The Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan was scheduled to open this week, and Universal lifted the embargo for early coverage of one of the park’s biggest attractions: Mario Kart tour.
People who work in Mario Kart: Koopa’s challenge distribute augmented reality glasses to the guests, and one of the first visitors recorded a video with these glasses to bring the experience of what it is like to be on the tour. Check it out below.
Full shot of the Mario Kart Ride
Before we even start the tour, let’s talk about the queue area. Man, that sucker is long. The person who shot this video took more than 15 minutes just to walk through it and watch the summary video of how the headset should be locked – and it looks like they showed up on a press day or something where there was practically no one at the line ahead of them. Imagine standing in line for hours and hours, slowly meandering inch by inch towards the passenger vehicle. It probably feels like paradise to some, but to me it feels like a nightmare. At least there are tons of details to admire in the elaborate recreation of Bowser Castle, including its library, which has books with fun titles like “Sibling rivalries and how to explore them” positioned on their shelves.
As for the tour itself, I’ll just say: this video makes it look like shit. Years of playing Mario Kart have linked this experience to speed in my mind, and this is an arduous, almost winding ride that doesn’t seem like a booster at all. But – and this is a huge and important caveat – tucking a camera lens through a pair of AR goggles is not the same as wearing them on your head, so I imagine that fitting it won’t look as flat and dull as this video implies.
Still, there is a sense of chaos here that seems difficult to overcome in any context. Mario Kart can certainly seem chaotic at times, but as a player, you are able to exercise a certain level of control over what is going on; for Koopa’s Challenge to be functional, it has to minimize the amount of control you have, which results in what appears to be a smaller version of something like Toy Story Midway Mania at Disney’s California Adventure.
The Super Nintendo World was due to open on February 4, 2021, but has recently been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19.
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