Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition: review

I’m not really an 80s kid, having been born towards the end of the decade, but I still have a connection to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). While the Super Nintendo (SNES) and the Nintendo 64 are the consoles of my formative youth, I inherited a NES and a substantial library of games from my older brothers. I spent countless hours gaming away with titles like Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, on a Commodore 64 monitor (which I miss dearlyI.

So, when I got my hands on Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, I was apprehensive. Would these very retro games still be fun to play all these years later on the Switch? The answer to that question is a resounding — sort of.

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Price, availability, and specs

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is available on the Nintendo Switch and costs $30 for the digital version and $60 for the physical copy.

A competitive twist on NES classics

Unfortunately, not every title in the collection has aged well

Remember late-era Wii U game NES Remix? Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a more competitive take on that concept, offering players bite-sized challenges from recognizable NES titles like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. 1-3, The Legend of Zelda, and lesser-known games like Kid Icarus and Ice Climbers.

While the Super Mario Bros. series has aged remarkably well (though, its controls are more floaty than I remember), games like Kid Icarus, Balloon Fight and Ice Climber, simply aren’t that fun in 2024. For example, I was repeatedly thwarted by the Switch Pro Controller’s d-pad not being suited for precision platformers like Kid Icarus. And Ice Climber is straight up just a bad game that isn’t very much fun to revisit. Thankfully, there are several gems in the collection, including Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, a title with a bad reputation that features a lot of inventive ideas, and my personal favorite, Donkey Kong.

Below is a full list of the 13 NES games included in the collection:

• Balloon Fight
• Donkey Kong
• Excitebike
• Ice Climber
• Kid Icarus
• Kirby’s Adventure
• Metroid
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
• The Legend of Zelda
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Challenges are the bulk of the Speed Run experience Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition offers. Several increasingly difficult challenges, like grabbing an orb in Metroid or taking down Birdo in Super Mario Bros. 2, are what you’ll be tasked with. Some of these challenges are painfully easy, like sucking up a character in Kirby’s Adventure, while others are, at the very least, deceptively difficult. For example, one challenge tasks you with taking down Zelda’s Aquenmentus boss as quickly as possible. Sure, this isn’t specifically hard at first glance, but when you’re racing against the clock and dodging the projectiles the creature constantly throws, it can quickly become difficult, especially when competing against other players. To Nintendo’s credit, the way challenges are laid out eases you into the experience, and it’s straightforward to rewind and start from where you made a mistake, though that ever-present timer continues to climb.

During my several hours with Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, these challenges scratched a gaming itch I thought was dormant, forcing me to try for a gold medal in every stage, just to see if I could (it’s even sparked my interest in speed running video games). It also helps that it’s easy to restart, allowing you to jump back to the beginning of every challenge in just a few seconds. Each stage your pass nets you coins, which you can then use to unlock more challenges, giving you further challenges to work through.

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Deceptively fun game modes

The battle royale-inspired Survival Mode is a blast

Beyond the solo Speedrun Mode, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition offers several other modes, including my favorite, Survival. This battle royale mode has players competing against ghosts of other players from all over the world. If you don’t finish in one of the top slots, you’re eliminated. I found the Silver challenges doable and quickly won after the first few attempts, but Gold felt nearly impossible at times, especially if you’re tasked with a section of a game you’re not entirely familiar with and in the third round (I just can’t get through Kid Icarus’ Overcome the Underworld challenge quickly enough).

Next up is Party Mode, which allows eight players to compete in local multiplayer to see who can finish each challenge the fastest. It’s kind of like Mario Party, but with NES games. This mode could be a lot of fun in a setting where everyone is familiar with the titles, but I haven’t yet had the opportunity to properly test it out.

And finally, there’s the main draw, World Championships. A modern, virtual spin on Nintendo’s classic event, which started in the early 90s (the most recent event was held in 2017). Players compete against others in their age bracket for the best score across several challenges. When a specific date is hit, in this case, July 29 at 4:59am EST, you find out where you ranked, and then the challenge offerings change. It’s a refreshing take with a unique competitive twist, and I’m interested in finding out where I rank and learn what challenges are included in the next cycle.

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There’s humor here, too

And customization options galore

Like a lot of Nintendo titles, there’s a fair amount of humor in World Championships, including the opening message that warns some of the games in the collection might be difficult if you weren’t born when they were originally released. There are also fun Hype Tags you can attach to your profile, “Had Game Paks but No Console,” “My Parents Are NES Generation” or my personal favorite, “Wants a Reset Button for Life,” alongside cool-looking pins you can add to your profile that are visible to all players.

As a side note, the late 80s to early 90s-inspired tunes and sound effects throughout the title are a lot of fun, and I found myself turning up my Switch’s volume, which isn’t something I often do.

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Verdict: A retro blast from the past, that needs more

While I’ve had a lot of fun in the several hours I’ve spent with Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, there’s also not a lot here, especially once you’ve completed the bulk of the Speedrun challenges. It would have been great to see a more comprehensive collection that included SNES classics, though I’m sure that’s likely on the way as a completely separate game.

Whether you’ll enjoy Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition comes down to your nostalgic connection to these titles. If you’re a younger gamer that isn’t familiar with the intricacies of jumping over barrels in Donkey Kong, it’s likely that you’ll end up being downright frustrated by the NES Edition’s clunky controls and simplistic visuals.

On the other hand, 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.

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