collection because they know the completionist in me will be FORCED to play through all these challenges due to my borderline A.D.H.D. - Well played Nintendo, well played. Challenges in this game want you to complete the trials VERY quickly, because the faster faster you complete them, the better ranking you get and the more coins you pick up, which are crucial to unlocking more levels, with later challenges like Master and Legend costing anywhere from 300 to 500 or so coins to even unlock to be able to partake in. This can lead to you doing a little bit of grinding, but it doesn't take as long as you think as long as you know the right levels to play for S ranks in order to get coins extremely fast. My level of choice was one of the first Kirby level challenges on Normal due to the fact it can be completed in under THREE seconds and give you 15 coins per S rank completion - which means you can get 200 or 300 coins in the past of just a few minutes just off this level alone, without spending hours and then going about your business of kicking these challenges butts to heck and back, by either collecting the first mushroom in Super Mario Bros as fast as you can, climbing with your little feet in Ice Climber or even finding the quickest exist during Metroid. Whatever challenge you choose to take on first, you will have an awfully lot to take on, which can make you go from ''ill do a couple and call it quits'' to noticing you just spent 4 hours straight like me completing all challenges Normal to Master in one sitting because I couldn't stop playing. Legend on the other hand... I'm kind of still working on those, they're pretty dang challenging.
''CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!''
Running your little heart out as you dash to a finish line or being mad at yourself for not finishing a level as fast as you think you should and immediately rush back into it without thinking just to shave off fractions of a second off your best time just to prove a point to yourself and no one else, is pretty intoxicating to say the least, as well as borderline rage mode considering you start mentally talking crap to yourself saying how much you suck because you know you can do better.... which was my case like 90% of the time. At times I was absolutely flying through each level, climbing in Super Mario Bros 2 to get the top of the level in record time, popping the balloons of my enemies in Balloon Fighter, jumping my way through Kid Icarus, getting my Poyo on with Kirby as I take down enemy bosses in quick fashion, etc. I was on an absolute tear, and literally thought to myself ''ok, I'm going to end up beating every challenge in like an hour at rate this rate, piece of cake'', like what can even challenge me and this point? seriously, I am the queen of.... uh oh, NO....NO... thats not true... thats IMPOSSIBLE! Nooo Noo!. Oh sweet baby Mario on a fishing pole, it's water levels AND a water level for the original Super Mario Bros, the literal bane of my existence, I'm absolutely horrible at them, but this time it will be different, right?.... right?. NOPE. FAIL. My awfulness aside, especially pulling a classic ''ME'' moment with not being able to drive, fly or operate any sort of vehicle in a video game without crashing, Excite Bike included - besides my running highlight reels of failure, know that this game is built off in the influence of speed. Due to the speed running nature of these challenges, speed is the name of the game, with some levels being beat in like 1.2 or 1.3 seconds on levels that just have you pick up an item and others like fights against Ridley with Metroid or even Super Marios 3 fighting all Koopa Kids, fighting Mouser in Super Mario Bros 2, etc, the ones that actually challenge to beat the bosses, will take you at least 1 minute to complete, should everything go your way without any mishaps. Luckily, even if you do fail, the penalty for failing really isn't that bad at all as with the games quick load and re-load times with no delay in button input, you can get right back into a match in less than a second flat so that you do not lose out on any sort of rhythm you get into on a specific run, which DEFINITELY helps you keep a laser focus. It definitely helped me out considering how fast I can go from ZERO to RAGE and want to get back into the game as fast as possible. It definitely saved me from multiple headaches.
When you're not unlocking Legend mode for each game, with the original Super Mario Bros having you beat the entire game using specific warp pipes, collecting like 15 balloons in Balloon Fighter, bypass ''MY NAME IS ERROR'' and venture into the dungeons of Zelda 2 to defeat foes, expose hidden entrances in the original Legend Of Zelda, climbing ladders to take out Donkey Kong or dodging the evil mask that gets ticked off that you take his key away.. - when you're tired of doing that or just need a break, you're then free to head over to the the game modes available, with those being The World Championships Mode and Survival Mode. In World Championships mode, it aims to revive the spirit of the original 1990's competition but in the safety of your own home by allowing you to compete online on a global scale. In this mode, each week players face up to five challenges that vary in difficulty, with an unlimited amount of attempts to attempt you improve your time for each specific challenge to see where you stack up against the world and your friends. Know though as the days and weeks go by, you're going to get people who are just absolutely insane at these games and challenges and the feel good story of the perfect time you got will be obliterated before your very eyes, so prepare to cry you big baby, because the pro's are on the way to beat us all. But what about Survivor Mode? what does this pertain to? well you remember stuff like Mario Kart where you compete against your shadow? that's pretty much the case here where you compete against Ghost Data, but this time against other players ghosts to see either how they achieved a time as fast as they did to see their technique or for you to attempt to outpace and take them down. Thankfully its a little more than that as you're able to collect various trophies and coins to obtain cosmetic items, so you can head on over to Party Mode with a group of 8 players locally in single screen challenges. Personally. I have no tried this mode because I don't even have ONE person to play with me, let alone EIGHT for them, so my time in this title is basically reserved for Survival, World Championships Mode and Speed Running - all of which offer a palatable amount of game time for players.
''DESTROY FRIENDSHIPS BY EMBARRASSING YOUR FRIENDS''
OVERALL:
At the end of the day, Nintendo World Championships NES Edition is rich in nostalgic with great touches such as using the Nintendo Power interface in your menu's and game guides reminiscent of the magazines Classified Sections for those in the know about the magazines, that's always a great touch. But its not perfect at all, there are issues that I can see coming out with people. For example, the game selection can be a little bit of a downer with only 13 titles to choose from with notable games from the NES classic library missing, such as Punch Out, Donkey Kong Junior, Dr Mario or I would've even liked to see some sort of addition related to Rob The Robot, since he was a pretty cool little contraption as well back in he day. Other issues with the game are some of the titles and their emulation don't feel properly optimized, making their original counterparts feel as bugged as the original titles release with games such as Ice Climbers feeling borderline broken when trying to jump on ledges, only for you to completely fall through one floor or multiple floors because the hit detection on what to land isn't that great all. Similar problem exists with Metroid with the game having REALLY bad lag to the point where it almost feels unplayable and you just have to get lucky in order to pass the challenges the further it goes. But even so, even with those slight negatives, I still think there is a lot of fun to have for older or even newer folks who may have never played these titles originally or are veterans of the gaming scene. Is it perfect? not in the slightest, it definitely needs more games added to its roster. However because its such an easy pick up and play game that can take you at least 10 hours just to complete Normal to Legend challenges it alone, mixed with weekly competitive challenges against everyone around the world, and a ghost mode to test your limits, I feel for that reason, its worth at least a look at so you too can get a feel and taste of just what history was like, all the way back in 1990. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says... ''Californiaaaaaa'''. JIMMY!! WHAT DID I TELL YOU. COME HERE YOU LITTLE RUNT. Ok ok. As I was saying. So with all that having been said, GameNChick says BUY NOW.
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