ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Crews broke ground last week on Nintendo World in Japan and released an animated walk-through led by Mario himself.
Now Channel 9 anchor Jamie Holmes learned exclusive details about the Nintendo World coming to Universal Studios in Orlando.
Channel 9 has learned through sources familiar with the project that a significant part of the kid zone will be closed.
E.T. will stay, but Woody Woodpecker and Barney will be torn down.
In its place, Channel 9 has confirmed a Mario Kart ride will be coming to Orlando. It will be a moving track ride where guests wear augmented reality glasses to feel like they're moving through a video game.
“It will not be a basic car ride. Whether it's augmented reality or some kind of scoring thing in the real world. There will be a score element, race element to it and that is what's going to make the ride re-rideable,” said Rick Munarriz with The Motely Fool.
Nintendo World will also have a Donkey Kong roller coaster, plus a number of interactive areas with plans for floating coins in mid-air that will spin on a kind of magnetic system.
"These characters are very familiar to people, of all generations,” said Munarriz. "There's a lot of potential here for this to be a lot bigger than just die-hard gamers."
Cox Media Group
