Trivia / Super Nintendo World

• Blooper: At one point in Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge, Toad is chased by Morton with a Piranha Plant, and while it is possible to stop Morton's chase by firing shells at him, the Piranha Plant remains and still chases Toad even though it should be attached to Morton's kart.
• Content Leak: It's a Universal park, so of course.
  • The entire layout of the Donkey Kong area was first revealed several years before its opening when an image of a miniature model of the land, likely intended to finalise the area's minute details and see how the area looks as a physical model, was circulated online from an unknown source.
  • The first glimpse of the Mine Cart Madness coaster came from a Reddit user who noticed a test version of the ride being run in the backyard of Petersen Inc.'s workshop in Ogden, Utah.
• Defictionalization:
  • Like how Pokémon GO was for Pokémon fans, and the likes of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge were for fans of their respective franchises, the “Mario Kart” Ride allows Mario fans to live their childhood dream of partaking in a Mario Kart race. The planned Donkey Kong expansion will also allow fans to actually live out the Minecart Madness levels of the Donkey Kong Country games.
  • At Universal Japan, one of the menu items at the café is none other than Princess Peach's cake from Super Mario 64, complete with a cookie resembling her letter from that game. The Hollywood version replaces it with a Peach cupcake.
• Demand Overload: Hollywood's version of the land has had a few instances of this:
  • In general, the plush-like character hats^note Consisting of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Toad, Bowser, and Goomba are a hot item, frequently selling out within days every time they get restocked. Notably, the hats that aren't Mario and Luigi are usually the first to go, which are the Yoshi, Toad, and Bowser hats. This can potentially make getting them onsite a Luck-Based Mission.
  • When the land first held previews for passholders, the very first day on January 29th, 2023 had crowds so large, that lines for the Power-Up Band games and Toadstool Café bled all across the land (which is undoubtedly why reservations must be made for the latter). This can be chalked up to how the park underestimated the crowd held in the land for the very first time. While the later dates would work out these kinks, the first day's crowds were so bad that 3 days later, Universal offered those in attendance of that day another chance on February 6th of the following week, which reportedly saw a vastly smaller crowd.
• Development Gag: The blueprints found in Bowser's laboratory in Hollywood are for "Project Number MK-526". "Project 526" was the internal codename for the Hollywood version of Super Nintendo World.
• Market-Based Title: Owing to Dub Name Changes between Japanese and English, Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge became Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge, and Kinopio's Café became Toadstool Café.
• Schedule Slip: Three iterations of the land suffered from this as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
  • The land was originally going to open in Japan in Summer 2020, but the opening was pushed back to March 2021 due to the pandemic.
  • Hollywood's version of the land faced a similar issue, as construction started in 2018 and was originally believed to have been slated for a 2021 opening. While construction halted but then resumed in 2020, the shut downs and supply chain issues pushed this version of the land back to early 2023.
  • As Orlando's version is to be a part of Epic Universe, which was supposed to open in 2023, construction halted because of the pandemic in July 2020, and did not resume until 2021. This would essentially push back the park and land to 2025.
• The Other Darrin: In Japanese, Toadette, Chef Toad and Captain Toad have different voice actors instead of Samantha Kelly.
• Uncredited Role: Toadette, Chef Toad and Captain Toad's Japanese voice actors have not been revealed.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before Universal secured the Nintendo park rights, they created a pitch for a Nintendo-themed land of their own initiative. This pitch was likely never seriously considered for construction, but it gives an idea of what kind of concepts they were thinking of when they first began toying with the idea.
    • The proto-Super Nintendo World would've replaced Woody Woodpecker's KidsZone at Universal Studios Florida. After securing the Super Nintendo World rights and developing the idea into the land we know today, it was still initially the intention to have the area replace KidsZone, which even got as far as demolition permits being filed, which were cancelled at the very last second. The final version of Super Nintendo World would instead choose Universal's Epic Universe as its Florida location, freeing KidsZone to be replaced with a DreamWorks Animation area.
    • At this stage, five main areas were pitched: A Mario-themed retail area also featuring a "Pokémon Training Academy", a Legend of Zelda land based on Ocarina of Time, a Super Mario ride zone, a Donkey Kong-themed land, and a Kirby-themed children's play area. The final opening of Super Nintendo World instead chose to focus on Super Mario, with a Donkey Kong expansion coming later and other themes yet to be announced, and Pokémon appearing exclusively in Japan in daytime shows outside of the land (though the first of them had it partnered with Mario).
  • Super Nintendo World was also in early plans for Universal Studios Beijing, but was dropped due to Nintendo's relative unpopularity in China. The area it would've occupied instead became Kung Fu Panda: Land of Awesomeness.
  • Staff at the Toadstool Café will sometimes tell you that they experimented using ghost peppers in the Fire Flower Spaghetti & Meatballs during the soft launch, but customers complained that it was too spicy. The current recipe now uses red peppers, which still have a spice kick, but is much more mild in comparison.
• Working Title: The land at Universal's Epic Universe is codenamed "P904". At Hollywood, it was "P526".

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