Nintendo’s new NES collection is all about speedrunning

Nintendo is embracing the world of speedrunning in its own way. The company announced a new collection of NES games for the Switch called Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, but the twist is the bundle is built entirely around playing really fast.

The collection features 13 different games — including Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, and a whole lot of Super Mario Bros. — but instead of playing through the entire thing, players are tasked with completing “bite-sized bits of classic blockbusters,” with the goal of getting the best possible time. Nintendo says there are more than 150 time-based challenges spread across the included games, and the collection will include a single-player mode and local multiplayer with support for up to eight players. Switch Online subscribers will also have access to “World Championships Mode to submit their best times in five challenges that rotate each week and compete for a spot on the global leaderboard.”

(And if the Nintendo World Championships name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s taken from Nintendo’s irregularly occurring esports tournament.)

The collection sounds a bit like NES Remix, taking games you’ve probably played many times before and tweaking them with new challenges to make them feel different. It also leans heavily on nostalgia, as shown by the physical edition, which includes a (nonfunctioning) gold NES cartridge.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition launches on the Switch on July 18th.