YMMV / Super Nintendo World

• Awesome Music: New and original arrangements play throughout the land, and they are bound to add to the immersiveness of stepping into the Mushroom Kingdom, especially for the first time guest.
  • The main entrance to the land features an original arrangement, and it plays an orchestrated and 8-bit version of the song on the opposite sides of the entrance. Together, they make for a grandiose and magical tune, capturing the spirit of Mario music from both eras. Its tone can convey a variety of emotions depending on the guest, as the song is composed as if Nintendo now has their own answer to the Disney Parks as a magical theme park experience.
  • A new orchestral arrangement of Peach's Castle plays in said castle, and it's a majestic new spin on a classic Mario tune that has seen many iterations over the years.
  • On the way to Bowser's Castle for Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge plays a new arrangement of Bowser's Lava Lake Keep from Super Mario 3D World, which adds to how awe-inducing seeing Bowser's Castle in person can be as you prepare to enter it.
    • After the pre-show is over, the final room before the loading area plays a new arrangement of Bowser's Castle from Mario Kart Wii, which perfectly captures the atmosphere as you prepare to head down to the race.
    • The loading area for the ride also plays a new arrangement of Mario Kart Wii's race menu theme, which can not only get you pumped for the ride ahead, but is also a pleasant surprise since the ride otherwise takes all of its aesthetics from Mario Kart 8.
  • The 1-Up Factory store plays a multitude of new arrangements from past Mario games, also tailor made for a factory setting. These include the ground theme from New Super Mario Bros., the title screen of Super Mario Maker, and Super Mario Bros. 3's ground theme.
  • Once you're seated in Toadstool Café, even more new arrangements of Mario songs fill the atmosphere. These range from Super Mario World's credits theme, Pinna Park from Super Mario Sunshine, and most interestingly, the themes of the Comet Observatory, Good Egg Galaxy and Gusty Garden Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy also play despite the setting not being space themed.
• Broken Base:
  • The extensive focus on Super Mario Bros.. Some don't have an issue with it and many fans (especially fans of Mario) love the attention to detail and the idea of visiting a Mario-themed land. Others however, are disappointed and wish the land had more focus on Nintendo's other IPs as opposed to focusing solely on Mario, especially since the land is called Super Nintendo World. This has died down somewhat with the discovery of both a Donkey Kong themed rollercoaster and a The Legend of Zelda area of the park being rumored, but many wish that the park opened with more areas themed around different Nintendo properties. At least part of this divide appears to be between Nintendo fans and Universal fans, with the former wishing for a much broader range of franchise representation, while the latter understands the limitations of working within the limits of a pre-existing theme park and views Super Nintendo World as a complement to the many other rides already at Universal.
  • At Universal Studios Japan, the land and the idea of Nintendo at the park in-general has been a source of controversy among the park's hardcore fans, even if casual parkgoers adore it. A big part of USJ's appeal for many in that camp is that it focuses on classic Hollywood and other staples of US culture, so the idea of Super Nintendo World heralding a new era of USJ becoming a "Nintendo and anime park" is a cause of controversy. The initial area of Super Nintendo World didn't receive much concern given that it was built over a staff car park and so didn't replace anything, but the closures of The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, Backdraft and Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time in-part to make space for what is widely believed to be a new Pokémon attraction was met with far more debate.
  • The type of ride that Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge ended up being designed as has a divide on whether or not this was the right choice, with detractors not keen on it being a slower ride compared to the gameplay of the Mario Kart series as mentioned below. Those okay with it feel that the ride still manages to be fun despite it thanks to the interactivity, re-rideability and Visual Effects of Awesome from the practical sets and AR visuals, while also believing that it was a necessary sacrifice due to space limitations in both Hollywood and Japan, and in order to translate the game into a ride and making it enjoyable for all types of guests as per Miyamoto's vision.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: In addition to her playable appearance in Super Mario Run, Princess Daisy having a Power-Up Band themed after her and an appearance in Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge were seen as pleasant surprises, as she's otherwise only appeared in spin-off material since her debut. The same year that the Hollywood iteration of the land opened would later bring Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which would mark her first playable appearance in a console Mario game. Looking back can certainly feel as though Nintendo was wanting to do more with her even before Wonder, which seems to the payoff of it all, let alone how all of the characters represented through Power-Up Bands when the last first opened are playable in it.
• I Knew It!: When Nintendo announced that they’re partnering with Universal, many people expected a Mario Kart attraction to be built.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Mario, Luigi, and Peach's arrival to their meeting places are signaled by a fanfare that plays within the vicinity, which makes for an exciting and grandiose entrance as guests prepare to start taking photos with them. Mario and Luigi's is an original arrangement with a chiptune remix of the classic Super Mario Bros. Leitmotif sprinkled in. Princess Peach's is a new, orchestrated arrangement of the start of Super Mario 3D World's Victory March, which carries a royal air, fitting for the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.
  • Something not seen often at the Universal parks is that the Mario and Luigi mascots have moving faces, and they even speak full sentences to guests, which are all new recordings from none other than Charles Martinet, which are bound to delight guests.
    • Additionally, as with the Mario and Luigi mascots, the Princess Peach mascot shares the same voice actress as her Game VA (Samantha Kelly), and she also sounds absolutely delightful to listen to considering the lack thereof in recent Mario games.
• Older Than They Think: As noted below, this isn't the first time Pikmin have been hidden in something Mario related.
• Scrappy Mechanic: With how Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge intertwines technology and gameplay with the ride experience, it can be frustrating if something isn't working (as things tend to be at theme parks).
  • Sometimes, your Power-Up Band won't scan into your seat's wheel (which is usually indicated by your wheel briefly glowing rainbow colors), rendering you unable to record your score, and potentially rendering stamp(s) you would have gotten All for Nothing. God forbid this happens with the more difficult stamps available on the ride.
    • However, if you act quickly enough after getting off the ride, a team lead from one of the key mini games can add your rewards to your power up band account. You just have to remember how many coins you’d collected, confirm your screen name and the timeframe that you were on the ride.
  • The AR goggles not working can be a major stinker with how it's a core element to the ride. Thankfully though, the upside to this is that this lets you see the ride's set design without having to focus on the game part of the ride (and giving it up out of choice). Not to mention that if you let a team member know about it, they'll likely let you re-ride.
  • Meeting with the characters nets you a stamp and a key towards the Boswer Jr. Shadow Showdown, which under usual circumstances is great. However, if the staff’s scanner happens to be broken for a particular meet, you’re out of luck til next time as the character based rewards are the only ones that are inaccessible for team leads to add manually. This can make these rewards challenging to get depending on your timeframes for the day, as the characters only meet in roughly ten minute long sets (which their lines close practically at the start of, so if you see a character out it could already be too late to queue for them) and stop seeing guests two to three hours before park closing.
• That One Achievement: It may be surprising to see this on a theme park attraction's page, but there are indeed some rather difficult stamps to obtain if you have a Power-Up Band.
  • Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge has the "Super Mario Pro" stamp, which is earned by not hitting anyone from Team Mario throughout the entire race. This stamp can be very hard to obtain if you don't know the ride and where certain characters appear very well, because not only is it very easy to accidentally hit a Team Mario racer, this means that you have to aim your shots carefully, as a missed shell could just hit one of Team Mario instead. This isn't helped by how it's entirely possible for a missed shell to ricochet and cause this, failing the achievement condition without you realizing it. The fact that this stamp is repeatable essentially makes the indicator of how many times you got it a Bragging Rights Reward in and of itself.
    • It actually is possible to get this by just scanning your Power-Up Band and not firing any shells whatsoever, but at that point, not only does this defeat the challenge, you're also forcing yourself to not experience a core aspect of the ride and possibly hindering whoever else is riding with you (unless your AR goggles aren't working, which would render you unable to do so anyway, but would at least give you a penalty-free way to look at the physical sets).
  • Pretty much any stamp involving the AR binoculars is this due to how the random events on it are decided by Random Number God every time a new session on them is started. For instance, you could get the scene with Rosalina's Comet Observatory to appear a lot of times, but keep being unfortunate enough to not see the scene for Pikmin appear on the binoculars, and vice versa.
  • Getting 55 Coins on Bowser Jr. Shadow Showdown is a lot harder than it sounds. This is because the only way to score is by hitting shadow clones of Bowser Jr. in the first and last phases with Bob-Ombs, and hitting the actual Bowser Jr. or defeating enemies with a Fire Flower in the second phase. This can be hindered if you get hit by a Bullet Bill or a fireball from a Piranha Plant. Not helping matters is that the period in which you have a Fire Flower can distract you from the other hazards that'd make you lose it. The kicker is that where you're positioned also factors into this, making part of it a Luck-Based Mission, so if you aren't near the center, you'll have the least amount of opportunities to hit Bowser Jr. himself with fireballs during the second phase. This can be a bummer if you're on the far left or right ends, which means your fireballs won't even be able to reach him, leaving you stuck with defeating enemies and hoping you successfully swat back Bob-Ombs at Bowser Jr.'s shadow clones.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The different menus between Kinopio's Café and Toadstool Café to account for different regional tastes is understandable and the Hollywood menu was well-received, though many fans found Princess Peach's Cake being changed to a Cupcake a bit of a disappointment due to the former being a direct and well-themed reference to Super Mario 64, and the latter looking a lot more generic by comparison, with some likening it to a cupcake that can be bought from a regular grocery store rather than something one gets from an immersive theme park.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • As mentioned above, a camp of fans feel that Universal made a mistake by designing Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge as a standard, slow paced dark ride and should have opted for a high speed thrill ride approach that was more akin to the gameplay of the Mario Kart series.
  • Hollywood's version has a near-literal example in terms of land size. Despite the initial consensus of the land being well received for its immersiveness, kinetic energy, and activity potential despite being smaller than Japan's, some people feel like the Panda Express location and its adjacent quick service cafe in front of the land should have been demolished for it, as they easily could have added more space to the land since the lower lot already had Jurassic Café and another Starbucks as eateries.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Images of the land's section on the Universal Studios Hollywood/Japan app shows Daisy in some parts. Considering how she usually only appears in spin-off titles, this was a surprise to some. Specifically, she's on the Mario Kart track, and turned out to be part of Team Mario in the ride itself. However, even more surprising is that there's even an image of her alongside Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Yoshi◊ in the same vein as Disney's fab five, leading to speculation that she might also be a meetable character in the land in the future.
  • Cleverly hidden on one of the bags◊ given to customers in Hollywood and Japan^note Such as between Luigi and a Koopa Troopa, a lamp post on the left, and one of the balloons on the right are Pikmin of all non-Mario properties. This came as a shock to many, as few expected a non-Mario property, let alone a property other than more well known ones like The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon or Kirby to be implemented in the land from the get-go. This proved to be a tease for an actual appearance in the land, with Pikmin being spotted on one of the hills near Kinopio's Café in Japan, while in Hollywood they can be spotted holding a coin on a red block near Mario and Luigi's meeting area, near Mount Beanpole, and with the AR binoculars.
  • Various Miis appearing in a segment of the pre-show and graphics for the AR visors of Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge can be a pleasant surprise since they were not present in any marketing material leading up to the land's opening. Considering they go back as far as the Wii and haven't had as much prominence over time, it's good to see that Nintendo hasn't forgotten about them to where even they are featured in Nintendo's first theme park outing.

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