Image: Universal Studio Japan
In 1988 Hobby World Magazine wrote that ‘a boy between 8 and 15 without a Nintendo is like a boy without a baseball glove.’
For the next 10 years, Super Mario, the overall-wearing mustachioed plumber – created by legendary video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who also master-minded Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda – became the unofficial emblem of childhood and was frequently found to be more recognisable to children than Disney’s Mickey Mouse.
Now, the world’s largest video game company, which was initially founded in 1889 in Kyoto to sell playing cards, is opening the first-ever Super Nintendo Theme Park in Osaka.
From zooming through the Mushroom Kingdom to racing Princess Peach to the finish line, it is a homage to nearly 40-years of classic, animated design and a unique opportunity to physically immerse yourself in one of the only art forms that exist purely in a digital space.
Super Nintendo World is due to be open at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka on 4 February 2021.
