New retro Switch game is good news for Nintendo Direct

The Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition has been officially announced and that means it won't be a major part of the June Direct.

Although we don't know the exact date yet, Nintendo plans to hold its traditional non-E3 presentation in June. They made it clear earlier this week that they wouldn't be talking about their new console, so it remains a mystery what Nintendo Direct will talk about.

It's widely believed that the Switch 2's release has been pushed back to 2025 and was originally slated for release this year, but either way, Nintendo hasn't announced anything beyond June at the moment and the only announced titles without a release date are Metroid Prime 4 and next year's Pokémon Legends ZA.

Hopefully both will be featured, but it's expected that the majority of the remaining run will be filled with remasters and smaller titles, especially after one of them was leaked via a rating list. But surprisingly, this week Nintendo announced the Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition.

As hypothesized, the game appears to be a spiritual successor to the two NES Remix Wii U games, as it repackages a number of old NES titles so that instead of playing them normally, you're attempting speedrunning-inspired competitions complete.

The peculiar name refers to an in-person tournament that Nintendo (very) occasionally hosts in the US, with the idea that you can now compete in a similar manner from the safety of your home. Although there is local multiplayer for up to eight people, there don't appear to be any online options other than leaderboards and weekly challenges.

The game features “over 150 challenges” across 13 different NES games and is released on July 18th for the reasonably low price of £24.99.

The 13 games are all first-party titles, namely: Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Excitebike, Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Kirby's Adventure, Metroid, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels, The Legend Of Zelda and Zelda 2: The Adventure Of Link.

The game is what it is, so it'll already be pretty obvious to you whether you're interested in it or not, although the physical deluxe set certainly looks cool with a gold-colored homage to the original 1990 Nintendo World Cup NES- Cartridge – one of the rarest and most valuable on the console.

You'll also get five collectible pins and 13 art cards, one for each game, for £49.99. Oh, and a content warning on the two trailers, since they insist on pronouncing it NES instead of “Nez.”

Apparently this is a minor release for Nintendo, but with the announcement it's possible for release before June. While it will likely be mentioned briefly during the Nintendo Direct since it won't be out until then, it shouldn't be a main focus.

It's not clear what will be, but Nintendo must be planning something for Christmas considering they still have ambitious sales goals for the Switch this year. But there's good reason to hope it's something more significant than Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition.

Unless it's just Nintendo World Championships: SNES Edition.

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