When I first saw Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, I didn’t think too highly of it. I thought it looked cheap, like a nostalgia-needling cash-grab. I thought that it seemed cynical. In hindsight, perhaps I am the cynical one for thinking that way: as detailed in my earlier preview of the retro package, there’s a lot more to it than first meets the eye.
Criticisms I initially had, like being annoyed that the package didn’t include the full versions of the NES games it featured, quickly melted away. It becomes clear that stuff isn’t included because it would be a distraction, in a way: this is a game about tiny challenges where every millisecond counts – not playing Zelda 1 start-to-finish. With that said, it’s obviously not entirely magnanimous on Nintendo’s part – these same games are available on Nintendo Switch Online, and they’d rather you to pay for a subscription. But my point is, the package doesn’t feel incomplete.
Where NWC: NES Edition feels lacking, I suppose, is in the online element. You can see how the time trial nature and the multiplayer modes could really soar online and become a viral sensation, at least among those of us hurtling towards middle-aged desperate to show off our skills in 40-year-old games. Strangely, online is relatively anemic in this title. It’s come in for much criticism from critics for that, and it is deserved. It’s strange that even the leaderboarding is inferior to even something like Super Mario Maker.
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