Super Nintendo World aerial shot gives us our best look yet at the theme park
A drone shot appears on Instagram.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Super Nintendo World is coming to Universal Studios Japan.
An aerial view of the Super Nintendo World theme park in Japan has surfaced on Instagram . The image, spotted earlier Thursday by Nintendo Life, shows the park is almost finished. Originally meant to open this summer as part of Universal Studios Japan, its launch has been pushed back due to COVID-19.
You can see Mario's pipes, which are being used as walkways and entry points into the land, Princess Peach's castle, pixel-style trees and bricks and what looks like Bowser's Castle. The image -- which has since been removed from Instagram -- also shows how the theme park area is spread across three separate levels.
Super Nintendo World unveiled a trailer in January. It will have two rides -- Super Mario Kart and an attraction called Yoshi's Adventures -- along with games, merch and food, Comcast said in September 2019.
The Mario-themed world, which had a groundbreaking ceremony in June 2017, will be interactive. Visitors will get a magnetic snap-on wristband with a big red Mario symbol, which will keep track of your scores on the rides and send that info back to your Nintendo gaming consoles, with progress saved for next time you visit the theme park.
Nintendo reached the deal with Universal five years ago. The new land in Universal Studios Japan is rumored to have cost up to $544 million to build, and there's also a Mario-themed expansion planned for Universal Orlando in the US for 2023, and for Universal Studios Hollywood.
