Theme parks aren’t exactly bustling with crowds these days, but that’s not stopping new theme parks from opening their doors. The long-awaited Super Nintendo World theme park opened at Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan, on March 18, with attractions straight out of Super Mario. The park features a Mario Kart ride inside a life-sized Bowser’s Castle, Peach’s Castle, a Yoshi ride, and Mario-themed restaurants.
Photo: ユニバーサル・スタジオ・ジャパン / Universal Studios Japan (USJ)/Facebook
A Super Mario Theme Park Just Opened in Japan
Ayumu Yamamoto, USJ’s marketing and communication manager, said, “We perfectly recreated the world of the game… You’ll find life-sized piranha plants and Bowser, and you’ll see what it is like to be Mario. It took almost a year longer than we had expected to open this place, and we are really glad.”
Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario Bros, toured the theme park in a promotional video released in December. “I’m very excited for all of you to experience the park on your own. There are smaller activities like the coin block,” he said, “as well as bigger ones… If you manage to get three keys from various activities, you can take on the final activity — a battle with Bowser Jr.”
Super Nintendo World was originally scheduled to open last year ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but was pushed back to February due to the pandemic, and then delayed again to March.
Similar parks are planned at Universal Studios parks in Orlando and Los Angeles. 