Super Nintendo World is a dream come true for many fans, especially those that grew up playing games like Super Mario Bros 3, Pokemon Red and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time. Nintendo has so many franchises that range from fantasy like Kid Icarus to sci-fi like Metroid that they could create a theme park from scratch by themselves!
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Nintendo is also huge, by the way. Here is your piece of trivia for the day: did you know that Pokemon is the highest grossing media franchise of all time? Yeah, it's even above our friend Mickey Mouse and juggernauts like Star Wars. Never bet against Pikachu.
Most of us already know that Super Nintendo World launched in Japan back in 2021, and then in Universal Studios Hollywood on February 2023. No worries, good people of Florida. Super Nintendo World is coming to Orlando in style.
Universal's Epic Universe will be a brand new park launching sometime in 2025, and will join Universal Studios and Universal's Islands of Adventure as Universal's three main theme parks. It's already confirmed that Super Nintendo World will be a part of Epic Universe, but the rides and attractions still remain shrouded in mystery.
It's perfectly reasonable to expect something similar to what already exists in Universal Hollywood and Universal Japan. This means that the atmosphere will be top notch, you will be able to take pictures with Mario and Luigi and also ride Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge.
But what about something new? What about the future? Here we list some ideas for rides and attractions that would be amazing and ready to knock it out of the (theme) park.
A The Legend of Zelda indoor roller coaster
Zelda. Link. Ganon. C'mon, if we are talking about Nintendo, you can't have a theme park without that cool guy and his green tunic. Zelda is hitting it big nowadays, with two amazing games in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom and also a live action movie that was recently announced.
Zelda would fit in a wide variety of attractions, but an indoor roller coaster would be great, similar in tone to Revenge of the Mummy in Universal Studios or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in Epcot. Yeah, yeah, it would be too expensive, sure, but it's okay to dream, right?
Just imagine a roller coaster mixed with a dark ride, as our vehicle explores hidden temples and the secrets of Hyrule. We can even flee from Ganon in an action sequence, hop on our faithful horse Epona and boost at lightning speeds. Of course that a ride like that needs the Zelda soundtrack, so they better include Song of Storms, Gerudo Valley, Zelda's Lullaby and more.
A The Legend of Zelda river rafting ride
Wait, no one said that we couldn't name Zelda twice, right? If an indoor roller coaster is too crazy or too expensive, we just use water for a brand new attraction! ...well, there is more than that, but you know what we mean.
A Zelda raft ride would be amazing, inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It doesn't even need to be something as hardcore as Popeye in Islands of Adventure, which is there to get you soaked. They can splash you with some water, sure, but the main idea here would be to travel through dark tunnels and explore hidden passages, all the while we are aboard the King of Red Lions.
As for music... oh, boy, there are too many to list. The main theme could fit perfectly, as well as The Great Sea from Wind Waker and Dragon Roost Island. God, that soundtrack is amazing.
A Pokemon "shooting" interactive dark ride
Relax, guys, no one is shooting and murdering Pokemon on my watch. What we mean by "shooting" gallery is just a ride similar to Toy Story Mania at Disney's Hollywood Studios and MIB: Alien Attack at Universal Studios. You do grab a fake gun in both rides, but we could easily replace it with a camera for a Pokemon ride!
Yep, you would be snapping pictures of Pokemon during your tour, like the Nintendo 64 game Pokemon Snap and the recently released remake on the Nintendo Switch. Seriously, Pokemon is perfect for that. You board your vehicle, grab you camera and need to aim at the various Pokemon to take their pictures and increase your score.
Common Pokemon are closer to you and easier to spot, while rare ones like Mewtwo and Lapras are hidden and far away and award huge points. Maybe you even need to do something special to make some of the Pokemon appear? Like snapping the picture of a fountain to make a Magikarp pop up.
With over a thousand Pokemon existing nowadays, there's a huge roster of creatures to choose from for this specific ride. Animatronics and visual effects would take a while to finish and this would be an expensive ride, but didn't we tell you before that Pikachu is a billionaire?
A Metroid drop tower ride
Ah, Metroid, how we love you and the adventures of Samus Aran since the Nintendo 8bits adventures, and then with Super Metroid, considered by many the best game of all time.
Metroid is an awesome series which features a bounty hunter going through the galaxy and killing a bunch of weird and dangerous enemies. As it's the case with many sci-fi works from the 80s, Metroid is heavily inspired by the Alien franchise, which means that it has a darker tone than most Nintendo games.
As for a theme park ride, how about some drop elevator action? Yes, we are talking about something similar to Disney's Tower of Terror. Instead of ghosts, however, we follow Samus through dark hallways as she explores an abandoned ship. Things go wrong, of course. The ship has initiated a self destruction sequence! We go up and up, until we reach Samus' ship or a drop pod and make our daring escape.
We can only dream...
Those are just a few ideas for awesome rides that could exist in Super Nintendo World. Heads up, Nintendo and Universal, you guys can contact us for more ideas and tips if you wish.
What about you? Do you have an idea of your own you'd like to share? Don't be shy and contact us if you just want to talk about Universal, future plans for your trip or if you are like us eagerly waiting for Metroid Prime 4. Until next time!