Review: Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe

Nintendo is how I feel theme park lands were meant to be designed: a complete escape from the real world. It’s not only my new favorite theme park land, it’s one of the most impressive feats of immersion and play I have ever seen. Stepping into the land reminds me most of the feeling I had riding Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure, Cosmic Rewind, or Flight of Passage for the first time and saying “I didn’t know a ride could make me feel like that.” Pure euphoria. Super Nintendo World is like stepping into that feeling.

Every single thing in this land is vibrant, colorful and most importantly, kinetic. Almost all of the props are moving around or can be interacted with. It’s overwhelming in the best possible way, and it’s effortlessly immersive. It’s impossible not to feel like you are a part of the Nintendo world because the world is quite literally a game to be played. Punching the Question Blocks and hearing the little coin sound is unbelievably satisfying, and I would constantly divert off the path of wherever we were going just to hit one.

The draw of Super Nintendo World isn’t even the rides; it’s the land itself. However, the rides are also great and all offer something unique. I’ll get into it more later, but there is something for everyone in each of these rides. It may be the most balanced theme park land; in fact, Super Nintendo World feels like the most complete theme park land I’ve seen. You could literally be there all day.

The land is designed in an interesting way; it’s a multi-level land instead of being large square-foot wise. There are two levels, separated by staircases.

Donkey Kong Country is located on the lower level and it’s essentially a full other land, complete with its own warp pipe entrance.

It’s incredible how the creative team was able to make this mini land feel so different in its tropical scenery but still stay consistent with the Nintendo aesthetics. The giant gold temple frames the land, as the Mine Cart Madness coaster weaves in and out.

The music, mini games and characters in this land make it feel totally unique, and stands out next to its Mushroom Kingdom neighbor.

I bought a Power Up Band because I knew that I would want to get the most out of the land, and I’m so glad I did. The band allows you to track your coins and progress in the land, but also grants you access to the key minigames.

These are physical interactive games located around the land where you will work with a group to solve the puzzle or beat the game. These can be played solo as well, but there are a few that would be very difficult to do alone. The games are pure Nintendo fun, and include things like punching a shell into a Koopa, defusing a Bob-omb, or trying not to wake a sleeping Piranha Plant.

We have a full review of Mine Cart Madness, but here are some of my abridged thoughts. Universal’s “boom coaster” has been a concept for a decade now, just see our older article. When it finally materialized for Donkey Kong Country, it seemed like there couldn’t be a more perfect theme for this coaster idea.

This is a wacky ride from beginning to end, with fun scenes and track elements. This coaster is very erratic and choppy but not uncomfortable. If anything, it just adds to the mine-cart-off-the-rails sensation. There are two decent-sized drops on this ride, which I was not at all expecting. It feels similar to the curved drop on Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld, but a little steeper.

Mine Cart Madness is the perfect Donkey Kong attraction, and the best possible use for the boom coaster concept. It will probably be one of the longest lines at Epic Universe, so make this a priority in the morning or whenever the wait time is low.

Yoshi’s Adventure

This cute, slow-moving family attraction is packed with details and incorporates a fun game, but the real attraction here is the stunning views you will get of Super Nintendo World. This ride gives you a bird’s eve view of both levels of the incredibly immersive environment, and gives you a few moments to take it all in, which you won’t really get in other areas of this visually stimulating land.

Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge

This attraction already exists in Universal Hollywood as well as Japan, but I have not had the chance to ride it yet, so this was all new to me. The imposing Bowser’s Castle serves as the entrance to the attraction, and the queue is really impressive. It’s straight out of the Mario Kart map, and the attention to detail continues the trend of being pulled straight out of a video game.

The ride uses the same vehicle system as Men in Black Alien Attack at the Universal Studios Florida Park, but it uses it in a really smart way. Thanks to Augmented Reality goggles attached to each seat paired with larger-than-life physical and digital sets, the karts really feel like they’re racing through various maps. The steering controls make every rider feel like they are in the driver’s seat, and there’s so much going on that you’ll forget there are other people in the vehicle.

I feel like since the AR is so prominent, people haven’t been talking about how impressive the physical sets are, but they’re amazing. My favorite parts are when the AR works with other props to extend the scenes or add effects, like digital fireballs coming out of a physical Piranha Plant.