Nintendo World Championships - Definitive Article Edition

Start practicing Wiz kids

For the uninitiated, the original Nintendo World Championship was kind of a big deal. It all started with the movie The Wizard. In the movie, the main character finds himself competing in a world championship featuring games, "Super Mario Bros 3," "Rad Racer," and "Tetris." The movie was released in 1989 and the inaugural Nintendo World Championships would debut in 1990.

Yeah, Roger Ebert also called the movie something along the lines of "a really long commercial."

Part of the ongoing legacy that is the Nintendo World Championships are the prizes that were given out. These were right on par with the Atari SwordQuest prizes, but would go on to be even more treasured gaming collectibles. As it goes, 116 carts containing segments from "Super Mario Bros 3," "Tetris," and "Rad Racer" with the Nintendo World Championships logo splashed on were given out. 90 of them were given out to finalists of the several NWC contests. The remaining 26 were special golden cartridges given out through a Nintendo Power magazine contest.

Nowadays, these carts go for hundreds of dollars, at least. And the golden cartridges have sold for upwards of $21,400. There was also a bid war going on in 2014 for one cartridge that went as much as $100K, but the top bidder ultimately did not follow through, claiming that their child made the bid by mistake.

If anyone finds this in a Goodwill, can you send it to me?

The 25th anniversary was in 2015 where they held the second ever event, and the event returns this year. Starting on August 19th in 8 select Best Buy stores throughout the US (sorry, pretty much everyone else) there will be a qualifying tournament. There will be two age groups that will be able to play Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS. People 12 and younger will be asked to play as Mario with default settings and do a time trial on "Luigi's Mansion." The 13 and older group will play as Bowser, with default settings, on Bowser's GBA Castle 1 stage. The best players in each region and division will go on to compete in the NWC in October.

For complete details on the qualifier times and locations, follow the link below. As for the potential prizes, I quote the following segment:

"NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S./D.C (excl. P.R.) and Canada (excl. Quebec). Registration for the qualifier begins at store open (photo ID may be required). Minors (under 18 or age of majority in state of residence) must have parent/legal guardian present to play. One prize per age group, per local event: slot to compete in Nintendo World Championships 2017 in NYC on 10/7/17, travel to NYC for 2 (ARV: $1000), hotel in NYC for 4 nights from 10/4/17 (ARV: $1200), and a $400 gift card. Winners must be in NYC and available to participate in activities from 10/5/17 through 10/7/17. For the Championship Event in NYC: The first place winner will receive a championship trophy (ARV: $2,780), and second and third place winners will each receive medals (ARV: $100 each). Odds of winning depend on number and skill of eligible participants. For complete details, see official rules at nwc.nintendo.com. Sponsor: Nintendo of America Inc., 4600 150th Ave NE, Redmond, WA 98052." [Note: ARV means approximate retail value.)

As of publication, this was announced about an hour ago: YOU'RE ALREADY BEHIND ON YOUR PRACTICE! GO GO GO! Also, even if you plan on losing horribly, the participating Best Buy locations will also have demos for Super Mario Odyssey in anticipation for it's October 27th release.

Source: Nintendo

Also see: NWC Nintendo

- Also cocks.

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