Super Nintendo World opens virtual tour website, reveals visitors can eat Koopa Troopa shells

Guests at Universal Studios Japan’s new Nintendo zone can enjoy the delicious fillings of Bowser’s minions at Yoshi’s Snack Island.

Following a delay from its originally planned summer 2020 opening, Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World expansion says it will start welcoming visitors on February 4. That’s less than a month away, but for hard-core Nintendo fans the last part of the wait is sure to be the most excruciating, and so the park is throwing us a bone with a new special website that boasts it offers a “virtual visit” to the real-world Mushroom Kingdom.

The site, which can be found here, gives an animated, visitor’s-eye-view of what it’s like to roam around the world’s first Nintendo-themed amusement park area. Naturally, it starts by taking you through a warp pipe, and from there walks you down the pathways and sweeps you up over the balconies, all while creatures and characters from the Super Mario games shuffle around the environment.

Scrolling down through the website whisks you from one part of the area to another, and when characters show up in the bottom right-hand corner, clicking on them gives you more information about Super Nintendo World’s attractions, food, and merch.

Speaking of food, aside from the Toad’s Cafe previewed last month, Super Nintendo World will have at least two other places where you can simultaneously satisfy your Nintendo-loving heart and rumbling stomach, one of which is Yoshi’s Snack Island, which will be serving edible Koopa Troopa shells!

While snapping turtle is indeed a delicacy in classical Japanese cuisine, these contain no turtle bits. They’re actually baked calzones stuffed with cheese and yakisoba noodles. Also on the menu at the takeout-only Yoshi’s Snack Island are two flavors of Yoshi Lassi yogurt drinks, melon and mango.

▼ Hopefully Super Nintendo World isn’t so committed to source material fidelity that they have loudspeakers blasting the crying Baby Mario sound effect from Yoshi’s Island while you’re waiting in line.

Mobile munchies will also be offered at Pitstop Popcorn, located next to Super Nintendo World’s flagship attraction, the Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge AR roller coaster.

Strap-equipped character popcorn buckets are a popular souvenir at Japanese theme parks (Tokyo’s Disneyland’s recent expansion came with special Beauty and the Beast and Big Hero 6 ones), and Pitstop Popcorn has both Mario Kart and Super Star versions, with the former looking a lot like the Mario Kart Live AR toy for the Nintendo Switch.

With Japan still closed to international tourist travel and even local residents rethinking their near-future travel plans due to the ongoing pandemic, it’s going to be a while before some fans can make their way to Super Nintendo World, but in the meantime, the virtual walkthrough website is a great way to remind ourselves that some things are worth waiting for.

Source: PR Times, Universal Studios Japan
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: Universal Studios Japan (1, 2)
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