If you never bought a Wii U, it almost doesn’t matter, since nearly every original title for the system was brought over to the Switch years later. There are still a few holdouts, though…the most glaring to this reporter being NES Remix and its sequel. The games set up mini-challenges from over a dozen first-party NES games and had you marathon through them as quickly as you could. It was a lot of fun…and having to set the Wii U back up just to play it again is annoying.
But finally, NES Remix is coming back…sort of. It’s largely the same concept, but with a new makeover: Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is meant to evoke the excitement of the real-life tournament of the same name, first held in 1990.
Each virtual tournament will have players racing through bite-size bits of the following NES classics in alphabetical order: 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 and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. You can compete for the best times in global online leaderboards, or invite your friends over for simultaneous local competition that supports up to eight at once.
Preorders for the digital edition of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition are open now. For those who prefer physical copies, Nintendo didn’t forget you: a Deluxe Edition will be released at the same time that also includes 13 cards displaying the box art of each game, five pins, and a replica of the NWC Gold NES Cart that costs a zillion bucks on eBay. If you just want the physical game, well, too bad — you’re buying all this too and you’re paying $60 for the load. (Digital price will be $30.)
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition will be released for Nintendo Switch July 18.
