

Nintendo World Championships 1990 is this weird little time capsule from when Nintendo ran an actual gaming competition—and then turned it into a super rare NES cart. You’ve got three mini-games mashed together: a speedrun through a chunk of Super Mario Bros., a frantic Rad Racer lap, and a Tetris-style scramble in Tetris. The goal? Score as many points as possible in six minutes.
It’s janky by today’s standards, but there’s something oddly addictive about the pressure of that ticking clock. Mess up a jump in Mario, and you’re losing precious seconds. Crash in Rad Racer? Good luck making up the time. The controls take a second to adjust to (Z and X for A/B buttons? Really?), but once it clicks, you’ll be leaning forward like it’s 1990 all over again.
Honestly, half the fun is imagining what it must’ve been like for the original competitors sweating over this thing in front of a crowd. It’s more of a novelty than a full game, but for retro fans, it’s a cool slice of gaming history. Just don’t expect to beat any world records on your first try.
Must-play games
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Super Mario Bros. 2 (nes)
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Captain America And The Avengers (australia) (nes)
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Superman (japan) (nes)
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T&c Surf Design (nes)
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Ultima - Quest Of The Avatar (nes)
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Transformers (nes)
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Popeye (nes)
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Spider-man - Return Of The Sinister 6 (nes)
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Batman 3 (nes)
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Iron Tank - The Invasion Of Normandy (nes)
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Superman (nes)
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Ivan 'ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road (nes)