Villain Con Minions Blast impressions from a Californian in Florida:
Universal Studios Orlando opened Villain Con to the GP today in a “Technical Rehearsal” phase. I rode it six times over the course of the day. It was turning out to be very popular, with the line steadily growing as word spread. Fortunately, the line moves quickly, and the attraction seemed to be operating beautifully; it was still going strong as I left in the late afternoon.
My reaction: It’s great fun! It’s not a blockbuster, but it’s a terrific high-capacity, family-friendly “filler” attraction that this park really needed.
If you’ve read any basic descriptions of this ride… yeah, that’s exactly what it is: It’s a twisty moving walkway, mostly screen-based, standing shooter attraction. No big surprises, but what’s there is executed brilliantly. It’s witty, clever, and beautifully produced. Great writing, set design and animation. And the actual gameplay is a lot of fun—definitely the best theme park target game I played up to this point.
The theme—That you’re attending a Villain Convention—is carried out perfectly and thoroughly from the moment you enter the queue right through to the gift shop at the end. The indoor section of the line, winding past vendor booths, convention hall floor maps and promos for various lectures and presentations is wonderful.
Most of the “ride” takes you past very large screens, which are framed and surrounded by physical sets and props. No 3D or “4D” effects; the images are sharp enough to be effective on their own, and all the physical environments are well-designed.
One of my favorite “rooms” featured, in addition to the huge main screen, large framed painted portraits on the surrounding walls which could be blasted apart for extra points. I do wish there’d been a bit of more of that sort of thing in all the other rooms, but there is enough variety in the layouts and designs of each scene to avoid any feeling of repetition.
The two-handed, dual trigger, wireless blasters are held freely by guests, plucked from a conveyor wall of charging docks and returned to a CM at the end. The experience of having that kind of aiming freedom, while standing on a twisty moving sidewalk, is certainly unique and entertaining.
And… I’m hoping it can continue in its current form without issues. I mean, you have people standing on a moving walkway, holding fairly bulky toy blasters like they’re Ripley in Aliens, free to spin and whirl around at will. What could possibly go wrong?
Guests are assigned a colored circle on the walkway, and are supposed to stay there. Now, I was consciously trying very hard to stay on my circle. But the game is very immersive and attention-grabbing, and after turning in place while blasting, I would often look down at the walkway and find I’d unintentionally strayed a foot or so from my spot. And I was *trying* to stay put.
There is safety monitoring happening; on about half my ride-throughs, someone, somewhere in the building apparently strayed far enough to prompt a brief ride audio mute to allow a verbal reminder from a CM instructing guests to not stray from their spots.
CMs were separating each family group by one empty dot, but I would not be surprised to see that distance increased—at the expense of capacity—a bit more.
Overall, though, that moving walkway and the blasters themselves are wonderful technological marvels. I’d love to see a documentary on the creation of this attraction. I rate Villain Con as a solid win and a welcome addition to the park.
And, who knows, this unique and bizarre ride system might make its way to Hollywood.