Nintendo Announces Staging Grounds for the World Championship

Earlier, Nintendo announced the grand return of the Nintendo World Championship, an event that rocked the world once 25 years ago and hasn’t returned until now. Well, the hype was raised, and now it’s time to cash in, because Nintendo announced the eight Best Buys around the country where you can go to try to earn your spot in the grand finals.

1717 Harrison St.
San Francisco, CA

3675 Pacific Coast Highway
Torrance, CA

10760 NW 17th St.
Miami, FL

900 E. Golf Road
Schaumburg, IL

12905 Elm Creek Blvd. N
Maple Grove, MN

5001 Northern Blvd.
Long Island City, NY

9378 N. Central Expressway
Dallas, TX

2214 S. 48th St.
Tacoma, WA

Here’s how it works: Come May 30th, you go to one of these stores and you play the Ultimate NES Remix, trying to get the high score in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3 and Dr. Mario. The person with the highest score in each store will then be invited to attend E3 and enter a show-off against 16 mystery opponents (eight tournament finalists and eight players pre-selected by Nintendo). Somehow I doubt we’ll be seeing C9 or TSM in either categories. The prizes the winners can expect are, thus far, unannounced, but I’m willing to get a Wii U or something to do with the NX will be very likely.

So, that’s pretty cool. It’s not as many cities as in events past, but then again with the Internet and mass communication the way it is, you probably don’t need as many stores to get the word out. That said, am I the only one bothered by the fact that this is called the World Championship, but it’s clearly only taking place in America? I know we have an ego sometimes, but the world doesn’t begin and end at our shining shores.

Oh well. In the meantime, better start practicing if you want to have a shot at winning… just… spare us the cheesy training montage.