With E3 rapidly approaching, Nintendo has given us more information regard the Nintendo World Championships. Specifically, The Legend of Zelda will be among the games used at the competition.
The initial qualifying rounds kicked off May 20th at eight different Best Buy locations. Competitors squared off in the original Super Mario Brothers, Dr. Mario, and Super Mario Bros. 3. The highest scorer would secure their spot at the Nintendo World Championships. Eight regional qualifiers and eight Nintendo Invited individuals will compete in the finals during E3.
The reveal of The Legend of Zelda seems to be following Nintendo’s trend of using 8-bit games for the Championships. The 1990 competition consisted of Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris. Considering neither of those last two games can be found in the NES Remix titles, it is unlikely either of those games will see play this year.
The finals will be streamed on June 14th. Two days later, Nintendo will stream their E3 Digital Event, as they have done for the past two years.
This is the first time the Nintendo World Championships have been held after a long twenty five year hiatus. The original event was held over three days in Dallas, Texas. The competition gave rise to the “holy grail” of console game collecting, the golden Nintendo World Championship Cartridge.