Nintendo’s famous game designer Shigeru Miyamoto showed off the Donkey Kong Country area at Super Nintendo World.
The unveiling is a major addition to the theme park within a theme park that opened at Universal Studios Japan in March 2021.
Nintendo has opened or is opening its theme parks in Hollywood, Osaka, Orlando (2025) and Singapore (TBD). The aim is to widen its funnel for consumers and get more people familiar with Nintendo’s intellectual property than gamers alone.
The new area is part of the Super Mario World section of the theme park in Japan. As you move from one area to the Donkey Kong Country, Miyamoto pointed out that you move from blocks to rocks as you go through a tunnel. With a jungle theme, Miyamoto showed off the Donkey Kong Tree House and the Golden Temple. On the temple, there’s a face of a monkey with steam spewing out of its mouth.
He played large conga drums that were connected to lights. Three people can play at a time. The drums light up when you hit them. If you hit the right sequence with conga sticks for long enough, a Rambi character appears above the drums.
There are some secret locations and reward hunts. Around the park are letter blocks spelling out the Donkey Kong name, and you can scan it using a new Donkey Kong power-up band, which looks like a big watch. You can see the items you earn in the Universal Studios app.
You can get food at the Jungle Beat Shakes shop, where you can get banana-flavored DK Crush Sunday and a DK hot dog.
Miyamoto showed the Donkey Kong Tree House and all of its bananas up close, and a mascot Donkey Kong character walked up to him. You can take pictures with the mascot throughout the area.
There’s a Funky Kong fly-n-buy plane where you can shop for Donkey Kong merchandise. And the flagship attraction the land is a Golden Temple ride, where you ride in a mine cart across the jungle. Inside, it’s a golden color with some images from Nintendo lore on the walls. Cranky Kong ands Squawks talk to those waiting in line, urging them to chase the Tiki Take Tribe away and protect the golden banana. The ride is a kind of gentle roller coaster, as far as I can tell. Donkey Kong made his debut 40 years ago and it was the first game Miyamoto created.
Nintendo hasn’t said how much money it has made from its mini-theme parks, but it called them out in its earnings call as a part of its overall business strategy. The opening date will be December 11, 2024, in Japan’s Super Nintendo World. It will also open at in Universal Epic Universe in Orlando, Florida, with both the Mario and Donkey Kong areas.
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