A First Look Inside ‘Super Nintendo World’ At Universal Studios Hollywood

To say Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood is highly anticipated by gamers and theme park fans would be an understatement. Even casual visitors have been looking forward to its arrival for years.

Announced in 2016, with ground broken in 2018, the collaboration with the multibillion-dollar Japanese video game company will open to the public in Los Angeles on Friday, February 17, 2023.

Official updates from Universal have given prospective guests a taste of what is in store. Still, most of the finer details and winning nuances in the themed area on the park’s Lower Lot have been tightly under wraps. That is, until now.

In the days before Christmas, a handful of press were treated to tours of the new world. Before that, only those involved with the project had been allowed inside. So what is behind the Super Nintendo World hillock-mimicking façade and the iconic green Warp Pipe that are currently visible? The pipe, which will enable guests to enter the land, is a big deal in itself and is where the adventure begins.

“We come out on the other side and what happens here is very important for Nintendo and us because this is the magical element that takes us into the land,” explained Jon Corfino, vice president at Universal Creative, as we entered the highly anticipated zone. Getting that right was something he and Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto paid particular attention to and made sure was precisely right. It’s simple, classic, but highly effective.

What waits for people on the other side is a genuinely immersive 360-degree world where, bar the occasional and minimal peek, the only thing visible from outside of the area is the sky above. Because of this, it feels like a different place, not just a section of the theme park. That has all been left behind. The soundtrack, the area’s buzz, and a plethora of animated characters also help drown out external distractions.

“There is a story behind the whole land,” Corfino added. “Princess Peach has a golden mushroom, which has been stolen from her. Your mission, should you accept it, is to get the golden mushroom back.”

Those who accept have two options. The first is to play for fun as they move through the area and enjoy four interactive games dotted around the space. The second is to elevate the experience and keep guest’s scores by purchasing Power-Up Bands, which can be bough at kiosks and stores around the park. They cost $40 each.

Those gamify the experience even further and allow participants to, among other things, collect coins by hitting question mark punch blocks or activating elements built into space. There is even a place to register your high scores at the end of your visit. That’s where you can see how you rank against those who’ve come before you (and after, as it doesn’t reset).

But that’s not all. Corfino added that the Power-Up band also serves as an amiibo, which ties to your supported Nintendo game at home and will also register your points. “The more points you get when you come back here, certain things will elevate even in our game, based on your score,” he added.

Don’t be put off by the tech. You shouldn’t feel intimidated if you’re not a hardcore gamer or Nintendo aficionado.

“I always say there are three types of people on the planet,” mused Corfino. “There are the hardcore gamers, and they will know more about this than I do. Then there are the people who play the game, so they’ll buy one and do this. Finally, some people don’t game, don’t want to game, but will want to come and have fun here. There is something for everyone.”

The first iteration of Super Nintendo World opened at Universal Studios Japan in 2021. The version at Universal Studios Hollywood will officially open to the public on Friday, February 17, 2023, making it the first significant video-game-focussed land in the US. A second will open at Universal Orlando Resort in 2025 as part of the new Epic Universe park.

Super Nintendo World will also offer character meet and greets, themed dining at the Toadstool Café, which has a menu of Nintendo-inspired food offerings, and the Nintendo-centric store, 1-Up Factory, which will cover all those merchandise needs.

The jewel in the Super Nintendo World crown, and what most guests will likely make a beeline for, is the groundbreaking ride, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. Even before riders board the gaming IP-inspired augmented reality attraction, there is an impressive immersive live experience that takes you through various themed areas, including one section featuring Yoshi and a trippy mushroom kingdom, plus a workshop and library.

“If you look closely at some of the book titles, you can understand this guy’s pretty focused on winning races. There are cannonball designs, and we’re going to see how he plans to win,” Corfino described as he walked through the line. “There is a thing about surviving Rainbow Road, which is one of our scenes in the race. There are books on battle tactics and airship owner’s manual, and we see the airship in the ride as well.”

After passing through the last section of the queue, themed around Bowser’s furnace room, guests stop before entering the ride’s pre-show area, where they receive their mission training. The first room explains the visor the ARAR
goggles will snap on. The second room is where we learn how to play the game and score points.

“You’re going to get to the vehicle, you’re going to have a steering wheel, and we got two buttons where you can throw, but that doesn’t mean you’re throwing in that direction,” Corvino explained. “Your goggles are your eyes to the world. You throw wherever your eyes are looking, up, down all around. That’s how you aim in this game.”

“It’s really important that you understand that. It’s like any learning any new game, but people get a feel for it.”

The groundbreaking headsets are just one of the elements created especially for the ride. “We had to start work on that quite early on in the process,” the VP recalled. “It is a product. It’s easy to come up with something that works once or twice, or maybe even a couple of 100 times, but when you’re talking about 7000 of these items, they have to work year after year. I can’t say enough good things about the team that developed those. They did an incredible job.”

His advice, having ridden Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge a few times? “You’re prompted by a Chevron, which is basically these red arrows that you’ll see with your AR glasses,” Corfino shared. “Those are an indication to turn. The other thing is that you’re throwing things at Bower’s team, so all I can say is that anything that is orange or has horns is bad. Go for those.”

Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge will use a combination of AR, projection mapping technology, LED screens, and animated physical elements to create an immersive and interactive game-like environment around goggle-clad players as they hurtle along a moving ride track as a member of Team Mario.

“In a perfect world, you’re seamlessly creating the illusion that it’s all one world,” the VP of Creative summarised. Additionally, what happens during the ride influences the outcome, so the end is infrequently the same.

As a whole, Corfino is understandably very proud of the results. It’s the first from-scratch new land at Universal Studios Hollywood since The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in 2016.

“I think we do a very good job at trying to put you into an environment or an experience, whether that’s Harry Potter or Despicable Me, but this was an opportunity to put you inside a game experience. Just the geography of where we are was conducive to building this very immersive, fully surrounded environment that is captivating.”

He continued, “We’re used to more movie-based intellectual properties. This is a game. Miyamoto-san, the creator of all this, was instrumental all the way through because we had to take what we didn’t know about gaming, themed experiences, and immersive environments and blend them together. It has been an incredibly collaborative process. We speak virtually daily with our partners, and they come out frequently. It is a great collaboration and partnership.”

The Super Nintendo World opening kicks off 2023 in style for Nintendo in a landmark year for the brand. Not only does it mark the 40th anniversary of the release of the Mario Bros. arcade game, but in April, the animated Super Mario Bros. Movie lands in theaters.

“It’s perfect timing,” Corfino concluded. “It was all on purpose. I don’t think it’s any surprise that in 2024 the Universal Studios Studio Tour will be celebrating its 60th birthday as well. It’s just a great time to see where we’ve come from, where we are at, and it’s an exciting time to look to the future because there are some interesting things on the way.”