When the Nintendo World Championships 2015 were first announced, the internet was ablaze. Everyone was talking about the chance to be the very best, proving themselves by earning the highest scores in Ultimate NES Remix ‘s Championship mode. It was a big deal. Which is why it was so surprising to see the the qualifiers, the first step to glory, were so anticlimactic in execution.
See, I live around Chicago. I didn’t compete in the Nintendo World Championships 2015, because I felt like it would be a conflict of interest. But I did want to stop by and watch. I expected a big event. Maybe a stage. Stations where people could watch the competitors as they played and see as they scored. You know, some sort of fanfare. This is a big deal. You don’t have face-offs like this every day.
There was none. I went into the Schaumburg, Illinois Best Buy the day before, expecting to see a cordoned off area being prepared and tons of signage. I saw one stand-up near the entrance. No areas had been cleared. The store looked as ordinary as usual. Save for that piece of cardboard, you’d never know the Nintendo World Championships 2015 were the next day.
OK, so it was sparse. That’s fine. I returned the next day, expecting some massive setup to happen overnight. Except, again, I was disappointed. There was a long line of people outside, sure, and everything was organized, but it wasn’t an event. For something so rare, fleeting, and important, it was incredibly subdued. Contestants seemed focused, but not especially excited. Nobody seemed to come and watch, aside from people who were there with those competing.
It felt like a missed opportunity. People grew up with Nintendo. The Nintendo World Championships 2015 are relying on scores from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3 , and Dr. Mario . Nintendo could have made the regional qualifiers a major event that weekend, given away swag, and gotten people excited about Ultimate NES Remix and NES Remix 2 .
The performance of the Nintendo World Championships 2015 qualifiers also leaves me concerned about the main event on June 14, 2015. There were only eight qualifying matches. You would think they’d have been a big deal. The Chicago one, at least, was a disappointingly mellow and controlled event. It’s sad that a bigger deal wasn’t made over such a special event.