Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

I had a great time when I previewed Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition last month, mostly thanks to being able to share it with 7 other retro-lovers locally. Now, whereas in those lines I was wondering if this could be this summer's "party game underdog", now I have a harder time defining the exact purpose, or space, of this hectic, deliciously infuriating homage.

So let's try to be more precise, if you at all consider it for your social gatherings these warmer days. Yes, it's something you can play casually. It's easy to understand, with simple 1-2 buttons NES controls and pretty clear goals -at times even silly, some would say. But no, it's not for everyone, unless those unacquainted with the archaism and rigidity of the 80's are openly willing to get a dose of the old juice, to be lectured the hard way and most likely frustrated for the duration of the session.

Now, there's admirable personality and purpose in this. Nintendo isn't trying to make the experience for all audiences at all. It's targeted to both those nostalgic players who enjoyed the originals, and for those whose curiosity and competitiveness heavily outweighs their otherwise fragile patience. So perhaps this is all a big caveat: be warned and ready that this will most likely get on both your nerves and basically the nerves of everybody who touches it. It can very well go just fine and provide lots of fun if we're talking about a local shindig, but keep in mind this is not Mario Party's or Mario Kart's mischievous 'unfairness'.

So, as a complementary title, it really fits Nintendo Switch's catalogue. As described before, it's 150+ seconds- or minutes-lasting challenges based on 13 oldies, and when I tried to criticise the variety of the base games chosen, I realised it's pretty good as it is, given how everything is built around speedrunning. The big elephant in the room I'm missing is Tetris, but as this is first-party only and the challenges themselves are varied enough (both in what you have to do and in how different controls and physics behave), I'd say the selection comes across as just fine and balanced, and it doesn't really feel like "damn, another Mario section", even if the first four main entries from the side-scrolling platformer are heavily featured here.

Speaking about physics, as you may or may not remember, pretty much every single challenge is about pixel-perfect button-pressing and about exaggerated inertia. Nothing made your life easier back then, so you'll have to nail the point where Kirby touches the ground so that it can start sprinting, calculate the steps needed to make a decent jump in slippery Ice Climber (is the eggplant challenge the most exasperating?), or master the sweet spot between having Samus jump vertically or roll-jump diagonally in the original Metroid.

And that it starts "easy" is a deception, a trap. Difficulty levels actually go normal-difficult-ace-legend, and already at normal it'll take you a bunch of attempts to get an "S". And what if I'm just fine with an "A" because I'll get coins to unlock the other challenges anyway? Fine, but going for an "S" here means more than that pixel-perfect satisfaction: it also means you'll be well-trained for the multiplayer modes.

And here's where Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition has to work for you, as otherwise it'll last for a couple of days if you only go solo. The very best approach I'd say is, as explained, locally with at least 5-6 willing friends. If you can't make that happen, you'll be playing alone versus other players' ghosts or versus yourself for the highest score. The competitiveness implied in the title is of course there, but the virtual-nature of the players breaks the immersion and dilutes the excitement that comes from purely live, online experiences, more so if you've played locally already.

In other words, the battle royale-like Survival Mode is well designed and you'll be tempted to crown the silver and gold divisions in the weekly challenges, with 8-4-2 "players" speedrunning their way until one last man stands, but to me it felt a bit too artificial as there was no human rival on the other side, just their scripted results. Yes, this prevents from any lag issues, and yes, it's probably the smartest solution, but still.

And if you go World Championships Mode you just register your highest possible score in a handful of five pre-selected challenges a week, which indeed extends the title's lasting appeal but again doesn't feel purely face-to-face competitive.

So I'd say Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition's recommendation highly relies on your own background and circles. Local 8-player on the same big screen is amazing (and the fact that you only need one console plus how easy is to gather 8 joy-cons nowadays), the Legend challenges are a piece of video game history (and their strategy guides the best possible nod to printed magazines), and the selection is an accurate journey through Nintendo's late 80s and early 90s, respecting the flavour and even the glitches and framerate drops of those gems.

But there's a bunch of things you have to consider before jumping in, and in my opinion the previous NES Remix for Wii U and 3DS are much better, more fun single player experiences based on the classics (which I now demand on the Switch). However, if you're from around my generation, or if you know you can gather a few retro-lovers, it's more than worth its price. Just tell them this isn't for the faint-hearted as it'll put even your hardcore nerves to the test.