Super Nintendo World

Let's-a-go to the theme park

I usually like to dedicate this section to more niche interests of mine that could use more attention, but there are also plenty of popular things I like. For example, in early March I had the good fortune to visit the recently opened Super Nintendo World section of Universal Studios Hollywood.

Unlike other sections of the park, there is a clear barrier between Super Nintendo World and the rest of the universal. You walk through a warp pipe into Princess Peach’s Castle and step out into the Mushroom Kingdom. It’s a distinct zone with a clear entrance and exit, as opposed to the more casual transitions between other themed areas of the park.

Just looking around the park is an attraction in itself, with the highlights coming from looking up. Not just at the two castles, but at the mountains and hills decorated with elements that clearly mark them as Mario levels, like coins, animatronic enemies, and platforms. It gives the same feeling as standing in the hub world of a 3D Mario game.

There’s also a bit of exploring you can do. Usually in theme parks everything is clearly sign posted, but for the look out point, finding it is part of the experience. Once up there you’ll be able to see the whole park through a set of AR binoculars, showing you various characters. And if you look around you’ll be able to spot some Pikmin in the area, who are the only representation of any non-Mario Nintendo game.

(PIKMIN: Perfect, Intellectual, Kind, Magical, Ingenious, Nourishing.)

For part of the exploring however, you have to pay. There are wristbands, or as they call them, ‘power up bands’ that you can buy, themed around different characters. As proper wristbands I found them shockingly unreliable, mine felt like it was constantly starting to come undone. And tellingly, I was at one point advised to remove it before doing an activity. How do you fail at the part where the wristband can be trusted to stay on your wrist?

However, the functionality is fun, and I believe it works between all versions of the park. The main appeal of the power up band is letting you take part in a little storyline. Bowser Jr has stolen a golden mushroom, and to recover it you need to collect at least three digital keys by playing activities around the park that pit you against standard Mario enemies. Once you have enough keys you get to play a fun little game that has you face Bowser Jr.

The four key giving activities all had lines for them, even early on a less active day for the park. And if you fail to earn the key, which is in fact possible and something I saw happen, you will be sent back to the line. I would have liked to try my hand at all activities, but with the lines and how I was the only one in my group with a power up band, I felt it was better to just get three keys and head to the final boss rather than do an all keys run.

My first challenge was taking down the Koopa Troopa, and this was where I witnessed the most defeats while waiting for my own turn. It’s a timing game, where you need to set off a chain reaction of three POW blocks at the right moment to send a spinning green shell up to hit another POW block and take down the Koopa Troopa. You get three tries, and despite trying to analyze the game as much possible from the line, I needed them. I won, but the possibility of having to wait in line again was terrifying.

To defeat the Goomba you need to turn a crank while it attempts to approach you on a piece of spinning terrain. From what I observed it was basically impossible to lose. Someone cleared it while leisurely turning it with one hand and taking video on their phone with the other. It wasn’t needed, but I found it more fun trying to turn it as hard as I could. If you’re looking for a challenge, skip it. If you don’t want the fear of waiting in a line twice, do it.

Also the line for the Goomba is a good example of how densely packed Super Nintendo World is, as it was so close to the spot for the Princess Peach meet and greet that I nearly entered the line for that by mistake. I feel like theme park designers probably don’t want separate lines that close together if they can help it.

The line to challenge the Piranha Plant was long, and I felt bad making the family members who came with me and didn’t have power up bands wait. So while I was in line for the other challenges, I asked them to scout for the fourth challenge that I knew about from my prior research and didn’t seem quite as obviously located.

To challenge the Thwomp you need to enter a little cave off to the side, identifiable by the animatronic Thwomp over the entrance. The location was obscure enough to have a very short line. Since you only need three keys it’s fully possible to completely miss it. It’s a good example of how the park brings in video game design mentality.

Your task against Thwomp is to match panels on a touch screen before it falls down and crushes you. And since it relies on a wide touch screen, people without the power-up band can play as well, even if they can’t collect the key prize for winning. Since I had back up my party was able to clear it easily. Definitely seek out this activity if only some people in your group have a power-up band.

What about the Piranha Plant? Well according to what I’ve seen online that game involves running around to turn off alarm clocks before they wake up a sleeping Piranha Plant. I didn’t realize it while in the park, but it also seems to be a game where people without power-up bands can join in. That wasn’t a feature I’ve seen be openly discussed or knew to look for, and would have appreciated knowing that. Ah well, something to try next time.

Now it’s time to discuss the final boss. To enter you’ll need to have your power-up band scanned to confirm you have enough keys. Once again other guests without their own power-up bands can help you out and will be let in. Since you need to earn entry, if you earn it early there shouldn’t be much of a line if there even is one.

The showdown with Bowser Jr is a motion sensor game. You stand at a designated spot and a camera behind you projects a shadow of you onto the screen. By ducking, jumping, and flailing your arms around, you get to dodge or repel attacks from Bowser Jr. You can also score Fire Flower power-ups to do some damage yourself. Naturally, that little brat went down.

Someone in my group did have an issue though. With how active the game is, you’re asked to store your items (including power-up bands) in little alcoves in the wall. For one of the people in my group, the strap of their bag ended up covering part of the camera and messing with their ability to play the game. So be careful when putting your bags away.

According to what I’ve read online, each of the key challenges has a hard mode for if you do it again. But I didn’t feel like trying out hard mode. What makes you think I want a harder version of that stressful POW block timing game?

Like most things, there’s also app functionality for the power-up band. Throughout the park are various blocks that make the appropriate sound effect when hit by a power-up band. It’s a cheap, obvious gimmick, also it’s fun. The power-up bands actually track your total amount of coins, which you can check on the app.

In the app are rankings for how many coins you have, and each design for the power-up band is listed as a team. Whichever team gets the most coins overall in a set time period, which appears to be a few hours, wins. There isn’t any prize though. Or announcement. Or sign that the contest exists outside the rankings section of the app. In case it wasn’t clear, that little contest ended up not meaning much to me.

Super Nintendo World’s main attraction and highlight is its only ride, themed around Mario Kart. Since my group got in early with special early access tickets we didn’t have to do much waiting, and surprisingly I actually wished I had more time to appreciate some of the queue area. You enter through a Yoshi’s Island themed area before entering Bowser’s castle, which is filled with tons of different items to look at, like Bowser’s library and a paper diorama.

(This might legitimately be the most narrative in any official Mario Kart thing, not even Mario Kart DS’s mission mode had as clear of a narrative.)

The premise of the ride is that Bowser has challenged Mario and friends to a race, and guests are on team Mario. Before the ride you’re given a little headband with a Mario hat on it, and an AR visor that clips onto it. Then you get onto your kart. The ride is a mixture of practical effects and AR, you’re not just sitting in place while it tilts around, though it’s not moving as fast as the AR will make it seem.

And the AR effects are more than just visuals. As the race progresses through various familiar tracks you’ll hit classic Mario Kart item boxes, Pressing a button on your steering wheel will fire a green shell based on where you’re currently looking with the AR googles. And it’s possible to run out of ammo until you reach the next item box, so try to aim well.

Aim at what? Bowser, the Koopalings, and various other things that try to get in your way. Hitting your targets earns you coins, while mistakenly firing at racers on your team like Yoshi lose you coins. The ride starts with a tutorial to get you familiar with how aiming works, which I personally felt went on for a little too long, but people less experienced with games could probably use that time.

I’d compare it most to Mario Kart Double Dash when you’re the player on the back of the kart. Namely in that your primary focus is aiming items. You do need to turn the wheel of the kart when prompted, but that’s just to get coins, you don’t really steer it.

Victory in the race depends on your score. Getting at least 100 coins is needed to triumph, if you don’t reach that number then Bowser wins. I’ve also heard exceeding 200 coins gets you a slightly different ending, but I didn’t earn that many. And if you have a power-up band, pressing it against the wheel of the kart saves your score, so you can try to beat it on another run.

It doesn’t just feel like a Mario Kart themed ride, it feels like a Mario Kart spin-off in its own right. Future rides at Super Nintendo World are going to have a hard time topping it, but the ones planned or already present in other locations aim at different things entirely, like the Donkey Kong themed roller coaster or the leisurely Yoshi ride.

Like any theme park, it also tries to get you into the stores for plenty of merch. The power-up band is a lure in itself, and of course the Mario Kart ride just so happens to make you exit through the gift shop. It was fun to browse and see the different items on display.

What I ended up getting was a chocolate bar in a nice Mario themed case and coin shaped candy with a lemony taste in a metallic question block container. For the coin candy you’re probably paying more for the container, but I liked it. And the chocolate bar was a chocolate bar.

(I like to imagine that these are the respective character’s favorite flavors. And that I can’t see the price in this picture.)

Speaking of food, you might wonder what I thought of Chef Toad’s offerings in his cafe. I was planning on going there and factoring it into the plan, but reading all of the negative reviews for it made me second guess it and we ended up skipping it. And I am absolutely the kind of schmuck who was looking forward to having a Mario burger. Also, I checked the menu and they don’t have pizza, which is a personal offense to Italian Americans on par with the casting of Chris Pratt as Mario.

I’ve heard better things about the food in the Japanese location, so if I ever get a chance to go there I will absolutely try the food. It even looks better in the pictures. In Japan you get an entire Peach themed cake, in the U.S you get a Peach themed cupcake.

As for the meet and greets, that isn’t something I personally enjoy, so I didn’t do them. Watching other people meet with Princess Peach was cute however.

For future developments, well it works well as a Mario theme park, but since it’s supposed to be a Nintendo theme park it’d be nice if we could see more bits from games that aren’t part of the wider Mario franchise. It feels more like Super Mario Land than Super Nintendo World, so I’m not sure why they didn’t just call it that.

While I felt like I did everything I wanted to do at the park, I certainly wouldn’t complain about another trip to Super Nintendo World even without any new additions, or a visit to one of its other locations. Theme parks and Nintendo are an even more harmonious fusion than I expected.

(Bonus picture of a crow I saw while walking from the park to the car.)

Optional Discussion Prompts: If you’ve gone to Super Nintendo World, what was your own experience like? What’s your favorite theme park?