Super Nintendo World Event Impressions

Hey all, Tris here. Back on Wednesday, February 19th, Nintendo and Universal Studios Japan hosted a big event over in Grand Central Terminal, New York City. This event was the first of many in a big marketing push for Super Nintendo World before it opens later this year. There weren’t any new details about the parks revealed, though some information was reconfirmed: the first attractions will be Yoshi and Mario Kart, the park will also be opening in Universal Studios Hollywood, Orland, and Singapore, and there will be Nintendo-themed restaurants!

As for the event itself, the set-up was actually pretty interesting. Felt pretty surreal to see all the question blocks from Mario lined up in Grand Central. The lighting in the area made it pretty hard to get good photos, unfortunately.

A whole collection of blocks, and projector screens up on the walls too!

This particular event for the Super Nintendo World Challenge was for lucky winners picked at random to win a trip to preview the park before it officially opens this summer. Attendees were given a Mario glove with an attached smartphone, then pick a block to stand under. The MC would run people through a quick tutorial on how to hit the blocks, before throwing participants into a coin challenge purely for bragging rights. The coin challenge encouraged participants to hit the block as many times as they could within a short timeframe, each hit racking up their coin counter displayed on the smartphone. At the end of this segment, the MC praised the participant with the highest number of coins. Then, it moved on to the big segment. Participants would hit the block once, and the smartphone would display their prize. A golden mushroom appearing means they’re a grand prize winner heading to the park!

The first Grand Prize winner of the event with a group photo-op!

Unfortunately, the press wasn’t able to participate in the event, but I can say that it looked like a fun little thing! A bit disappointing that there was nothing new revealed about the park, but hey, it’s a theme park, after all, and not a video game. Much later in the day, my fiance had a chance to participate, and there was actually a grand prize winner during his session! All in all, we came pretty close then.

Hopefully, there will be more interesting events for Super Nintendo World as we get closer to the park’s opening. While this event wasn’t bad, it was completely a marketing event and a neat little novelty to see. Perhaps we’ll cover more on Super Nintendo World in the future, be sure to let us know if you’d like to see that!