Nintendo plans to bring back the Nintendo World Championships in the United States this October, more than two years after it was last held during E3.
The original Nintendo World Championships took place in the 1990 and had players battle each other in several NES games such as Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and others.
This October's World Championships event will be open to U.S. and Canadian players, except Quebec.
"The Nintendo World Championships finds fans of all ages and walks of life competing in a variety of Nintendo games, both recent and retro," Nintendo said.
How To Be Part Of The Nintendo World Championships
As Nintendo says, any player has a chance to join October's festivities. Starting Aug. 19, Best Buy outlets will hold qualifying matches in eight U.S. cities. The matches will group players into two depending on their individual ages, and each group plays a course in Mario Kart 7.
The 12 and younger group will race along the Nintendo DS Luigi's Mansion course using only a specified kart.
The 13 and older group will race along the Bowser Castle 1 course, again using only a specified kart.
The player who scores the winning Time Trial score from each group will join the main Nintendo World Championships event.
Super Mario Odyssey Demo
In addition to the qualifying matches, anyone who visits participating Best Buy locations will be able to try demos for Super Mario Odyssey and Metroid: Samus Returns, launching Oct. 27 for the Switch and Sept. 15 for the 3DS, respectively.
Nintendo World Championships
The Nintendo World Championships event in 2015 included games such as Splatoon and Super Mario Maker. This October's iteration will take place in New York on Oct. 7. Visit Nintendo's website to see if the Best Buy store nearest to you will host qualifying matches. Check out the rules, too, before joining.
The Nintendo World Championships will somewhat make up for Nintendo's limited presence on E3 this year. As you might have noticed in recent years, Nintendo has chosen to forego traditional press conference-style events in place of more direct presentations and gameplay broadcasts, such as Nintendo Direct and the Treehouse sessions.
That's not to say Nintendo's E3 presentation was bad. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Many believe Nintendo single-handedly "won" E3 upon announcing several major titles that are in the pipeline: Metroid Prime 4 for the Switch and a core-RPG Pokémon game, also for the Switch.
More than anything, the resurgence of the Nintendo World Championships is a welcome whiff of nostalgia. Catch it in New York on Oct. 7.
Will you join this year's Nintendo World Championships? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
