Recently, I traveled to L.A California for a short vacation with my uncle. We decided to make our reservations at Universal Studios Hollywood for the new Super Nintendo World attraction that just opened. With its immersive scenery and the wonderful attractions, it does come with its ups and downs, here is my review of Super Nintendo World and some tips if you ever want to visit.

Reservations

Since COVID, many amusement parks require reservations to be made in order to gain entry into the park. This is to limit the amount of people entering the park so that COVID spreads less. Today, it is still being used for new parks or to guarantee a spot in line for attractions. When it comes to Universal Studios reservation system, I found it to be quite strange. Firstly, you can only make reservations once you’ve physically entered the park. Because of this, we were only able to get an 8:00 PM reservation. The problem with this is that we arrived at around 10:30 AM, so we had around 11 hours to kill. My suggestion is to arrive at the park as early as you possibly can in order to get an earlier time.

The Park

When I entered Super Nintendo World after 11 hours of wandering around other attractions at Universal, I was in awe at the immersive scenery and attractions. It truly felt like I was a part of a Super Mario video game. There are coins spinning, small moving environmental details, animatronic characters wandering the park, and small details that tie the whole thing in a nice bow. Despite the wait, the looks of the park are fantastic and incredibly immersive!

Attractions 

Nintendo World has a few attractions. However all but two are locked behind a paywall. This paywall is the Power Up Band. Similar to the wands at Harry Potter World, the Power Up Bands allow attendees to gain access to certain parts of Nintendo World and also experience many interactive features around the park for $40. Many attendees, including myself, were very disappointed that we couldn’t experience the entire park due to this paywall. 

I was able to go on the Mario Kart Bowser’s Challenge Ride. While waiting in line, the ride actually broke down, and we had to wait for over an hour to get it fixed. However, despite the long wait, this ride turned out to be one of the coolest interactive dark rides I’ve ever been on. When you enter the ride, you’re given a Mario visor, along with a pair of augmented reality goggles that clip onto the visor. These goggles are the interactive part of the ride where the rider can track how many coins they collect, know when to turn, and how many shells they have. They can use the shells to knock out Mario Kart characters to score coins or just slow them down. 

Many people complain about how slow the ride is, but to me the interactive features really make up for it. Overall, this is a ride that is definitely worth the long wait. I highly recommend the ride if you’re looking for a unique Mario Kart experience. 

Overall

The park is fantastic and incredibly immersive. It truly feels like you’ve walked into a Mario game when you first enter and it’s a really unique experience. Some activities are limited and blocked by a $40 paywall which is incredibly disappointing. The food is great but pricey (which is expected at Universal). Overall, I would definitely recommend this park to anyone who’s a huge fan of Nintendo games and media.