Universal's Epic Universe Wish List & Speculation
- Thread starter Brian G.
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- Aug 7, 2018
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So, do people think the rumored Pokémon ride in USJ would be a part of a potential Pokemon land here, or would people hope for something different? I ask in this thread because this park will be in a resort that has 2 rides already with this ride system. The Pokemon one does sound different enough to separate itself, and the ride may never happen, but I felt it was worthy of a discussion here.
The thing that interests me, is that in the article that TPU discussed, they mentioned of a new drop tower like ride that was planned for Osaka. I wonder if that, and the potential Pokemon Snap ride, would come at both instances.
- Aug 7, 2018
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Was it clear that drop tower was for Pokémon though? Maybe I misread it, but I just didn’t read it as Pokemon specifically although it of course could be. Seems maybe too thrilling for Nintendo based on what we see with SNW.
Is Pokemon Taking Over An Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man Attraction?
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Seems 130J is Pokemon, so in the sense, it seems the early iteration was the family drop tower with the screens. I'm guessing it would've been more of a thrilling version of Simpsons, in a way. I can see a possibility that in making it happen quicker than intended, they mix that of the Japan Drop Tower with that of a family based Pokemon Snap ride that might've been planned for Orlando prior.
- Aug 7, 2018
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Yeah makes sense, it’ll be really interesting if there’s many Pokémon attractions that appear at different Universal parks. Could show us how large these properties they’ve now obtained really areView attachment 14535
Is Pokemon Taking Over An Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man Attraction?
Some way, some how Pokemon will find its way into a Universal Studios Park. If what we are hearing is correct, Pikachu and the gang are going to evict Peter Parker from their NYC digs at Universal …themeparkuniversity.com
Seems 130J is Pokemon, so in the sense, it seems the early iteration was the family drop tower with the screens. I'm guessing it would've been more of a thrilling version of Simpsons, in a way. I can see a possibility that in making it happen quicker than intended, they mix that of the Japan Drop Tower with that of a family based Pokemon Snap ride that might've been planned for Orlando prior.
I would like a family dark ride packed with animatronics.
Wouldn't mind the rumored drop tower as a secondary attraction.
- Aug 7, 2018
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I feel like at one point there was a rumor for an Omnimover type ride system for an attraction
- Apr 27, 2021
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I think theres probably room for both of those in the SNW expansion pad , its same size and rough dimensions as Seuss Landing. im not sure why they would want another drop tower type ride if MoM turns out to be similar though
And if they end up with Pokemon in Kid Zone, they actually have 8.5Acres to use over there so begs the question if they really need a space saving Ride system
While speculated, nothing from Potter will be a drop tower.
- Jul 27, 2015
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I figured the Fantastic Beasts ride is the reworked Pokémon Mack coaster TPU is alluding to.
Fantastic Beasts is basically Wizarding World’s Pokémon.
- Aug 7, 2018
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Omnimover with a Coaster like JW in Beijing could absolutely fit! All depends on design too. That would make sense for Epic Universe too as another Omnimover is maybe a good idea for that park. Especially if SLOP goes to USF.
I dunno, I believe there was rumors early on that the main FB ride would bring back an old ride system (believed to be something like Kongfrontation).
Pokémon for Florida deserves more than an omnimover for the main attraction. In fact, Pokémon has the most opportunity to sell merchandise compared to any other IP Universal has in their park including Potter from in park experiences. For SNW, you have Power Up bands. Potter, you have Robes and Interactive wands. Pokémon, each synergetic purchase that can have in park interactions range from 980 (including mega evolutions/regional versions) Pokémon plush dolls covering the in addition to the 27 types of Poke balls, 12 different versions of Pokedex, and trainer league cards.
If I was Universal/Pokémon company, this is the plan I would do:
Poke balls allow you to catch Pokémon in the land and fight at the gym (like the three-key challenge). Each Poke ball hold 6 Pokémon which you get the land. Different Poke balls have different catch rates just like the game and work better in certain areas. So, someone using a master ball will be able to collect a lot stronger Pokémon with no ease vs someone using a regular poke ball. Point the center of the ball at a Pokémon you want and click the center button. The Button will flash a green light and start to vibrate. If a Pokémon is caught, the center of the ball with turn gold with a light on the black bar showcasing a vertical bar up to 6 bars showing you caught 6 Pokémon. If the Pokémon is not caught, your button will turn red. You can use these in all areas. Basic Poke balls can run relatively cheap with low catch rate for strong Pokémon but will allow a cost-effective way to ensure all guests can participate in the land while also ensuring NBCUniversal makes money while the higher quality and type Poke balls increase in price
Pokedex acts as an amiibo and will allow you to transfer Pokémon from the parks to your Pokémon GO or Nintendo Switch Games. It also stores all the Pokémon you caught in park that and data for each one of those Pokémon. You can use the Pokedex to switch out Pokémon to later use at the gym. The Pokedex also has a Pokémon snap like feature where you get points for Pokémon you see and take photos of! Pokedex also keep a virtual Pokémon League training card which is scanned to show your level and ranking.
If you do buy a Pokémon plush, place the receipt next to your Pokémon or pokedex and it will show up as a Pokémon caught as well for those who do not want to spend the work to find/catch.
Pokémon Trainer League Cards allow you to participate in the gym battle without buying poke balls. it’s a RFID card which loads random Pokémon during the gym battle which you can use. It connects to your phone and allows you to collect stickers too
Moving into the land,
Welcome to Universa City, a city known for its Pokémon preserve at Pokémon Institute and its seaside resort area. They have recreated multiple wild habitats and have collected many legendary and rare Pokémon in one area for guests to see. The Land consists of 3 rides, 2 experiences, 2 shops, 3 restaurants. Additionally with Mario Kart already being a shooting ride with low level thrills, I don't think its wise to have the exact same thing for another franchise in the same park.
First attraction E-ticket: Pokémon Safari
As you go along on each path, you encounter Pokémon and interact however here comes Team Rocket who tries to steal your starter Pokémon. Using your power and strength and all the starter Pokémon combined, you guys just barely escape Jesse and James and Meowth when you run into different gangs from Pokémon from Team Rainbow, Team Skull and more who awaken legendary Pokémon and all chaos breaks lose. Suddenly you are up against one of the big bad legendary Pokémon and your Pokémon are tired and weak, the ultimate bad Pokémon shows up. Mewtwo. I knew humans were weak and it’s time for Pokémon to take over the world once again as he starts to attack your vehicle.
Moving to the grand finale, everything goes black and followed by an extremely bright light, you enter the final scene in which your find the vehicle surrounded with light colors and you are on the moon. It turns out Mew has rescued you and you are on the moon base. You catch space-based Pokémon and interact before the ride vehicle docks at the space station on the moon. You get out and after load, you enter the space shuttle to take you back to earth. You end up in vehicle garage on another entrance to the Pokémon Institute Daycare/also child swap and you go into the Pokémon Center.
2nd Ride: Gentle Boat ride. Family boat ride around Universa City…. see Pokémon, catch Pokémon…Navi River Adventure of the land but outdoors with no thrills. (Water version of Yoshi Island)
3rd Ride: Powered Mack Coaster themed to Latias and Latios. Just flying over the city. (Jurassic World Beijing Mack Coaster essentially).
1st Shop: Pokemon Center- self explanatory. Get Pokeballs, Plushes, and more here.
1st Food: Poke Berry stand: everything has berries of some kind in it. Plays with how Pokémon deals with berries a lot.
Second Food: Rocket Company Gamezone Restaurant…. A casino style restaurant in which Team Rocket plays nice to try to recruit you to join them or they will take your Pokémon! Sit down place with built in actors.
3rd Food/2nd Shop: Pokemart: buy items (food) to replenish and prepare for your pokemon battle (quick service but has unique snacks and more) as well as gear
1st Experience: Pokémon Gym: Using Holograms and special effects such as fog/water/ fire and more experience a Pokémon battle in real life. This would integrate your Poke balls and Pokémon Trainer league card. Above the battle arena rooms is an observation station as well. So even if you do not battle cheer on and experience a Pokémon battle.
2nd Experience: Preserve Playground: Camp Jurassic but you are able to catch pokemon in here as well. Pokemon are AAs in areas that guest can't reach but screen based if in close proximity.
I think with this...it will attract the high level thrill seekers, the mid level thrills, and those too small or motion sensitive for rides with multiple things they can do within the land.
If I was Universal/Pokémon company, this is the plan I would do:
Poke balls allow you to catch Pokémon in the land and fight at the gym (like the three-key challenge). Each Poke ball hold 6 Pokémon which you get the land. Different Poke balls have different catch rates just like the game and work better in certain areas. So, someone using a master ball will be able to collect a lot stronger Pokémon with no ease vs someone using a regular poke ball. Point the center of the ball at a Pokémon you want and click the center button. The Button will flash a green light and start to vibrate. If a Pokémon is caught, the center of the ball with turn gold with a light on the black bar showcasing a vertical bar up to 6 bars showing you caught 6 Pokémon. If the Pokémon is not caught, your button will turn red. You can use these in all areas. Basic Poke balls can run relatively cheap with low catch rate for strong Pokémon but will allow a cost-effective way to ensure all guests can participate in the land while also ensuring NBCUniversal makes money while the higher quality and type Poke balls increase in price
Pokedex acts as an amiibo and will allow you to transfer Pokémon from the parks to your Pokémon GO or Nintendo Switch Games. It also stores all the Pokémon you caught in park that and data for each one of those Pokémon. You can use the Pokedex to switch out Pokémon to later use at the gym. The Pokedex also has a Pokémon snap like feature where you get points for Pokémon you see and take photos of! Pokedex also keep a virtual Pokémon League training card which is scanned to show your level and ranking.
If you do buy a Pokémon plush, place the receipt next to your Pokémon or pokedex and it will show up as a Pokémon caught as well for those who do not want to spend the work to find/catch.
Pokémon Trainer League Cards allow you to participate in the gym battle without buying poke balls. it’s a RFID card which loads random Pokémon during the gym battle which you can use. It connects to your phone and allows you to collect stickers too
Moving into the land,
Welcome to Universa City, a city known for its Pokémon preserve at Pokémon Institute and its seaside resort area. They have recreated multiple wild habitats and have collected many legendary and rare Pokémon in one area for guests to see. The Land consists of 3 rides, 2 experiences, 2 shops, 3 restaurants. Additionally with Mario Kart already being a shooting ride with low level thrills, I don't think its wise to have the exact same thing for another franchise in the same park.
First attraction E-ticket: Pokémon Safari
- Description: An indoor Kilmanjaro/Kong like ride which uses AR tech, AAs, Balloons, and Screens in timeless integration to create an amazing adventure in the World of Pokémon. Should be the longest ride at Universal clocking at least 6-7 minutes of ride time to help cover capacity.
- Facade: Pokémon Institute of Universa City
- Queue: Broken into 6 sections
- 1st Section: Indoor switchbacks moving through the institute. On the walls are information about the professors who they have employed. (Professor Oak, and all the others are present on the wall) as well as some clues to Pokémon research projects they worked on.
- 2nd Section, 1st Pre-show: The Laboratory...meet the professors and get starter Pokémon. Everyone gets a starter for those without Poke balls or Pokedex, their park ticket holds that starter Pokémon. During the pre-show, the Professors talk about what Pokémon are using a planetarium like show and starters appear via AA and holograms. We get a short battle sequence to demonstrate the power of Pokémon.
- 3rd Section: 2nd Pre-show: Today, the professors will take us out to see some Pokémon, with 4 different possible routes, we will see a lot of different Pokémon and be able to help us understand better Pokémon Characteristics. You will be given different items such as Pokémon berries and more to use within the environment.
- 4th Section: Forest path leading to the vehicle garage...this is essentially ET queue updated to fit for an E-ticket attraction, you have flowers and Pokémon hiding in the bushes and trees as you walk through the switch backs closer to the garage.
- 5th Section: Safety Pre-show: Talks about safety prior to boarding the vehicle/leads to Child swap which is the Pokémon Institute Pokémon Daycare. Watch Pokémon hatch from eggs and play with the Pokémon and watch the Pichu and friends baby Pokémon show.
- 6th Section: Ride load with vehicles loading from both sides.
- Ride: The ride vehicle is Kong style vehicle however inside of facing towards the cab; your seats face out like an exceptionally long bench with thirty seats. Each seat is separated by a AR divider on each side. Upon eating the vehicle, tap your ticket, poke ball, and/or pokedex to the RFID scanner once the door comes down. On one side next to you, your starter Pokémon will appear excited to see you and ready for this adventure. On the other side, will be a HUD style display and 6 buttons for you to use items with effect the screen based and projected Pokémon as well as for those with Poke balls to catch them and for those with Pokedex to record some data about Pokémon seen on the route. A professor in the cab narrates the ride and what you are seeing as your journey starts. For those who used their Poke balls, they will be able to use a certain button to try to catch Pokémon during the ride. (This is where the ball type really matters as the route can make some balls more useful in securing 6 Pokémon)
As you go along on each path, you encounter Pokémon and interact however here comes Team Rocket who tries to steal your starter Pokémon. Using your power and strength and all the starter Pokémon combined, you guys just barely escape Jesse and James and Meowth when you run into different gangs from Pokémon from Team Rainbow, Team Skull and more who awaken legendary Pokémon and all chaos breaks lose. Suddenly you are up against one of the big bad legendary Pokémon and your Pokémon are tired and weak, the ultimate bad Pokémon shows up. Mewtwo. I knew humans were weak and it’s time for Pokémon to take over the world once again as he starts to attack your vehicle.
Moving to the grand finale, everything goes black and followed by an extremely bright light, you enter the final scene in which your find the vehicle surrounded with light colors and you are on the moon. It turns out Mew has rescued you and you are on the moon base. You catch space-based Pokémon and interact before the ride vehicle docks at the space station on the moon. You get out and after load, you enter the space shuttle to take you back to earth. You end up in vehicle garage on another entrance to the Pokémon Institute Daycare/also child swap and you go into the Pokémon Center.
2nd Ride: Gentle Boat ride. Family boat ride around Universa City…. see Pokémon, catch Pokémon…Navi River Adventure of the land but outdoors with no thrills. (Water version of Yoshi Island)
3rd Ride: Powered Mack Coaster themed to Latias and Latios. Just flying over the city. (Jurassic World Beijing Mack Coaster essentially).
1st Shop: Pokemon Center- self explanatory. Get Pokeballs, Plushes, and more here.
1st Food: Poke Berry stand: everything has berries of some kind in it. Plays with how Pokémon deals with berries a lot.
Second Food: Rocket Company Gamezone Restaurant…. A casino style restaurant in which Team Rocket plays nice to try to recruit you to join them or they will take your Pokémon! Sit down place with built in actors.
3rd Food/2nd Shop: Pokemart: buy items (food) to replenish and prepare for your pokemon battle (quick service but has unique snacks and more) as well as gear
1st Experience: Pokémon Gym: Using Holograms and special effects such as fog/water/ fire and more experience a Pokémon battle in real life. This would integrate your Poke balls and Pokémon Trainer league card. Above the battle arena rooms is an observation station as well. So even if you do not battle cheer on and experience a Pokémon battle.
2nd Experience: Preserve Playground: Camp Jurassic but you are able to catch pokemon in here as well. Pokemon are AAs in areas that guest can't reach but screen based if in close proximity.
I think with this...it will attract the high level thrill seekers, the mid level thrills, and those too small or motion sensitive for rides with multiple things they can do within the land.
- Aug 7, 2018
- 7,099
- 9,095
Not only do I like this, but I appreciate the thought being put into it! I also like your ideas. UC, y’all listening?
A well thought out plan. I do have reservations about how the general public would handle Pokémon Safari with the sheer amount of interactions possible with the buttons and dividers between party members. While not the same, perhaps changing the theming to Snap where guests board 8-12 passenger off-road vehicles, with each seat having a "camera" on a tether (like MIB's guns, but it's a camera) for the journey through the different environments. Points are awarded based on how good the pictures taken are. People are familiar with how a point and shoot camera works already so there's no learning curve once seated.
I actually want to avoid Snap for three reasons.
1. If this went to Epic Universe, we already had a point based shooter with Mario Kart.
2. Photo scoring is subjective not objective and would highly effected about what seat you are in. Additionally, it would limit fog effects and more due to sensors needed for the game.
3. Most people spend their days behind a camera for tik tok, instagram, and more striving for perfect pictures missing real life and what's going on around them. Can we just live in the moment and not have to emulate that behavior while on a ride.
I do understand your reservations about the dividers and the amount of interaction. The interaction just allows for an extra level of ride experience and is in no way required. Since I didn't explain the 6 buttons since I didn't do it earlier.
1.Poke berries...allows you to poke berries at a pokemon and see how they respond
2. Poke Flute....allows you to play pokemon fruit and see how they respond
3. throw rock....allows you to throw a rock a pokemon and see how it responds
4. Illumina Orbs...allows for pokemon to act in special ways
5. Record on pokedex...allows you to have information show up on your pokedex regarding pokemon you just past
6. Capture ….allows you to catch pokemon to your poke ball you scanned on your way on the ride
I don't think that is too much interaction as its all voluntary.
In regards to the dividers are mainly to add more interaction show you can see information about the pokemon that showed up in front of you like the name and such as well as your Poke Berries, Ilumina Orbs, and rock remaining inventory. One of the things if Pokémon does come to Universal most guests will want to get a starter pokemon. Adding it to this ride and having a AR screen divider was to all that Pokémon to show up next to you kind of like Pikachu In Pokémon yellow. Finding a way to integrate that is generally hard so the best way was to have an AR screen in which you can see your pokemon and have it appear to be next you.
I guess to remove one divider would be to place a screen panel into the door as it comes down as well as move the buttons to the door so then its AR screen divider, two seats, AR screen Divider and it would solve that isolation issue.
I"m not UC but this is just what I would think would be fun.
- Apr 27, 2021
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i don't know nearly enough about Pokemon to comment on whether this is right for the IP, clearly youve put a lot of thought into it which is impressive to say the least.
I think its easy when we get into this armchair imagineering kind of conversations to take existing ride systems we are all familiar with and overlaying the IP, where as some of the best rides we all love have been when Creative have a particular problem or story to tell and had to come up with a new system that does all that for them/ So would hope UC come up with some decent ideas that tick all the boxes for pokemon fans, but also make it accessible to people like me who have no clue. I would say I personally wouldn't bother going on a ride, that is the third iteration of supercharged style Tram, even with different seating it just had no appeal to me.
One thing I know needs to happen at the new park (and IOA) is having an abundance of shows. IOA practically has nothing in the form of a show that eats people. It’s blatantly noticeable, not just in overall wait times but the fact that there’s really nowhere to go, sit, and enjoy something other than a ride/queue.
- Jul 27, 2015
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They literally brought Mike Aiello into Creative from Entertainment specifically to develop shows at EU. They’re a priority.
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