Nintendo Coming to Universal Parks

[Alicia]

Why is no one pointing out that putting in another boat ride (A FOURTH BOAT RIDE) at Islands of Adventure is a dumb idea when clearly Universal Studios could use... I don't know.... ONE boat ride?

I guess one way to differentiate your theme parks in the age of endless IP integration is to just cram similar experiences and ride systems into one park but it's a pretty foolish decision. USF (Ride the Screens and Bounce Around) and IOA (Ride the Boats and Get Wet!)? Are they unaware that variety within a park is kind of important?

None of them are an all ages slow moving dark boat ride. I do agree Studios needs a boat ride, but a dark boat ride is not the same as a flume or raft ride.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

Insert argument about OG Epcot omnimovers/attraction type not being an inherent mark of quality/most pertinent marker of a balanced theme park being thrill level rather than ride type here.

Or just look at Puy du Fou, a park that's great and is all shows baby.

 

[JungleSkip]

A good ride is a good ride. Who cares

 

[Nick]

None of them are an all ages slow moving dark boat ride. I do agree Studios needs a boat ride, but a dark boat ride is not the same as a flume or raft ride.

Exactly. I don't even think of a flume ride and a dark ride like PotC in the same category. Frozen Ever After and Kali River Rapids are two completely different rides. Just because they both have water doesn't mean they are equivalent.

 

[Nico]

Exactly. I don't even think of a flume ride and a dark ride like PotC in the same category. Frozen Ever After and Kali River Rapids are two completely different rides. Just because they both have water doesn't mean they are equivalent.

Agreed. People normally agree that what IOA needs is more indoor rides. At its core, a Zelda boat ride would be an indoor ride.

 

[SpatulaShack]

Agreed. People normally agree that what IOA needs is more indoor rides. At its core, a Zelda boat ride would be an indoor ride.

This is actually a good point I didn't think about. If the proposed Zelda boat ride in in fact all indoors then that would check off a pretty big box for IOA in terms of adding another great indoor dark ride (boat or not).

 

[Magic-Man]

Isn't the Zelda "boat ride" supposed to start flying halfway through? I wouldn't necessarily count this as a full on water ride in that case. It would actually have the benefit of being in a park with a bunch of water attractions, so nobody expects it to start flying.

 

[Alicia]

Isn't the Zelda "boat ride" supposed to start flying halfway through? I wouldn't necessarily count this as a full on water ride in that case. It would actually have the benefit of being in a park with a bunch of water attractions, so nobody expects it to start flying.

Going by what I heard that all new suspended rides have been... suspended, I would guess it's just a normal boat ride to save money. But who knows when and if this project ever gets picked back up.

 

[GAcoaster]

Going by what I heard that all new suspended rides have been... suspended, I would guess it's just a normal boat ride to save money. But who knows when and if this project ever gets picked back up.

New people in charge might mean new priorities.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

New people in charge might mean new priorities.

This is my hope, but budgets will always be somewhat out of their control I’d imagine.

 

[GAcoaster]

Also with someone with the engineering background at the head of Creative it might mean some bigger risks/innovations.

 

[Mad Dog]

Also with someone with the engineering background at the head of Creative it might mean some bigger risks/innovations.

It would be interesting to go back in time to the day Universal made the snap decision to retract the plans to put Nintendo in Kidzone. Walls were already up in parts of Kidzone. Some Insider reports at that time
said that Woodbury was livid about that decision. Now he's the big boss. Would he have made the same decision that his bosses made?

 

[Alicia]

It would be interesting to go back in time to the day Universal made the snap decision to retract the plans to put Nintendo in Kidzone. Walls were already up in parts of Kidzone. Some Insider reports at that time
said that Woodbury was livid about that decision. Now he's the big boss. Would he have made the same decision that his bosses made?

Pokemon is the biggest franchise in the world. If only someone had made the choice to keep SNW for USF and use Pokemon for Epic Universe.

I feel like Studios not only needs more kids rides, but it could really use a big draw now that IOA got so many bangers in a row.

 

[quinnmac000]

It would be interesting to go back in time to the day Universal made the snap decision to retract the plans to put Nintendo in Kidzone. Walls were already up in parts of Kidzone. Some Insider reports at that time
said that Woodbury was livid about that decision. Now he's the big boss. Would he have made the same decision that his bosses made?

It probably came from someone higher than the parks....they still have to report to NBCUniversal CEO who sees the bigger picture in terms of partnerships/relationships.

 

[belloq87]

I still maintain that the original plan -- SNW in KidZone -- would have done immeasurable good for Universal Studios Florida, and gone a long way towards correcting a couple of its major problems (few "family" rides / a "screen attraction" to "non-screen" attraction ratio that is out of balance) in basically one move.

But nope! It's a shame (especially because it's not like Epic Universe wouldn't have still gone forward with something else in Nintendo's spot).

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Right now I feel we think they made the wrong call to put SNW in Epic Universe, but, I feel in 5-10 years whenever something does replace kidzone, Pokémon or not, and we have SNW at Epic Universe, also with Pokémon or not, I think we’re gonna have the best of both worlds with this scenario.

That is assuming whatever replaces kidzone is inspired and a good, immersive land with a big e ticket.

 

[Nico]

Due to the need for a big draw, I think the only mistake would be putting Pokémon and SNW in EU.

I still say the whole right side of the park (Kidzone to MIB) should be themed to Japan. I forgot who originally mentioned it, but Pokémon, Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift, Godzilla all behind beautiful Japanese theming would be great. Hello Kitty isn’t my thing, but it would would help to have another dark ride with colorful characters on that side of the park.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Due to the need for a big draw, I think the only mistake would be putting Pokémon and SNW in EU.

I still say the whole right side of the park (Kidzone to MIB) should be themed to Japan. I forgot who originally mentioned it, but Pokémon, Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift, Godzilla all behind beautiful Japanese theming would be great. Hello Kitty isn’t my thing, but it would would help to have another dark ride with colorful characters on that side of the park.

I agree, Pokémon should be at USF, Zelda at IOA. I fear they think that with SNW being opened in Japan and Hollywood they need another Nintendo exclusive at that park for opening.

 

[Blue]

Adding Tokyo with Pokemon behind it (like London/Diagon Alley) would be perfect imo. It strengthens the cities theme at USF and gives them the chance to explore properties that wouldn't fit in other parts of the park.

 

[fryoj]

With USJ just now announcing that they have come to terms with the Pokemon company to make interactive experiences in the park, that tells me that when the decision to move SNW to EU, Uni didn't have anything in place to build a pokemon land. In that case, moving SNW to EU made sense as it needed anchors. No one could have predicted covid and the associated delays at the time.