Well, it’s finally here. I’m going into my final year of mechanical engineering studies. It’s the final step of many that have ultimately led me to my goal, a goal I’ve maintained since I was four (my kindergarten teacher still has park maps I’ve drawn). I’ve always wanted to work at a theme park, specifically in the design stages. I talked to my guidance counselors, took the right courses, studied hard, went to university, and now I’m here: one year away from graduation. And, with your help, I would love to create a video game-focused theme park prototype.
So we enter the Blue Sky phase, a phase where no idea is too abstract. I’m going to give you my concepts, and you decide what you like, what you don’t, what could be improved, how to accomplish it, etc. etc. etc.
The first step was to choose a company to model the park after. Naturally, it would be near impossible to get the major video game companies to sponsor a park together due to their competitive nature. It came down to a match between Nintendo Company Ltd., Sony Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation. I decided to go with Nintendo, both because it is the platform I am most familiar with, and because it seemed the most logical. Allow me to elaborate:
1)When the average person thinks of video games, they think of Nintendo. My parents have never played a video game in their life, but if I showed them a picture of Mario, they’d know who he was. Nintendo is like the Coke of colas: people will often ask if you want a “Coke” rather than a soft drink. Likewise, my parents always refer to video games as “Nintendos”, even when the game is on a different console.
2)Nintendo is the most family-oriented entertainment system. Xbox’s top-selling franchise is the alien-killing Halo series. PlayStation’s big winner is the extremely violent, albeit entertaining, Grand Theft Auto series. Nintendo’s is the cutesy Mario games. They also feature other cartoony and lovable character franchises, like Donkey Kong and Zelda, which only depict mild animated violence.
3)Nintendo, for the most part, is the innovative company. With the release of the highly entertaining Wii and DS systems, Nintendo has opened a new realm of interactivity.
The next step I took was to determine Nintendo’s most popular franchises. First, I took a look at the top ten selling video game franchises of all time:
1.Mario (200 million)
2.Pokémon (175 million)
3.The Sims (100 million)
4.Final Fantasy (80 million)
5.Grand Theft Auto (70 million)
6.Madden NFL (70 million)
7.Tetris (70 million)
8.FIFA (65 million)
9.The Legend of Zelda (52 million)
10.Tom Clancy (52 million)
Of these ten, three were created by Nintendo (Mario, Pokemon, and The Legend of Zelda); two were established on Nintendo systems (Final Fantasy and Tetris); and four are available on Nintendo systems (The Sims, Madden NFL, FIFA, and Tom Clancy). This leaves only GTA out, meaning that Nintendo either holds the rights to, or is in partnership with companies that hold the rights to, nine of the ten top selling video game franchises. I think Nintendo is sufficiently prepared to host a park.
Those top ten franchises have sold at least 50 million copies. Other popular franchises (20+ million sold) associated with Nintendo include:
Donkey Kong (created by Nintendo), Dragon Quest (established on Nintendo), Kirby (established on Nintendo), Mega Man, Castlevania, etc. etc.
And those are just the games created by or established on Nintendo. Franchises such as WWE Smackdown!, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Medal of Honor, James Bond, Tony Hawk, Mortal Kombat, Frogger, and Metal Gear are all available on Nintendo and have all sold more than 20 million copies.
So my question to you is:
If you were to choose the franchises in Nintendo World, what would they be? Here are some handy Wikipedia lists to help you out:
Franchises established on Nintendo systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franchises_established_on_Nintendo_systems
List of best-selling video game franchises:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises
Next week: Dividing up the park – section by theme, genre, franchise/series, or era?
Kid Icharus - high flying coaster.
Mario Kart - Race cars kind of like fast track.
Donkey Kongfrontation - use your imagination. LOL
Zelda - Dark Ride/Interactive Shooter
King Koopa's Castle - Haunted Dark Ride
Twisted Tertis - coaster with lots of flips, turns, and twists. trains look like Tetris pieces.
Luigi's Waterworks - Water park
Super Mario Bros - dueling coaster
Pokemon 4D - think Shrek or Jimmy Neutron
Mega Man - launch coaster
Just a start. :)
The main issue with the attractions is that, like video games, they must be interactive in some way. Some of yours cover that, but a few seem to involve to interactivity.
Right now, I'm just looking into franchises so I can divide up the park accordingly. Super Mario, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Donkey Kong are all worthy to have their own themed area. Other franchises/games can be divided up and put together in sections, like an arcade land (covering Tetris, Duck Hunt, Frogger, and other classics), shooter land (covering franchises like Tom Clancy, Resident Evil, James Bond, etc.) and a sports zone (covering Madden NFL, Tony Hawk, FIFA, and the rest).
-Donkey Kong's Wild River Adventure
-Metroid:The Ride (Think shoot-em-up)
-Resident Evil walk-through maze
-Legend of Zelda flying coaster
-Sonic hyper-coaster (loop through the golden rings!)
And then, an entire land devoted to Super Mario Bro.s, maybe Super Mario World or Mushroom Kingdom
There could be game demo stations set up throughout the park, and many of the attractions could even be interactive.
The overall name would be Nintendo Park.
Jack -
I had the same idea for a DK ride. What I had in mind was a river rapids ride, but with shooters to take down targets. Also, the seats would be facing outwards, like a drop tower, rather than inwards for ease of use.
I would love to make Resident Evil a walk-through, but I have a feeling people would take too long to complete the tasks, or get lost in the dark hallways, etc.
I like the Sonic coaster idea, but Sonic was never much of a Nintendo character until very recently. It could work.
Mushroom Kingdom was my choice as the land for Mario and its related franchises (Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Mario Party, Wario, etc.) It would be the biggest section of the park and would likely contain the most attractions.
Keep those ideas comin'!
Mushroom Kindom:
Super Mario Bros- GCI Dueling Wooden Coaster one themed to Mario the other to Luigi.
Wario and Waluigi's Scream Machine- S&S Screamin Swings
Bowsers Revenge- Highly Themed Water Ride along the lines of Jurassic park, Splash Mountain etc.
Peaches Wonderland- Kiddie area/small flats
Donkey Kong Country:
DK Rapids- Intamin Rapid Ride themed to jungle.
Diddy Kongs Barrel Blast- Higly Themed drop tower. Themed to look like a tree. When riders reach the top, they hear Diddy Kongs famous screach then they plummet.
King K. Rools Crusher-Inverted Swinging Ship.
Donkey Kong:The Ride- B&M sitdown coaster with 6 inversions a Loop, Zero-G roll, Immalen, Cobra roll and Corkscrew.
I will comment agiain later with more themed lands!
I'm going to go ahead and separate them into lands. So far, Donkey Kong Country and The Mushroom Kingdom are obvious choices. I think Hyrule from Zelda would work, as well, and I'd like to incorporate Pokemon and Final Fantasy into the mix (though I know very little about them and may need help).
- Pokemon are still popular. They just released two new Mystery Dungeons and are coming out with Pokemon Platinum sometime later this year or early 2009.
- Why would you want to set a theme park to an M rated game? Theme parks have always tried to appealed to the common, modern family, and as far as I know, most families don't want their kids to watch random shooting.
Pokemon isn't as popular here as it is in Japan and elsewhere, but it was a milestone and is still a huge seller.
On the note of M-rated games, I was thinking that additionally to height restrictions, some attractions could have recommended age restrictions for parents. There are some well-loved games, such as the Clancy and Resident Evil series, that contain a lot of gore.
I don't see why a video game park has not been discovered before now, as the gaming industry actually is a far bigger business than film.
Eventually, I may make actual concept drawings in a portfolio for this kind of thing, but I'd definitely announce it first.
