I have to admit I'm riding pretty high off the good fun that was Nintendo World Championships, henceforth titled as NWC for the remainder of this article, but that is just part of why I thought it was utter genius for multiple reasons. I've not seen anything in gaming for quite a while that was as overwhelmingly positive and just pure clean fun. At the same thing though it was nothing short of an amazing bit of promotion and marketing while securing Nintendo's spot as the king of fun in the gaming world.
The event itself I anticipated to be a boring affair that I would have shut off after twenty minutes or so; after all I don't really like watching people play games as I'd rather be playing. Of course the announcement of Mother being released stateside, today no less, made me instantly sit up and take note. After that it was an instantly capturing set up as the competitors would play through several rounds and after each round a number of losers from the previous round would face off to allow one of the underdogs to continue. Each round, both the main stages and the underground stages were different games and so not only was the competition fun to watch, but there was a level of anticipation as we all waited to see what game would be played next.
It opened with Nintendo's newest gaming darling, Splatoon. The ink splattering multiplayer was an absolute highlight and watching the teams play the constant messy tug of war was a lot of fun. It also managed to handily highlight how fantastic Splatoon could be in the right tournament setting (while also making me instantly bemoan no voice chat).
The losers of the first round played a speed run of Zelda and it was pretty amazing, but we all knew that.
Next up we saw a brand new team based 3DS game Blastball announced and played by the individuals. It looked like Metroid Fusion crossed with Soccer and seemed to be a lot of fun. What was quite genius about the placement though was that this game would have easily been lost in the shuffle of E3, but because of being played live by people in competition having fun it fell front and center.
Losers faced off in what was probably the most tense and fun match of the entire competition, outside of the final stage itself, a Super Metroid run through of the Mother Brain fight and the escape from Zebes. If anything this should be a complete neon light blinking to Nintendo MORE METROID.
No surprise here, but Mario Kart 8 was up next and in 200 CC no less. In blisteringly fast speeds we saw two rounds of competitors putting the game through its paces with the losers facing off in a surprise Balloon Fight challenge.
Smash Brothers was up next with a surprise fantastic showing by a Shulk player and the final two of these players, one of which clawed his way through the underground challenges to get back in the fight, went on to the final stage.
I had my breath held for a Super Mario 4 announcement I was sure was coming, but instead they announced Super Mario Maker would be the next game that would compete in. Originally I was disappointed, but I should have known Nintendo would have something special in store. Each contestant took turns playing through stages created by folks at the Nintendo Treehouse, and the contestant that got the furthest in each stage or finished the quickest would receive a 15 second head start per round in the 4th level that both would run through at the same time.
It was amazing. The stages were devious fun and watching one player discover it with us for the first time and then giggling with the glee when the next had no idea was coming captured the feel of what it is like on both ends of a Mario Maker stage. If you watched this scene and didn't have your mind instantly spinning trying to come up with a level of your own, I'm not sure you really like Mario.
At the end Shigeru Miyamoto himself handed over the trophy and signed 3DS systems to the winner and runner up. Everyone was cheering, I was practically dancing with joy, and a fun time was had by all. What was truly impressive by the whole NWC was that not only did they create an intensely fun competition, but they basically started E3 which means most everyone was watching. They hyped one of their big upcoming games, showed off a brand new game, made a jaw dropping Virtual Console announcement, and hyped everyone for their upcoming conference.
I've not seen something so cool in gaming in a long time. Well done Nintendo. Well done.
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