I wanted to write about the wasted potential of the Nintendo world championships and the possibilities of what it could become. In all my research for this article I ended up finding enoguh to talk about that I didn’t want to go to waste. It’s not a traditional history of Nintendo world championships article but more of how the nwc has been used in all its history. That includes even non nintendo world championships things and so on.
The Nintendo world championships were a Nintendo of America invention to help promote their brand. You have to remember that at this time NoA had free reign in doing what it wanted when it came to how they marketed the brand which lead us to all the licensed goods and cartoons from the 80s. They recently had been involved with The wizard movie, which is like a Nintendo Direct for Super Mario Bros 3 in the 80s, the movie had Arcade Armageddon which was basically a Nintendo world championship in movie form and they wanted to do that same thing in real life. Talk about awesome.
Nintendo Challenge Championships Canada
This was the first championship event that nintendo did in 1989 in Canada. I’m guessing it was used as a test run and from there on they decided to do their own thing copying the formula that had worked.
Nintendo Powerfest 1990 nwc
The event where everything took place was called the Nintendo Powerfest and it took place appropriately in Universal Studios as it should’ve been. It was a weekend event meant to promote Nintendo games with the nwc being just one of the events there. I think this was an excellent format and I got to watch plenty of videos about it and well it’s definitely not as interesting to watch as you’d think. They got players from around the US from mini tournaments and the winners of each went to the world championships to compete. Score the most in 3 different games.
Nintendo Campus Challenge 91
Same type of event games but not a world championships this time more of a University tour but then again the original world championships was more of a national one so I’m ok with this one being unofficially one of them. After all it’s the same format, just now promoting to older gamers the power of the SNES. The finals this time were in Disney world.
Nintendo Campus Challenge 92
This was repeated the next year although on a smaller scale, if you notice the logo is the same as the world championships logo. Same game format as all the previous ones to further muddle the waters.
Nintendo Powerfest 1994
This time the original name began although there was no official nwc, some people still call it one since there was indeed a tournament also in a similar style but not the same. This was now about the SNES, similar format, city tour.
This is not where things end either, Nintendo has had various tournaments that are world championships but to specific games. These championships have all used the very familiar nwc logo we’ve come to expect. These have not been annual torunaments but the following games did get a tournament: Splatoon 2, Splatoon 3, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros Ultimate world championships
NWC 2015
Made to build excitement, we have some favorites such as Kevin Perreira as the host and he was likely the best host we’ve ever gotten. Other favorites such as Audrey Drake are there and “influencers”. The contestants were chosen from Best Buy tournaments and other famous ecelebs. The format was different but entertaining, perhaps not for as long as it lasted but likely the most. Reggie and Miyamoto both show up and in general it’s a great revival.
nwc 2017
Feels like it was just done so they could stretch the nintendo hype for the new launch of the Switch. Andrea Rene as host is just boring. In general this one felt it had less soul, not even reggie in person. Audrey is indeed back though.
Games
Let’s talk about games. One of my favorite games in the wii U era was NES Remix that had fun challenges and best of al Remixed stages which were amazing. In it you had a championship mode that was similar to the nwc. A game based on the Nwc or at least hte name NES Edition finally came out. The packaging is nice, but it’s just NES Remix challenges but with less variety and no remixed levels. what a let down.
To me it’s not about being the best in one specific game, it’s about being a great gamer in different gneres and types. and adapting to the game you’re playing. it’s like they couldn’t get the right format for the next championhsips so hey tried different thigns until giving up on it, you can tell it’s the same NA in each one. Should be held ever 4 years or so.
we finish off with some videos from each of the events mentioned above:
powerfest91
video
campus challenge 92 video
2017 nwc
powerfest 94
powerfest 1990 jonny arcade
1990 world campionsips
video to contestants worldchampionships
news report 190
nwc 2015
news clip 1991 champion