Nintendo Land IRL? Nintendo-themed Rides Coming to Universal Studios

[Steven Bogos]

Nintendo Land IRL? Nintendo-themed Rides Coming to Universal Studios

Nintendo announced its partnership with Universal Studios today, but provided no additional details.

How awesome would a real-life Nintendo theme park be? This is the hypothetical Nintendo fans have been dreaming of for years, and was recently re-ignited with the virtual Nintendo theme park that was the Wii U's Nintendo Land [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/nintendo%20land?os=nintendo+land]. Now, it looks like those fanboy dreams are about to come true, as Nintendo has just announced a partnership with Universal Studios to bring Nintendo-themed attractions to its various resorts around the world.

"Nintendo and Universal Parks & Resorts today announced plans to bring the world of Nintendo to life at Universal theme parks - creating spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo's wildly popular games, characters and worlds," said the companies in a joint press release [http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150507005307/en/Nintendo-Partners-Universal-Parks-Resorts-Create-World%E2%80%99s#.VUtcrvmqpBf]. "The immersive experiences will include major attractions at Universal's theme parks and will feature Nintendo's most famous characters and games," it added.

For those of you expecting any additional details on the what, when, and where of this deal, I'm afraid that for now, this is literally all we have to go on. "More details will be announced in the future," promised the companies, "as the Nintendo and Universal creative teams work to create specific concepts."

Universal Studios currently has four theme parks world wide - two in the USA, one in Japan, and one in Singapore, with plans for four more in South Korea, UAE, China and Russia.

So until then, let us dream. What would be the best Nintendo-themed rides? The obvious ones for me are a Donkey Kong-themed mine-cart rollercoaster, a Metroid-themed lazer tag simulator, and of course, a Luigi's Mansion haunted house.

Source: Business Wire [http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150507005307/en/Nintendo-Partners-Universal-Parks-Resorts-Create-World%E2%80%99s#.VUtcrvmqpBf]

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[Starik20X6]

Spoiler: Is it this?

There should be a replica Animal Crossing village, doesn't particularly need any 'rides', it'd just be a nice place to spend some time.

Some kind of Bowser's Castle themed roller coaster would be cool.

How about a Mario Kart track?

Real life Pokémon Snap! Have the buggy thing make its way through various areas full of animatronic Pokémon for you to take photos of with your phone!

An F-Zero high-speed roller coaster is a must... Each car styled after a different vehicle. Bonus points if they make it 4 simultaneous roller coasters that track beside each other.

What about one of those simulation rides that takes you on a mission with the Star Fox team?

EDIT: A stage show telling the stories of the Zelda series (rotate which game's story is being told).

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Ok...ok. Now Metroid, yes definately Metroid has got me thinking. Throw a Samus suit onto a kid, throw them into a huge set or whatever you would call an enclosed recreation of a hostile planet surface, throw their paying family in as stranded survivors, so the kid has to go around scanning various honey badgers and wasp hives in an attempt to find and rescue his family. Every now and then we could drop in a painted, disgruntled eagle to give the kid a Ripley boss fight. Lava needs to be there too. Yes lava is a must.
Health and safety might be a colourful obstacle to overcome. How's Thailand with that sort of thing? We could host it there!

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Could be fun depending on how much effort they put into it. If they go all out like Harry Potter, that would be really cool (Pokemon alone could be it's own themed land), but if it's just some half arsed arcade shoved in the back next to the bathrooms, not so much.

A Pokemon Center would be nice, the only one in the US is in Seattle.

 

[Fox12]

I assume we get one too?

Because I would love an Eva theme park, but that's not likely to leave the country. A Resident Evil ride would be glorious, but Japan is keeping that to itself. Why do they get all the good shit?

 

[Andy Shandy]

If this doesn't lead to a real-life recreation of World 1-1 where you can bounce off a trampoline at the end and grab onto a flagpole, society will have failed us.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Spoiler: Is it this?

There should be a replica Animal Crossing village, doesn't particularly need any 'rides', it'd just be a nice place to spend some time.

How can one replica the village seeing how every player villages are layout differently? Still I always wanted to go to Roost despite I don't like coffee.

OT- They should definitely got to be Peach or Hyrule Castle and there should totally be a safari park for the Pokemon!

 

[Buizel91]

We need a 3d Pokemon ride like the Spiderman one in Universal Florida!

Sonic the Hedgehog Rollercoaster, Metroid Laser Tag, Legend of Zelda puzzle game, like a fun house with puzzles etc. A wall to climb up in the theme of the Ice Climbers, Luigi's Haunted Mansion would be amazing, as would Mario Dodgems!

Man i need to go there when this is done!

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

The Donkey Kong minecart and Luigi's Manson haunted house sound spot on. But the lazer tag thing might work better for Splatoon, if it doesn't bomb. (If they can get the park set up in time, that attraction might generate some buzz for the game, before it drops off the radar.) Imagine a floor and walls with the sensors you can shoot to "paint" the area.

For Metroid, I'd rather see a giant, multi-level maze that let's you get through it by acquiring new abilities, such as bombing suspicious walls and using virtual missiles, maybe even a something like the grapple beam. (Still trying to figure out a morph ball solution that doesn't mangle kids' spines.) The real challenge, that makes this almost impossible for a theme park ride, is thinking of a layout and rules that keep people moving. (Ah well, at least I know what to do with any mansions I inherit in area's where someone already converted theirs into real life Luigi's Mansions.)

Since Nintendo is talking to Hollywood companies again (It's not Columbia Pictures nor the production division of Universal, but hey.) does this mean we're one step closer to a Ghostbusters/Luigi's Mansion crossover?

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Since Nintendo is talking to Hollywood companies again (It's not Columbia Pictures nor the production division of Universal, but hey.) does this mean we're one step closer to a Ghostbusters/Luigi's Mansion crossover?

No, because they know what would happen. Just give up on seeing any Nintendo films ever again. And be thankful for it

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Since Nintendo is talking to Hollywood companies again (It's not Columbia Pictures nor the production division of Universal, but hey.) does this mean we're one step closer to a Ghostbusters/Luigi's Mansion crossover?

No, because they know what would happen. Just give up on seeing any Nintendo films ever again. And be thankful for it

Actually, I was hoping for a game. I'd be right beside you, firing a proton stream at any feature length Nintendo movie trying to climb out of the bowels of Hollywood.

 

[Alfredo Jones]

I think a good Metroid ride would be something along the lines of an interactive version of the Haunted Mansion ride from Disney World. You would get two to four people in a car, each with a laser gun modeled off of Samus' arm cannon. They would go through a dark indoor ride modeled off of locations like Brinstar and Norfair, all the while shooting animatronic enemies from the game. There would even be appearances from Kraid, Ridley, and finally Mother Brain. The last part of the ride would be a fast-paced escape sequence just like in the games. In the end each person has a score based on how many targets they managed to hit.

 

[Batadon]

Kirby's Air Ride seems like an obvious choice.

 

[marioandsonic]

The irony of these two joining together is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

For those who don?t know, I?m talking about Universal taking Nintendo to court over "Donkey Kong" (the original arcade game) being a rip-off of King Kong, which Universal claimed they owned the copyright for.

Well, Nintendo?s lawyer revealed that not only did Universal not own the King Kong copyright, but Universal itself had won an earlier case against RKO Studios stating King Kong and its characters were in public domain.

With Universal having no legal ground to stand on, Nintendo won the case.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

If I film something within the park, will Nintendo charge me if I upload it to YouTube? Just kidding, it's a nice idea.

 

[moosemaimer]

They're crazy if they don't just go ahead and call it The Mushroom Kingdom.

 

[Dragonbums]

Ok...ok. Now Metroid, yes definately Metroid has got me thinking. Throw a Samus suit onto a kid, throw them into a huge set or whatever you would call an enclosed recreation of a hostile planet surface, throw their paying family in as stranded survivors, so the kid has to go around scanning various honey badgers and wasp hives in an attempt to find and rescue his family. Every now and then we could drop in a painted, disgruntled eagle to give the kid a Ripley boss fight. Lava needs to be there too. Yes lava is a must.
Health and safety might be a colourful obstacle to overcome. How's Thailand with that sort of thing? We could host it there!

I keep coming back to this thread to read this post. I have never laughed so much at an internet post in a long time.

This is such a good post, you have no dang idea. I want this to be archived forever.

OT: I'm interested to see where this goes. At first I thought it was a fake until Universal themselves on Facebook confirmed as such. This news honestly came completely out of nowhere I'll tell ya that.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Ashly Burch is going to be pissed.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

The irony of these two joining together is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

For those who don?t know, I?m talking about Universal taking Nintendo to court over "Donkey Kong" (the original arcade game) being a rip-off of King Kong, which Universal claimed they owned the copyright for.

Well, Nintendo?s lawyer revealed that not only did Universal not own the King Kong copyright, but Universal itself had won an earlier case against RKO Studios stating King Kong and its characters were in public domain.

With Universal having no legal ground to stand on, Nintendo won the case.

This is true. However, it was Universal that made The Wizard, the movie that was essentially a Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Mario Bros. 3 Commercial. Universal also allowed the Universal Studio Video Game for the Nintendo Gamecube. Obviously, the Animosity Nintendo and Universal had was very short lived.

OT: This is neat. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll ever go to Universal Studios. I'm a Disneyland kind of guy. Maybe one day I'll just go there for the Nintendo rides. Hope they'll be good!

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Snipples

I keep coming back to this thread to read this post. I have never laughed so much at an internet post in a long time.

This is such a good post, you have no dang idea. I want this to be archived forever.

OT: I'm interested to see where this goes. At first I thought it was a fake until Universal themselves on Facebook confirmed as such. This news honestly came completely out of nowhere I'll tell ya that.

Glad to have brought joy in some form or another One step closer to a free seat at the cloud buffet In heaven!