What might a Nintendo theme park be like?

I was shuffling through some old Notepad files, and I came across something I saved. It’s from an old forum discussion I posted in several years ago on some site, asking what ideas could potentially make for a good Nintendo theme park. I came up with these, though I made a few edits just now to keep up with the times. I just figured I’d share some of the ideas, especially after seeing the multi-year project that is making Hyrule in Rollercoaster Tycoon (which is about as insane as something I would do). Anyway, on to the ideas!

Super Mario 64 – Wing Cap Rollercoaster: If any of you have ridden “Superman: Ultimate Flight” at Six Flags, this is similar. You’d sit in the rollercoaster, then be pulled back into “flying” position. You’d then go off on an awesome rollercoaster over the themed area around the park, likely decorated as Bob-Omb Battlefield or something.

Super Mario Galaxy – Star Rollercoaster: This is a newer addition to my list. Whether or not it would replace the previous entry is up for debate (this is all just my imagination, anyway), but it also be an extension to the above ride as an alternative. Basically, you could fly around the “galaxy” featured in Super Mario Galaxy, circling planets, enemies, and zooming among the various worlds.

F-Zero Grand Prix Rollercoaster: Rather than the bumper cars or go-kart ideas many people might come up with for an F-Zero ride, I’d rather focus less on the driving aspect and more on the speed. The cars would maybe have 4 rows of 3, and each car would be like an F-Zero car, but with an open-top. The “track” would be modeled after Big Blue, with that white tube thingy that the rollercoaster cars would go on and around, with acceleration jerks at the boosts. While not the most diverse rollercoaster of these ideas, it SHOULD definately be the fastest.

Star Fox Arwing Rollercoaster: This one is my favorite idea, but there would probably be limited space. It would either have to be a huge ride with several groups of 4 going at once (with groups at spaced intervals), or there would be really long lines. Anyway, each “row” is distant, and what you’d normally wait for to load one car, you’d have to wait to load a row, simply because they need space. Each row isn’t simply four seats, you actually have 4 separate open-top Arwings. Once the ride started, you’d shortly after notice that not only are you on separate cars, you’re on separate tracks. They’ll stay near each other the entire time, but imagine the tracks splitting up a few seconds into the ride with each Arwing doing barrel rolls and moving in relation to the others to change formations. That’s how the track would be oriented. Speakers onboard would play recordings as if the Star Fox team was talking to you. I guess you could put more than one per car for efficiency, but it’s not as special that way.

Pokemon Advanced – Mini Rollercoaster: If this would be a US park, it would have to be a mini-rollercoaster, since that area of the park would appeal more to little kids. Also, as a result, the ride would not only follow the game, but the TV show and movies as well. I think one of the movies had Ash riding a Lugia, which could be the theme of the rollercoaster. Lugia (as your car) would fly around the track, which would be decorated with animatronics of other legendary or big Pokemon or Team Rocket, etc. If any of you know the Whizzer at Six Flags: Great America, that’s what I’m thinking of, except more colorful.

The Legend of Zelda – Hyrule Adventure: A Hyrule region of the park would be decorated and themed as Hyrule Kingdom, with gift shops, or game shops to play bombchu or slingshot games (or something similar and safer) to win prizes. You could buy masks. A ride in the area, similar to either Epcot’s ride in the big ball or Magic Kingdom’s Peter Pan ride, you’d ride underneath the owl from a track that (at an owl flight speed) flies over the Hyrule area to see it all.

Pikmin – Olimar’s Flight Simulator: Telling the story leading up to Captain Olimar’s crash, you’re in a flight simulator similar to Universal’s Back to the Future or more like Epcot’s Mission: Space, with you in Olimar’s ship trying to salvage what’s left of the damaged ship and crash land it on the nearby planet. And then something could be done with the Pikmin, I just don’t know how to integrate it in.

Fire Emblem – Pegasus Rollercoaster: Over the Fire Emblem area of the park, you’d basically have a Pegasus-themed rollercoaster flying around at high speeds.

Nintendo Water Park: Possibly modeled after Super Mario Sunshine, there could be water attractions like a Wave Race ride or something.

Donkey Kong – Diddy’s Jetpack Rollercoaster: Very similar to the Super Mario 64 – Wing Cap Rollercoaster, you’d instead be going through a Donkey Kong themed area flying around trees, under broken tree trunks, through the forest, etc.

1080 Snowboarding – Standing Rollercoaster: If you’ve ever ridden a standing rollercoaster (like Six Flags: Great America’s “Iron Wolf”), I’m thinking one of those, but instead of facing forward, you’re positioned sideways (like you would be on a snowboard), but this would also be much faster. And there would be air-jets positioned on the ride to blow cold air on you the whole ride. The rollercoaster would be designed with dips such that you would feel weightless at points (like you do at the start of big rollercoaster drops before it jerks you down with the ride) as if you’re jumping hills and whatnot.

Metroid Prime – Laser Tag: I couldn’t think of anything creative to do with the adventure/shooting aspect of the Metroid or Metroid Prime games, though this might be a nice, simple attraction. It could be a laser tag game where you and your friends play against each other, or it could be like the Men In Black: Alien Attack ride at Universal where you and your friends work together to take out space pirates and such.

Metroid Prime – Ship Simulator: This could be another flight simulator, like the Olimar Flight Simulator explained above. However, this time, rather than putting the rider in charge of salvaging a damaged ship, you could perhaps explore a little bit in Samus’ ship or one like it. At this point, we know you’re supposed to be able to fly Samus’ ship in the upcoming Prime 3 game, so however they end up using it in the game may be applicable to a ride/simulator concept here.

Lastly, we know Disney World has themed resort hotels. Perhaps this park could have its own resort hotels, modeled after the paradise of Super Mario Sunshine or even the haunted Luigi’s Mansion. Nothing too special in terms of interaction, but it’s still a nice touch.

Well, that’s all I came up with for ideas. It’s just something I (mostly) wrote years ago for a forum discussion, as I said. However, I know there’s got to be several creative minds out there. How about coming up with some of your own ideas? Tell us about them!

–Christian