After taking a hiatus that lasted over twenty years, Nintendo finally revived a true video gaming legend, with the return of the Nintendo World Championships, which took place earlier this evening and was hosted on NerdBacon’s very own Twitch Channel.

John Numbers got his hand raised in victory by the greatest game designer on the planet, Shigeru Miyamoto

The competition was fierce between sixteen finalists who had made their way to the grand stage after competing in a number of qualifying events which were held at select Best Buy locations around the country. These finalists battled a number of challenges across a wide-range of titles; from the recently released Splatoon, to Blast Ball, a game that was revealed for the very first time during the event.

The contest whittled down the competitors until only two remained: Cosmo versus John Numbers. The final game in which the two would compete was the upcoming Mario Maker, coming out for the Wii U later this year.

The finalists had to earn the best time in a few stages which were specially created by members of Nintendo’s Treehouse testing team.

In the end it was John Numbers who came out on top; earning himself a snazzy trophy, as well as a special Nintendo 3DS system which was personally signed by the legendary creator of the Mario series (along with Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Mario Kart, Pilot Wings, and a host of other major Nintendo franchises.) Shigeru Miyamoto.

As fun as the competition was, the real star of the show was the final game itself. The charms of Mario Maker became readily apparent as the finals moved towards their conclusion, and had many on our NerdBacon chat salivating over the game’s release later this year.

Check out Cosmo facing off against John Numbers in Mario Maker in the video below and see the game in action for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b88eKjjQbeg

Be sure to check out NerdBacon’s continuing coverage of E3 2015 right here.