Nintendo fans are taking the recently-opened Super Nintendo World Hollywood to task over its Super Mario-themed food. Specifically, fans are upset about the perceived downgrade in food quality compared to Super Nintendo World in Japan.
Super Nintendo World Hollywood is a new wing of the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park that opened just last week. Like the Harry Potter World attraction in the same park, it is an opportunity for fans to immerse themselves in the world of Super Mario. It’s the first time Super Nintendo World has been recreated anywhere outside of Japan. In general, people seem to really like the new attraction. It’s cute and clearly aimed at kids and families, there are rides and AR games around the place that allow players to collect coins and win prizes. Cast members amble around dressed as Super Mario characters. It’s great.
Except for the food, that is. Fans have noticed that Super Nintendo World Hollywood has a rather different, and rather lacklustre, menu compared to its Japanese counterpart. Though quite a few of the items on the Japanese menu made it to the US, like Mario and Luigi burgers and tiramisu in the shape of the game’s famous question mark blocks, there’s a lot that hasn’t made the jump.
Take, for example, the Princess Peach Cake.
Universal Japan’s Princess Peach Cake vs Universal Hollywood’s Princess Peach Cake.
Downgrade of the century. pic.twitter.com/nezt9Lbhjj
— Matt Acuña (@Acuna_Mattata) January 17, 2023
This is one of the biggest disparities in the entire menu. The Princess Peach Cake obviously comes from Super Mario 64‘s famous opening cinematic in which Peach sends Mario a letter that scans vaguely like a threat.
Dear Mario,
Please come to the castle. I’ve baked a cake for you.
Yours truly–
Princess Toadstool (Peach)
Mario immediately breaks his neck to get over there, tumbling out of a sewer pipe onto her lawn with a camera crew in tow.
The Princess Peach Cake that appears at Super Nintendo World Japan has been made to look like the one featured in the game. But if you look closely at Twitter user @Acuna_Mattata’s tweet, you’ll notice that the US version looks slightly different. It’s been reduced to a fairly basic cupcake.
People really hate the cupcake, with Acuña calling it the “downgrade of the century.”
The cupcake is perhaps the worst offender on the menu, but there’s plenty that’s changed or been omitted entirely. Take, for instance, the Pizza Bowl.
more delicious food that we aren’t getting. Top left is a pizza bowl. pic.twitter.com/bQ2OjAT7wE
— Matt Acuña (@Acuna_Mattata) January 18, 2023
That’s the Pizza Bowl in the top left of Acuña’s post. The mushroom is made of pizza dough, concealing the delicious tomato, bacon and mushroom pizza innards within.
Other cool treats that Japan gets but not us pic.twitter.com/6WNM854u91
— Matt Acuña (@Acuna_Mattata) January 17, 2023
Also missing are these little Mario and Luigi-themed desserts that look like their famous caps. The Koopa shell calzones. Super Star Rice, not on the US menu. Yoshi’s Spinach Carbonara is also missing (I don’t know why Yoshi gets a carbonara, maybe he’s Italian too). The little drinks with Mario and Luigi straws? I bet they’re damned good. They look damned good.
Another Twitter user, @guyselga, posted a side-by-side comparison of the menus at both theme parks where we can more clearly see the differences between menus.
Super Nintendo World Toadstool Cafe menu, Hollywood versus Japan. I gotta say Hollywood’s food is themed better, but there’s more options in Japan. Either way it looks good. No Princess Peach cake?!
(US menu from @eaterla) pic.twitter.com/S8b6U3S5mN
— Guy Selga (@guyselga) January 11, 2023
Got any thoughts on the Mario menu? Is it a disappointment, or par for the course where American cuisine in concerned? If you make it to LA in the future, will you be making time to visit Super Nintendo World? Let us know in the comments.
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