A Twitter leak has provided a couple of fresh looks at the upcoming Mario Kart ride at Universal Studios Japan's Super Nintendo World.
Twitter user ThomasPussyCat posted links to videos that supposedly came from a designer working on the website for the new Nintendo-themed land at the Osaka theme park. The user deleted the original tweets, but not before fans grabbed pictures of the Mario Kart ride vehicles.
We had gotten our first look at the interactive ride vehicles earlier this year when Universal released a music video teasing the land, which was supposed to open this summer.
The new images reinforce the overall design of ride cars that we saw in January while confirming that each of the four riders will have their own steering wheel. That's leaving fans to wonder just how that feature will work on the ride. Are the wheels decorative, with no real input? Does only one wheel at a time get live control? Or is the car's direction determined by averaging the input from all four wheels?
The debut of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan has been delayed due to the pandemic, though Universal remains committed to opening the new land before the start of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which are now scheduled for next summer. A Super Nintendo World is under construction at Universal Studios Hollywood, though that project has not yet been announced officially.
Super Nintendo Worlds also are planned for Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Orlando. That last one was supposed to be part of the upcoming Universal's Epic Universe theme park. But with that project now delayed indefinitely, fans are beginning to question whether Universal will move the video game land back to its originally intended site replacing KidZone in Universal Studios Florida, in order to meet contractual obligations with Nintendo.
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Just the fact that you can throw turtle shells at anything is beyond what I had expected this ride to do. That is awesome! Though it would be funny if they added an Easter Egg with Vin Diesel flying in hanging from a teeny tiny helicopter. I would throw a turtle shell at that.
I would think that the steering wheels move, but are mostly cosmetic. Maybe they help a little with turns and drifting? I'm assuming the vehicles will be on a track that will control most movement.
These screenshots look amazing. My kids and I have never really been into video games, with the exception of Mario Kart. It's just a lot of fun and really silly. This ride looks to be the same.
Robert is it just me or does everyone in the ride vehicle seem to be wearing the same wristband? It may have been covered already here and I apologize if I missed it- but have you heard anything about magicband-style interactivity with actual attractions?
Didn’t notice the band.... that might explain how they appear to be using the shells...
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I wonder if you can fire “shells” at other cars?