Universal Orlando will be bringing over some tech from Super Nintendo World to help power the guest experience on Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast, the new attraction opening this summer at Universal Studios Florida.
The resort revealed new details about the attraction today. The ride's queue will be the show floor of Villain-Con, from the 2015 "Minions" movie. On the floor will be a competition to determine the next member of the Vicious 6. Visitors will pick up "E-Liminator X" blaster ("equipped with Freeze Rays, Banana Bombs, Explosive Nunchucks and more," says Universal) to shoot targets to prove their worth against other visitors.
Rather than boarding ride vehicles for the interactive attraction, visitors will ride along moving walkways through the Villain-Con experience, which will include immersive sets and animation in addition to the gameplay.
Minion Blast will be Universal Orlando's first attraction to integrate with the resort's official app for gameplay, much like Mario Kart and Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood and Japan.
"Contenders can take their game to an entirely new level and track their scores, embark on special missions within the attraction, unlock evil perks and extra powerful blasts to help them gain more points and earn digital collectibles," Universal said in its press release.
Original voice actors who portrayed the remaining members of the Vicious 6 will reprise their roles for the attraction, including Taraji P. Henson's Bell Bottom, Danny Trejo's Stronghold, Lucy Lawless's Nun-Chuck, Jean-Claude Van Damme's Jean Clawed, and Dolph Lundgren's Svengeance.
Villain-Con Minion Blast anchors Universal Studios Florida's newly designated Minion Land, which includes the Despicable Me Minion Mayhem ride as well as the new Minion Cafe, Pop-A-Nana, and Freeze Ray Pops food locations, Bake My Day retail and bakery, and Illumination Theater facade meet and greet location.
Universal still has not announced an official opening date for Villain-Con Minion Blast, save to say that it will be open this summer.
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the first day of fall isn't until late September and they've got two months until Labor Day with the attraction in team member testing. I have definitely heard there are kinks to be worked out with the game play, but I expect this to open by early august at the latest.
@Jacob - We can discuss meteorological versus astronomical semantics some other time, but other theme parks have been criticized here and elsewhere for advertising seasonal openings that clearly missed their mark. I'm sorry, but if a park says an attraction is going to open in the "summer", it better be up and running by July 4th at the latest, or preferably Memorial Day (I'm looking at you too SFA, who announced a new water coaster for 2023, but not a single piece has been erected for it yet). Yes, Disney has missed the mark many times before by an entire year or more (Space 220), but the marketing for this attraction (though minimized of late) has maintained a timeline that simply cannot be achieved given most guest expectations (particularly not in a way that will move the needle for guests planning trips to Orlando this summer).
"Early August" is only 3 weeks away, so if that's the latest you think they're going to open this to the public, they better start team member training/testing really soon (like NOW).
that's just like, your opinion man.
and as I said, they are literally doing team member testing right now. like, today.
I was in USF earlier and can confirm team members were going in for their previews today. All of the boarding around the front has been removed and it looks like a place ready to open.
Still only a street, not a land, in my opinion. Now, if they converted RRR to a minions theme, added minions stuff to Jimmy Fallon building, then we might be closer for it to called a land.
Banana popcorn is definitely an acquired taste though :)
Maybe the strange popcorn flavours will rub off Disney and they'll bring the huge number of flavors from Tokyo over here... Doubt it, but it'd be fun.
Technical rehearsals apparently opened today.
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It's July 14, 2023. When does "opening this summer" become a missed deadline? I have a feeling that with resources thinned by Epic Universe, UC might be taking a bigger technological bite than they can chew with this. While this attraction might provide some beta-testing for what they are planning for the new theme park, it might not be the best idea to launch something like this that doesn't meet expectations - possibly explaining the delay to open for less intense crowds in August.