The collaboration between theme park titan Universal Studios and gaming giant Nintendo continues to evolve with the opening of Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe this week–and the arrival of a legendary Kong of a different kind.
io9 was at the media week preview for Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe in Universal Orlando. Although Universal’s West Coast park already got a version of the land in 2023, in true gaming style Epic Universe’s version gets an “expansion pak” upgrade in the form of a whole Donkey Kong Country area, complete with a kart-hopping new ride. Just like at the first Super Nintendo World, you can engage in real-time gaming and get into a Mario Kart for a race on Rainbow Road, in ways that go beyond being a spectator. Universal Creative Director Steve Tatham shared some insight into how that works into the new theme park’s concept. “The idea of Epic Universe is we wanted to create a next generation theme park, a 21st century theme park.” he said, “We use technology that’s super advanced. We have prototypical ride systems [and] the figures, the animated figures are next level for sure.” he said about the state of the art figures at the forefront of many of the park’s newest experiences. One of the highlights of which is, of course, Donkey Kong Country’s brand new ride, Mine Cart Madness, which features its star Donkey Kong along with Diddy Kong in various scenes straight out of the iconic game.
Tatham continued, “It’s all technology but yet the technology is not at the front, the story is at the front. People have an emotional experience. And that’s aided by technology. So we’re not putting the technology out there to say, ‘Hey, look, we’re using technology.’ We’re doing it in the service of story.” And it shows. While the option to make all the gaming aspects screen based might lend towards a more video-game-y feel, Universal opts instead to have that be just a secondary tool to keep track of your scores throughout Super Mario and Donkey Kong’s physical game world. Like the welcoming accessibility behind a lot of Nintendo’s own design philosophies, you are encouraged to explore real places to hit benchmarks and get points with a Power Up Band, and through collaborative play, to engage with other park goers to unlock areas of the land for big payoffs.
“You can wear a power up band and that activates touch points throughout the world where you can collect points. And in Donkey Kong Country, for example, there you’ll see the letter ‘K’ right there. You can spell K-o-n-g when you tap different points. There’s bananas, there’s coins, there are different objects that you can collect,” Tatham explained. The participatory entertainment aspect really shines here as you run through the nooks and crannies of Donkey Kong Country, or play on tangible mini-games that anyone can enjoy, like playing on bongos. Collect enough points across the new land, and you’ll get even more gamification by unlocking a secret hidden boss battle. Because what would a video game theme park land be without a secret boss?
The Epic Universe iteration of the land is just the latest evolution of Universe’s relationship with Nintendo, as the latter begins to leverage its cast of legendary characters for more opportunities beyond video games. “For Super Nintendo World and for Donkey Kong Country, we worked very closely with the Nintendo partners and Miyamoto-San, who’s the creative guru there. He was very involved throughout the whole process,” Tatham explained. “So absolutely every element, every detail of the park is really vetted to make sure it’s true. Because if it’s not, the guests won’t have that experience. They’ll know–they’ll know better than anybody. When they walk into this world, they’ll be like, ‘No, that’s not right.’ Or ‘That doesn’t feel the way it feels like I imagined it would feel.’ So we have to get every detail exactly right.”
Of course, these lands are called Super Nintendo World, and there’s a lot more to Nintendo than Mario and Donkey Kong. Could we see heroes of Hyrule, pilots of Star Fox, or perhaps even a pocket monster or two in the future? “Epic Universe will never be done, because there’s always more ideas,” Tatham teased. “There’s always new stories to tell.”
Epic Universe opens this Friday at Universal Studios Orlando. Travel and accommodations were provided for the purposes of this review.
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