Mario And Other Beloved Nintendo Characters Heading To Universal Theme Parks
“Hold on to your butts!” Nintendo has just announced a new partnership with Universal Parks & Resorts that will see many of your favorite Nintendo characters and games making their way to Universal theme parks. That’s right, you’ll see themed rides featuring childhood (and adulthood) favorites like Mario and Luigi.
The joint announcement is rather limited on concrete details, as the two companies are likely still in the very early stages of development, but the main focus of the pairing is to “[create] spectacular, dedicated experiences based on Nintendo’s wildly popular games, characters and worlds.”
“Nintendo has created remarkable and imaginative worlds filled with captivating stories and beloved characters. Now, for the first time, those stories and characters will be brought to life in entirely new ways – only at Universal theme parks,” said the two companies in the press release.
Could you imagine a go-kart attraction based on Mario Kart? I would assume that throwing koopa shells would be out the question — you know, legally speaking — but Nintendo and Universal would be missing out on a great opportunity if they didn’t find some way to include “power-ups” if such a ride were to come to fruition. Or how about an attraction based on Luigi’s Mansion? The possibilities are endless!
The news of the Nintendo-Universal tie-up comes right after we learned that Nintendo made its first annual profit in four years thanks to rising Wii U sales, strong New Nintendo 3DS XL sales, and a weak yen.
