Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto led a video tour of Mario’s Super Nintendo World attraction at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka through the company’s latest direct live stream.
The theme park seems to be full of a Mario image that will be familiar to Nintendo fans. Even the entrance on the theme of Mario: you enter the park by walking through a huge pipe that spawns you out into the atrium of the castle of Princess Peach who entered the first Super Mario 64.
Miyamoto showed you how to use a special smart bracelet, called the “Power-Up Band,” to interact with different parts of the zone. In one example, he shook a question mark block with the hand throwing the machine, and the block made the classic Mario dog collection sound. In another moment, Miyamoto hit a POW block near a spinning Koopa shell at just the right time to make him kick up and collect key coins. The band connects to your smartphone so you can keep track of your activities around the park.
Miyamoto also walked through an underground area with too many elements to create the image of being a smaller Mario, a large cafe with video screens of toads making food, and Bowser Castle, where the AR Mario Karta themed roller coaster is located.
As a long-time Mario fan, the park looks fun, and I hope I can experience it for myself someday. Super Nintendo World is scheduled to open on February 4th. The zone was expected to open before the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but its 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.