Mario World / Nintendo Land?

[RedSpecial]

I’d be interested to know what others think of the following idea/concept for a theme park or theme park area. Apologies if others have already suggested this. Consider the following – in recent news items it has been reported that global sales of Nintendo’s Wii console have passed 50 million; including domination of the hand held computer games market with the DS and upcoming DSi it would be an intriguing thought if Nintendo were to consider going in to the theme park business. I think someone should put together a sales pitch to Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata.

Just consider the rich and dynamic group of characters and themed rides that could be put together in line with both past and present Nintendo games and characters. We could have a Princess Peach castle, a Bowser Revenge rollercoaster, Yoshi’s water park, a Luigi’s Mansion themed dark ride, Mario cart raceway, a Donkey Kong jungle water type ride; the list could go on and on...

Consider the main demographic of the players of Nintendo games – young people, parents – the typical market for a successful theme park. The marriage between the technology of current theme parks and a company like Nintendo could be a terrific win win business idea. Just think of the merchandising that Nintendo could ship on the back of a theme park and to have their games integrated in to a real world experience in this way. Wouldn’t a Nintendo theme park be a marketing dream for say the next version of a Mario Party game? My kids would kill for the chance to encounter the chance of immersing themselves in a real world Mario park.

Where would this kind of park be best located? Japan comes to mind but if successful it could be rolled out in typical Disney fashion. To me the idea seems to be such a natural marriage of popular characters with good theme park planning I’m really surprised it already hasn’t been done.

Would be very interested in reading what other theme park review forum member think about the idea? What ride would you like to see? If you think the idea wouldn’t work – why not?

[jack rives]

My goodness, my 9 year old son LOVES this idea and has already started writing up some ride ideas and especially roller coasters (and what they would do) to send to you. We are ACE members and he wants to be a roller coaster engineer. It would be awesome if some companies would get together to sponsor this to make a real theme park, it's brilliant!! He would like to share his ideas with you, do you want to see them and read them?

 

April Rives (Jack's Mom)

[SoCalCoasters]

^ Considering that Nintendo is currently in the middle of trying to boost the reputation of a console that disappointed a good majority of the gaming community when it was shown off at E3, I doubt they would want to get involved with a project as risky and expensive as a theme park. The concept here has been suggested before, and yes the market might be big enough, but there's just too many variables at this point in time for it to be anything more than a fanboy pipe dream.

 

Nintendo is first and foremost a video game company. Considering that they aren't doing very well in the public eye currently a park like this would take too much time away from the console development. If Nintendo were license its products to a park, they would obviously want creative input. That creative input requires time and money, lots of it.

 

If the WiiU ended up being a surprise success, then they'll move on to their next big and innovative idea. Putting together a hodgepodge of ideas with no real cohesiveness at this point would not work. It's a cool dream, but I really doubt at this point in time that it will ever be anything more than that.

 

Closest thing you can get to this is the Sega Arcade/Park Hybrids, and even those aren't true theme parks. Not to mention they are on a much smaller scale and haven't seen widespread success. (see failed Joyopolis in Australia)