Last week, crews broke ground on work on Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan, which came accompanied with a brief announcement trailer depicting Mario showing off an animated rendering of what the upcoming part of the park could look like upon completion. However, Nintendo remained mum on whether the plans for Nintendo World Japan would be the same for Nintendo World at Universal Studios Orlando.
Local Orlando news station WFTV9 obtained exclusive details about what we can expect from Nintendo World Orlando; according to “sources familiar with the project,” a significant portion of the current kid zone will be torn down, which currently focuses on characters like Woody Woodpecker and Barney. It has been confirmed that in their place, a Mario Kart ride will be installed, which will consist of a moving track ride where guests will wear augmented reality glasses to make them feel as though they are actually within the Mario Kart universe. Rick Munnarriz with The Motley Fool had the following to say about the ride:
“It will not be a basic car ride. Whether it’s augmented reality or some kind of scoring thing in the real world. There will be a score element, race element to it and that is what’s going to make the ride re-rideable.”
A Donkey Kong roller coaster will also be part of the park, along with interactive areas that will feature floating coins suspended in mid-air via a magnetic system.
“These characters are very familiar to people, of all generations,” said Munarriz. “There’s a lot of potential here for this to be a lot bigger than just die-hard gamers.”
Judging from the trailer and the recently revealed details, it seems the focus of the park will be on the Mario universe rather than on other Nintendo franchises, but it remains to be seen whether features of the park will, in fact, branch out to other Nintendo universes.
Will you be making the journey to one of Universal’s Nintendo Worlds once they open? Would you like to see any particular franchises included as features in the park? Let us know in the comments!
Source: WFTV9