Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto led a video tour of the company’s Mario-themed Super Nintendo World attraction at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka during the company’s latest Direct livestream.
The theme park looks to be packed with Mario iconography that will be familiar to Nintendo fans. Even the entrance Mario-themed: you enter the park by walking through a giant pipe that spits you out in the atrium of Princess Peach’s castle that first debuted in Super Mario 64.
Miyamoto showed how you can you use a special smart wristband, called the “Power-Up Band,” to interact with different parts of the zone. In one example, he punched a question mark block with the hand wearing the device, and the block made the classic Mario coin-collecting sound. In another moment, Miyamoto hit a POW block near a spinning Koopa shell at the right time to make it bounce up and collect a key coin. The band links to your smartphone so you can track your activities around the park.
Miyamoto also walked through an underground area that had oversized elements to create the illusion of being a smaller Mario, a vast cafe with video screens of Toads making food, and Bowser’s Castle, which is where the AR Mario Kart-themed roller coaster is located.
As a long-time Mario fan, the park looks delightful, and I hope I can experience it for myself someday. Super Nintendo World is scheduled to open on February 4th. The zone was originally set to open before the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but the opening was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (which also pushed back the Olympics). At some point, Universal Studios also plans to open Super Nintendo World zones in Hollywood, California; Orlando, Florida; and Singapore.
