Nintendo Amusement Park, Coming Soon! スーパーニンテンドーワールド

For more than 30 years, Mario has been the symbol of Nintendo, the giant of the Japanese video game industry. From the first game, Super Mario Bros, released in 1985, to the thousands of spin-offs sold today around the world, the little-mustachioed plumber is a real star. All that was missing was an amusement park in his name!

Mario at the Olympics

In the spring of 2015, Nintendo announced that they had entered into a partnership with Universal Studios, with the aim of creating several leisure parks dedicated to its beloved characters. It wasn't until the end of 2016 that the firm, originally from Kyoto, finally revealed some details of the project: the first Super Nintendo World will open to the public before 2020 at Universal Studios Japan, in Osaka. A date not chosen by chance, since this is the year the Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo.

A world first

This will be, as stated on the Nintendo website, a "a huge complex on two levels, with the world's most advanced ride attractions, interactive areas, shops and restaurants". In other words, an unprecedented immersion in the colorful world of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Princess Peach, not to mention the Legend of Zelda (the most recent part of which has just been released on the Switch, the new Nintendo console) or Pokémon. The creator of Super Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto, insists that there will be something for all tastes, "whatever the age or player level" of the visitors.

From wizards to plumbers

This new expansion of the Universal Studios Osaka is expected to be as big and costly as the Harry Potter area, which opened in 2014. The budget is currently estimated at 40 billion yen (about 353 million dollars) and Universal is already planning to open two more Super Nintendo Worlds in the United States, in its parks in Orlando, Florida, and Los Angeles, California. In Japan, construction on the park is expected to begin by the end of 2017.