Expanding Epic Universe, Part I: An Armchair-Imagineered Build-Out of Universal Orlando’s Cosmic Theme Park

SUPER NINTENDO WORLD

Background

It’s probably fair to say that there probably wouldn’t be an Epic Universe at all if it weren’t for Super Nintendo World. Long story short, the 21st century has been defined by the “Content Wars” as major studios raced to create, acquire, or license major IP for use in the battlefield of theme parks. One by one, the obvious ‘big fish’ were gobbled up – Pixar, Star Wars, and Avatar to Disney; DreamWorks, Illumination, The Simpsons, Marvel, and Harry Potter to Universal; DC and Looney Tunes to Six Flags; Peanuts to Cedar Fair. Indeed, it sort of seemed like everything that could be licensed for use in a theme park was.

Of course, in May 2015, Comcast shocked the industry when they announced that they’d officially partnered with Nintendo to create lands and attractions based on the Japanese gaming company’s generation-defining characters and worlds. Mario and Luigi, Link and Zelda, Donkey Kong, Pikachu… it was, frankly, a “holy shit” moment that something that big had been “hiding in plain sight.” Nintendo had all the makings of a theme park property – timeless, intergenerational, and iconic.

Fan speculation persisted for years about what form Nintendo might take in the Universal Parks. But ultimately, the truth was far grander than most of us had been “armchair Imagineering.”

In 2020, the first “Super Nintendo World” opened (appropriately) at Universal Studios Japan. Images of the hyper-saturated, all-encompassing, multi-level land filled with kinetic energy left themed entertainment fans speechless.

The image above isn’t concept art; it’s a photograph. Marching Koopa Troopas, spinning Coins, sliding cloud platforms, snarling Piranha Plants… Videos of that first Super Nintendo World showed guests punching Coin Blocks, playing mini-games, and earning awards for finding hidden tap points throughout the cavernous, kinetic space. It was just unreal. Totally beyond what anyone imagined.

Oh yeah, and there are rides, too. Super Nintendo World’s “E-Ticket” is MARIOKART: BOWSER’S CHALLENGE – an interactive dark ride that uses full physical sets, animatronics, and projection mapping, then layers on top of it all augmented reality (AR) goggles that project characters against these backdrops in real time. It’s a technological marvel. Even though online chatter insists that it “shoulda, woulda, coulda” been a high-speed Test Track style ride, Universal (smartly) emphasized interactivity instead – a total necessity for the Nintendo brand – and the result is a really cool family dark ride.

The Japanese version of the land also contains YOSHI’S ADVENTURE – what amounts to a continuously-loading, slow-moving, sightseeing Omnimover / PeopleMover along the land’s second story. Along the way, guests are encouraged to find three Yoshi eggs “hidden” around the kinetic landscape and tap an in-vehicle button when they do, but functionally, it doesn’t actually do anything. It’s just a pleasant, placid sightseeing ride which – due to Universal’s 100% containment policy – can’t accommodate larger guests or children under 34 inches tall. Oops.

But for those who invest in the POWER-UP BAND, a genuine additional attraction is the series of interactive mini-games throughout the land – larger-than-life, physical interactives that see guests sneaking past sleeping piranha plant animatronics, trying to outrace Goombas, timing the punching of “POW” blocks, and more. Power-Up Bands link to the park’s app, recording scores, counting coins, and registering when those special challenges have been won. Then, once guests have won three “Keys” from the challenges, they can actually gain access to a “boss battle” with Bowser Jr. via a secret, concealed interactive finale.

In December 2024, that original Japanese version of Super Nintendo World unveiled its first piecemeal expansion, when a warp pipe connected guests to a second “neighborhood” – Donkey Kong Country. Leaving behind the Mushroom Kingdom for an exotic jungle, the Donkey Kong-themed sub-section includes just one ride.

MINE CART MADNESS is a family-style hybrid of a wild mouse and mine train; a roller coaster that envelopes the mini-land. Its gimmick, of course, is that it utilizes a ride system patented specifically for it: a “boom coaster” wherein the riders’ four-person mine carts only appear connected to the cartoonish track their faux wheels ride on, but are actually hoisted up on a “boom” connected to a vertically-oriented track far below on the right. That provides the ride’s key illusion, which is that the carts appear to “leap the gap” between disconnected track sections.

In early 2023, Universal Studios Hollywood debuted its own version of Super Nintendo World. Though it, too, is a marvel, it’s probably best to level-set that California’s Super Nintendo World as an elaborate set dressing for the standalone MarioKart ride. After all, the Hollywood version of the land is far less elaborate and much more compact – expected given the park’s limited real estate and its focus on actual movie and television production.

Instead, all eyes were on Orlando, where a full and proper Super Nintendo World would inevitably rise. Actually, Central Florida probably would’ve gotten its Super Nintendo World years ago if they’d stuck to the apparent original plan – to add the land to Universal Studios Florida. But Universal clearly determined that all things considered, Mario & company were strong enough to warrant the greenlighting of a third theme park entirely. (We can separately debate as to whether or not the smarter strategic move would’ve been to power-up the resort’s existing two parks instead of opening a third.)

And indeed, Super Nintendo World is clearly considered the anchor IP of Epic Universe. Given that, it’s no surprise that Epic Universe’s Super Nintendo World opened with the “Phase II” Donkey Kong Country already in place, giving the park all three Nintendo rides developed so far as part of its opening day lineup. (Again, they’re the only three rides in the park that have been copied and pasted from other Universal Parks.)

So as we head into the Build-Out, the question is how to add capacity to this incredibly popular land… and maybe even how to activate that adjacent expansion pad that’s clearly earmarked for Nintendo’s “Phase III” and beyond…

Build-Out

Super Nintendo World is the definition of “precision engineered.” For better or worse, every square foot of this ultra-compact land is spoken for. Particularly around the “Super Mario Land” half, there is simply no room to plop something else down or wedge something else in. We could maybe have used the small pad adjacent to the park’s entrance for a showbuilding accessed from the Mushroom Kingdom, but in our build-out it was already used for Chronomica (and in the real world, it’ll likely be used for infrastructure).

The result is that there really is no option to make changes within the existing footprints of Super Mario Land or Donkey Kong Country. Instead, our Build-Out will focus on expanding beyond the existing footprint. Our first opportunity to do that is in Donkey Kong Country.

Donkey Kong Country

Right now, the portal into Donkey Kong Country leads to a dead-end courtyard enveloped by Mine Cart Madness. The space contains the “Bubbly Barrel” snack hut, a space designed for DK meet-and-greets, and an interactive drumming game, but otherwise its sole purpose is to provide strategic views of Mine Cart Madness’ “track jumps” and usher guests to its entrance.

In our Build-Out, we’ll change that by providing a “fork in the road” – the existing path into the arms of Mine Cart Madness, and a new, secondary path wrapping around its track layout to a mini-plaza with two new, key attractions.

The first is PARROTCHUTE POLKA – a Zamperla “Magic Bikes” model ride seating 48 riders in 12 suspended vehicles, each “carried” by a member of the extended family of parrots (Squawks, Quawks, Tawks) that serve as animal companions to the Kongs across the game series. For Florida weather-proofing, I also imagined a “canopy” seemingly made of giant banana leaves laid over top of one another, providing essential weatherproofing.

This “floorless, suspended” spinner feels distinct enough from a classic yo-yo swing or Dumbo ride to warrant its inclusion already. But the interesting “twist” on this spinner is that riders can work together to pedal on bicycle-like foot pedals at their feet, powering the ride’s arms to lift them higher off the ground. Just that, I think, adds that game-like element of interactivity that all Super Nintendo World rides need to have.

Second, I added BANANA SLAMMA – a pair of family drop towers rising out of and above a section of ruins from the temple that serves as the land’s backdrop. To add interactivity to this ride, I envisioned that as you pull down the shoulder restraint, it lowers onto your lap a “drum.” Then, the ride would encourage riders to drum out a given tempo to launch the vehicle out of the station and up the tower. This felt like a nice way to “gameify” a drop tower and provide a nice “warning” for younger riders – a sort of drum-based countdown.

Together, these two relatively low-lift additions (Parrotchute Polka and Banana Slamma) would contribute probably 1400 people per hour, which doesn’t sound like much. But that’s the equivalent of, say, Big Thunder Mountain being added to the park’s theoretical hourly ride capacity! That’s why reaching a critical mass of flat rides matters.

This new corner of Donkey Kong Country also gives us space for a new restroom and for a new covered bar area serving a specialty Jungle Julep – a “purple pineapple & blood orange” drink with passionfruit foam. We also have the luxury of adding a second warp pipe onward to a new, third sub-section of the land. Actually, I’m only using the back half of the seven acre expansion pad adjacent to Super Nintendo World here to create a third “neighborhood” alongside Super Mario Land and Donkey Kong Country. Welcome to…

Lonesomewood Acres

Since money is no object, I envisioned guests entering a warp pipe from Donkey Kong Country and emerging in a fully-enclosed mini-land centered on Luigi’s Mansion – a totally absurd but beloved standalone franchise that sees Mario’s perpetually-petrified, green-overall’ed brother consistently dropped off at comically-haunted estates armed with a Poltergust – basically, a backpack-style vacuum capable of capturing ghosts. The first Luigi’s Mansion debuted in 2001 (for the Gamecube!) and since then, this mini-series has become a fan favorite with three mainline titles (the most recent being 2019’s Luigi’s Mansion 3 for the Nintendo Switch).

To be honest, sketching out what a Luigi-themed expansion could look like isn’t entirely of my imagination. Especially recently (as of this writing, in the months around Epic Universe’s real world opening), rumors have persisted that Luigi’s Mansion is a shoe-in for the park and (because Super Nintendo World is Epic’s headlining land) will likely be one of the first additions we’ll see.

As an aside: Why not Nintendo’s other heavily demanded, obviously-theme-park-able franchises – Pokémon and Zelda? In real life, Pokémon is not wholly owned by Nintendo and thus requires additional licensing, and Zelda is often discussed as a shoe-in for Islands of Adventure’s Lost Continent. Even with our “Blue Sky” mentality, neither is worth including in this Build-Out because I included them both in my Build-Out of Islands of Adventure in ways that I think are absolutely perfect, and since I want this Build-Out of Epic Universe to exist in that same reality, I wouldn’t repeat the IPs here.)

For us, a mini-land devoted to Luigi’s Mansion provides two desperately-needed things for Epic Universe: an all-weather, climate-controlled mini-land, and another all-ages, world class, one-of-a-kind dark ride. Obviously, the looming Lonesomewood Manor serving as the land’s “weenie” would be home to that dark ride – LUIGI’S MANSION: MOONLIGHT MAYHEM. Our space here is relatively compact, with a showbuilding probably only 75% as large as MarioKart’s. But I still think we can do some nice things!

I think an excellent starting place here is to look at Tokyo Disneyland’s Monsters Inc.: Ride & Go Seek. It’s a great precedent for a few reasons. One is the physical ride system, which dispatches pairs of linked vehicles into the show. The vehicles are able to rotate to view scenes, which allows for a very compact ride that can nimbly travel through narrow show scenes, turning to essentially place riders’ backs against a wall as they face a long, shared scene… Think one-sided Midway Mania, and facing a set rather than a screen.

That’s helpful narratively and atmospherically for this kind of experience anyway, because our purpose to set off into the corridors, kitchen, bedrooms, parlors, salons, and greenhouse of Lonesomewood Manor. Moody, dark, compact sets encountered via tight turns and “close-up” reveals create intimate moments that really do come to life through exploration, and where low ceilings, tight spaces, “blackouts” only strengthen the experience.

Speaking of which, the other obvious benefit of looking to Ride & Go Seek is the interaction system, which arms guests not with laser blasters, but with flashlights. We can theme ours to a new invention of Luigi’s stalwart inventor friend, Professor E. Gadd, providing “Moonlights” that channel the power of the moon to reveal hidden specters. There’d be just one problem, though… turns out that Moonlight doesn’t just reveal spirits; it draws them in and strengthens them, leading to an explosive finale that nearly tears Lonesomewood Manor apart from the ectoplasmic power. (Bonus: tapping your Power-Up Band to the Moonlight upgrades it to the Full Moonlight, projecting purple light and activating additional interaction points in each room.)

Altogether, I think this could be a very physical ride, which keeps well with Epic Universe being a reprieve from the 3D glasses Universal became a bit too dependent upon. It also benefits from embracing interactivity, but as a means to investigate instead of keeping score. There is no element of competition here – something we already get through MarioKart: Bowser’s Challenge. Instead, the emphasis is on using your Moonlight to reveal humorous characters and vignettes, or to trigger cause-and-effect moments with comedic results.

Guests would, of course, exit into the Paranormal Place retail space – a hasty set-up by Professor E. Gadd selling souvenir Moonlights, land-exclusive Power-Up Bands, and Poltergust backpacks… with the opportunity to adopt ghost pets rescued from the manor.

The second ride in the land would be E. GADD’S BOO BUGGIES – an “antique cars” ride. I really liked the idea of guests queueing in a cemetery and arriving at an old, ramshackle carriage house presided over by an animatronic of Professor E. Gadd. The good professor would deputize guests to hop aboard a sputtering, rumbling Model-T type car and set off over the hills and dales of Lonesomewood Estate to find Polterpup – Luigi’s ghost-dog companion – who’s on the loose and exploring the property.

Beneath perpetual night skies, families would drive through foggy valleys, by creepy crypts, over babbling brooks, and past E. Gadd’s ghost-monitoring stations, following Polterpup’s glowing paw prints and the humorous evidence of his ghost-dog misadventures. You know by now that I love a “nothing-goes-horribly-wrong” attraction, and this sort of “self-guided,” atmospheric ride would give young kids a chance to get behind the wheel all while providing awesome land-wide kinetics and synergy as headlines scan through the estate all “night” long.

For the purposes of our Build-Out, that’s the end of Super Nintendo World, filling just a portion of the expansion pad available adjacent to the existing footprint. That’s because we’ll use the rest of that footprint for something I know I’d love to step into…