My two favorite things merge! (Super Nintendo World)

     In the year 2012, a little console came out that I was excited for, though very few others were. The Wii U was released along with a pack-in game that came with the "Deluxe" edition of the console, called Nintendo Land. The game was a simple technical demo for the Wii U's functionalities, specifically showing off the possibilities that could come from the Wii U Gamepad, the controller with a touch screen on it, that would eventually pave the way for the Switch. Nintendo Land was really well themed, set up as a Nintendo-themed amusement park, having attractions themed after Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, Luigi's Mansion, Animal Crossing, etc. Even though this game was a relatively short tech demo, it really got me thinking about what I would want if someone were to actually make a theme park out of these classic properties. Fast forward to the year 2015, Universal Studios announced that they were working on a new themed area for Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, to coincide with the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. A year later, they finally detailed some information about this park, mainly that it was going to be based on the Super Mario franchise. Information has slowly trickled out over the years until now, when the park is finally finished. Unfortunately, they didn't meet their original opening day, since the Olympics were cancelled last year due to the global pandemic that we're all still under. They recently gave a revised opening day of February 4, though that was also pushed back, so it's TBA as to when the park will be open to the public. The legendary game designer and "Mario's dad," Shigeru Miyamoto, gave a tour back on December 18, showing a bit about the park's decorations and how it would be staged, while not actually showing us anything from the rides, save the queue from the Mario Kart attraction. Out of the blue, however, a channel called Universal Parks News Today put up tons of videos of footage last week, and it wasn't taken down by anyone. Apparently they're allowing people to put up footage of the rides, so I'm here today to talk about the amazing area that is Super Nintendo World.  As a certain platforming plumber would say, "Let's-a go!"

(Super Nintendo Land, seemingly taken from above Peach's castle)

    Super Nintendo World takes its theming from the Wii U game, Super Mario 3D World which is getting a rerelease for Nintendo Switch on February 12, 2021 (which is today). Specifically the area is based on Super Bell Hill which was one of the first levels in 3D World, which as you would expect, is full of characters and enemies. Like that level, this world is constantly in motion. As soon as you walk through the warp pipe into Princess Peach's castle, you're met with a bright world with coins spinning on top of brick blocks, Thwomps constantly crashing down, Yoshis running around trees, etc. It's a lot of sensory overload for someone entering the land, especially when you can see the giant Bowser's castle on the other side of the area, which is the entrance for the Mario Kart ride. This is a multiple leveled area, Peach's Castle, which is the entrance to the area, is on the second floor, but it seems the majority of this area is down below. There are a lot of Mario enemies walking around on the first "floor" of this area protecting Keys as special challenges (more on that later). There's also an underground area shown off by Mr. Miyamoto's tour with lots of cool Easter Eggs from the games, there are Bob-ombs hiding behind blocks, and even an area that makes it seem like you've taken damage in Mario and the world seems bigger. It's a really cool effect and I'm really excited to see all the different callbacks I can see in this area.

All the world's a game, we're all merely players!

    This area of Universal Studios Japan is really leaning into the "gamification" of the theme park experience, meaning that you're actually playing a game as you explore Super Nintendo World. Throughout the area, there are different hidden activities that you can play by touching your "Power-Up Band" (think a Magic Band from Disney) to a certain point. The one that Miyamoto showed us in his presentation was launching a Koopa shell at a Koopa Troopa in order to get a key. Once you complete the challenge, you get the key and whatever coins you've earned on your phone app, which keeps track of your progress in the game. Once you have three keys from doing different activities around the park, you unlock a challenge of some sort that acts like a boss fight for the area. I don't want to spoil what it is, but it does seem really cool, and an excellent use of time when you don't feel like waiting in line for a ride. I don't know if the coins do anything, maybe you can use them to buy some digital reward or something, although it really could just be used as a scoreboard to compete with other people in the park. Either way, it's a great idea to get people interested in the idea of playing a game while in the park, kind of in the same vein as the Kim Possible world showcase game at Epcot (which has been rethemed to Agent P from Phineas and Ferb) or the "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" game at the Magic Kingdom. The question mark blocks all around can be hit with the Power-Up band to get coins as well, which makes it even cooler that they appear to be all over the place.

MKTV is ready for their next broadcast!

    Let's get to the rides now, shall we? Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge is an Augmented Reality (AR) dark ride where you get to race along with your favorite Mario Kart characters such as Mario and Yoshi as you face off against the team of the evil Bowser. It's hard to tell from the video of the ridethrough, because the AR goggles are put in front of the camera, so it's not possible to tell you how realistic this looks when you're actually there in person, but I'm super excited. It really looks like you're racing in a kart through all these iconic tracks such as Cloudtop Cruise from Mario Kart 8, Bowser's Castle, and finally finishing in Mario Kart 64's famous Rainbow Road. I really thought that this ride was supposed to be a roller coaster or a fast ride, maybe of Test Track Variety, but after seeing the video, it seems like it's going to be a trackless ride that doesn't move very fast. The AR visuals boost the experience I'm sure, giving you the illusion of speeding through all these tracks along with Mario and friends. The ride is also used as part of the game, as you earn coins by turning your wheel at the right time, or by hitting an enemy with a shell, which is all handled with the use of your AR Headset working along with the steering wheel that you're sitting in front of.  The queue for the ride is also something to pay attention to, which I'm sure you'll have time to, because I'm sure there will be a really long line whenever it actually opens to the public. You pass through a lot of different Mario Kart memorabilia, including the MKTV truck which is covering the race, you pass through Bowser's stockroom full of Bullet Bills, Mechakoopas, Bob-ombs, etc. In addition to all of this, the crown jewels of this line are when you get to see the actual cups from Mario Kart. The Mushroom, Shell, Banana, Fire Flower, Yoshi Egg, Star, Lightning, and Special cups are all on display as you get closer to the ride, as well as the Universal Cup, which is the one you compete for in the race against Team Bowser in this ride. This ride looks amazing, and I feel like I'm not alone in saying that if I ever get to go to this park, I will stand in line for however long it takes (within reason, I'm not going to stand for 10 hours or anything, like some people did for the Hagrid coaster when that opened at Universal Orlando back in 2019).

Yoshi! (Are you excited for this ride?)

    The other ride in this area is Yoshi's Adventure. It's a much more laid back ride, the vehicles themselves are designed to look like Yoshis, and they move along at a much slower pace as it's more about seeing the land from above as the Yoshi's walk along the elevated platforms over the rest of the land. I have to say, this one is not as interesting to me as the incredibly ambitious Mario Kart ride, though as a huge Nintendo fan, I will certainly ride through it. I'm so excited to immerse myself in the world that the Yoshis are walking through, especially considering there's a room that plays the music from Yoshi's Island and has an animatronic Yoshi and Baby Mario, Baby Peach, Kamek, as well as Yoshi's canine friend, Poochy. There has been some controversy about this ride in the past few days because it appears that there are some cacti in the desert area that the Yoshis pass through, as the cacti appear to be designs that originate from a mod for New Super Mario Bros. Wii, instead of from any licensed Nintendo game. This goes to show that the modding community clearly made a really amazing design that even fooled the people in charge of building this park! The other thing that people are worried about is how slowly the ride vehicles appear to be moving in the video. It does look like they're moving slowly, but considering this ride is intended to make people soak in the amazing detail of Super Nintendo World, it makes sense that they'd want to keep people on the ride and looking around for as long as they could. It's the same approach as most dark rides, though this one appears to move a bit slower than the norm. Even though this is a less technically impressive ride than the Mario Kart attraction, I'm all about soaking in all the immersion that this land has to offer. There's also a special cameo from Captain Toad on this ride, accompanied by his little theme song, which is really all I need to be interested in anything. I will definitely have to ride along and see what the Yoshis discover on their adventure.

Mushroom Kingdom Meals!

    I have to take a minute here before we leave to talk about the food available in this area of the park. The main restaurant here is inside a Toad house, shaped like a giant mushroom, called "Kinopio's Cafe" as the Japanese name for Toad is Kinopio. Inside the cafe, guests are greeted by Chef Toad via screen, giving instructions for how to order and generally just welcoming people to the restaurant. All through the restaurant, there are windows that show the kitchen full of Toads preparing the food, some windows show what the Mushroom Kingdom looks like outside, occasionally having thunderstorms and Bowser attacks shown. The video that I saw wasn't clear about that, but it appeared to have more going on outside than met the eye. The music inside the restaurant is beautiful and made up of re-orchestrated songs from the Mario franchise, as you'll find basically all around the park. Now to get to the actual food, the menu is made up of what seems to be a combination of American, Japanese, and Italian cuisine. There is a Mario burger (bacon cheeseburger with mushrooms on it) and a Luigi Burger (A chicken patty with green curry and lettuce on it) to represent America, there are some Japanese dishes with a bit of Mario flair, and the Italian comes from mostly pasta dishes like the Fire Flower spaghetti. It seems like standard food, and it honestly looks really good. My main complaint with this is that I don't really like mushrooms, and as this is Mario, there are a lot of mushroom items on the menu here. The best thing I can say is that the video that I watched about the food here was hosted by a guy who also didn't like mushrooms, but he ended up liking most of what he ate. The pizza bowl looks really good, and I don't know what's in it, but it's served in a cup shaped like a mushroom from the Mario franchise, as is the Mushroom Soup. I've been joking for a while now that I need to start really enjoying mushrooms before I go there, but we'll see how that goes. In terms of desserts, it seems like they have normal ones that you would expect, but themed in a really impressive way. There's a cake that looks like platforms that could have been from the actual game, there's a Tiramisu that looks like a question-mark block, etc. My favorite one just from how it looks would be Peach's cake. In Super Mario 64, the game begins with Princess Peach writing a letter to Mario telling him that she's baked him a cake and to come to the castle. Things really go off the rails from there as she and the toads have become prisoners of Bowser, but eventually Peach is set free and ends the game by making Mario the cake that she promised. That cake is now available at Kinopio's Cafe, complete with a little letter written by the princess herself on a sugar cookie. I don't even like desserts that much, but I would definitely order that, as it's an adorable touch to what could have been a very simple, though delicious, dessert. Other than Kinopio's Cafe, there's Yoshi's Snack Island, which seems to just be a snack stand, not a full restaurant. They do appear to sell some sort of Green Shell snack, though I'm not sure exactly what it is, along with two different kinds of Japanese drinks. Either way, it seems like there's a lot of good food to enjoy in Super Nintendo World, making it more than just pleasing to the eye, but also to the palette.

There's still more to come!

    This pretty much wraps up my little preview of Super Nintendo World, which I really hope I'll be able to visit some day. The best part about this park, however, is that there are (at least) two more areas coming in the near future, one in Universal Studios Hollywood, and one in Universal Orlando as part of their new park, Epic Universe. I'm so excited for the idea of having a Nintendo themed park relatively close to where I live, especially considering the rumors surrounding the new areas. The rumor that I've heard is that there will be an area based on the Donkey Kong Country series, complete with a mine cart coaster, which would be amazing, but very little has come out about it other than a supposedly leaked model for the land which would be really cool if it's true. There's also a rumor of a Hyrule themed area in Islands of Adventure where the Lost Continent is right now, which would also be amazing, considering The Legend of Zelda has to be one of my favorite franchises of all time. I don't know what sort of attractions they could have there, but I would love to see what the engineers at Universal Creative come up with. Of course this is all pure speculation, but I'm so excited for whatever comes from these new parks and I can't wait to visit them some day.

    Thanks so much for reading this, friends. I've really had to hold myself back from writing something about this before now, as I've been crazy excited for a long time, but I wanted to wait until there was some legitimate information that I could post some sort of comprehensive report on. Are you as excited as I am? I hope you'll share some ideas for what could be in the other parks down in the comments, I always love to hear all sorts of wacky ideas when it comes to Nintendo in general, and that goes double for theme parks. Thanks again for reading, I hope you're all doing well, and I'll talk to you next Friday!