Nintendo World Championships 2015 Roundup: Earthbound Beginnings Revealed, John Numbers 2015 NWC champion

The Nintendo World Championships just capped off, and we have a quick roundup of the highlights below. John Numbers, who made his way from the Best Buy qualifiers all the way to the finals, is your 2015 NWC champion.

John Numbers beat Cosmo in an incredibly competitive game of the now renamed Super Mario Maker. Also played in the competition in order of last appearance were Super Smash Bros for Wii U, Balloon Fight, Mario Kart 8, Super Metroid, Blastball, The Legend of Zelda, and Splatoon.

If Blastball doesn’t sound familiar to you, that is because it is a new IP, a three on three sports title with more than a passing resemblance to Metroid. Two teams compete to hit a ball in their opponents goal, but in between they can use weapons and attack each other.

Also revealed before festivities started was the surprise announcement of Earthbound Beginnings, known in Japan as Mother. This was the first game Itoi made with Nintendo before Earthbound / Mother 2, dating back to 1989. A localization was made for Mother for the NES, and translation was even completed, but due to the pending release of the Super NES and other factors, it did not actually get released.  Earthbound Beginnings is now available to download on the Wii U eShop.

You can watch Itoi’s special message to fans regarding the release of Earthbound Beginnings below.

Lastly, as a surprise highlight of the show, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime made good on his word to play against  Hungrybox in Super Smash Bros for Wii U, a year after the Super Smash Bros invitational.