40 years later, Nintendo is still finding ways to convince its fans to play their NES library once again, another reason to revisit the original Super Mario Bros., race along on bikes in Excitebike or tear our hair out trying to snipe off enemies with Pit’s trusty bow in Kid Icarus. While I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t massively enthused when rumours broke of another NES bundle coming to Switch, now that I have the final product in my hands, ‘NES Speed-Running for Beginners’ as I’ve come to know it has quickly turned into my summer addiction.
The bulk of the game’s main offering lies in playing through its healthy selection of over 150 unique challenges these testing one’s ability to speed through certain scenarios of games as fast as possible. Lasting anywhere between mere seconds and multiple minutes, these are spread between 13 NES titles. These include Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros 3., Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong, Excitebike, Kirby’s Adventure, Metroid, Ice Climber and Balloon Fight. All in all, it’s a pretty decent mix checking off a lot of the essential boxes and many prove still a lot of fun to play despite their age.
While challenges will always be about speed, their goals will often change, the initial batch for each game introducing you to certain mechanics before upping the ante and putting what you’ve learned to use whilst having you complete whole sections of a level. Take Super Mario Bros. for example, initial challenges focused on grabbing Super Mushrooms or collecting coins while latter tasks forcing you to memorise entire levels before capping things off with a speedrun through the whole game! In fact, all 13 games have what is called a Legendary challenge to take on, capping things off in a truly devilish way especially if you’re looking to score a top tier S rank performance.
Inevitably you’ll wind up having your favourites (at the end of the day who would say no to some good ol’ Super Mario Bros?) but even those where time hasn’t been too kind – be it the clumsy controls of Ice Climber or repetition of Excitebike – are made more enjoyable thanks to them having fewer challenges devoted to them, the brevity of challenges and the addictive qualities of simply chasing after a top time.
Once you’ve sharpened your skills and feel brave enough to take on gamers around the world, you have two options available. World Championships mode features a rotating group of challenges with players competing for the top spot in the leaderboard each week. Survival mode meanwhile will place you up against the ghosts of seven other players in three random challenges, the field getting cut in half every round. While many may complain about the lack of a proper online mode, what’s here still proves deliciously competitive, the latter in particular with its offering of two difficulties: silver and the tougher gold standard. While yes, you’re not technically beating someone else live, it certainly does a good job making you feel as though you are. Just as is the case with feverishly bettering your own times, you’ll soon find yourself back over and over in both modes just to prove yourself and claim a few trophies.
Perhaps my favourite mode however is the game’s party offering, up to eight players able to compete locally on a single screen either by choosing any of the 150 plus challenges one by one, or taking on groups of them with points awarded each round based on quickness. What surprised me here was just how well suited the speed-focused challenges were for a simultaneous party setting, everyone scrambling to make every millisecond count. Even the more straightforward tasks lasting mere seconds are given new life, seven other competitors certainly ramping up the pressure and leading to plenty of mistakes and laughs. As far as Nintendo multiplayer games go on Switch, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition certainly ranks up there as one of the most enjoyable especially if you’re fortunate enough to get eight playing.
The game does a nice job making you feel nostalgic for the publisher’s Nintendo World Championships tournament, from the ridiculously good 90s theme playing throughout to the useful video guides hinting at what you need to do in a challenge, (but not necessarily the fastest way to do it). Coins earned are used to unlock additional challenges but can also be spent on hundreds of NES icons, these along with collectable pins your way of showing off your accomplishments to others online.
As slick as everything looks in the menus, it is a shame that the NES games themselves still show moments of slowdown during particularly busy moments. While I do understand the idea of being true to the original games, it feels like it wouldn’t be a big deal to tighten those minor sorts of things up particularly when they did throw me off my game numerous times.
I’ll be honest, when Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was first revealed it felt like the sort of ‘backup’ announcement you’d expect to see toward the tail end of a console’s life, doing the job of filling a gap during the quieter summer months in a rather unspectacular fashion. How wrong I was. NWC 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.
40 years later and still, Nintendo are finding ways to convince its fans into playing their NES library once again, another reason to revisit the original Super Mario Bros., race along on bikes in Excitebike or tear our hair out trying to snipe off enemies with Pit’s trusty bow in Kid Icarus. While I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t massively enthused when rumours broke of another NES bundle coming to Switch, now that I have the final product in my hands, ‘NES Speed-Running for Beginners’ as I’ve come to know it has quickly turned into my summer addiction.
The bulk of the game’s main offering lies in playing through its healthy selection of over 150 unique challenges these testing one’s ability to speed through certain scenarios of games as fast as possible. Lasting anywhere between mere seconds and multiple minutes, these are spread between 13 NES titles. These include Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros 3., Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong, Excitebike, Kirby’s Adventure, Metroid, Ice Climber and Balloon Fight. All in all, it’s a pretty decent mix checking off a lot of the essential boxes and many prove still a lot of fun to play despite their age.
While challenges will always be about speed, their goals will often change, the initial batch for each game introducing you to certain mechanics before upping the ante and putting what you’ve learned to use whilst having you complete whole sections of a level. Take Super Mario Bros. for example, initial challenges focused on grabbing Super Mushrooms or collecting coins while latter tasks forcing you to memorise entire levels before capping things off with a speedrun through the whole game! In fact, all 13 games have what is called a Legendary challenge to take on, capping things off in a truly devilish way especially if you’re looking to score a top tier S rank performance.
Inevitably you’ll wind up having your favourites (at the end of the day who would say no to some good ol’ Super Mario Bros?) but even those where time hasn’t been too kind – be it the clumsy controls of Ice Climber or repetition of Excitebike – are made more enjoyable thanks to them having fewer challenges devoted to them, the brevity of challenges and the addictive qualities of simply chasing after a top time.
Once you’ve sharpened your skills and feel brave enough to take on gamers around the world, you have two options available. World Championships mode features a rotating group of challenges with players competing for the top spot in the leaderboard each week. Survival mode meanwhile will place you up against the ghosts of seven other players in three random challenges, the field getting cut in half every round. While many may complain about the lack of a proper online mode, what’s here still proves deliciously competitive, the latter in particular with its offering of two difficulties: silver and the tougher gold standard. While yes, you’re not technically beating someone else live, it certainly does a good job making you feel as though you are. Just as is the case with feverishly bettering your own times, you’ll soon find yourself back over and over in both modes just to prove yourself and claim a few trophies.
Perhaps my favourite mode however is the game’s party offering, up to eight players able to compete locally on a single screen either by choosing any of the 150 plus challenges one by one, or taking on groups of them with points awarded each round based on quickness. What surprised me here was just how well suited the speed-focused challenges were for a simultaneous party setting, everyone scrambling to make every millisecond count. Even the more straightforward tasks lasting mere seconds are given new life, seven other competitors certainly ramping up the pressure and leading to plenty of mistakes and laughs. As far as Nintendo multiplayer games go on Switch, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition certainly ranks up there as one of the most enjoyable especially if you’re fortunate enough to get eight playing.
The game does a nice job making you feel nostalgic for the publisher’s Nintendo World Championships tournament, from the ridiculously good 90s theme playing throughout to the useful video guides hinting at what you need to do in a challenge, (but not necessarily the fastest way to do it). Coins earned are used to unlock additional challenges but can also be spent on hundreds of NES icons, these along with collectable pins your way of showing off your accomplishments to others online.
As slick as everything looks in the menus, it is a shame that the NES games themselves still show moments of slowdown during particularly busy moments. While I do understand the idea of being true to the original games, it feels like it wouldn’t be a big deal to tighten those minor sorts of things up particularly when they did throw me off my game numerous times.
I’ll be honest, when Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was first revealed it felt like the sort of ‘backup’ announcement you’d expect to see toward the tail end of a console’s life, doing the job of filling a gap during the quieter summer months in a rather unspectacular fashion. How wrong I was. NWC 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.
40 years later and still, Nintendo are finding ways to convince its fans into playing their NES library once again, another reason to revisit the original Super Mario Bros., race along on bikes in Excitebike or tear our hair out trying to snipe off enemies with Pit’s trusty bow in Kid Icarus. While I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t massively enthused when rumours broke of another NES bundle coming to Switch, now that I have the final product in my hands, ‘NES Speed-Running for Beginners’ as I’ve come to know it has quickly turned into my summer addiction.
The bulk of the game’s main offering lies in playing through its healthy selection of over 150 unique challenges these testing one’s ability to speed through certain scenarios of games as fast as possible. Lasting anywhere between mere seconds and multiple minutes, these are spread between 13 NES titles. These include Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros 3., Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong, Excitebike, Kirby’s Adventure, Metroid, Ice Climber and Balloon Fight. All in all, it’s a pretty decent mix checking off a lot of the essential boxes and many prove still a lot of fun to play despite their age.
While challenges will always be about speed, their goals will often change, the initial batch for each game introducing you to certain mechanics before upping the ante and putting what you’ve learned to use whilst having you complete whole sections of a level. Take Super Mario Bros. for example, initial challenges focused on grabbing Super Mushrooms or collecting coins while latter tasks forcing you to memorise entire levels before capping things off with a speedrun through the whole game! In fact, all 13 games have what is called a Legendary challenge to take on, capping things off in a truly devilish way especially if you’re looking to score a top tier S rank performance.
Inevitably you’ll wind up having your favourites (at the end of the day who would say no to some good ol’ Super Mario Bros?) but even those where time hasn’t been too kind – be it the clumsy controls of Ice Climber or repetition of Excitebike – are made more enjoyable thanks to them having fewer challenges devoted to them, the brevity of challenges and the addictive qualities of simply chasing after a top time.
Once you’ve sharpened your skills and feel brave enough to take on gamers around the world, you have two options available. World Championships mode features a rotating group of challenges with players competing for the top spot in the leaderboard each week. Survival mode meanwhile will place you up against the ghosts of seven other players in three random challenges, the field getting cut in half every round. While many may complain about the lack of a proper online mode, what’s here still proves deliciously competitive, the latter in particular with its offering of two difficulties: silver and the tougher gold standard. While yes, you’re not technically beating someone else live, it certainly does a good job making you feel as though you are. Just as is the case with feverishly bettering your own times, you’ll soon find yourself back over and over in both modes just to prove yourself and claim a few trophies.
Perhaps my favourite mode however is the game’s party offering, up to eight players able to compete locally on a single screen either by choosing any of the 150 plus challenges one by one, or taking on groups of them with points awarded each round based on quickness. What surprised me here was just how well suited the speed-focused challenges were for a simultaneous party setting, everyone scrambling to make every millisecond count. Even the more straightforward tasks lasting mere seconds are given new life, seven other competitors certainly ramping up the pressure and leading to plenty of mistakes and laughs. As far as Nintendo multiplayer games go on Switch, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition certainly ranks up there as one of the most enjoyable especially if you’re fortunate enough to get eight playing.
The game does a nice job making you feel nostalgic for the publisher’s Nintendo World Championships tournament, from the ridiculously good 90s theme playing throughout to the useful video guides hinting at what you need to do in a challenge, (but not necessarily the fastest way to do it). Coins earned are used to unlock additional challenges but can also be spent on hundreds of NES icons, these along with collectable pins your way of showing off your accomplishments to others online.
As slick as everything looks in the menus, it is a shame that the NES games themselves still show moments of slowdown during particularly busy moments. While I do understand the idea of being true to the original games, it feels like it wouldn’t be a big deal to tighten those minor sorts of things up particularly when they did throw me off my game numerous times.
I’ll be honest, when Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was first revealed it felt like the sort of ‘backup’ announcement you’d expect to see toward the tail end of a console’s life, doing the job of filling a gap during the quieter summer months in a rather unspectacular fashion. How wrong I was. 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.
Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
Review copy provided by Nintendo
