Villain Con (Minions) ride to replace Shrek 4-D (rumor)

[Andrew25]

With the exception of a few, the attraction is being rated, including myself, as just fine. Definitely nowhere near the hot mess that is Fast & Furious.

It's no E-Ticket, but it's fine and exactly what the Universal parks needed - more attractions targeted at families.

However, the Minion franchise still deserves a true E-Ticket attraction. Minion Mayhem & Villain-Con have yet to provide the Minions with the attraction they deserve.


I like it more than Buzz, on par with Toy Story Mania, but not at the level of MIB.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I've seen the walk-through videos. I'm going to keep an open mind until I experience it next month.

But a couple of things I'm trying to square:

1. Lack of ride vehicle. I just don't see the allure of waiting in a 15,30,60 minute line to then have to continue standing for the 6 or so minutes the ride takes to complete.
2. The screens look way too busy in some areas.

But again I'll reserve final judgement until I actually ride it. The land looks great though.

 

[celluloid]

I've seen the walk-through videos. I'm going to keep an open mind until I experience it next month.

But a couple of things I'm trying to square:

1. Lack of ride vehicle. I just don't see the allure of waiting in a 15,30,60 minute line to then have to continue standing for the 6 or so minutes the ride takes to complete.
2. The screens look way too busy in some areas.

But again I'll reserve final judgement until I actually ride it. The land looks great though.

I am avoiding videos but those are valid concerns. I am told there is a preshow from a firend and what looks like it from one image I saw, but since this essentially is a people eater greater than an Omnimover should be, I don't think you will ever likely see a line that is 60 minutes unless there is some serious downtime going on.

I still think the biggest fail is the fact that a three year old to small four year old is not likely going to be able to hold the gun up, much less shoot it for the durration of attraction.

And that is a huge point of who this attraction needed to be for. Universal Studios only has three no height requirement attractions right now including this one(four if you count hogwarts express transpotation for a park to park ticket) and two of those(Minion Mayhem and Minion Blast) they can't even fully experience.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I still think the biggest fail is the fact that a three year old to small four year old is not likely going to be able to hold the gun up, much less shoot it for the durration of attraction.

Very, very valid.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Where did you find that being said?

Lot's of places, maybe not everyone saying that it's worse than F&F, but that it's a dud.

This account gives a pretty good analysis, bear in mind that this is typically a very pro-Universal channel:



Apparently they didn't use the second Shrek theater and it's still there so that it can be used for HHN houses again. IMO they can always find another spot for that 10th house and should have just used the whole building for something properly immersive. USF needs serious help, and it needs a new physical dark ride. Yet another mediocre to terrible screen based attraction was not the answer.

 

[Tom Morrow]

It's also getting increasingly frustrating that interactive/video game rides are basically always met with lukewarm reception. For some reason the corporate overlords refuse to listen. "This is the future of theme parks!!" No. You get a mediocre ride combined with a mediocre video game. Both entertainment forms are significantly better in their true form and they do not need to be combined.

There are a few videos of the attraction floating on YouTube even though Universal asked for no filming. You can see that the rooms are small, there's not that many of them, and it all looks like a bunch of phone games on OLED monitors on walls and not much more than that.

 

[JT3000]

General consensus seems to be that it’s terrible. Worse than Fast & Furious.

That's not the consensus I'm seeing at all. Most seem to be enjoying it for what it is. Mind you, what it is appears to be a major problem -- basically the worst possible thing you could replace Shrek with, as it adds no variety to the park as a whole or especially that section of it, being yet another screen-based attraction (with screens that apparently lag, one wrinkle I didn't expect.) The fact that it's not even an actual ride also strikes me as being very underwhelming. But I haven't experienced it personally, and among those who have, I'm definitely not seeing this "consensus" that it's a terrible attraction. The overall reaction has in fact been much more positive than I would expect from watching a video of it.

By the way, I've watched other videos on that YouTuber's channel, and I would certainly not paint him as a "very pro-Universal channel." He is in fact highly critical of most attractions he makes videos about. They are almost all negative in tone, and I've yet to see him be "pro" anything. If you take your "consensus" from him, then the consensus is that everything sucks.

 

[Tom Morrow]

That's not the consensus I'm seeing at all. Most seem to be enjoying it for what it is. Mind you, what it is appears to be a major problem -- basically the worst possible thing you could replace Shrek with, as it adds no variety to the park as a whole or especially that section of it, being yet another screen-based attraction (with screens that apparently lag, one wrinkle I didn't expect.) The fact that it's not even an actual ride also strikes me as being very underwhelming. But I haven't experienced it personally, and among those who have, I'm definitely not seeing this "consensus" that it's a terrible attraction. The overall reaction has in fact been much more positive than I would expect from watching a video of it.

By the way, I've watched other videos on that YouTuber's channel, and I would certainly not paint him as a "very pro-Universal channel." He is in fact highly critical of most attractions he makes videos about. They are almost all negative in tone, and I've yet to see him be "pro" anything. If you take your "consensus" from him, then the consensus is that everything sucks.

I counted about 8 out of his 100 videos being critical of Universal.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

The video I watched looked like utter chaos, stuff blowing up everywhere and aiming points everywhere you looked.

I’ve always disliked that it’s hard to find my dot (aim point) on Buzz Lightyear and my initial reaction was this looked equally as bad, spacing out the dots (on the floor) would help with that but that would also drastically reduce capacity.

Maybe in person it will work, on camera it looked overwhelming.

 

[JT3000]

I counted about 8 out of his 100 videos being critical of Universal.

He hasn't made many more Universal videos than that. Most of his videos being critical of Disney doesn't make him pro Universal. It's not a binary.

 

[celluloid]

He hasn't made many more Universal videos than that. Most of his videos being critical of Disney doesn't make him pro Universal. It's not a binary.

And all attractions has their flaws, I don't think that the attraction is terrible and worse than Fast and The Furious is a general consensus, which is what I asked evidence for and never got.

I am not even saying it is steller, but it just needs to be a minor attraction for the little space it takes up, which was the goal replacing the Shrek 4D attraction.

Now they could put Secret Life of Pets where Fallon is, at least in facade and what they can use. Building would have to change.

For the record, one person is not a consensus for the subject "general consensus"

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

My personal review after riding:

Negatives:

Biggest fault, way too many guests on the ride at once. Oftentimes you can’t even see the screen on the ride because there are too many explosions. There needs to be about half as many guests of the ride.

Second fault, there is an extreme amount of lag. I’ve heard other talk about this, but the guns have over two seconds of lag at times. In addition, some of the guns aren’t properly aligned. I had to aim my gun about 70 degrees to the right of where I wanted to shoot!

Third fault, because there are too many people on the ride, there seems to be a maximum number of guns on the screen at a time. It’s the luck of the draw for whether or not your gun will interact with a given room.

Final major fault, without prior knowledge of the storyline, the ride is utter nonsense. There is no buildup of the storyline or preshow to explain the story of the ride. Even with prior knowledge, you can’t see the screen and you still can’t really tell if there’s a story. Fun shooting arcade, but I don’t see the story.

Positives:

Really nice ride for little ones or those prone to motion sickness. Universal is lacking on ride for families, so this is a welcome addition.

Handheld guns allow 360 degree freedom, which is nice, even if the guns are bulky.

The capacity has to be through the roof because the ride is just a moving walkway.

It’s actually really enjoyable even without a clear storyline. The game is really fun overall, and though you can’t see what your shooting at on the screen due to the ride being over-crowded, the craziness, nonsense, and explosions kind of add to the fun.



Overall, it is a welcome addition and a fine replacement for Shrek 4-D. It is not a stellar ride. I wouldn’t wait more than 20 minutes for the ride, but despite that fact, it’s a welcome addition as a family oriented ride in a park barren of family oriented options.

 

[celluloid]

Positives:

Really nice ride for little ones or those prone to motion sickness. Universal is lacking on ride for families, so this is a welcome addition.

Handheld guns allow 360 degree freedom, which is nice, even if the guns are bulky.

The capacity has to be through the roof because the ride is just a moving walkway.

It’s actually really enjoyable even without a clear storyline. The game is really fun overall, and though you can’t see what your shooting at on the screen due to the ride being over-crowded, the craziness, nonsense, and explosions kind of add to the fun.



Overall, it is a welcome addition and a fine replacement for Shrek 4-D. It is not a stellar ride. I wouldn’t wait more than 20 minutes for the ride, but despite that fact, it’s a welcome addition as a family oriented ride in a park barren of family oriented options.

Since the thing has a capacity of probably close to 2,000 people per hour I can't imagine anyone ever waiting longer than 20 minutes often unless there are some serious hold ups.


IT truly has become a park of hardly any family based options. The Spinner over at Springfield, Twirl and Hurl and ET are the ONLY attraction of just a Studios Day ticket that anyone under 40 inches can fully experience.

Howarts needs park to park. Despicable Me requires Stationary Seats.Another reason to figure out or replace those blasters pronto. Skip the app thing, if it makes them smaller and lighter. It needs to be fun in person before it tracks points on an app. That Dreamworks area needs to get open finished ASAP. a 3 year old should not be charged to enter the park as it is right now. It is wild to me we have gotten to a point where IOA has more to do for the average three year old height.

It is particularly wild because when I grew up Universal Studios did not have any height requirements for their rides. ET was ironically one of the first and lowest once they got rid of spaceship seating.

Maybe the smoosh of people are causing part of the lag on the system. Hopefully that is a technical rehearsal situation than can be remedied in time.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

USF needs serious help, and it needs a new physical dark ride. Yet another mediocre to terrible screen based attraction was not the answer.

If they did they could either use Sound Stage 33 and utilze the New York Area with the Secret Life of Pets ride to balance out Illuminations take over of the main strip of the park...Not sure what that is used for unless a haunt this would make the most sense...

 

[JT3000]

If they did they could either use Sound Stage 33 and utilze the New York Area with the Secret Life of Pets ride to balance out Illuminations take over of the main strip of the park...Not sure what that is used for unless a haunt this would make the most sense...
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It's used as an events space. It's hosted media events for HHN and such. I'd like to see an attraction go there, and it's something I've speculated on in the past, but I'm not actually sure how likely that is to ever happen. I'd also like to see them replace the flat NY library facade with a proper one like in Singapore, but since it just recently got a facelift that's probably not happening either.

 

[abaker1975]

My expectation was for a C but fun level attraction. I actually thought the moving walkway was a great idea and would give a different perspective and feeling to a shooting type experience. I genuinely thought this was going to be a good addition to match the retheme of the area to Minion land to give a fun experience.

However, from what I am reading it does seems this is wholly screen based and I thought in my head this was going to use physcial targets that would set off fun actions. Something more akin to the Shootin's Arcade in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom. I am really disappointed that descriptions seem to suggest a short, crowded and busy screen based targets.

Hoping I will enjoy it more than I think I now will when visiting in September.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Looking at one of the PoV videos on YouTube. I counted the number of people shown in a 'room' and the time it took to transverse the room, and it seems its PPH is somewhere between 1,200 to 1,500.

Nowhere near the 2k number I've seen posted.

 

[Hawkeye_2018]

Yeah this looks pretty meh and actually in line with the recent meh Minion movies. Kudos to Universal for at least doing more with the IP though.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Yeah this looks pretty meh and actually in line with the recent meh Minion movies. Kudos to Universal for at least doing more with the IP though.

Well, it's something until what Dreamworks brings to the old Kidzone section..

 

[Disstevefan1]

It looks fine. Is it a great attraction, no, but it’s, indoor, it looks fun, there is no height restriction, and it has high throughput.

The worst change for me in Universal Orlando history is the removal of the subway earthquake, flood bit they demolished for the very poor F&F (attraction?)

F&F could be, Universal’s rocket rods.