The Reviews Are In For Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

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And just like that, Nintendo's next major release of 2024 is right around the corner. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition lands on Switch on 18th July (that's tomorrow!) and the reviews are here to give us an idea of what to expect.

Before we dive into the round-up, let's first provide a brief refresher of what we had to say about this one. We scored Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition a 'Good' 7/10 in our review. While we were left "fully entertained" by its bite-sized speedrunning challenges and whistle-stop tour of Nintendo's history, we couldn't help but see it as "a downgrade in many ways to NES Remix".

But now, onto the round-up. The picture is pretty varied this time, with a range of scores across the board. We'll start at the top with God is a Geek which gave Nintendo's latest a 9/10, calling it "one of the best multiplayer party games to be released this year".

Not since the heyday of the Wii has there been a better excuse to bust out a game at a family gathering. Even on my own, it gets me excited and in full nostalgia mode, which is a pure and simple win.

While not offering a formal review score, Polygon seemed equally positive about the game, praising how the challenges let you approach classic titles from a new perspective.

Despite being another collection of well-worn NES titles repackaged as a minigame speedrunning challenge, I can't put Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition down. My thumbs (and my work deadlines) are suffering because of it.

Dropping things slightly, Game Informer gave Nintendo World Championships a 7.75/10, praising its nostalgia even if there are some frustrations along the way.

As a means to highlight Nintendo's history, participate in some nostalgia with local friends, and play classic games for exactly as long as they're fun, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition succeeds in its intention.

With the same 7/10 score as us, GAMINGbible found NWC to be neat, but niche.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is brilliant. It's like walking into an arcade that offers more than just the standard experiences you're used to. As a competitive product, it'll only be as good as the audience, and it will need ongoing support from Nintendo.

Destructoid offered a slightly lower 6.5/10, arguing that the game might be better served as "an additional mode to some sort of NES Remix compilation".

It's not something that is for fans of the NES, it's for fans of speedrunning. Even then, it's probably most on target with people who love speedrunning and have a large group of retro-minded friends.

VGC was on similar lines in its 3/5 review, praising Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition's local multiplayer but feeling let down by the number of online features.

With friends, it's a blast. Retro enthusiasts looking to play alone will still find a decent amount of content, but they'll need to be able to overlook the disappointing number of online features.

Finally, this downward trend continued for TechRadar Gaming, which gave NWC a 2/5 review, noting the lack of variety and frequently "disappointing" challenges.

What we have can barely entertain beyond a few brief hours, and even then is too fragmented and tedious to offer any real challenge or entertainment in all but a handful of challenges.