Nintendo's new theme park, Super Nintendo World, will open inside Universal Studios Japan on February 4th next year - just over a year from its weird teaser trailer of January 2020. And there's no other way to say this, but: it looks incredible.
The (mostly) Mario-themed section of the huge Universal plot in Osaka has already opened, kind of, for press, as Bloomberg got a look inside the $580 million attraction (scroll down for a video). Reporter Takashi Mochizuki writes:
"One of the first attractions will be a Mario Kart ride inside a recreation of Bowser's Castle. Borrowing an idea from the Super Mario franchise, visitors can collect virtual coins by wearing a dedicated wristband as they explore the area and interact with park features via a Switch console."
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That's right - there will be substantial interactivity available within Super Nintendo World, including AR goggles (pictured above) for use with the Mario Kart ride, as reported by The Verge.
The Verge report adds: "The (Mario Kart) cars do have steering wheels, and multiple vehicles can race alongside each other, but it sounds like the ride itself is on rails. It's not guaranteed that you win the race - there's an element of throwing power-ups from item boxes, and the experience will be different each time you ride."
But words don't really convey just how impressive this theme park is looking. For that, we need pictures - and what we're seeing so far is leaving some people blown away, almost unable to process that it's real.
Let's all take a moment to admire these photos, shall we?
And you can bet that there's a video, too - let it mesmerise you, please...
In addition to the Mario-themed rides and attractions, it's reported that Nintendo and Universal Studios are planning on expanding the Japanese site with some Donkey Kong-flavoured areas, in the not-so-distant future. Indeed, VGC reports that said ape-centric area is already under construction.
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Super Nintendo Land's opening will not be at full capacity - in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, while it's hoped we'll be on the road to recovery from it in early 2021, the park will run at only 50% capacity. We reckon we'll leave it just a little while longer... before beginning to beg any rich relatives for flights out to Japan.
Featured Image Credit: Nintendo, Universal Studios JapanTopics: Super Mario
