Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Do you have what it takes to be the Nintendo World Champion?

Add as a preferred source on Google

Nintendo has sent out the call for the best and brightest players in the United States to come forward and compete for the coveted title of Nintendo World Champion at the upcoming E3 2015. If you think that you have what it takes to be crowned champion, then you can go to one of eight Best Buy stores located around the United States on May 30. Let’s hope they can handle the traffic. The winner from each location will be flown to Los Angeles to compete on the big stage at E3.

The final event will be a multi-round competition with players competing in different games, which have yet to be announced. To qualify, however, you will have to demonstrate your classic gaming chops on Ultimate NES Remix for the 3DS, which combines short challenges extracted from classic Nintendo titles. Players will compete for high scores in three mini-games from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and Dr. Mario. The format is very similar to the last Nintendo World Championship, held a full quarter-century ago in 1990, wherein players competed in mini-games specially adapted from Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. The special edition cartridges produced for the event are considered to be among the most rare and valuable NES cartridges out there.

Recommended Videos

Competition hopefuls can head to one of the following eight Best Buy stores from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, May 30:

The highest scorer from each store will be flown to Los Angeles for the competition on June 14, during the week of E3 2015. They will also compete against eight other, unnamed, mystery competitors. Will they be celebrity gamers? International gamers to make it a truly “World” Championship? Nintendo has yet to say.

Time to start practicing for May 30, if you hope to follow in Fred Savage’s footsteps. Good luck, champions!

Rocky I - Training (High Definition)
Will Fulton
Former Staff Writer, Gaming
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
Epic is throwing $50,000 for vibe-code games. What could possibly go wrong?
Epic is rewarding vibe-coded games with real money
Epic MegaJam 2026

Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.

Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”

Read more
Monster Hunter Outlanders arrives on Android and iOS next week with four-player co-op
The free-to-play spin-off launches October 29 with open-world exploration, mobile-focused combat, and a building system.
Monster Hunter Outlanders poster

It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.

Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.

Read more
Phantom Blade Zero makes me think Sony might have a point about going all digital
Physical games still matter, but when the disc isn't a complete copy of the game, the argument for keeping it becomes harder to make.
Phantom Blade Zero Featured Image

I'm a big supporter of physical games. There's something satisfying about owning a disc, lending it to a friend, or grabbing a bargain without waiting for a digital storefront to approve the price. But Phantom Blade Zero has me questioning one of the biggest arguments in the physical-versus-digital debate. The game's digital version launches on October 29, 2026, while its physical PS5 editions, including Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate versions, won't arrive until 2027.

And there's another wrinkle: the digital version reportedly needs up to 134GB of storage, raising questions about how much of the game can actually fit on a standard Blu-ray disc. A standard PS5 Ultra HD Blu-ray disc maxes out at 100GB, so Phantom Blade Zero may need to ship across multiple discs or require players to download additional data to finish installing it. Either way, the idea of popping in a disc and having the complete game ready to play gets a little murkier.

Read more