Nintendo World Championships

1990

The original Nintendo World Championships began on March 8–11, 1990, in the Fair Park's Automobile Building in Dallas, Texas, and ended up touring through twenty-nine City Championships across the United States. Players from three separate age groups (11 and below, 12–17, and 18 and above) competed across three days. The top two scorers then competed for the title of City Champion. The finalists won a trophy, US$250, and a trip for two to the World Finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles, California. The runners-up won a Nintendo Power Pad and a Game Boy.

The World Finals were held December 7–9, 1990, conducted similarly to the City Championships and were located at Universal Studios Hollywood in the Star Trek Theater, now Shrek 4-D. There, contestants played a special Nintendo World Championships cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The cartridge contains three customized minigames based upon the popular games Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. The objective is to achieve a high score according to a custom cumulative scoring formula across all games, within a total time limit of 6 minutes and 21 seconds.

Three 1990 World Champion titles were given. Jeff Hansen won in the 11 and under category, Thor Aackerlund won in the 12–17 category, and Robert Whiteman won in the 18 and older category.

There was no official competition round to crown a single winner. However, after the competition ended there was an informal face-off between the three winners, with Thor Aackerlund taking first place, Jeff Hansen taking second, and Robert Whiteman finishing third.

The top winner in each age category were awarded a $10,000 U.S. savings bond, a new 1990 Geo Metro Convertible, a 40" Rear-projection television, and a gold painted Mario trophy. Runners up in each age category received a $1,000 U.S. savings bond and a silver Mario trophy.

Thor Aackerlund later became the official games spokesperson for Camerica Corporation, a direct competitor to Nintendo, immediately after winning the Nintendo World Championship. Jeff Hansen later became the United States representative to Japan to win the World Championship title in Tokyo, Japan, and again in Las Vegas at a rematch with the Japanese champion, Yuichi Suyama.

Cartridge

The Nintendo World Championships competition was based on a custom NES cartridge by the same name. Ninety copies of this cartridge exist as the official gray cartridge, given to finalists after the championships concluded. Another twenty-six copies exist in gold, like the The Legend of Zelda cartridge, and were given as prizes in a separate contest held by Nintendo Power magazine.

The Nintendo World Championships game cartridge is considered to be the most valuable NES cartridge ever released and one of the rarest, with collectors and charities having been paid more than US$15,000 per copy. Pat Contri, known as Pat the NES Punk and a video game collector himself, is notable for owning both a gold and a gray cartridge copy. The games were used on an Angry Video Game Nerd episode and fake cartridges were made for narrative purposes.

2015

On May 13, 2015, Nintendo announced the return of Nintendo World Championships for the event's 25th anniversary, as part of the company's E3 2015 coverage. Qualifying competitions began on May 30 in eight Best Buy locations across the United States. At each location, contestants competed for the high score in Ultimate NES Remix. The winners from each of these eight locations, plus eight players invited by Nintendo, became the contestants for the final event.

The live video of the Championship's final event was streamed online from Los Angeles on June 14, 2015. The qualifying games were Splatoon (Wii U), The Legend of Zelda (NES), Metroid Prime: Federation Force (3DS), Super Metroid (SNES), Mario Kart 8 (Wii U), Balloon Fight (NES), and Super Smash Bros. (Wii U). The final contest consisted of custom levels within the then unreleased Super Mario Maker (Wii U), played by the two finalists: John Numbers and professional speedrunner Cosmo Wright. The players were alternately blindfolded while the other played the game, and they then raced simultaneously to the final level's end, where John Numbers won the championship title. Gamesradar said that Numbers demonstrated "impulsive mastery" of the Super Mario Maker levels which were "hellish", "sadistic", "evil", and "truly weird". Shigeru Miyamoto made a surprise appearance to present a trophy to the winner, and an autographed New Nintendo 3DS XL system to each of the two finalists.

Reception

In 2015, Gamesradar summarized that "The Super Mario Maker climax ended Nintendo's championships on a pitch-perfect retro note." Contestant Joshua Ovenshire of Smosh Games said that the Nintendo World Championships should be "a staple at every E3", summarizing, "I was a part of Nintendo history. That's where the magic is at."