{"id":2229,"date":"2024-07-17T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/?p=2229"},"modified":"2024-07-17T23:08:12","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T23:08:12","slug":"nintendo-world-championships-nes-edition-is-all-about-millennials-killing-milliseconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/17\/nintendo-world-championships-nes-edition-is-all-about-millennials-killing-milliseconds\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is all about millennials killing milliseconds"},"content":{"rendered":"<br \/>\n<figure>\n      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A screenshot of a challenge for The Legend of Zelda in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition on a gray Nintendo Switch over an \u201880s-inspired laser grid background\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/nintendo_world_championships_nes_edition_review.0.jpg\"><figcaption>Graphic: Polygon | Source images: Nintendo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This NES remix for the speedrunner era is highly compelling<\/p>\n<p class=\"p--has-dropcap p-large-text\" id=\"u8YpJA\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/nintendo\/24159010\/nintendo-world-championships-nes-edition-deluxe-set-buy\"><em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em><\/a> is a finely crafted nostalgia trip, in the vein of the decade-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2013\/12\/23\/5238280\/nes-remix-review-8-bit-holiday\">NES Remix<\/a> games, that taps into the competitive spirit of the esports event Nintendo launched more than 30 years ago. Despite being another collection of well-worn NES titles repackaged as a minigame speedrunning challenge, I can\u2019t put <em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em> down. My thumbs (and my work deadlines) are suffering because of it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"hl3Aoc\">Nintendo\u2019s new collection spans 13 classic NES games, which are presented as a series of escalating challenges. The collection\u2019s Speedrun Mode is the main draw, featuring 150 trials spread across titles like <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em>, <em>The Legend of Zelda<\/em>, and <em>Donkey Kong<\/em>, in which players are asked to perform a short and sweet task \u2014 like collecting the first mushroom in <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em>, or completing a level in <em>Ice Climber<\/em> \u2014 as fast as possible.<\/p>\n<aside id=\"Rdj3wk\">\n<div data-anthem-component=\"readmore\" data-anthem-component-data=\"{&quot;stories&quot;:[{&quot;title&quot;:&quot;The best gaming deals of Amazon Prime Day 2024 &quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/amazon-prime-day\/24191114\/best-gaming-deals-video-games&quot;},{&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Win a Steam Deck from Polygon! &quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/24188193\/steamdeck-sweepstakes-newsletter-entry-details&quot;}]}\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p id=\"vsVRV1\">This may not sound incredibly compelling on paper, but in practice, shaving tenths of a second off your best time is strangely intoxicating. As I was writing this sentence, I just replayed a particular level in a <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em> challenge 12 more times, ultimately dropping 0.13 seconds off my score. <em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em> makes me feel like an honest-to-goodness speedrunner, without the years of practice.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A screenshot of a trial in Speedrun Mode featuring Super Mario Bros. 3, in which Mario is trying to catch a leaf, from Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition\" data-mask-text=\"false\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Switch_NWCNES_SCRN_03_10_1.jpg\"><br \/>\n      <cite>Image: Nintendo<\/cite><figcaption>Your current run is always shown next to your personal-best replay in Speedrun Mode<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"7nlqE0\"><em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em> is built for speed, both in how short some of the tasks are \u2014 one <em>Super Mario Bros. 2<\/em> challenge takes just 1.1 seconds to complete with an S-rating \u2014 but in how quickly these challenges load and reload. Whiff a jump, and you need only press two buttons to instantly restart a level. Only a handful of challenges last longer than a minute, and generally include trials that span full or multiple levels of a game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"e5lHKV\">The World Championships mode attempts to revive the spirit of the original Nintendo World Championships competition on a global, internet-connected scale. Each week, players are faced with five rotating challenges, ranging from normal to hard to master difficulties. This week\u2019s challenges are from <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em>, <em>The Legend of Zelda<\/em>, <em>Metroid<\/em>, and <em>Super Mario Bros. 2<\/em>, and players have unlimited attempts to improve their times before the contest\u2019s deadline. So far, I\u2019ve only been competing with people who also have a pre-release copy of the game; no doubt our scores will pale in comparison to actual professional speedrunners when they get their hands on <em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Q2bHcl\">Smartly though, Nintendo has considered its audience: the aging millennials and Gen Xers who grew up on the NES. In addition to world rankings for World Championships, Nintendo will also publish rankings by birth year, meaning players will be able to compare their times and skills against similarly aged players who also have diminishing reflexes and scant free time.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A screenshot of the menu of Challenge Packs available in Party Mode from Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition.\" data-mask-text=\"false\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Switch_NWCNES_SCRN_02_3_1.jpg\"><br \/>\n      <cite>Image: Nintendo<\/cite><figcaption>When speedrunning with a group, start with the easy ones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"bm8Zys\">Players can also compete against other players using their \u201cghost data\u201d \u2014 recordings of other players\u2019 runs at various challenges \u2014 in Survival Mode. This mode uses a similar set of challenges from World Championships mode, and feels like an opportunity to win some in-game trophies and coins to spend on cosmetic items, but there\u2019s little to it otherwise.<\/p>\n<p id=\"2hif9U\">Additionally, there\u2019s a Party Mode, in which up to eight players can compete locally on a single screen in themed challenges that vary in difficulty. Unfortunately, I haven\u2019t been able to play this mode at its full potential, but competing against my wife in speedrun-focused challenges has confirmed that she\u2019d rather play <em>Mario Kart 8<\/em> (or, more honestly, <em>The Sims 4<\/em> while I help her pick out stain treatments for furniture).<\/p>\n<p id=\"KJbVK9\"><em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em> is full of nice, nostalgic touches that reinforce its retro authenticity. It uses the Nintendo Power typeface treatment throughout menus, and even resurrects that magazine\u2019s \u201cClassified Information\u201d tips and tricks section for in-game guides that show how to complete the collection\u2019s toughest challenges. And in the World Championships mode, the game overlays the sound of a cheering crowd on top of in-game audio, giving you the feeling of competing at one of the Nintendo World Championships events Nintendo has held over the decades.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A tips guide on how to \u201cfind the princess fast\u201d in Super Mario Bros., stylized like a guide page from Nintendo Power magazine, from Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition\" data-mask-text=\"false\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Switch_NintendoWorldChampionshipsNESEdition_scrn_04.jpg\"><br \/>\n      <cite>Image: Nintendo<\/cite><figcaption>Nintendo Power-style tips and tricks pages will help with the most challenging \u201cMaster\u201d trials<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"OpLesV\">The biggest complaint I have about <em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em> is its meager selection of games. The catalog spans just 13 NES games, all of them published by Nintendo, and is missing some obvious 8-bit classics, like <em>Punch-Out!!<\/em>, <em>Dr. Mario<\/em>, <em>Donkey Kong Jr.<\/em>, and others that were part of the NES Remix series and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2016\/11\/11\/13587912\/nintendo-nes-classic-edition-review\">the NES Classic Edition<\/a>. This small selection of games stands out, as <em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em> players are prompted to pick their favorite NES (or Famicom) game, a catalog that spans hundreds of titles.<em> <\/em>Hopefully, Nintendo will inject more NES classics and speedrunning challenges to keep the collection feeling fresh over the following months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-end-para\" id=\"HG3Rrk\">What is on offer in <em>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/em> is a delight. I don\u2019t think it will make me any better at playing Nintendo\u2019s old 8-bit games, but the challenges it presents are cleverly and cleanly designed. The collection lets me approach a small bunch of familiar NES classics from a new perspective, reinforcing just how timeless some of Nintendo\u2019s earliest games are.<\/p>\n<p id=\"6JeUOn\"><small>Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition<\/small><small><em> will be released on July 18 on Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a pre-release review code provided by Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find <\/em><\/small><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/pages\/ethics-statement\"><small><em>additional information about Polygon\u2019s ethics policy here<\/em><\/small><\/a><small><em>.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<p id=\"SSF0Wh\">\n<p id=\"Gth2br\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graphic: Polygon | Source images: Nintendo This NES remix for the speedrunner era is highly compelling Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is a finely crafted nostalgia trip, in the vein of the decade-old NES Remix games, that taps into the competitive spirit of the esports event Nintendo launched more than 30 years ago. Despite being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2236,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229\/revisions\/2236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/littlesturgisrally.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}