NES Edition, when MrN invented eSports!: the verdict of The Games Market editorial team is 7/10.
Once Upon a Time
NES Edition, when MrN invented eSports!
by Simon Larocca·January 19, 2025
Un emotional bond transcends time, erases distance, breaks down every
barrier. What connects two people usually resists any
attempt at oblivion: the stronger the love that unites them, grown in their hearts
day after day, the more intense the memory every time it is
brought back in the daily life.
Chi as I, like you, has learned to
love the stories of video games belonging to our childhood knows well that
this also applies to the titles that made us dream, like that Super Mario Bros 3 released between
the Eighties and Nineties, a true milestone.
Forse not everyone
knows that this incredible title was in fact the showcase game for the
first Nintendo-branded version of what today are commonly called
eSports: in 1990, the Nintendo
World Championship took place, an event that went down in Video Game history and
that redefined, in every sense, the concept of fun.
No longer the room-console-kid trinity isolated with the door closed so as not to disturb the parents in the living room with the little game music, but a global sporting and cultural event, where hundreds of enthusiasts would have met, shoulder to shoulder, to compete with their favorite video games, on a staged journey across the United States of America.
To declare the Wizard of
Videogames.
And if I quoted this exact definition,
there was a reason: just a year earlier, the manifesto film for the worldwide spread of the NES had come out in theaters: it was called The Wizard (The Wizard in the original),
starring an autistic boy who qualified for the tournament final and won gloriously, previewing Super Mario Bros
3!
[The Wizard]
Ora let's make a nice leap forward
in time with our spacetime jetpack and return to today, more
precisely a few months ago, when the house of ideas in Kyoto, pulling from the
hat an insane nostalgia operation, published Nintendo World Championship: NES edition, the partygame tribute based on speedrun that celebrates the first tournament
eSports that took place in Los Angeles thirty-five years ago.
Released in July 2024, Nintendo World Championship takes us back in spirit to Los Angeles, the venue of the 1990 competition final, using online mode to gather players and make them compete in a series of challenges (more than 150!) set in the most iconic levels of the 8-bit heavyweights of the era: the title includes classics like the first three Super Mario games, as we said, legends — in every sense — of 2D RPGs such as The Legend of Zelda, moving on to Excitebike and its acrobatic somersaults on indestructible bikes, or almost, ending up unloading a weapon’s worth of upgraded firepower on relentless alien enemies, with the first beautiful Metroid.
Twelve games in which we will have to
beat certain levels in the shortest possible time to unlock
hidden modes, thanks to the coins we will earn by reigning over our
opponents around the world: for fans of modern eSports who want to
try their hand at the harsh law of the arcade,
the one that used to make us frantically mash away while standing in front of the
arcade cabinets and hurl curses at all the known deities of the world pantheon, it is
truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
As unforgettable as the Los Angeles event was, the
final of the tournament that saw people battle each other, people who still today
remember fondly, and with a hint of melancholy that shines in their eyes
as they recount those wonderful days, the moment when they took the NES joypad
in hand and prepared to play.
Playing together, amid a riot of sound effects, colorful levels,
and the feeling, perched in a corner of the mind, of all being
part of a big family, united by a love for those booming, pixelated
graphics that remind us, once again, how happy the child inside us is when we press
Start and begin a new game.
7
Pro
A nostalgia operation curated down to the smallest details, bringing back classic titles and lesser-known ones, for a true journey through time in Nintendo style
The challenges are exciting and stimulating: they will put the players' skill to the test, which, after all, is exactly what they wanted.
The paradise of speedrunners: right up their alley
Contro
It is not a title for everyone, certainly not for the casual gamer looking for a less competitive and lighter experience
The absence of the titles present in their complete version is a real shame
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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![[The Wizard]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.thegamesmarket.com%2Fapi%2Fv1%2Ffile%2Fproxy%3Fkey%3Dstaging%252Fmagazine%252Fcontent%252Fnes-championship-edition-quando-nintendo-invent-gli-esports-img-0.png&w=3840&q=75)
