I want to talk MarioWorld.
Yesterday I went to Nintendoland Hollywood and was excited to see what sort of magic the space offered. The conditions were rainy and overcast, and I actually think that helped out. The world looks like a compressed version of the entire Super Mario game. Against the backdrop of gray skies, the coins and the koopas and all of the other animatronics looked surprisingly real. Visually, the location is stunning. You don’t want to miss that part at all. The main attraction is Bowser’s Castle, which houses the main ride. Unlike other main attractions, the location is larger than it needs to be to house the ride, because the ride itself is quite short. We’ll get to that.
Like Hogwarts before it, Bowser’s Castle is meant to show you the life and style of its inhabitants. In this case the focus is wholly on Bowser right up until you hit the ride. You see all the race awards on the wall, and for a long segment, end up in Bowser’s library where he has a collection of books covering topics from how to raise a family to specifics on the different types of shells. It is an amazing creation and matches what I would imagine Bowser’s crib to look like. I loved that section.
Once you get close to the ride it shifts to an MKTV studio where we are led through a series of rooms (like loading screens) that detail the racing life, including a Team Mario ready room with all their racing gear. The game concept is straight forward: We are riding with Team Mario vs. Team Bowser. When you’re getting set up to race they give you visual instructions like in the games… no words–at least not ones you can understand, because it’s that cloud dude talking.
Here is where things get tricky… Also, that’s ten so tune in tomorrow for more!