Nintendo Land - It's Finally Happening

Nintendo and theme parks. These are the two things in life I get a little fanatical about. For years I've always wondered how cool a Nintendo Theme Park would be. In 2012 I thought my dreams might be realised as 'Nintendo Land' was announced which actually turned out to be a mini-game collection on Wii U. But then today it happened- announced by no other company than Universal freakin studios. It's a match made in heaven and it's got my head running at 100mph with ideas and speculation of what the real Nintendo Land will look like.

I've got a good idea how Universal will do this but I may of course be completely wrong. As this news has come out the immediate thing people think of is a mario rollercoaster but this doesn't make much sense. Mario is a huge hit with kids so building a 100mph launch coaster with a 1.4m height limit with Mario's face on the side is pretty unlikely. They're also working on a Kong thrill ride over at Jurassic Park so it's likely Nintendo land will be family-aimed.

What I think might happen is that Nintendo Land will take over the bottom right side of the Islands of Adventure map.

This area here

But wait! What about Seuss Landing?! Universal need their colourful kid friendly mascots and merchandise. Who could possibly relate to the kid market like The Cat In the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2 do?

I dunno? These 2 maybe?

For the most part the bright colours of Seuss Landings are not dissimilar to those found in the Mario games as well as similar kid-friendly franchises like Kirby. Therefore rather than all new rides I feel a re-theming of the rides in Seuss Landings will be in order. Let's take each ride one by one.

The Cat In The Hat - Super Mario Spin World!

Islands of Adventures's main ride for young kids in the park would become an animatronic heavy mario dark ride. The ride would go scene to scene through the mushroom kingdom stomping on goombas and hitting coin blocks as they chase a massive animatronic-bowser complete with fire breath. Well not fire but that steamy smoke stuff that get's sprayed in your face in a lot of Universal rides. Nintendo Land's e-ticket while not being the most thrill-packed ride in the park.

Caraseussel- The Yoshi-Go-Round

Let us remember Pina Park from Mario Sunshine- the original Nintendo theme park.

This couldn't make more sense.

One Fish Two Fish - Kirby's Super Stars

Another one for the little kids with the mascot whose games are aimed solely at them (for the most part). One Fish Two Fish is a standard Dumbo the Elephant spin ride so they could just turn the fish into little shooting stars and stick Kirby up top with a few Waddle Dees and such round the sides.


Seuss Trolley Train Ride- Pokemon Eye-Spy

The fun of the Seuss trolley comes from spotting the little characters scattered round the ride that are maybe a little harder to find. Relace the obscure Seuss characters with Pokemon and you've got a fun gentle super re-ridable ride on your hands. Gotta spot em' all! A real life pokemon snap.

Give us areal life version of this and a Wii u sequel pliz

Meet and greets with Nintendo favorites will also be scattered round the area. Who wouldn't want a picture with Mario, Link and Pikachu.

This is all very good for the young kids in the park but what about those looking for something with a little more excitement- something that isn't kids-based? Not all Nintendo fans are under 12 of course. This is where we move out of Seuss Landings and look towards The Lost Continent which is right next door. There's a little attraction there called Poseidon's Fury; a led walkthrough through a grand temple where guests work out the mysteries and puzzles inside and ends in a massive climatic battle filled with special effects.

Sounds familiar doesn't it.

Poseidon's Fury - The Legend of Zelda: Ganon's Fury

Guests enter the temple which is already conveniently built and are led through a series of new clever puzzles and rooms with special effects that ends with a battle with Ganondorf. It's the attraction at Universal that best mirrors the Zelda dungeon experience and the firey end-battle with Ganon would be quite spectacular.

Add a triforce and this tired attraction suddenly gets a whole new lease of life.

On a more boring note the setting of Hyrule would blend itself in perfectly with the entrance to The Wizarding World. The whole flow of the park would be improved.


This leaves the area with Sinbad's Stunt Show and franchise-wise Metroid and Star Fox. I suppose Fire Emblem could have some representation but characters from that could maybe just meet people occasionally in Hyrule.

So as just a wild idea- the area where the stunt show is held could be turned into a Star Tours style simulator featuring both Star Fox and Metroid elements. A few years ago there was that Metroid Star Fox crossover rumour so this is where it could be realized.

More likely- A Zelda stunt show- horse back riding, grapple hook swinging, sword fighting- t'would be quite the show.


So there's my predictions for Nintendo Land. Time to get saving for a ticket to Orlando I think.