Villain-Con Minion Blast (General Discussion)

[TheUniC6]

VCMB is fairly new and is not going away anytime soon considering all the other things Universal has on their plate. However, low lines and mediocre reception makes me question the overall longevity of this attraction. I bet a lot of people here would prefer they close down VCMB and do some sort of interactive minions dark ride in its place.

 

[Mad Dog]

The Studios park is in the midst of a mediocre trend of new attractions since the big Diagon win, with the exception of the excellent Bourne Show. IOA new attractions have been win win, fortunately.

 

[UNIrd]

I don't think it's unpopular. We have the benefit of having a huge people eater right at the entrance of the park, unlike its Minion Mayhem next door neighbor. It's nice to have an attraction at Universal that you know you can ride without an insane wait time like other parks have but this one just doesn't. Sadly the other attraction with usually low waits is the other new addition, Supercharged. But I'm not sure that's entirely because of capacity.

 

[Scott W.]

The Studios park is in the midst of a mediocre trend of new attractions since the big Diagon win, with the exception of the excellent Bourne Show. IOA new attractions have been win win, fortunately.

With the exception of VC, Hagrid and Bourne, the whole resort has been mediocre since Diagon opened.

Fallon, Kong, Supercharged, and Minion Blast have been ok at best.

I think both parks are in bad shape and I hope that Universal manage to open its first park in Orlando without failure to try and help get things fixed or it's going to be a bad few years.

 

[Mad Dog]

I don't think it's unpopular. We have the benefit of having a huge people eater right at the entrance of the park, unlike its Minion Mayhem next door neighbor. It's nice to have an attraction at Universal that you know you can ride without an insane wait time like other parks have but this one just doesn't. Sadly the other attraction with usually low waits is the other new addition, Supercharged. But I'm not sure that's entirely because of capacity.

It has decent capacity, but it's not that high. Mostly, hardly anyone gets in line. This is a very objective reading since we really love the attraction, but disappointed that so very few others like it enough to go. It's not necessarily unpopular, it's more that not enough guests are interesting in doing it .....They really need to figure out a better way to educate the participants on how to play the game, and what to shoot at. Heck, most people would think to shoot at the minions, that only briefly appear, but hitting them is the absolute lowest point totals .

 

[IzzyB]

It has decent capacity, but it's not that high. Mostly, hardly anyone gets in line. This is a very objective reading since we really love the attraction, but disappointed that so very few others like it enough to go. It's not necessarily unpopular, it's more that not enough guests are interesting in doing it .....They really need to figure out a better way to educate the participants on how to play the game, and what to shoot at. Heck, most people would think to shoot at the minions, that only briefly appear, but hitting them is the absolute lowest point totals .

I agree, most don't have a clue what to shoot which makes it not as fun. My two girls were in charge of what they wanted to ride this weekend. I talked to them before listed all the rides and it was Mummy and MIB in Studios and then hop over to IOA. Now they did have the option of IOA the whole time or Studios then IOA since Studios closed later. But we had plenty of time in Studios to do more and they opted not to. MIB was a very big yes where the minions was a no, we don't need to do that. So they clearly like shooter games, as do I, but Minion is just missing something.

 

[belloq87]

So they clearly like shooter games, as do I, but Minion is just missing something.

Large sets, animatronics, ride vehicles...

 

[UniversalRBLX]

The moving walkway/interactive experience is modern and unique.. but I feel like Villain-Con is one of those "your scientists we're so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should" moments.

You can say that the attraction features a unique and interesting ride system/experience... but could also make the argument that it's just not a good experience.

Not saying this type of experience doesn't belong in a theme park... it's just not well executed.

 

[kristenabelle]

Anyone have tips on connecting your phone? I can never get mine to sync even though I set up a profile and I *think* my phone's settings are correct

 

[GA-MBIT]

I think the best case you can make for this ride is accessibility, but otherwise it's nothing too special. It's about on par with Fallon imo, slightly above average as an overall experience but not a must-do or something I'd lose sleep over leaving eventually.

I will always argue for it's merit above Shrek 4-D, and I think the overall facelift to the front of the park that this atttaction spearheaded was a purely positive move. The Music Plaza / Illumination Avenue area is so much better utilized in both theming and space now that Minions is here. Could the overall space be improved? Sure, but I'll take what I can get.

Honestly, if Transformers were to leave for SLoP, I think you could make a pretty good case for Illumination Avenue being a really solid mini-land between NY and Hollywood. I think there would be 1000x better thematic cohesion in the skyline if that were the case. Going from the New York apartments of SLoP, into Mels and the Hollywood Soundstages of the Minion attractions, as opposed to a random Military installation bordering both. I don't see it happening though.

Anyone have tips on connecting your phone? I can never get mine to sync even though I set up a profile and I *think* my phone's settings are correct

I have some difficulty connecting consistently. Sometimes I can and sometimes I can't.

 

[OLSinFLA]

Anyone have tips on connecting your phone? I can never get mine to sync even though I set up a profile and I *think* my phone's settings are correct

Make sure your phone is about midway down the gun. A lot of people try to synch at the top which doesn't work (For the record, I love VCMB - I love that its loud, chaotic and insane.)

 

[Jake S]

I think the overall facelift to the front of the park that this atttaction spearheaded was a purely positive move.

No disagreement here. That area of the park is much better now than it was before it opened. Now we just need it to annex a little bit more of the surrounding area...

 

[Cwoolboy]

Went on Villain-Con for the first time a few days ago. Very underwhelming. Very little theming and little to no immersion. Plus, there’s no real way to know if you qualify to join the villains at the end (I guess maybe the leaderboard in the gift shop?). I dig the moving walkway ride platform, the blasters you wield, and the interior queue. A decent enough attraction if you’ve got nothing else to do, but not particularly memorable or exciting.

 

[TheUniC6]

Went on Villain-Con for the first time a few days ago. Very underwhelming. Very little theming and little to no immersion. Plus, there’s no real way to know if you qualify to join the villains at the end (I guess maybe the leaderboard in the gift shop?). I dig the moving walkway ride platform, the blasters you wield, and the interior queue. A decent enough attraction if you’ve got nothing else to do, but not particularly memorable or exciting.

Actually you don't join the V6. That's part of the rides story. The Disco lady tells you to try again every time you are done with the ride.

 

[Eckert]

Actually you don't join the V6. That's part of the rides story. The Disco lady tells you to try again every time you are done with the ride.

Which is a shame, because the other, older, shooter ride actually has a "good ending" that makes riders feel accomplished and gives others a goal to work towards the next time they ride.

 

[TheUniC6]

Which is a shame, because the other, older, shooter ride actually has a "good ending" that makes riders feel accomplished and gives others a goal to work towards the next time they ride.

Well, are you dealing with a group of villains, so maybe them rejecting you the park guest isn't that surprising with though put into it.

 

[ZachPL]

I like the ride, but that's because I did my research ahead of time and have at least some idea what i'm doing. I don't see why they couldn't just update the game so that gives you hints or something on what you should be aiming for.

 

[OrlLover]

The moving walkway/interactive experience is modern and unique.. but I feel like Villain-Con is one of those "your scientists we're so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should" moments.

You can say that the attraction features a unique and interesting ride system/experience... but could also make the argument that it's just not a good experience.

Not saying this type of experience doesn't belong in a theme park... it's just not well executed.

I think is a fair outlook on this ride.

 

[gator]

I finally convinced my boyfriend to check it out with me last weekend since we both have never done it. I tried to be positive about it and knew more about what we were getting into than an average park goer. My honest opinion now is that it is a terrible attraction. Fortunately it was a walk-on but I was pushed along as I tried to watch the pre-videos and pick up the storyline. I didn't catch if there were any game directions and my boyfriend was unsuccessful at getting it to work with the app. As we slowly crept from room to room watching all of the chaos around us, we couldn't pick up any clues about what we should be trying to shoot at and after awhile it just got boring. My first time on the attraction and I couldn't wait for it to end. I do not plan on trying it again

 

[TheUniC6]

I finally convinced my boyfriend to check it out with me last weekend since we both have never done it. I tried to be positive about it and knew more about what we were getting into than an average park goer. My honest opinion now is that it is a terrible attraction. Fortunately it was a walk-on but I was pushed along as I tried to watch the pre-videos and pick up the storyline. I didn't catch if there were any game directions and my boyfriend was unsuccessful at getting it to work with the app. As we slowly crept from room to room watching all of the chaos around us, we couldn't pick up any clues about what we should be trying to shoot at and after awhile it just got boring. My first time on the attraction and I couldn't wait for it to end. I do not plan on trying it again

When I hear reviews from users like this, part of me wishes Universal wasn't so concerned with preserving part of the building for a HHN black box and designed something at least on par with Midway Mania. Heck apparently early rumors had this be trackless dark ride. Some rides would simply work better as an actual ride and this is one of them.