Let’s face it, getting together with a few of your closest friends and playing games on the same TV just isn’t as easy as it used to be. Maybe it’s part of getting older or the fact that online co-op has become ubiquitous while couch co-op isn’t nearly as popular as it used to be.
While Sony and Microsoft’s respective consoles both lean heavily into online co-op, Nintendo still wants you to get together with your friends and family to play games together. Actually, many of the best Nintendo Switch multiplayer games are designed to be played this way.
From Mario Party to Mario Kart to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, quite a few of the best Nintendo Switch games are excellent for playing together with your friends. However, what if you want to play with your family too? Try explaining the rules of Mario Party Superstars to your grandparents or even your aunts and uncles and I’m sure you’d lose a few of them along the way.
I’ve tried to get large groups of friends and family from multiple generations to play games together in the past and it went exactly as you’d expect. Now though, I think I’ve found the perfect game for both older and younger players to play together with the release of Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition.
Not only do you have multiple classic Nintendo franchises from Super Mario Bros. to Kirby together in one game but instead of full-sized levels, you’re tasked with doing bite-sized challenges and finishing boss battles as fast as you can. It’s really easy to pick up and play and for those who haven’t held a controller since the late 80s or early 90s, there are sample playthroughs you can watch before taking on each challenge.
Here’s my take on the game after getting to play it a bit earlier courtesy of Nintendo and why I think it might be my new go-to party game.
For every generation of gamer
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is nostalgia at its finest right off the bat. When you first load up the game, it tells you the history of the actual Nintendo World Championships which were a video game competition series held in cities across the U.S. in 1990. In fact, the 1989 film The Wizard with Fred Savage and Christian Slater was used as a promotional tool by Nintendo to show off the then un-released Super Mario Bros. 3 while creating buzz for its own video game tournament the following year.
There isn’t too much to set up when starting the game but you do need to pick a Hype Tag which other local or online players can see. There are some really fun ones and if you grew up playing the classics, you’ll be familiar with a lot of them.
Once this is done, you’re off to compete in over 150 different challenges from 13 classic Nintendo games including Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Excitebike, Kid Icarus and more. There’s quite a lot of variety between the games themselves and the challenges you need to compete in each.
The easier ones will have you do something simple like getting a Super Mushroom in Super Mario Bros. or defeating all of the enemies in The Legend of Zelda. Harder ones will require that you complete a whole level or go up against a game’s more difficult bosses. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is based around speed running after all, so you’re trying to get the fastest time for each challenge. Whether that’s against yourself, a friend on the same couch as you or someone online is entirely up to you.
Ranking high in challenges gets you pins but there are also unlockable icons. You can use these to customize your profile and to stand out from the crowd. So far, I’ve really enjoyed trying to collect all of the pins and beating your best time on a particular level or challenge is rewarding in its own right.
Better together
I’ve had the past two weeks to test out Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition for myself and while it was fun on my own, it was even better when I got to play it together with my wife’s younger cousin. His first console was a Wii while mine was a Super Nintendo, so there were certainly some classic NES games we both missed out on.
Once he refamiliarized himself with the layout of the best Nintendo Switch controllers, we started working our way through all of the challenges starting with the easiest ones first. He mostly plays shooters like Valorant now but after a couple of minutes, side-scrolling platforming came back to him while playing Super Mario Bros.
We did a few challenges on their own before moving on to the game’s challenge packs which are a series of challenges put together from a single game or across multiple games that share the same theme. These were a lot of fun, especially as neither of us had played a lot of Balloon Fight or the original Metroid. When we started playing Kirby though, he told me all about how he used to play it a lot on his Nintendo DS.
Although we had only intended to play for a bit, the two of us ended up playing Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition late into the night. It was fun with just two people but that got me thinking how great this game would be to play with a full house. Fortunately, it was designed with big multiplayer sessions in mind.
Playing with a full house
Playing with eight people on the same console is almost unheard of but there are a handful of Switch games that support this including Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Super Bomberman R and The Jackbox Party Pack which is a favorite for local co-op with large groups since everyone can use their smartphone as a controller.
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is the latest Switch game with support for up to eight player local co-op and since the NES gamepad only has two face buttons, everyone can play with just a single Joy-Con turned sideways.
Of course, I had to see what this was like on my own, so I connected four pairs of Joy-Cons to my Switch and gave it a try. Unlike in the game’s online Survival Mode or World Championships Mode, you don’t have the option to make just your screen larger. Instead, you have eight small screens side by side and each player gets an icon chosen at random. Nintendo recommends that you play this way on a large TV and after testing it out on a 32-inch monitor, I can see why.
My new go-to party game
So why would I pick Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition over Mario Party or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at my next big get together? The reason is simple: most people know how to play these classic games — or at least one of them — and they’re not too complicated.
Before each challenge, you also have a chance to watch a playthrough video showing you exactly what you need to do. If you’re short on time, you can also skip them entirely or fast forward through the playthrough to get to a specific spot in a challenge. Not only is this a good reminder for seasoned players but it’s also a good introduction for those who haven’t played a particular NES title before.
With Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, it’s also easier to play with both older and younger players together and everyone will also likely get something completely different out of the experience. Those who grew up playing the NES might be hit with a wave of nostalgia while younger players are in for a video game history lesson and could walk away appreciating how far gaming has truly come.
Likewise, as it’s been seven years since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe released on the Switch, only the most die-hard Mario Kart fans aren’t looking for something new to play locally with friends. Even then, playing the game with more experienced Mario Kart players can take a lot of the fun out of it for younger players or for those who haven’t picked up a controller in a while. It’s a similar situation with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
With Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition though, you have more of a level playing field since the games in the collection are much older. Sure, some people might remember playing the original Donkey Kong but in the time since, they’ve probably lost the edge they used to have back when they were putting quarters on the arcade machine waiting for their turn to play.
At $60, the physical edition of the game is mainly aimed at collectors and those who remember just how rare an original Nintendo World Championship cartridge was. If you buy the game digitally though, $30 is a much more reasonable price for what you get. There is plenty of replayability though as you can try to beat your old best times and Nintendo plans to change the World Championship Mode challenges each week.
While a game like this won’t necessarily be for everyone, if you’re a big Nintendo fan or grew up playing these games, it’s absolutely worth a try and even better when you play together locally with friends or even family. I know I’ll be taking out the controllers and booting up my Switch to play it as a way to cap off the next big gathering at my house.