LogFAQs > #971812622

Figured I owed more than a few people to compile my thoughts on this place at some point here. For those that somehow don't know, Super Nintendo World is a theme park land at Universal Studio's Hollywood that officially opened last week. The version in Japan opened almost 2 years earlier. Knowing we were getting a version here I stayed as spoiler free as I could.

Needless to say this was possibly one of the things I was more excited for in my life than almost anything. If you know me even a little bit, you know I like theme/amusement parks(From the tame but well-themed Disneyland to the completely crazy ones like Magic Mountain here) and this is a goddamn gaming site message board, so the other half was obvious. At some point in my childhood, I absolutely wished for a Nintendo theme park and as I got older I definitely made an internal promise to throw them all my money if they did it, and goddamn they finally did it.

So January rolled around I bought the biggest pass I could to Universal to get into a preview day and make sure I was ready to go. The land actually soft-opened for tech rehearsals a couple weeks later. I was at work the first day, but I went the second. Then for a preview day which was a big stress test. It was packed, too packed, but I had fun. I stayed for a few hours but I promised myself I'd save a big visit for opening day.

So skip to opening day. I leave my house at 5, I'm there at 6:15. People weren't sure how crowded it would be...the answer was...it wasn't. I got there right as they took the first group into the park and up towards the holding point for the entrance to the land. Lots of media and news crews, maybe about 200 guests. Very cool experience. Lots of interviews and cameras going around, Bowser(Doug) was there to hype. Eventually we moved up to the Warp Pipe entrance for an opening ceremony. Maybe about 1000 people at this point, I'm up near the front. Cool ceremony, much hype. Miyamoto was there for a little speech, a huge mass of media, some streamers and all that stuff. And then finally we are going in. There were too many people holding cameras for me to get pics, I figured since almost everyone had a camera up, I could just look up their pictures if I wanted(you can too, they are all over still).

Entering the warp pipe is an experience. Everything looks great, and if there is one thing I can hype up about the land. It is the music. It is all Mario music, full of the most nostalgic and always appropriate tracks you could come up. It hits me right in the fucking heart every time. I think pretty much every mainline Mario game is represented in the land's soundtrack. Anyway, the warp pipe immediately takes you into Peach's Castle, there are some paintings, they look and ripple exactly like you'd expect. The music is hitting, you can see into the land, hear the distant sound of coins being collected from blocks. It is an experience. The first time I walked in I absolutely couldn't take it and cried. Not the first or last time I cried in the land, hell I'm almost crying thinking about that feeling now. It was good. The land is not cheap. The theming is...as good as you could dream up for a Mario themed land.

Now, there is a heads up necessary to enter the land. In order to make use of 95% of it, you need a Power Up Band. If you are familiar with magic bands, it is basically one of those(The Universal equivalent would be a harry potter wand, please dont buy one of those because it gives Rowling royalities). They are needed to collect coins and to play the lands activities. They cost $40, rep one of 6 characters(Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toad, Peach, Daisy), and can track pretty much everything you do in the land. Bonus is that they do function as an Amiibo for the character they are representing, so not useless once you take them home.

Looking around the land, you get an assortment of Mario biomes. They look great, there are animatronics of classic Mario foes(And friends) all over. Walking around, while the land isn't hidden persay, you are meant to explode. There are doors, staircases, caves hidden into what is actually a fairly small footprint. The land isn't big, but there is a lot to do. There are coin blocks everywhere, as well as some others, you can hit all of them. The sound is spot on. It is satisfying. Regardless of age, everyone is having fun hitting them.

As for what specifically to do. The land has a few main attractions. First off there are 4 minigames. Completing a minigame successfully awards a key. Now, I had my doubts about the land here. Interactive thing park elements tend to be full baby mode. Disney has released several recently and they never attempt to challenge the player beyond instant gratification. As for the key minigames, there is very much a range of age appropriateness here as a range of player numbers. Two are very simple, two can be a bit challenging. Two are single player, 2 can be played with up to 4 people. Once you've completed each a number of times, repeat attempts will be on hard mode with a variant challenge of the game(Like say, changing the timing of a pow block chain reaction). They are fun. But then real goal here is to finish 3 in a visit. This allows your band to unlock access to a boss fight with Bowser Jr. Not a ride-per say, but this is a very high quality attraction in itself. My mind makes reference to Nick Arcade here, it almost feels like one of their old minigames, but the tech is definitely much better(And supports something like 12 players at once). Dodge shells, fling bob-bombs, duck under bullet bills. The game is fun and the Bowser Jr themed rooms leading up to it are well-themed and cute.

The main attraction of the land is Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge. First off, this is the most well-themed queue the SoCal region has seen in over 25 years. I could walk through it, ride nothing, and feel absolutely satisfied. You begin in a Yoshi's Island themed area. Which, from what I hear, absorbed a couple elements from the Yoshi dark ride that is -not- present in the Hollywood version of the land. Speaking of that, it will be included in the Orlando version of the land, which may also come with a Donkey Kong expansion. So look forward to that in 2025. Yoshi is basically the first character in my life that I recall ever recognizing as a favorite. We are talking like, 4 year old me. This part of the queue makes me so damn happy. You get music from SMW2, you get Music from Yoshi's Story. You get sounds of Yoshi. Before going up the stairs to the Bowser's Castle area, you get animated windows with various colored Yoshi turning shy guys into eggs among other things. Bowser's castle is as well themed as the rest, from the moment you pass the awesome Giant Bowser statue to the inside where there are literal giant 3DS screen tech used to show various Bowser-related contraptions. The whole inside is a nostalgia bomb of various Bowser things(And since this is Mario Kart, the plottings of Bowser and Koopalings to win the race).

As for the attraction itself, it is not necessarily what people expected when they heard Mario Kart. It is not fast. In fact, its slow moving. You stick on a visor before boarding, when you board, a little AR screen attaches to the visor, and off you go. You can turn the wheel when prompted to gain coins, andshoot Bowser, Koopalings, and various classic Mario enemies with shells(Or various friends to lose coins). My only complaint about the land is the visor can be a bit uncomfortable, but the ride is fun. There is a lot of room to skill up. The goal is earn coins to win. But there is a lot of variance. According to some of the devs a score of over 300 is possible. The highest I've seen is 271, the highest I've achieved is near 200.

Last big thing in the land is Toadstool Cafe. It is a neatly themed cafe run by toads(As the screen windows will show). The food is good and well-themed. I'll post more of this a bit later.