Super Nintendo World is coming to the US! (Super Nintendo World update)

     Hey friends, and happy new year! Let's hope that this year is going to be even better than the last, and to be honest, we already know it will be! Super Nintendo World is finally opening in Universal Studios Hollywood next month! Of course, it will be mostly the same as the sister area in Universal Studios Japan, but with a few minor changes and one pretty major one. It's going to be nice to go to this kind of area without having to fly across the ocean, even though I'll probably wait for the area in Florida to open. Either way, let's take the warp pipe to an area not as far away this time, and I'll do my best to show you around before this expansion opens on February 17!

What's the same?

    To tell the truth, most of the park is the same from what I can tell. Super Nintendo World in Hollywood will still be loosely themed after Super Mario 3D World's Mount Beanpole, but with Peach's castle on one end, and Bowser's on the other end. Peach's is the entrance for this whole section of the park, and Bowser's is the entrance for the Mario Kart Ride, Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge, which is the same basic attraction from Japan, but there it's called Koopa's Challenge. As far as I can find, they're still designing the area in different tiers, so you'll enter through Peach's castle and be able to look out over a section that's below you where you'll have different challenges and activities to do, just like the Japanese area. Kinopio's Cafe in Japan is here as the Toadstool Cafe, still with the adorable Toads working in the kitchen, which you'll be able to see scurrying around in the LCD "windows" while you're waiting for your food. According to the USA Today article written a few days ago, it appears that the restaurant is going to have the same food offerings for the most part, meaning it will be a pretty adorable and creative cafe experience, where Mario and Luigi both have their own signature sandwich, and where Princess Peach's cake is actually available to order (in cupcake form)! That's a big deal to anyone who has played Super Mario 64, I would say! In addition to these places, the 1-Up Factory is your merchandise store inside the area, pretty standard, but very well themed in keeping with the surroundings. The Power Bands also return for the American debut of this area, which work like Magic Bands from Disney World, but they pair with an app for your phone to keep track of how many coins and keys that you earn by doing all the cool activities in the area. You could also equate them with how certain types of wands in Universal's Harry Potter themed areas can cause reactions to occur if you cast a spell at them. These bands are definitely a bit on the expensive side at $40 per one band, but that's the only way to play the game of this area. All of these things will be at both versions of the park, but there is one major difference between the California area and the Japanese area.

Where did that Yoshi go?

    If you'll recall, the plot in Super Mario World involved Bowser turning Yoshi and his friends into eggs, leaving Mario and gang to rescue him as the game progresses. Why do I bring this up now? Yoshi is not going to be in the California park! That's right, Yoshi's Adventure, the second ride from the Japanese version of Super Nintendo World, isn't coming to Hollywood, which means that only one attraction will be in this area, the one based on Mario Kart. I'm not sure why this is, though I think it probably had to do with them illegally trying to smuggle Yoshi Eggs into the U.S., and I guess customs just wasn't having it. It's a shame, because it looks like a neat ride, even if it does move too slow for most people. If nothing else, it's probably the coolest way to get a look at the whole area from high up, and on top of that, you're riding on a Yoshi. I don't know how things could get much better than that. To be fair, I would imagine that they had to cut one of the rides to make this land open quickly, since the land in Orlando still isn't finished, and may actually take a good little while, since it's opening as part of a completely new park, Epic Universes. I can see the executives wanting to placate the hungry Nintendo and theme park fans by giving a lighter experience with only one ride, one restaurant, etc. while working on the much larger area in Orlando (which rumor has it that it may contain a Donkey Kong Country area, complete with a Mine Cart Coaster). I would love to see this area get a new attraction in the place of Yoshi's Adventure in the future, but I'm not sure if that's realistic given the land that is already in place for Hollywood. They may have only had enough space to put in the one attraction, which, again, would make total sense. 

    Regardless of whatever factor we have holding us back from riding on our favorite dinosaur boy in the States, I'm glad that we at least will have this area in some capacity here, and I hope people will be excited to visit this little land. There are talks of you having to get a reservation at opening, which is certainly not unheard of, since "Star Wars Galaxy's Edge" did the same thing when it first opened in what I would presume to be a much larger area than Universal Studios Hollywood has set aside for Super Nintendo World. I'm really excited to see this park for myself at some point soon, and I'll definitely be writing about it when that day comes!

    Thanks for reading this little post about the addition to Universal Studios Hollywood, friends! As you know, I'm a big fan of theme parks and Nintendo games, so I've been super excited for these themed areas for quite a while. Even though they've taken a bit longer than they were originally supposed to, I'm glad that they've taken their time to do these parks right. If you want more information on this, check out this post from USA Today that was written the other day of a preview from someone on staff! It looks super cool and I highly recommend giving it a read as well. I'm certainly looking forward to it, and I'm glad that we don't have to wait long to see this park, since it opens on February 17th! I hope you're all doing well in the new year and I'll talk to you again soon! Until next time, I'm Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed Toadstool Guide, and I hope you have a great week!