Nintendo is often referred to as the “Disney of video games.” But while Nintendo has long matched Disney’s reputation for family-friendly home entertainment, nothing has matched Disney’s dominance in the physical world of theme parks.
That started to change in 2021 when Super Nintendo World finally opened at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. A very similar experience is now coming to America with the opening of the Super Nintendo World section of Universal Studios Hollywood.
Ars took a sneak peek at the new section of the park just before the park opened on Friday and was completely mesmerized by the charming interactivity and Disney-esque attention to detail found throughout the park’s newest themed areas.
Mario Kart The Ride
The centerpiece of Super Famicom World is the corner’s only full-fledged “Motion Attraction” and “Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge.” I was skeptical that the combination of rides and augmented reality games would come together satisfactorily, but I wanted to go again and walked away from each of the three rides.
The AR headset “Koopa’s Challenge” consists of two parts. First, you are handed a visor that resembles a red Mario hat. It fits around your forehead and tightens with a rear crank (anyone who’s ever used a PSVR headset knows that). The second part, containing the actual AR display, remains tethered to the cart itself and attaches to the visor with a simple magnetic click.The lightweight, transparent display floats comfortably in front of you.
Most of the highly scripted and interactive Mario Kart races can be seen in ghostly imagery on this AR display. From carts on the other side to item boxes to flying enemies, everything is only in this view and doesn’t come across well in a photo or ride-through video.
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The warp pipe entrance of Super Famicom World.
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*warp pipe sound*
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Like a plexiglass dream.
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A distant view from the Universal Studios escalator.
AR images (which only appear in a relatively large area of vision) obviously have lower resolution, especially for objects viewed from a distance. That general blurriness is made even more pronounced by the side-by-side comparison of some impressive practical effects while driving and the high-resolution screen.
That said, the apparent position of the AR items is very stable as the viewpoint changes during the ride, making it easier to trick the brain into thinking that these items are actually “real”.
