Universal Studios Japan has announced an opening date for its long-awaited Nintendo themed area.
The Super Nintendo World zone will open at the Osaka theme park on February 4th, 2021.
Universal and Nintendo have unveiled a new trailer for its upcoming Super Nintendo World themed land, which offers an up-close look inside the attraction’s marquee draw: a rollercoaster ride modelled after the popular Mario Kart video game series.
Housed inside a reconstructed Bowser’s Castle, Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge will carry riders through various game landscapes in four-passenger vehicles. The ride makes use of augmented reality (AR) and projection mapping technology, with riders donning AR headsets shaped like Mario’s cap.
The ride looks very familiar to one that Port Coquitlam’s Dynamic Attractions pitched as Mario Kart-like concept at the IAAPA Attractions Expo in 2018.
While non-disclosure agreements will likely prevent anyone at Dynamic Attractions confirming that they worked on Koopa’s Challenge, the celebratory buzz on LinkedIn yesterday tells a different story.
Further supporting their involvement, Dynamic Attractions announced in 2018 that they has signed a USD $56 million contract to build two new ride systems with an “unnamed theme park operator” that has “multiple parks” in various stages of development. And last month their parent company Empire Industries shared their Q3 results online and in a section labeled ‘Ride Manufacturing Update’ they mentioned that the company’s installation teams have recently remobilized and are at various stages of commissioning ride systems in Japan.
Built for half a billion dollars, Super Nintendo World boasts restaurants, live entertainment, and attractions based on Shigeru Miyamoto’s iconic video game series.
While the Japanese edition of the themed land will be the first to open at the top of 2021, North American versions are slated to open in the future at Universal Studios Hollywood and at the planned Epic Universe in Florida.
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