Maybe it's just me, but I think Universal is farther along in their construction than people think. I was there last November, and there were a *lot* of unnamed motion ride areas under construction.
The only problem is, I have to wonder....most of those motion rides are half-ride half-show. Nintendo's biggest games are known for their lack of voice acting...how the heck are they going to pull this off?
I could think of a few things. A Loftwing-themed roller-coaster would make sense. Mario Kart *something* has been pointed out numerous times. Maybe a Pokémon-themed motion ride? I could see them possibly doing that.
Star Fox I believe is a given for a motion ride. It's got all the necessities: humor, barrel rolls....VOICE ACTING!!!! Heck, maybe the new Kid Icarus could provide some material in there as well.
But even though it looks like a tough job, I have every reason to believe that Universal can pull it off. The whole place was an explorable maze of fun.
Why? Well... This is going to sound weird, but I remember being a little kid, going to Disneyland, and being horribly disappointed that the big castle was little more than a cheap front. You could *sort of* go in it, but all you got for your trouble was a bunch of 2-inch high animatronic Sleeping Beauty characters that were falling apart from age. Lame. Went to Disneyworld long, loooong after, thinking of those commercials of the great big Cinderella Castle. Well, okay, there's actually a restaurant in it. But it's still tiny. It's not something you can explore.
So last fall when I went to Universal and saw the Hogwarts castle ride...well, simply put, I wish this had been here when I was a little kid, because I sure felt like one! Just in the queue I was visiting numerous locations from Hogwarts in the movies (we joked about being sent to the principal's office when we went past Dumbledore's gargoyle), all in stunning (often hilarious) detail. There was more fun in the queue than there was in the ride (not to discount the ride), and it was fun feeling like you were getting a chance to explore the real thing. (Even knowing it was pretend.) Gringott's felt like a massive encore, and was just as enormous in its detail.
And not just the rides. There's a lot of nifty stuff to look for and do all over the place. I have this mental image of getting randomly told of by Resetti for accidentally wandering into the wrong area.
I was really skeptical about the park. And it floored me. I go in this kind of stuff with low expectations. But I believe that Universal at least has the *ability* to pull it off and do it right. They know how to think big on this sort of thing.
