Nintendo confirms retro speedrunning game for Switch

Nintendo has confirmed the launch of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, a retro speedrunning game.

The original Nintendo World Championships were a series of contests that were held across the US in 1990 that saw players compete on a bespoke cartridge that contained challenges inspired by Super Mario Bros, Rad Racer and Tetris. The player with the highest cumulative score across all three games would win, and the contest is seen as the first esports event. A second event was held in 2015, with a third coming in 2017.

Now Nintendo has confirmed a new Switch game inspired by those contests. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is due for release July 18 and will cost around £25.

The game will feature 150 different speedrunning challenges set in a number of iconic NES games. “Each challenge relives a memorable moment from one of 13 NES games, including classics like Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Metroid. See how quickly you can blaze through the first level of Super Mario Bros. or how fast you can gobble up an enemy in Kirby’s Adventure. Hone your skills and see if you have what it takes to be a champion,” reads the official description.

A party mode will allow eight players to compete locally, while Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition will also feature a series of weekly rotating challenges as part of the world championship mode. Each challenge will come with its own online leaderboard, and players will also be able to watch replays of the fastest competitors. “No need to master entire games – anyone can become a Nintendo World Champion if they can conquer these ‘byte-size’ challenges,” say Nintendo.

The complete list of games featured is below:

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

A similar series of games was released for the WiiU under the title NES Remix. Earlier this year, a community group of players banded together to beat every player-made level of Super Mario Maker after Nintendo confirmed it would be shutting down online services for the title. The challenge was complete with just over a week to go, following thousands of attempts.

In other news, Player First Games and Warner Bros. have confirmed that Mark Hamill will be providing the voice of The Joker in MultiVersus.