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| Super Nintendo World in 2023 - all hype and all fun! (photo by TravellingFool.com) |
From the moment my parents gave me an NES for Christmas when I was a baby, I have been a huge fan of Nintendo. So when I heard rumors of a Nintendo theme park opening I was filled with such joy and excitement that I couldn't wait to get there and experience it myself. With the pandemic and the first park being in Kyoto, Japan it took a while. But in June 2023 I finally got to head to Universal Studios Hollywood to see for myself if Super Nintendo World lived up to all the hype
While planning this trip I spent a lot of time weighing the pros and cons on whether or not to pay the extra $30 for a Super Nintendo World Early Access ticket that allows you to enter the park an hour early and Nintendo World before it opens to the general public at 11am. When the big day got here my brother and I woke up early to head to Universal Studios. We got to the entrance gates at 8am, an hour before the park officially opened, on a cloudy, warm, California morning, As we got closer I thought for a moment that we had been scammed when I looked at the clock and say it was 8:07am and a huge crowd of people were waiting at the entrance. As I said to my brother, waiting to get in defeats the purpose of paying for early access! But when we got to the gate we heard a cast member inviting people with early access to go to the special Nintendo World themed door to the park where there were only a couple dozen other people filing in.
It was a little surreal walking into a mostly empty park but we couldn't be distracted by the novelty of having the place to ourselves. At least 40 people walked through the Super Nintendo World gate at the same time as us so we knew we had to hustle in order to make proper use of our early entrance fee. Power walking through the park we made a quick detour at one of the gift shops to pick up the Power-Up Bands for use in Super Nintendo World. They cost $40 each but are a crucial part of enjoying the Nintendo part of the park. I got a Mario one and my brother got Toad. We were told by the cashier, and later found it to be true, that the Toad bands usually sell out first each day.
Had I known that Super Nintendo World was located on the back-lot of Universal then I may have gotten to the park even earlier. The journey from entering the front gate, traversing the entire park, riding down 4 very long escalators, and walking across the secondary section of the park to reach the entrance, took about 30 minutes. When we finally got to the entrance to Super Nintendo World I was already a little sweaty despite the sun being behind a bunch of grey clouds. There was a person there checking tickets and turning people away who didn't have the early access pass.
Once they confirmed our tickets we were allowed to enter the green pipe and get warped into Super Nintendo World. As you walk through there are rainbow lights swirling colors all around you and the warp pipe sound effect plays. I was immediately immersed and enamored as the pipe let out into a small room of Peach's castle, complete with shape shifting portraits from Super Mario 64. I could've stayed in that room for ages, and I probably did stay a tad too long based on my brother standing in the doorway to the park and telling me "c'mon, you still have to go into the park."
Walking through the castle doors into the park would've made my head explode if I was still a little kid. It was still amazing as an adult but I had enough self control to hold in the squeals of delight that I wanted to let out. The park is small. Very small. And within in they've crammed as many Nintendo things as possible, leveraging the space in a way that provides you with a few hours of exploration despite it's small size.There's Koopas walking around up top and Pikman hiding in corners. Secret 8-bit Mario holograms to find that are hidden on the walls. So many little touches.
We made a beeline for the Mario Kart ride which had an estimated queue wait time of an hour. It took about that long to reach the front but along the way you're treated to so many immersive rooms that it is worth waiting in the queue even if you want to skip the ride. You start off with entering Yoshi's Story themed rooms. The candy colored pink walls and flowers with smiley faces eventually give way to a dark cave filled with colorful crystals, that then brings you out again to another candy pink room where Yoshi waits upstairs, swallowing a Shy Guy on loop. At the top of the stairs is another green warp pipe that brings you to the outdoors part of the queue and a panoramic view of Nintendo World from up high. After winding our way through the queue, the path brought us to the front doors of Bowser's Castle (or King Koopa's Castle if you're Japanese). Inside the doors a giant statue of Bowser waits to greet you, creating a huge bottle neck in the queue as people stop to take photos with him before continuing into the castle.
Everything looked exactly as it appears in the games. From the Mario Kart trophies to little hand written notes from Bowser taunting and challenging Mario to a race, to the small pile of Bomb-ombs in a corner. The queue winds through Bowser's living room, study, and workshop until you go through another set of doors to watch the pre-ride orientation video, in the locker room of the race course where you can see the classic racing uniforms on display from Peach, Mario, Luigi, and Toad. There was even a small tanuki suit folded up in Mario's locker! After watching the video you're brought to another room to pick up the heavy plastic visors you have to wear for the ride and then it's back to waiting in the queue but this time on a flight of stairs that lead down to the cars that you lock yourself into and connect the visor to for the Mario Kart ride. The atmosphere, however, was far more immersive and impressive then the ride.
The other ride in Super Nintendo World is Bowser Jr's Lair. It's not even a ride as much as it is an interactive game. To get into the lair, however, you need to do two things - buy a $40 Power-Up Band and successfully complete 3 challenges around the park. The staff in front of the lair was kind enough to explain all of this and point out the location of the challenges we had to play. There are 4 total - Thwomp Panel Panic, Koopa Troopa POWer Punch, Goomba Crazy Crank, and Piranha Plant Nap Mishap.
Thwomp Panel Panic is located in a dark alcove underneath an thwomp block moving up and down above it. Peaking into the dark area there wasn't much of a line for this challenge but it also looked like not many people were clearing the challenge either, and those that did had a group of 4-6 people doing it with them, so we skipped this one to wait in line for Koopa Troopa POWer Punch. Koopa Troopa POWer Punch, or the POW block game as we called it, had a really long line but moved at a decent pace. It took us about 15 minutes to reach the front but that time wasn't wasted. We used it to figure out the timing of how to beat the game. There are so many people that failed and had to get back in line! When someone finally did win the next person asked how they did it and slowly we all figured out how to clear it - you have to hit your Power-Up Band on the bottom of the first POW block as the Koopa shell is entering the pipe. Not when it's in the pipe, not when it's far out of the pipe, just as the shell is about to touch the pipe. You only get 3 attempts to get the precise timing right before you fail and have to re-enter the queue to try again.
We moved to the Goomba Crazy Crank next, which had a queue that went all the way around the toadstool seats and just past the front door of the gift shop. It was 11am by this point and the exponential increase in crowds told us that we did the right thing by paying extra to get there early. Not too many people failed the crank game but not because the game was too easy. You have to move the crank very fast to win, something that most of the smaller kids couldn't manage on their own. The line was long enough that we could take turns checking out the gift shop and get back with plenty of time to spare before it was our turn. The crank was surprisingly hard to turn, and you had to do it so fast, that I found myself slightly out of breath after watching the Goomba run along the spinning wheel to get the coin.
Two games down and the third to unlock Bowser Jr.'s Lair was a choice between touching blocks on a light wall at Thwomp Panel Panic or running around in circles turning off alarm clocks at Piranha Plant Nap Mishap. At this point the park was so packed full of people, and we had woken up so early to get there, that I wanted to do whichever one we could get done the quickest. Both had huge lines of people, but I noticed that the Piranha Plant game had a worker who was a little more relaxed then the others were and let his relatives cut the line to play. I stood there and watched a few rounds of players and noticed that it required at least 3 people to beat the game, 4 or 5 to do it without literally running. The objective of the game is to hit the top of the alarm clocks as they light up but the alarm clocks are spread out across a pretty wide area. Instead of waiting in the queue, I waited for another group of 2 people to get their turn to play the game and before it started asked them if we could join them to make it easier. They agreed and we were able to complete the game with them, getting the final key to enter the lair without having to spend more time on a line.
I checked the app to confirm and sure enough all three keys were there. We were able now to go back to Bowser Jr.'s Lair and sure enough as soon as we tapped our Power-Up Bands on the lock we heard a sound and were admitted to the building. The queue area was quite small but there were a lot of things to check out and take photos of in Bowser Jr.'s version of Bowser's castle. It let us out into a big room with a large screen that wrapped around in a semi-circle and spots on the floor in front of it to stand-on. Although the whole experience to enter this game/ride required spending $40 on the wristband to access it, it was well worth it. The game was so much fun and everyone was laughing and shouting as you had to cooperate with the other 10 people in the room to win. It also requires standing and jumping, moving up and down doesn't work you have to actually jump, but I had a blast playing it.
There was only one stop left on our Super Nintendo World adventure - the restaurant. The Toadstool Cafe requires a wait list reservation, which you can book ahead of your visit online via this link on Zomato according to Undercover Tourist, but when I went for my visit I had no idea how. It was actually our first stop before we got in the queue for the Mario Kart ride but by 8:30am all the reservations were already gone. The restaurant wasn't even open until 11am! The cast member at the front door apologized and said that we might still be able to get on the wait list if we came back around 12pm because that's when they release more time slots. About 10 minutes before noon I went to the restaurant to wait for the additional time slots to become available and luckily enough could grab one for 3pm. There were so few available that half the crowd that was trying at the same time as us were met with the disappointment of not getting one.
3pm is a very late reservation when you've been in Super Nintendo World since 8:30am. There just isn't enough to see, do, or shop to fill in the gap so we spent about an hour and a half just sitting outside. I spent some of that time streaming the park on Twitch and the rest of it catching up on work. Finally when it was time we were admitted into the queue to purchase our food. Once again the interior was charming and delightfully themed with Toads in chef uniforms running around and appearing in the faux windows of the restaurant. The menu and photos of the food can be reviewed while you wait and once you get to the register you're greeted by a lovely person in a chef uniform matching Toad's with life size power-ups on the shelves behind them. I wanted to order one of everything on the menu but my brother had to stop me. There were also a lot of items that were already sold out for the day like the Toadstool Cheesy Garlic Knots, and Mt. Beanpole Cake.
After paying and waiting for any beverages that you've ordered it's time to wait at the hostess' station until they can bring you to an empty table. The dining room was packed with people. The theming is also continued there with huge windows showing animations of the Toads of the Mushroom Kingdom going about their day. Periodically Bowser comes to visit and the dining room turns stormy and dark before his ship sails by and the sun (and Toads) come out again. The cute and immersive atmosphere was accompanied by cute food that was absolutely delicious.
Super Mushroom Soup
The soup came in a very cute mushroom power-up bowl that you can take home with you. The mushroom soup was delicious, tiny bits of mushroom throughout a light cream base with little crackers on top with cute mushroom power-ups on them. My brother said the Tomato Soup in Super Mushroom Bowl that he ordered was great too.
Mario Burger
A classic bacon, mushroom, cheeseburger (or without cheese as my brother got it) had a little Mario moustache burned into the top of the brioche bun. It was quite large for a burger and came with plenty of fries although the truffle taste was so mild I couldn't even taste it. You can also order this burger as a veggie burger if that's your fancy.
Bowser's Fireball Challenge
I was really hungry by the time we got to eat and since the Chef Toad Short Rib Special was sold out I went for the next best thing, Bowser's Fireball Challenge. The one pound meatball it came with looked more like two or three hamburger patties squished together and covered in a light layer of melted mozzarella cheese. It was laying in a pool of spicy marinara sauce and came with a deliciously flakey and buttery puffed pastry shaped to look exactly like Bowser's head. There's a cup of Frank's Red Hot hot sauce that comes on the side but the dish didn't need it. It was so spicy! Red pepper flakes were in everything but despite being so hot it was still delicious. You can get it with a souvenir bowl that we saw a few other patrons get, and it looked really cool. It seemed to be a shallow plate bowl hybrid with Bowser's face in the center.
? Block Tiramisu
Normally I would never order a tiramisu, it's just not really my kind of dessert, but ordering all three desserts was the one thing I could do and not break the bank. Unfortunately for me one of the desserts (the Mt. Beanpole cake, a chocolate, vanilla, strawberry layered cake with a matcha mousse) was sold out. If I had the chance, however, I would order this tiramisu any day of the week. It was light, fluffy, and delicious. The question block walls were like cookies and the interior was soft and rich.
Princess Peach Cupcake
A raspberry filled Funfetti cupcake with loads of pink buttercream frosting and a Princess Peach chocolate crown. The redeeming part of this cupcake was the chocolate crown. The buttercream was so sweet that I couldn't eat more then a single bite of it and the cupcake base was decent but nothing special. This dessert definitely looked better in photos then it tasted.
Super Star Lemon Squash
The Super Star Lemon Squash is the only specialty drink served. It's a honey lemon soda with mango stars and tropical boba. I usually don't like honey flavored things but the drink tasted tropical and was sweet but not overly so. The mango stars were bits of mango fruit cut into star shapes and the tropical flavored popping boba was delightful. I savored it until the last drop and even then was sucking the last bits of the drink from the leftover ice cubes.
We left the restaurant to find a beautiful blue sky had replaced the gloomy grey one from earlier. With a cloudless blue sky overhead Nintendo World looked even more like the video games. Our journey back to the main park began from here. We stopped off in the Simpsons land, where you can't buy a Flaming Moe anymore because of a general shortage of liquid nitrogen but you can buy Duff beer, Lady Duff, and canned Duff (which is orange soda). From there we headed to the classic Universal Studio Tour.
The studio tour was always my parents favorite. I remember being on it, at both the California and Florida parks, as a little kid and it's one of the few rides I remember being on in general at Universal besides Jaws and Terminator 2. So I couldn't leave the park without doing it. It's changed quite a lot since I was a kid and now in addition to seeing the old sets and props from various movies and television shows, there's also two mini-rides within the ride. The tram car drives through a dark tunnel where screens on either side play through a scenario before bringing you to the end where the tram is locked in and the floor begins to shake, move, and shift in choreography with the video playing on the screens that fully surround you. The Fast and the Furious one was so corny that it was great. My brother and I just kept saying "family" to each other in our awful Dom Torreto impersonation, so when Vin Diesel appears on the screen and says "it's like I always say, it's all about family" the entire group cheered and we laughed our heads off.
Neither my brother nor myself had been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter part of the park before so we stopped off there as well. It really felt like we really missed the hype train on this part of the park. It was more or less empty, with the majority of people waiting in the queue for the Flight of the Hippogriff coaster which was a 1.5 hour wait when we looked at the sign. Instead of waiting for a ride we explored the shops instead, even doing Olivanders, the wand selecting room, with another family which my brother had to chug the rest of his butter beer to walk into it. The cast members did a great job putting on a show with the little kid that was selected to get fitted for their wand, and afterwards it drops you off in the gift shop to get your own wand. There's two types that are sold - the expensive kind that interact with things around the Wizarding World and another that's more affordable but doesn't do anything.
Our shopping excursion continued with a stop into the Hello Kitty shop and the larger, general Univeral shop near the exit to the park where they were celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jurassic Park, one of my favorite movies. It was difficult to pry myself away from some of the merch that they were selling there but then I remembered that I was doing a two week trip with an already overstuffed carry-on size suitcase and was able to control my purchasing impulse.
Overall I found Super Nintendo World to be truly delightful. I was originally planning to follow up my visit here with a visit to the park in Kyoto but I learned from an Australian I met in Tokyo Disney that Universal Studios in Kyoto is very expensive inside the park and is very small. I'm sure I'll get there one of these days but for now the Universal Studios Hollywood version of Super Nintendo World is plenty for me. I would definitely recommend paying extra to get there early because if you don't, and if you don't wait in front of the entrance to Nintendo World from 9-11am when the first general admission is allowed in, then you may not be able to enter that part of the park until 3 or 4pm as they cap how many people can be inside at one time. You also really need to buy the Power-Up Band to get the full experience in Nintendo World which I was a little annoyed about because at $40 each it's a lot of overhead to interact with a park that you spent $30 extra to get into before it's overrun with people. Despite the cost, and the shabby bits that you'd never see at Disney, I can't wait to get back. Once they've added more things to see and do.
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