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Nintendo nixes NES Remix coin-collecting competition concerning cheat.

Exploitable bugs in retro games: film at eleven.
Exploitable bugs in retro games: film at eleven.

Considering the both prevalence of exploits born from sloppy coding in early games and the general celebratory tone toward those games recent eShop addition NES Remix takes, you might think that even stodgy Old Man Nintendo would recognize the humor in finding an exploit in that same new title and try to go along with it. Unfortunately, especially since that exploit is located in a stage that's the focus of an official high score contest, you'd be wrong; Nintendo issued a challenge to players to submit their high scores for Remix's Remix I Stage 4 “Collect all the coins!” not long after the game's release, but upon discovery of a cheat involving rapid-fire pausing it was brought to an abrupt end.

"Unfortunately, we confirmed that there is a way to exploit the challenge to achieve a faster time," game director Kochi Hayashida's official retraction reads. "In the interest of being as fair as possible, we decided to terminate the event without recognizing the fastest time. We know that you dedicated a lot of time and effort towards achieving your fastest time possible. We sincerely apologize for this matter, particularly because the vast majority of people played fairly. We appreciate your understanding. Thank you."

There was no material reward for the player submitting the high score, but when you're dealing with a developer as fixated on mechanical perfection as Nintendo an outcome like this isn't terribly surprising.