'Super Nintendo World' Walking Tour at Universal Studios Japan
For years now, theme park fans and Super Mario Bros. fans alike have been dying to walk through the emerald pipeline that leads to Universal Studios Japan’s new ‘Super Nintendo World’ themed area expansion. The massive project for USJ was announced as far back as 2016, and if not for construction delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this hotly anticipated area would probably be open for business already. Despite Universal/Comcast’s best efforts, the project was delayed by international restrictions on the building process, pushing the grand opening back from the originally-positioned Summer of 2020 to its current opening date of February 4th, 2021.
In the months since, Universal has not gradually leaking clips and images of the USJ expansion site in it’s completed state, and the viewing several - ourselves included - have gobbled each fragment up with ravenous excitement. This morning (US, EST) we got our grandest and most encompassing peek into the new park area yet, thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto (creator and designer of the ‘Mario’ games), Universal/Comcast and Nintendo. Straight from Nintendo Direct, check out Shigeru’s walking tour of the ‘Super Nintendo World’ and dozens of its interactive elements (“activities”) below!
Miyamoto claims that this walking tour covers only a fraction of what the themed land has to offer, but the above represents our best look yet at what ‘Super Nintendo World’ has to offer guests! Below are some of the new observations that we can now make about this land solely from the content of the above above video…
Influence from Multiple ‘Mario’ Games
Our understanding thus far has been that Super Nintendo World would be largely built on the foundations of ‘Super Mario World’, the 1990 NES entry that typically gets credit for birthing the Mario Bros. phenomenon. However, based on the video that we saw this morning, it looks as though titles such as ‘Super Mario Sunshine’, ‘Paper Mario’, ‘Mario Party’ and the wildly popular ‘Super Mario 64’ are all represented by easter eggs, interactive elements and attractions within the themed area. It seems as though Mario fans from the age of 5 to 55 can truly find something magical about the land to latch onto!
Interactive Activities
If you’ve ever been to the ‘Harry Potter’ land(s) at Universal Studios Orlando and/or Universal’s Islands of Adventure, you’ll know that Universal is no stranger to the concept immersion via interactivity. Fans of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter can purchase interactive wands that ‘cast magic’ through wireless connections with receiving sensors in shop windows and design elements. That said, did anyone here suspect that we would be able to actually punch a question mark box and gain a gold coin from it, or tip-toe past a full-scale sleeping piranha plant in order to avoid triggering its aggressive motion? This expansion features all of that and more, with certain ‘activities’ triggered by a purchasable interactive watch band. Some of these interactions even double as puzzle games that put you in the center of the action!
Forced Perspective Immersion
Disney is typically thought of as the master of forced perspective, with castles and rockwork seeming larger to audience members based on the distance and positioning of the structure, but it looks like Universal is giving them a real run for their money. Hogwarts Castle aside, the new Super Nintendo World appears to trick your mind into thinking that you’ve actually shrunk or grown through a series of sound effects, progressive environment scaling and positioning tricks. The screengrab below (Credit: Nintendo Life) illustrates how rounding a corner in the 'underground level’ can see you shrunken down to half size and combating double-sized bob-omb’s!
Photo credit: ‘Nintendo Life’ gallery.
Character Dining
You know it’s just a screen, and we know it’s just a screen, but seeing Toad (JAP: ‘Kinopio’) himself offer you a serving size of his latest creation will take parkgoers large and small beyond the video game veil and into the realm of full immersion all the same. The specialized flavors of popcorn, ice cream, mochi and the like will draw dining guests that much further into the Super Mario realm, and they even give you a little star-shaped popcorn bucket to match the snack! It looks like Mario and Luigi costumed characters are also scheduled to make regular appearances near the cafe & dining area(s), too.
Mario Kart Attraction
And at last we come to the most hotly anticipated element of the entire land - the “Mario Kart” raceway. Ever since the concept of ‘Super Nintendo World’ first arose, its centerpiece was slated to be an immersive attraction based around the wildly popular ‘Mario Kart’ racing game titles. As the concept evolved, we came to understand that the ride would not be a roller coaster - instead, it would be a trackless dark ride utilizing first-of-its-kind technology that would be able to speed, slow and interrupt the rider’s experience and is even rumoured to allow them to (safely) participate in the drive. Sadly, we’ve yet to see the actual attraction in motion - but Miyamoto was kind enough to walk us through the main queue area so that we can see just how expansive and immersive this ride is ultimately going to be for the parkgoers!
Photo credit: Universal Studios, Nintendo
In summary
Between Katie and I, we have always thought Disney to be the ultimate immersive engineer. Pandora: The World of Avatar and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge are particularly breathtaking examples of the trademark ‘Imagineering’ that inserts you as a parkgoer into the fantasy world(s) that make the experience so enticing. But with the ‘Super Nintendo World’ expansion opening at USJ (and planned for Universal’s ‘Epic Universe’ in Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood), Universal/Comcast may just be able to take the top slot away on the sliding scale of domestic theme park immersion. This new land has everything that makes the video game series great, from rows of spinning coins to lifelike animatronics to a front seat ride on a rainbow road. Miyamoto acknowledges in the video that international attendance to the themed land may be hampered by the conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is certainly true; however, you’ll have a hard time keeping diehard Mario fans away from this new land as soon as its deemed safe and appropriate to travel to international destinations once more. Super Nintendo World opens on February 4th, 2021 in Japan.
