As Kotaku reported last year, Nintendo is coming to Universal Studios Japan. Today, the first details — namely, how large the Nintendo area will be, how much will be spent, and when it should be completed — have been made public.
According to Sankei News, forty billion yen (US$351 million) is being invested in this project with the deal getting finalised on Friday. The paper notes that this is similar to the large-scale investment Universal Studios made in the Harry Potter franchise with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter area.
Likewise, the Mario and co. themed area will be a healthy part of the park. Via Sankei News, the upcoming Nintendo-themed area is marked in red on the map below. The current Universal Studios Japan attractions areas are in green.
Currently, the future Nintendo area is used as an event space. It’s located on the left side of the main entrance gate. But, what can we expect?
“The immersive experiences will include major attractions at Universal’s theme parks and will feature Nintendo’s most famous characters and games,” an official release stated last year. It added that Universal theme parks will create “spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo’s wildly popular games, characters and worlds.”
The goal is to have the Nintendo section completed by 2020, when the Olympics will be held in Tokyo with the hope that visitors will also want to visit Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. No doubt they will.
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3 responses to “First Details On Nintendo’s Universal Studios Collaboration”
Anyone planning on visiting be prepared for insane lines and wait times. I went last week. Mid week, arrived at opening, weather was freezing cold – and it was still completely packed. Took half an hour to even buy a ticket!
Although I did say to my gf while there why doesnt Nintendo have a theme park with all their IP!
Yeah, I went there last year. I hate theme parks, but they had a special event I wanted to see. So it was like $140 AUD for 2 adults just to get in. All the merch seemed way overpriced and most shops just had the same stuff anyway. It was a Tuesday but we still queued for an hour and a bit to get into the main thing I wanted to see, and the wind was freezing. Then the thing wasn’t even as good as I was expecting.
We saw a Terminator 4D thing out of curiosity, which was actually more interesting, but it kinda felt dated.
The worst part was we couldn’t figure out how to get onto the Jurassic Park ride. My Japanese was not as good back then, perhaps now I could read the brochure or ask some staff properly.
It’s an interesting place, visually – there are cool things to see – but not a whole lot you can do (not without standing in a line for ages).
Hopefully a Nintendo area will add value to the experience.
Looks smaller on the map than the Attack on Titan popup – but I’m easily deceived by maps