A new/potentially old first-party Nintendo Switch title has seemingly been revealed ahead of time thanks to a newly-minted ESRB listing, revealing something titled Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition. The name immediately calls to mind the actual Nintendo World Championships, in particular the 1990 edition which gave birth to the world’s most valuable NES cartridge – one that was used specifically for the competition and given away in both gray and gold variants to a very select number of people.
The description of the game on the ESRB website reads:
“This is a collection of 2D challenges and platformer games in which players traverse through various modes (e.g., speedrun, survival). Several challenges involve reaching specific points, while others prompt players to defeat small enemies or survive brief battles. Some games depict pixelated characters using small swords or arrows to strike at enemies; enemies typically get stunned or disappear in a flash.”
Frequent leaker Pyoro on X seemingly pre-empted the discovery of this listing with a post simply showing the classic Nintendo World Championships 1990 NES cartridge, which at first had folks assuming it implied the addition of the cart to the Nintendo Switch Online catalogue (some went as far as trying to dissect it for Switch 2 clues), but based on what’s described in the ESRB rating it would seem this is something original and maybe even closer to the excellent NES Remix games on the WiiU and 3Ds. Those games were also compilations of bite-sized challenges based on classic NES titles, so it could very well be that “Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition” is something similar.
— Pyoro (@Pyoro_X) May 2, 2024
If this does in fact point to a new title, it’s one more in a very slim-looking first-party lineup for the Switch for the rest of 2024, which also includes Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD. All eyes will certainly be on Nintendo over the coming months as it gears up to finally announced the successor to the Nintendo Switch console.
