Ride Review: Mario Kart in Super Nintendo World
Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge is an attraction in Super Nintendo World coming to Universal Studios Hollywood and Epic Universe in Orlando, and now open as Koopa’s Challenge in Japan. This spoiler-free ride review offers our assessment, how it compares to other video game shooters and racers, and other thoughts & commentary.
Universal describes Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge as an all-new, technologically-advanced ride that seamlessly fuses cutting-edge augmented reality (AR) with projection mapping technology and actual set pieces along a moving ride track. Set against a multi-sensory backdrop of color, sound and movement, guests are seated in stadium-style, four-seat vehicles as they navigate familiar courses with the integration of head-mounted AR goggles.
The premise of Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge is simple but challenging, appealing to guests of all ages regardless of gaming experience, according to Universal. As part of Team Mario, guests steer through a sampling of courses from Mario Kart’s 30-year history to compete for the Golden Cup while collecting coins and defeating enemies to beat Team Bowser.
One thing of which I’ve become acutely aware thanks to this site and reader feedback is that the future of theme parks is interactive. Not always in the “gamified” sense of the term, either. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is largely successful for the way it puts guests in the center of the action, having an engaging and dynamic quality unlike most passive attractions. Going back even further, the case could be made that Peter Pan’s Flight has enduring popularity for some of the same reasons.
Then there are the interactive rides that are actual games, which have been even more successful. As a general matter, it seems that these rides are graded on a curve by casual guests and overly-harshly by hardcore fans. For our part, we’ve called Toy Story Mania a glorified Wii game and Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure a glorified Xbox Kinect attraction. With these harsh assessments, we also recognize that gamified rides are incredibly popular with guests. For all of our criticism, we also do them a lot.
Ironically enough, the Mario Kart ride is not a glorified Nintendo Switch game. Honestly, it’s not really a racer, either. Without question, Mario Kart is Super Nintendo World’s main draw–and a ride that’ll be endlessly scrutinized by theme park and video game fans for not comporting with their exact expectations and preconceived notions.
The stakes are much higher here than with Toy Story game rides. Mario Kart is an actual video game franchise with one of the world’s most recognizable characters by a beloved studio with an ardent fanbase. Against that backdrop, let’s roll into our ride review!
Located inside Bowser’s Castle, the attraction starts setting the scene as soon as you enter its gates. Both the standby and Express Pass queues have plenty to see, with excellent Easter Eggs and nods to the various Mario games over the years. (We also did the Single Rider line, which is much less impressive and should be avoided your first time.)
Being huge tanuki fans, we appreciated seeing Mario’s Tanooki Suit (objectively one of his best suit, although the Cat Suit from Super Mario 3D World gives it a serious run for its money!), among other things. This is a top tier queue, which was absolutely expected after what Universal has done with the Harry Potter rides.
There is so much to see on your tour of Bowser’s Castle that you might just miss some of the instructions explaining how the ride works. If there’s one theme of Super Nintendo World, it’s sensory overload. We very much experienced that with our first time on the Mario Kart ride, and had to learn on the fly as a result.
Towards the end of the queue, you’re given an adjustable plastic Mario visor. You have plenty of time to adjust this so it fits on your head and isn’t uncomfortable–a common complaint we’ve heard about the headset, but not one we experienced ourselves. Once you step into the kart, there’s a special lens that snaps into the visor, which is how you see the AR imagery. You’ll also want to tap-in with your Power-Up Band in order to track your performance, earn coins, and record other achievements.
Even if you paid careful attention to the pre-ride instructions, there’s a learning curve that is only overcome by doing. After the kart takes off, there’s a quick practice round where you fire off shells at various enemies flying around you. This is a great opportunity to get your bearings, but it can only do so much.
Once the ride and race actually get going, it can be disorienting with a lot of different things competing for your attention. Do you focus on the augmented reality action and attempt to score as many points as possible? Do you simply enjoy the ride and look at the awesome and engrossing dark ride show scenes? It’s almost impossible to do both simultaneously.
Despite the name and game that inspired it, Mario Kart is only nominally a racing attraction. If you are expecting Radiator Springs Racers: Interactive Mario Edition, you are going to be sorely disappointed. For one, the karts are not fast–this is like Mario Kart played at 5cc. For another, the steering and other aspects of racing are more like quick time events than they are responsive. (Remember, everyone is driving.)
Instead, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge is more like a shooter. The best comparison is probably Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin meets Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, plus AR. Mario Kart combines the best elements of those two very different attractions, with vibrant and well-done physical sets blended with screens and other tech.
The gamified element focuses primarily on the shooting. Collect shells from item boxes that appear on the course, aim at enemies by turning your head, and then fire with a button attached to the steering wheel. You get coins for successfully hitting enemies, as well as drifting around corners when red arrows pop-up indicating you need to steer left or right–but shooting is the predominant form of gameplay.
Really, the ride is not that different from Mario Kart, except in the balance of shooting v. driving. Players are scored individually, but the whole team needs to contribute to beat Team Bowser. So to that extent, it’s like Web Slingers, the Spider-Man ride in Avengers Campus.
While the ride is slow, there’s simply so much going on in Mario Kart that it’s difficult to fully appreciate it all. Even after multiple re-rides, I still found myself noticing new details about the dark ride or the AR gameplay mechanics. There are portions of the course (looking at you, Rainbow Road!) that are downright intense, and the experience is bound to leave you laughing with or yelling at your crew. Sometimes both.
The whole ride experience is overwhelming and fast-paced, yet immensely satisfying and fun. Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge replicates the game that inspired it in the most meaningful way–prompting similar racer reactions and a “let’s do that again!” after finishing a race. I love this ride, warts and all.
If you’ve only watched ride-throughs on YouTube, this reaction and praise might come as a surprise. It would seem the consensus among “reviewers” who have not experienced the ride is that it’s too slow. And it’s true–this is a slow-moving dark ride on rails. If you’re watching a video, that much is patently obvious–and seemingly at odds with the frenetic energy of Mario Kart. Again, this might disappoint those expecting something speedy like Radiator Springs Racers.
The thing is, if you watch a video of Soarin’ or Avatar Flight of Passage or Star Tours, they are similarly disappointing. The motion is literally simulated in those, and video doesn’t even begin to do them justice. It’s the exact same idea with Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. This is an attraction that hits so much differently when actively playing it in person as opposed to passively watching on a phone screen. Who would’ve thought?!
If anything, Mario Kart: Bower’s Challenge is too frantic and chaotic. Adding actual speed to the course would’ve made the wheels fall off, figuratively speaking. The interactivity wouldn’t have worked and the ride would’ve been too disorienting for the vast majority of guests.
I would argue that the choice to go slow was the right one, and the result is one that captures the spirit of Mario Kart’s frenzied racing perfectly, even at a slow speed. To that point, I think the ride has just the right amount of chaos and the pacing is pitch-perfect. Universal Creative had an unenviable task in attempting to balance all of the competing elements that define playing Mario Kart. For me, what matters less is each individual element and the overall feeling of the experience. From my perspective, they nailed the vibe.
One thing that’s worth addressing is the learning curve, which is always going to exist in gamified attractions. It’s exceedingly difficult to make an attraction accessible to non-gamers while still being sufficiently appealing to hardcore gamers. Our party ran the video gaming gamut, from novice to expert.
At the beginner end of the spectrum, there was definitely difficulty figuring things out. The first ride was essentially a practice and learning run, for all intents and purposes, as a result. At the other end of the spectrum, there was a degree of disappointment at the simplicity of the play. As the rider in the middle of that spectrum, I felt the experience was almost perfectly balanced–approachable enough for non-gamers while sufficiently challenging and addictive enough for actual gamers.
Nevertheless, I’ll also concede that gamified attractions are among the most polarizing with hardcore theme park fans (and presumably with gamers). Some click and some fall flat, and “success” can vary from fan-to-fan. Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge attempts to be both a slow-moving dark ride and gamified attraction–rather than just the latter, like Toy Story Mania.
I think this is the greatest asset of Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, but that also means striking the right balance can be tricky. Some might contend that trying to be everything to everyone makes it mediocre for all. I vehemently disagree, finding the compromises of Mario Kart to bring better balance and crowd-pleasing qualities to the attraction. Thanks to that, it cannot be fairly accused of being too screen or thrill-dependent, as is commonly the case for Universal rides. This is a family-friendly attraction, through and through.
Another thing I’ll concede is that this is quite clearly an early generation AR ride. Without question, the technology is going to continue to evolve, and what’s possible in a few years will likely lap Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. You could argue that this ride is both ahead of its time and perhaps being released prematurely, before the tech is ready for primetime.
Universal has a pretty good track record with updating its tech-heavy attractions, so hopefully there are plans to do the same with Mario Kart. I cannot imagine that the USJ version will be exactly what opens at Epic Universe some 5 years later. If it is, that will be a massive fail.
From my perspective, the AR never gets in its own way on Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. With that said, the visuals can become slightly choppy or vanish from view when you move your head too quickly or eyes outside the field of view.
Due to the current limitations of AR, riders need to adjust for this; I found that seldom happens once you get your bearings on how the AR works and know where to look and how to move your head around. After completing the practice round, it became pretty intuitive for me.
My other quibble with the way Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge “stacks” AR on top of screens and physical sets is that it’s not always seamless. On occasion, I found myself looking at the AR–not through it–and missing the scenery that’s supposed to blend together.
This can make suspension of disbelief difficult, and there are definitely times when I made a concerted effort to separate out the AR from the scenery so I could enjoy the latter. This isn’t always an issue–there are some segments that are incredibly engrossing and fully immersive. (It’s also one of those things that’s highly subjective–it may all blend together for you, or none of it might.)
Ultimately, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge is one of the most envelope-pushing and ambitious attractions I’ve ever experienced in any theme park. Like the best Mario Kart courses, it’s the perfect mixture of frustrating, fun, and addictive. You want to keep coming back, seeing what you missed before, and improving your results.
It’s almost nothing like other gamified attractions, eschewing simple and static screens for a hybrid approach that melds dimensional dark ride scenes with engrossing screens along with augmented reality. The way it integrates all of this is truly impressive–but also important. If the interactive element of Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge doesn’t quite “click” for you, the attraction is still enjoyable as a traditional dark ride.
There’s a decent chance that’ll be the case for many riders, as the disparate elements of Mario Kart don’t always fire on all cylinders to create a sense of complete immersion or suspension of disbelief. However, when the ride experience coalesces or riders get into their gaming groove, it’s unrivaled. When Mario Kart hits those high notes on Rainbow Road, it becomes a seamless blend of video game and dark ride unlike anything else. Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge may misfire for some, but it also revolutionizes and is an early look at the future of interactive dark rides. In fitting fashion, Mario once again changes the game–but unlike Super Mario 64, this gamechanger doesn’t fully realize its potential, and instead paves the way for subsequent iterations of Mario Kart or other interactive attractions.
If you’re preparing for a Southern California vacation, check out our other planning posts, including our exhaustive Guide to Universal Studios Hollywood. Need advice for LA? Read our Ultimate Los Angeles, California Planning Guide. Visiting other SoCal theme parks? Consult our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide and Knott’s Berry Farm Planning Guide.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you experienced Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge? Looking forward to playing Bowser’s Challenge at Universal Studios Hollywood or Epic Universe? What did you think of this attraction? Wish it were faster, or pleased with the balance of interactive shooting and racing? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Would you like to see a review of the entire land? What about a Super Nintendo World strategy & planning post? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Rode it twice today. The technology is not even close to being ready for prime time. Toy Story Mania is 1000 times better and it pains me to say that. All it is is garbled graphics that even overlap themselves so you can’t even see the sets or anything happening as you slowly crawl. The only part that works is when it goes from Rainbow Road to the last screen, that was clever, but the rest is a fail.
The land is amazing though and worth it for that.
I rode this twice at USJ around the same time you guys visited, and my feelings are very similar – technology is outstanding and they nailed the vibe. That said, I’d make one small tweak – keep the racers on ‘your team’ out of your field of vision. There’s already so much going on, and I think it’s challenging enough (and I’m a videogame vet since the N64 days, just like you!) to aim at the Koopalings and take in some portion of what you’re seeing without having to also rapidly and repeatedly differentiate between friend and foe.
I’ve also done the Namco-developed VR version of Mario Kart several times, and I think although that’s less impressive and memorable than the full ride (and no amazing queue!) it was actually more fun, because the technology works better, and the mechanic where you reach upwards to ‘grab’ items is so fantastic. That said, I’m sure the AR will improve over the coming years – I saw some interview a while back where they explicitly said that this was a ride that was made to be upgraded.
I really loved the Mario Kart ride, and enjoyed all the scenes from my favourite Mario Kart games so much I struggled to focus on shooting.
However, I think a straight rollercoaster would have been even better.
There just isn’t a need to try and be too clever or make it really different;
Mario + rollercoasters is exciting enough.
I hope when they add the Donkey Kong area they go simple; maybe a mine cart rollercoaster.
The real strength of Super Nintendo World right now is just how new and immersive it is. I loved the experience, but those aspects won’t suffice forever.
Can kids ride this? What is the minimum height?
According to Universal Hollywood website, the minimum height requirement is 40 in.
Hi Tom & Sarah
“Would you like to see a review of the entire land? What about a Super Nintendo World strategy & planning post?” you ask.
Well, yes. Yes. A bazillion times yes.
After more than two years of cancelling for obvious reasons, my boyfriend and I finally have a trip to Japan planned in May/June. I am already feeling quite anxious about dealing with crowds since this trip will probably be a one-time thing and we will only have one day at USJ. It also seems like a pretty challenging park to navigate, but I could be wrong.
Thank you so much for this review!
Your pictures of the ride and elements are awesome and makes me kinda want to visit Universal again. I haven’t been in probably 20 years (aging myself,) even though I live 40 minutes away, and it was good then but it looks amazing now.
I remember playing these games as a kid in the 90’s but I never became a “gamer” so maybe I would be more on the spectrum of enjoying the entertainment elements of the ride than the full immersion factor? I also didn’t think to look on YouTube for ride videos….ha ha ha! Great tip!
Anyways, I really do enjoy your very informative blog posts.
I rode this for the first time back in November. I agree that videos do not – and cannot – do the ride full justice. However, whilst I can appreciate the ride technologically, for me it just wasn’t any fun. The illusion of speed doesn’t really work – you are aware that you are crawling at a slow speed through physical sets (which I think were beautiful, but you don’t really get any time to look at them), with a storm of graphics in front of your eyes that are overwhelming.
I came off the ride and had no particular desire to do it again. Not that it was bad per se, but that it wasn’t worth the investment in time to ride. And I rode with an Express Pass, but the various pre-shows etc. means it’s still quite a lengthy wait.
I’m sure it would improve if I’d have been able to do multiple rides, but this wasn’t practically possible with the crowds at USJ (unless your only purpose that day was to do Super Nintendo World), and is unlikely to be easy at Epic Universe for a number of years. I would argue that any ride that has a learning curve of multiple rides is probably a bit of a fail – Toy Story Mania, for instance, is delightfully simple and accessible to all.
“The illusion of speed doesn’t really work – you are aware that you are crawling at a slow speed through physical sets…”
You’re absolutely right about this. I guess it’s a question of whether that matters to each individual rider–for me, it did not. I felt the totality of the ride captured the ‘chaotic core’ of Mario Kart, even at a lower cc. Others might strongly disagree–I definitely liked this ride more than anyone in our party.
Thanks for sharing your perspective!
Thanks for your review! I got to experience Mario Kart a couple of days after you (I think) and I was a lot more disappointed with the ride than you were. After reading your review I am now wondering if my opinion would be different if I had gotten to do the attraction more than just once on that day. There was just so much going on and until I had figured out how the tech & gameplay works, the attraction – naturally – was already over. The sets are really fantastic and maybe I should have just concentrated on that. But of course, as a first time rider, I tried to do it all: play + enjoy the ride. And I’ve failed. So Mario Kart left a bitter taste for me.
I *guess* that my view would be more positive after a few re-rides. But at busy USJ, that wasn’t an option for me (it was my first time visiting that park). It’s difficult to call Mario Kart a bad attraction – you list a lot of reasons why it’s not. It just left me with the feeling that I had failed at figuring it out.
Really a shame, as a lot of care and love went into creating this ride. But I got off and my first thought was “What was *that*?!?” …
I think that’s going to be the reaction a lot of people have towards this ride–it’s overwhelming and isn’t as intuitive as maybe it should be. With re-rides difficult, it’ll also be a one and done for many.
We were fortunate in that we arrived 90 minutes before park opening and the park opened about an hour early, so our first couple of rides had minimal waits. Thanks to that, Express Pass and Single Rider, we were able to do it multiple times. (We’ve also visited USJ a lot–albeit not in the last 2 years!–so the only other high priorities were Space Fantasy and Flying Dinosaur.)
You’re right on the money with the AR rig being designed to easily upgrade in the future.
My son asks me everyday how more days until we go in March we actually bought universal passes. Big time Mario fans at our house
Enjoyed this, thank you. We’re hitting up LA at the end of March/start of April for the first time ever and are really looking forward to Disneyland and this. Any strategy posts for this would be awesome – the key question for me right now is if it’ll be possible to ride twice in one day, or if it’s one and done like Rise was when it first opened.
This is definitely not what I was expecting, but definitely sounds intriguing. I have friends ready for a trip as soon as it opens at USH.
Interesting to hear your thoughts. I think yours is the first (generally) positive review I’ve read of this particular attraction.
Re: “Would you like to see a review of the entire land?” I would definitely be interested in that. Your pictures from the queue are fantastic.