14 Nov 2023 - Osaka Day 5: Super Nintendo World™ (USJ)

This place is "heaven" to all Super Nintendo gamers.  The moment we stepped into this area, we immersed ourselves in the world of Mario and friends.  

In order to fully experience this attraction, we bought Jerlene and Javier each a Power-Up Band.  With a Power-Up Band, they could gain access to key challenges, collect virtual coins and items, and more to bring the experience of playing Super Mario games to the real world.  They also linked it to the Universal Studios Japan official mobile app to see their score, coins and digital stamps!

Super Nintendo World™ is Universal Studios Japan’s first distinctive multi-layered area. True to the video game’s design, there are various obvious layers of areas, like mountains, Bowser’s castle, and Princess Peach’s castle. Just the blocks and coins around the area make it distinctly look like the world of Super Mario!

Other than timed entry into Super Nintendo World, there were also specific timing for certain popular rides in this area even with our express pass.  One of which is the "Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge™".  Though the express pass is very expensive, we felt that it's really worth it when we saw the long snaking queue for those without express pass.  The waiting time for them was about 100-150 mins whereas for us, it's only about 5 mins.

In this attraction, the iconic Mario Kart courses have been brought to life with cutting-edge technology. We got to challenge enemies with shells while aiming for the finish line with Mario and Peach! This world's first interactive Mario Kart theme park ride left us with a rush of adrenaline!  Super Fun!

Next, we went for "Yoshi's Adventure™" ride, which also requires timed entry.   This is a gentle, family-friendly outdoor ride that brought us on a short adventure around the upper level of Super Nintendo World. This is an omnimover-style ride where the ride vehicles are all in a loop, moving slowly on the track. We boarded our own Yoshi from a rotating platform.

Once outside, we had a unique view of Super Nintendo World, as there’s no other way to see the Mushroom Kingdom from this side! 

At the end of the ride, Captain Toad had found his treasure, a Golden Egg!

After two amazing rides, we continued to explore Super Nintendo World, while Jerlene and Javier took on various challenges to accumulate points and collect coins with their Power-Up bands. 

There was a long queue for photo opportunity with Princess Peach and Mario.

As the area got more and more crowded, we decided to leave as we did not like to squeeze through people just to get from point A to point B.  Following is a video showing some of the highlights.

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