Following the exciting news that the hotly anticipated “Super Nintendo World” area at Universal Studios Japan will be ready in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, some tantalising new mock ups have appeared online giving us an insight into how the park will look.
These new images essentially give us a (very) rough indication of the structure of this Nintendo themed branch of Universal Studios Japan, but we do get a cool look at exactly how Nintendo wants the Mario Kart attraction to look, as well as a tease for some kind of Donkey Kong themed rollercoaster.
I’m still not seeing any Zelda attractions though. That stings. As you can see from the mockups below, the park has a decidedly Super Mario flavour to it.
Construction on the park began in earnest back in October 2018, and we know we can expect a number of rides and attractions based on various Nintendo properties.
We’d heard a Mario Kart ride was a safe bet, which has now pretty much been confirmed by these new images, but beyond that we can’t really work out from the mockups what else we might be getting.
I’m still very much hoping for a Luigi’s Mansion ghost train and some kind of Metroid inspired laser quest attraction, but I think if I’m being honest with myself, those are unlikely.
It’s also been reported that a Super Nintendo World will arrive in the US sometime after the 2020 launch in Japan, but it doesn’t look as though construction has begun on this park just yet.
I’m currently most intrigued by the Bowser’s Castle that looms in the distance. Will it be purely decorative? Will children be selected at random to go inside and fight a real giant lizard for the entertainment of Shigeru Miyamoto?
I have no idea, but I can’t wait to find out.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.