Nintendo World Championships 1990 Review by: Zircron Swift - 3.8/10
Nintendo World Championship ReviewNintendo World Championships was a game that was never released as carts you could pay for. No no, this was something quite special. In fact, this is probably the rarest, most sought after game that ever existed. Why? Lets start from the beginning. Ever watched the film called "The Wizard"? No? Really? It's a film about a kid whose really good at video games. He enters a tournament for it and wins. That was when people got a sneak peek at a game that wasn't out yet, nor heard of, which happened to be Super Mario Bros. 3. So Nintendo thought it would be a good idea if they based a real life tournament loosely on the one from The Wizard. It was the year 1990, and the tournament was in 29 states in the USA. Everyone was split into three age group: Under 11, 12-17 and over 18. Each finalist got a copy of Nintendo World Championships and other prizes. Among the best at this game is Thor Aackerlund, who got over 4,000,000 points in the tournament. Only 90 of these were given out. I heard rumours that there are more out there, ranging up to 300 of them. The price for one of these is about $5000-$6000. But that's not all....
Later they gave away
gold cartridge versions of this game as a giveaway. These are much rarer than the grey ones, although I have to admit, the grey looks better. They gave away 26 in total. Although the page looked like they were giving away the cart with a red sticker, there never was one on the accrual thing. It was just a blank gold cart with the "Nintendo World Championships" logo cut out and stuck on with glue. What's more, only about 13 of them have ever surfaced, so they are rarer than you think. Just imagine if someone got it and thought "Hey! I wanted the one with the red sticker. This is rubbish *chucks in bin*" If they did, they would probably be kicking themselves now, as the price for one of these ranges to as much as $17,500. *whistles* That's a step price for a game. This is the Mona Lisa of gaming....no. Part of a collectors soul.....NO! This is the Holy Grail of NES collecting. If you find a copy and for a good price, then you are a very very
very lucky person. So, now the history lesson is out of the way and you know a little more of NES history, lets move onto the game. What does this rare and holy game contain for us? Does it offer dragons and face paced action and great game play? Lets find out.
Normally, player two starts off the game. In the tournament, there was a special switch that starts off all the machines at once. So the title screen doesn't have music, but that's ok, a lot of great games don't have music at the title screen. Lets press start *presses start*....Well, a remix of the Super Mario Bros. theme, and it says I'm going to play Super Mario Bros. and I need to collect 50 coins.....I have the game already, if I wanted to play that I would set up my NES and play that. At least this will test my skills on the game and see how good I really am. So after I get 50 coins, what happens? I play Rad Racer, or at least, a track of it. A track unique to this game. I never played Rad racer before, so this is nice. But I could just play Rad Racer on Vizzed, and I mean the whole game. So After that, then what? Tetris? Really? I have the accrual Game Boy game. I'll play that instead. To get high score is the goal....so I have to top the High Score? Or do I get as many points as I can? Well, lets do this, I like Tetris so I might- What? A message came up saying "Time!" What Time? I didn't even get to place a block! So my score is totaled up to a lousy 70,000 points. I don't want to put that on Vizzed. I'll try for a better score. And I'll make haste as there is a time limit. The limit is 6 minutes 21 seconds.
After some time, my best score was about 92,000 points. Can't even get enough time to make a line on Tetris. If I could just have some time on Tetris, my score would be better. And that is the game. Just a collection of demos for a short period of time. Best to get for collecting value, not for playing value. You could just play the three games on Vizzed for free. And even if you just want to play for competition, why not use the 2 player mode on the accrual games? That's what they are used for. In a way, this game is only a collectors item. Using it to play it useless as the original games already have a 2 player mode.
Overall, I give this game a 3.8/10 This game technically should get a 9.9/10 for great game play, huge variety in graphics and music and superb replay value, but the fact that they are just demos from accrual games makes it pointless to play. It would have been nicer if they had come up with a completely new game which featured all your Nintendo characters in an epic brawl beat 'em up game which you would try and smash them off the screen and gain points for each opponent smashed off the screen. I think it would be good if it were called Super Smash Bros. Catchy, ehe? *phone rings* Hang on....Hello. Hey Nintendo, how are.....oh......I see......well, why couldn't you have used something like that then? The game was beyond it's time? Well, I'll let them know *hangs phone up* Apparently There is a game called Super Smash Bros for the N64. Well, anyway, this game is terrible for game play, but you can't argue that's worth a lot. And now, my never ending search for the game continues. Good day. I have a bad feeling not one copy made it into England....
Graphics
10 Sound
10 Addictive
8 Depth
8 Difficulty
9