Nintendo partnering with Universal to make attractions.

[Giss Neric]

Despite ROTR & FOP being some of the best rides I've ever ridden, there's not much to do after. It's almost as though both lands were made just for Instagram, meaning that everything looks gorgeous for a picture but nothing more after your life-changing ride. After my Potter rides, I have alcoholic & non-alcoholic drinking plans, ice-cream plans, window-shopping plans, using my wand plans... Basically plans lol. SNW seems to bring that element out again.

Probably cause you have more attachment to the IP of HP that's why you have plans aside from the rides. I have no desire to shop at Pandora but I always plan to eat at Satuli cause it's basically the best QS at any park. Alcohol/non-alcoholic, ice cream or dessert, window shopping, and light sabers all can be found on GE but if you're not attached to it then why bother spending. I'm pretty sure whatever land a theme park builds will be "Instagramable" as this is the age of social media.

 

[Giss Neric]

The land overall is fantastic. Home run. They did not make it feel like you stepped into a video game, they made you feel like you actually stepped into the world of Mario. Everything does not look video game like. Looks like a real place with a ton of kinetic energy. A++ on that. However it is too small. Feels like a outdoor mall. Peache's Castle needs to be more spacious and bigger. But the visuals of the land work. The rides however are just epic failures to me. The Yoshi ride makes no sense on multiple levels. Never in the world of Mario did he ever ride in a vehicle shaped like Yoshi. He rode Yoshi. They could have made a ride where you mounted Yoshi. but we got this slooooow people mover type ride with a queue that looks like it belongs in a mall that is super tacky. Mario Kart should have been a slam dunk. The ride creates itself. This should have been Universal's apology and answer to Test Track and Radiator Springs Racers. It needed to be an actual racing ride with AA's. The Mario Kart ride uses screens to create the illusion of fast movement only some of the time. The ride is not only slow but it really does not simulate an actual race. Most of the AR is just crap thrown right in front of you. Its not a linear race where characters change between first and 2nd place and stuff like that. One thing that bothers me is the rest of the land feel like a real place but on the ride the characters look like a video game. they don't look like how they do outside the ride and they are see through!! you can see the background through them. Like a pepper's ghost effect. Its just characters doing stuff in front of you. BUT THERE IS NO ACTUAL RACE. The whole signals for you to turn the car are pointless because the car is going to turn along the track bar no matter what. Mr. Toad is faster than this ride. Some of the sets are kind of cool but the AR crap blocks the majority of it making the set hard to see. And there is hardly any AA's in it. The ride is a major let down and if you think otherwise you are lying to yourself. You know this does not look good or have any thrill factor. " but, but its a kid/family ride" ok...so is sapce mountain and big thunder and kids ride them like crazy. so what? so what? Universal dropped the ball -flat out. HOPEFULLY THE DONKEY KONG COASTER makes up for it. but Mario Kart is just a epic failure. Nintendo did not understand what their fans wanted or expected. Its awful. Oh and you are always team Mario and team Mario always wins. There is no variety. God awful.

I wouldn't expect anything thrilling from Donkey Kong after seeing the two rides. It will most likely be on the level of Mine Train. I wonder what will happen to the Yoshi ride if it rains?

On a positive note, the tunnel entrance for SNW is the best reveal ever for a theme park land.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

So, you guys wanted it to be like RSR. So let's unpack that for a second. The fast portion, which I assume is the part you guys are talking about, is roughly 30 seconds and is gargantuan. To scale that up to a 5 min. ride would be roughly 10 times the size of RSR. Considering this land was originally designed for 2 parks that are already tight for space, USF and USJ, that is non-workable. It would also be weather dependant and how would the AR work in the bright FL sun?

Universal built a state of the art family friendly dark ride with practical sets and some animatronics.

 

[JJ Abrams On A Couch]

Can any insider confirm or deny that the coaster concept for Donkey Kong was originally sketched-out for a possible Grinch/Mt. Crumpit family coaster at IOA?

I remember that was on the drawing board some time ago, yet never green-lit. I also remember hearing the coaster concept, or many aspects of it, were re-skinned from Grinch to the Donkey Kong IP once SNW went into motion.

For those in "the know", was any of this correct?

 

[1HAPPYGHOSTHOST]

So, you guys wanted it to be like RSR. So let's unpack that for a second. The fast portion, which I assume is the part you guys are talking about, is roughly 30 seconds and is gargantuan. To scale that up to a 5 min. ride would be roughly 10 times the size of RSR. Considering this land was originally designed for 2 parks that are already tight for space, USF and USJ, that is non-workable. It would also be weather dependant and how would the AR work in the bright FL sun?

Universal built a state of the art family friendly dark ride with practical sets and some animatronics.

There is no fast portion. The vehicle moves at the same speed. The screen simulates movement but for me seeing and feeling it are 2 different experiences.

 

[RSoxNo1]

The Mario Kart ride looks like a disappointment to me. I recognize that YouTube doesn't match the real life experience, but this was below my expectations and below what was sold in the concept art.

If you watch the ride without the AR goggles it looks like a pretty solid Mario themed dark ride, but it's not Mario Kart.

We talked about this across three different podcasts with a focus on the best ways to pull off an attraction like this. Consistently, we all felt that it had to be a passive experience. I know it's hard to swallow that when the concept of Mario Kart is an active/interactive experience but to really hit the most elements of the game on an actual ride, it seems that passive is the way to go.

Trackless ride vehicles paired with the Bourne stunt show style integration of screens/sets would do a great job at simulating speed. If you wanted to have an interactive component, each person in your vehicle could be given a certain type of ammo to fire at the other vehicles. Logistically, nothing done by the riders should be able to affect the forward motion of the vehicles but if the vehicles were given "windows of opportunity" to fire shells, bananas, etc at each other you could realistically see it work.

I said on Twitter that from an expectations vs. what we got standpoint, this could be a bigger miss than Fast and Furious.

 

[RSoxNo1]

So, you guys wanted it to be like RSR. So let's unpack that for a second. The fast portion, which I assume is the part you guys are talking about, is roughly 30 seconds and is gargantuan. To scale that up to a 5 min. ride would be roughly 10 times the size of RSR. Considering this land was originally designed for 2 parks that are already tight for space, USF and USJ, that is non-workable. It would also be weather dependant and how would the AR work in the bright FL sun?

Universal built a state of the art family friendly dark ride with practical sets and some animatronics.

That's the thing though, it's a Mario's greatest hits ride, not really a Mario Kart ride.

 

[Tom Morrow]

In what world would a Mario Kart ride with physical sets work without AR? How else would the items work? Mario Kart’s selling points are the characters and items. Going fast isn’t always the priority.

The answer is pretty simple - don't make it interactive. As @RSoxNo1 mentioned above, you can incorporate all the well-known elements of a Mario Kart race into a passive experience.

Also, I get that space was an issue for a thrill ride, but we also don't need to go as fast as Test Track/RSR either, so it wouldn't need to be quite as big. But if they still needed less space, I feel that the Spider-Man ride system would be much more apt at recreating the experience than this. Yes, you would then open up complaints about re-using that ride system, but it really is quite versatile.

Since they were gung-ho on making an AR experience, I think the videos with the goggles off demonstrate that it's a decent slow-moving Mario themed dark ride, but again as RSox said, it's not Mario Kart. This could have, instead, been, say, a Luigi's Mansion ride, or simply a ride where you use a fire flower "gun" to shoot fireballs at enemies and rack up points. That way people aren't let down by their race-themed ride going walking speeds around small rooms.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Can any insider confirm or deny that the coaster concept for Donkey Kong was originally sketched-out for a possible Grinch/Mt. Crumpit family coaster at IOA?

I remember that was on the drawing board some time ago, yet never green-lit. I also remember hearing the coaster concept, or many aspects of it, were re-skinned from Grinch to the Donkey Kong IP once SNW went into motion.

For those in "the know", was any of this correct?

The “gimmick” of the proposed Donkey Kong attraction is a Minecart coaster that appears like it can jump from one track to another. This is taken straight from the games, so it is unlikely it will be a reskin of any other proposed coasters.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

There is no fast portion. The vehivle moves at the same speed. The screen simulates movement but for me seeing and feeling it are 2 different experiences.

I'm talking about the racing (fast) portion of RSR.

 

[Brer Oswald]

The Mario Kart ride looks like a disappointment to me. I recognize that YouTube doesn't match the real life experience, but this was below my expectations and below what was sold in the concept art.

If you watch the ride without the AR goggles it looks like a pretty solid Mario themed dark ride, but it's not Mario Kart.

We talked about this across three different podcasts with a focus on the best ways to pull off an attraction like this. Consistently, we all felt that it had to be a passive experience. I know it's hard to swallow that when the concept of Mario Kart is an active/interactive experience but to really hit the most elements of the game on an actual ride, it seems that passive is the way to go.

Trackless ride vehicles paired with the Bourne stunt show style integration of screens/sets would do a great job at simulating speed. If you wanted to have an interactive component, each person in your vehicle could be given a certain type of ammo to fire at the other vehicles. Logistically, nothing done by the riders should be able to affect the forward motion of the vehicles but if the vehicles were given "windows of opportunity" to fire shells, bananas, etc at each other you could realistically see it work.

I said on Twitter that from an expectations vs. what we got standpoint, this could be a bigger miss than Fast and Furious.

If you claim it should have been a passive experience (which I don’t necessarily disagree with) then it just shouldn’t have been Mario Kart. Mario Kart is not a story driven experience. The “areas” in the ride may look a bit barren, but they are a fairly accurate physical representation of the tracks they are depicting.

Mario Kart is all about the items. It’s become so bad that they’ve actually doubled down on items in the games. There’s just no way to make an “accurate” Mario Kart experience with interactivity.

I do think they should’ve made a state of the art Mario attraction. Something that would top all other recent “dark rides” and feature locations and animatronic characters from the main games. I said this years ago when it was first reported that Mario Kart was to be the main attraction. “Oh it’ll be amazing, it’s Mario Kart.” As someone who plays Mario Kart, what we got was about what I expected.

 

[European1992]

Why didn't they just make a non racing Mario ridewith this tech?

 

[WillWrambles]

And don’t get me started on those bracelets needed to even do those things. That worked with wands and Potter because at least, you know, a wand is a wand. Cool on its own, bonus that it does some things in the park. The bracelets on the other hand (anyone know the cost?) - I just don’t see how those fly the same here. They only work in one place (unlike MagicBands) and they are just little branded things. Maybe I’m wrong, I know Nintendo is all about collectibles and such...but unless they are super-cheap, they just seem like too much. (We’ll see, I guess I got myself started on that one LOL.)

The major gimmick with these is that they are also an amiibo, which is Nintendo’s brand of NFC collectables. While normal amiibo cost around 15 USD, the bands cost about 35 USD, converted from Yen, probably because of the rubber pricing and need for sharper paint applications, and they can also be used with all Nintendo consoles released in this decade of time. So even though I personally won’t be able to experience the land for a while, I would still purchase a band now if NoA sold them on their online shop.

 

[Brer Oswald]

The answer is pretty simple - don't make it interactive. As @RSoxNo1 mentioned above, you can incorporate all the well-known elements of a Mario Kart race into a passive experience.

Also, I get that space was an issue for a thrill ride, but we also don't need to go as fast as Test Track/RSR either, so it wouldn't need to be quite as big. But if they still needed less space, I feel that the Spider-Man ride system would be much more apt at recreating the experience than this. Yes, you would then open up complaints about re-using that ride system, but it really is quite versatile.

Since they were gung-ho on making an AR experience, I think the videos with the goggles off demonstrate that it's a decent slow-moving Mario themed dark ride, but again as RSox said, it's not Mario Kart. This could have, instead, been, say, a Luigi's Mansion ride, or simply a ride where you use a fire flower "gun" to shoot fireballs at enemies and wrack up points. That way people aren't let down by their race-themed ride going walking speeds around small rooms.

The answer would be “don’t make it Mario Kart”. If you take out the items and just make it racing, how does it set itself apart from other racing rides? The tracks aren’t iconic locations from the Mario series, they’ve maybe appeared in 1 or 2 games.

I understand the complains about speed. I don’t understand why people think prioritizing AR items over speed makes it inherently “less Mario Kart” because the games themselves prioritize items over speed. Otherwise, every person playing the games would just pick the heaviest speed character.

It’s easy to say I would have done this differently. I would have. They picked a great set of tracks. However, I don’t think they picked the definitive sections of each track. Piranha Plant Slide, Twisted Mansion, and Rainbow Road are all fine.

They picked the underwater section of Dolphin Shoals. The definitive part of that track is when you come out of the water, take the big turn with the saxophone playing, and jump back into the reef. But that would have required some speed and some openness.

Cloudtop Cruise has a similar problem. It’s too restrictive in the ride. Then you get to Grumble Volcano, and it looks EXACTLY like the game. It’s beautiful, but when you turn, instead of going through a giant volcano, it just kind of ends.

I feel like this ride was way too restricted with space. That’s probably why it’s slower. It’d probably be smart to expand upon it for the eventual Florida version (where they will have more space), but you know that won’t happen. Overall though, it still creates what I believe will be a convincing Mario Kart Experience.

 

[lazyboy97o]

But if they still needed less space, I feel that the Spider-Man ride system would be much more apt at recreating the experience than this. Yes, you would then open up complaints about re-using that ride system, but it really is quite versatile.

This! Over 20 years ago Universal successfully created the illusion of speed and chaos on a slow moving dark ride. 10 years ago they upped the ante with Transformers feeling even faster and more chaotic. So this is something they have already accomplished. To claim it is impossible is blind brand defense.

Now yes, there was a test during the development of Men in Black: Alien Attack where they set up targets inside Spider-Man to see if the system would work and it was considered too difficult with all of that movement. But that movement can be programmed and controlled for a custom build. That vehicle is also a lot larger than the sort of intimacy one expects of a go kart. But Oceaneering, Universal’s manufacturing partner for the Spider-Man ride system, already sells a scaled down version of their imitation of the Spider-Man ride system, the EVO-6 system that is used by the Justice League: Battle for Metropolis rides at several Six Flags parks.

Too many rides with the same system is also clearly not a concern for Universal. At Universal Studios Beijing, Transformers and Jurassic World will be adjacent lands featuring the Spider-Man ride system. If Super Nintendo World had been built at Universal Studios Florida then Mario Kart would be near Men in Black with Cat in the Hat next door, not exactly different than having a third Spider-Man type ride.

 

[Brer Oswald]

That's the thing though, it's a Mario's greatest hits ride, not really a Mario Kart ride.

But it isn’t a “Mario’s Greatest Hits Ride”. Every part of the ride is from Mario Kart 8. The only character not in a Mario Kart game to make his way into the ride is Kamek.

 

[Loopsie]

Once again, I just think Mario Kart was a bad idea for a theme park attraction to begin with.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Once again, I just think Mario Kart was a bad idea for a theme park attraction to begin with.

What would you have done instead?

 

[SplashJacket]

What would you have done instead?

Wii Fit Trainer

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Universal built a state of the art family friendly dark ride with practical sets and some animatronics.

I just feel like it's a lousy IP to base themed entertainment off of in the first place. I'm a huge Nintendo fan but it's just a bad fit for a theme park. Animated content is difficult because when you try to make an immersive environment, everything looks plastic. This whole concept fails in the same way that Toon Town, Art of Animation, Under the Sea, and the Simpsons fail for me.