Universal Studios Japan Announces "Super Nintendo World" Theme Park

Universal Studios Japan announced the opening day of the long-rumored and delayed Nintendo theme park "Super Nintendo World" this morning. The park will open in Osaka, Japan on February 4th, 2021.

The main attraction of Super Nintendo World is clearly a Mario Kart IRL ride called "Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge." While there have been no demos of the ride yet, Bloomberg got an early look at it and confirmed it will be a rail-style rollercoaster with four people in a kart wearing AR headsets and maneuvering steering wheels. There will also be a competitive element of the ride, as another team of people will be riding a separate track.

Japan's #SuperNintendoWorld will open on Feb. 4, 2021 in Osaka.rumireports</a> gets a world’s first look at <a href="https://twitter.com/USJ_Official?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">USJ_Official's real-life #Mario Kart. More: https://t.co/T9nUMnB1UB #任天堂 pic.twitter.com/oZku1gwQTj

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) November 30, 2020

Addressing safety concerns, park officials say they are working with health officials to open safely and will operate at 50% capacity at launch. A Donkey Kong-themed section of the park is also in development but will not open alongside Super Nintendo World.

Rumors of the park swirled in March of this year, and Super Nintendo World was initially supposed to launch in July until COVID-19 caused an indefinite delay.