We are wishing a happy 20th birthday today to one of the world's best interactive dark rides — Men in Black: Alien Attack at Universal Studios Florida.
MIB opened April 14, 2000 at the Orlando park as its first big addition since its sibling, Universal's Islands of Adventure, opened next door the year before. Disney had just brought interactive gaming into the parks with its Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride, but Universal's creative team — led by Dave Cobb — took the emerging genre up to a new level with elaborate practical sets and more competitive gameplay.
Dave will be holding an online chat this evening from 6:30-8pm Pacific time to celebrate the ride's anniversary.
Check back then to ask your questions and see Dave's responses. He's also planning to bring in some special guests from the MIB attraction team, too.
We first talked with Dave about the ride over 10 years ago, when he answered your questions about the making of Men in Black: Alien Attack. Since then, he's gone on to work on many more amazing projects, including the Theme Park Insider Award-winning Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.
Back in Orlando, Men in Black continues to impress fans 20 years after its debut. (Well, it would if it were open... which is why Dave is holding this anniversary celebration online instead of at Universal Orlando.) With its detailed queue and show scenes, this would be a great dark ride on its own, but the gameplay makes it one of my favorite rides in the world. We've shared tips for high scores on Men in Black on a few occasions, so you can become a "Galaxy Defender" like an insider, too.
So we will see you tonight for the chat and, hopefully, see you inside MIB HQ in Orlando sometime again soon. (Remember, for when the parks reopen, we always have great prices on discounted tickets to Universal Orlando, from our travel partner.)
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Yeah MIB is great. I've watched so many families have competitions first thing in the morning. Most of the time, the agents working the attraction will quickly start assessing the scores of the folks reriding and give some tips and tricks. Some days, you can even get a ride vehicle to yourself so you can use more than one laser to get a score on.
My record is 2 scores of 999,999 with a third at 500,000ish. It is possible to max out all 3 in a row.
"Let me see ya just bounce it with me, just bounce with me".
I love the ride, but it is definitely showing its age. Would love to see a refresh. Things like the green scanning screen look really blurry and the NYC scene just before the bug look quite out dated.
Only been on this once but it was a very fun ride. Glad they didn't try to give it some new overlay for the poor "MIB International" movie.
Russell, better than Buzz Lightyear? I love MIB up to the point when you twizzle around at the end. Always finish the ride feeling sick........and I always lose to Mrs Plum in the final reckoning.
Absolutely better than Buzz. WDW's version has the guns stuck to the vehicle that restricts your aiming. DL's version has guns on tethers, but similar to MK, the firing of shots every second or more (assuming you play with the trigger mashed all the time), the time between shots makes it really difficult to maintain your aim and the targeting beam can be nearly impossible to see on far targets.
MIB's gameplay is vastly superior with by far the best and most consistently performing guns on any dark ride shooter. Stack that with targets that don't necessarily look like targets, adding to the reality and immersiveness of the ride, and the parallel tracks that introduce a ton of fun in the finale, there's very little about Buzz that tops what MIB does. Also MIB has an actual story line with guests training to become MIB agents and then deployed into a real situation on the streets of New York, while Buzz is pretty much like being dropped into a pretend video game (same with TSM). MIB is better than Buzz in every conceivable way.
Russell, you've sold me!
Buzz at DL requires a trigger pull for wach shot. Not knowing this is why my brother got a grand total of 100 points!
Best... ride... eva... Okay, maybe not ever, but one of the top ones in my opinion. It has amazing re-ridability (if that's a word), meaning that every time you ride it the experience will be unique. You'll be sitting with a different group of fellow riders, competing with against a new group of riders, and you might be riding on the other track.
Being a single rider traveler, I usually will ride it multiple times back to back (skipping the intro elevator area too).
Like Russell mentioned, the behind the scenes tour is a fun diversion. It's a cool way to see the main MIB room from the floor area plus the desks have some nifty easter eggs.
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Still the best shooting gallery dark ride in the world, and among the best dark rides in the world. When USF reopens, talk to a CM to see if you can take the "Immigration Tour", and admire some of the insane details that UC put into this attraction that often go completely unnoticed by guests.