Gaming competitions are often decided by a few seconds of gameplay. Even the slightest mistake wastes valuable time that gives an advantage to a competitor. Speedrunning is even more strict as only the fastest time counts. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition takes that concept and applies it to their entire NES collection. Experience one of the oldest speedrunning events in modern times as you take on other players to be the best.

You’ll test your skills across 13 different NES games with classic titles such as Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong. Challenges range from simple gameplay tasks to more complex objectives. There’s no penalty for failing and clear instructions help you understand the goal. Success takes immense practice; this is not for players who aren’t speedrunners. Even multiplayer requires everyone to be interested, and that’s a tall order.

There is no overarching plot or story except for a brief history of the Nintendo World Championships. Most players have never had the chance to play some of the NES games in this package. Fortunately, none of that matters because each game has a simple objective. That objective depends on the game you select, such as Zelda requiring combat or Donkey Kong climbing ladders. Each challenge has a demo that shows what your goal is and how you achieve it.

Having the demo is convenient and clarifies several objectives for players. Instead of telling players to “complete the stage” without instructions, you know exactly what your speedrunning goal is. This is perfect if you haven’t touched the games before or don’t know what the goal is asking for. None of the demos overextend their purpose, allowing you to develop a basic strategy and expand. Of course, they won’t show you the absolute fastest way to win a level, but they’ll give you the foundations so that you can get the basics down before going for speedier runs.

Unlike other games, the Nintendo World Championships aren’t necessarily about completion; your goal is to finish your objective as quickly as possible. You don’t need to defeat all the enemies or grab every treasure. You just have to achieve the objective and you are done faster than everyone else. While other objects may help you towards your goal, you can skip them if you aren’t interested.

This is great for players who worry about missing something. The challenge does not care about completion and neither should you. If you finish your objective, that’s all you need. There is some precision involved as you must collect objects or hit enemies, but you don’t need to waste time. It’s all about speedrunning and the game doesn’t care how you complete the objective as long as it is done.

Having thirteen games to choose from gives you plenty of variety. Each game has its own set of challenges that you unlock through coins. Spreading your efforts out lets you experience that variety, but you can also push through a single game and unlock harder challenges. As the challenges get harder, you get additional time to complete them. Your patience is also tested because you lose valuable time with mistakes.

The variety will prevent you from getting bored too quickly, even if you are playing challenges within the same title. While the core objectives are similar, each challenge has a different approach. Some require fast speed while others require good positioning. No challenge is the same and it requires practice to shave seconds off your record. A useful record to the right of your current attempt acts as a “ghost”, helping you learn from your past mistakes.

Speedrunning takes practice and everything in the Nintendo World Championships is perfect for that. However, there’s a huge emphasis on practice because you are repeating the same activity to get better times. While you are playing significantly shorter challenges, they still require practice to shave even milliseconds off your record. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition requires you to dedicate yourself to speedrunning, which might not be for everyone.

There are plenty of opportunities to practice and compete against others with local and online multiplayer. Several tournaments and matchmaking options make it easy to pick up a contest against other players. Casual fun is possible but like any competitive game, it eventually becomes a contest of speed. Speedrunning is tough even for long games, and keeping that up competitively can quickly drain the fun.

Fortunately, local multiplayer isn’t hard to set up as long as you have a large screen and enough players. With up to eight players playing at the same time, it’s great for involving large amounts of people. There are also chances to pit your skills against other players’ ghost data or take on weekly challenges. Instead of directly competing against other players and straining your online connection, you can still connect and compare data. That makes it easy to compete without worrying about online lag or players dropping out.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition is great for quick casual games or aspiring speedrunners. Constantly beating your personal best and trying to beat other players records leads to great personal satisfaction. There isn’t much else to do and that can eventually wear you down if you aren’t interested in speedrunning. But if you eventually want to become a speedrunner yourself, there’s no better starting point.