- Oh my goodness, I cannot not be more excited.
Right now, I am on the red carpet of Super Nintendo World.
This is the grand opening of the theme park
here in Los Angeles at Universal Studios.
And in my hand, I have one of the power up bands.
And what's exciting about this is this plays a
crucial part inside of the park where you actually
get to interact with things and participate in the games.
And of course, to match my pink outfit
we've got Princess Peach.
(upbeat music)
This is so exciting.
Mr. Miyamoto, the last time I saw you
was about 10 years ago
and we played Mario Kart together,
and now we are here in real life to witness it in person.
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] So obviously,
the initial plan was to bring the world of Mario
to life, but to actually see it realized now
and for me to be surprised and kind of like,
overwhelmed was something that I didn't expect.
- Seeing these games being created for so long
and now actually seeing them in real life,
how are you feeling about that?
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] No, so I'm really
looking forward to, you know
when I saw this in actual real life,
I was kind of surprised at how moved
I was when I first saw it.
And you know, I'm really excited and looking forward
to how other people are going to react to that,
and how they're going to feel when they see this place.
- Mr. Miyamoto, now you've created
such incredible characters throughout the years
and now being able to bring them to life,
what do you hope that people leave this park?
What do you hope they leave feeling?
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] That's a good question.
And you know, for a lot of fans,
they probably have memories of video games,
whether it's the characters
or the backdrops and all of that.
But then for them to come to this park and see
that in real life, that I would just love to have that
as an additional memory to the log of memories
they may have from playing games.
- Now I have been playing Nintendo ever
since I was a little kid, so for me,
this is, I'm getting very emotional
just thinking about it.
So for the newer generation of kids
who are just coming in to playing Mario,
Mr. Takahashi, how do you want like the next generation
of gamers to kind of start interacting
with Nintendo who may have never played before?
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] You know,
there's going to be younger people who are going
to experience the Nintendo for the first time
at the park, and so I would love
to see them experience some
of the fun activities and games at the park,
and then kind of reach out to Nintendo and see,
oh there's also these kinds of activities,
these kinds of experiences,
and have interaction and expand out
to Nintendo in that way.
- Mr. Miyamoto, so you've obviously
created so many incredible games.
What advice do you give to up and coming developers
to further their creativity?
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] You know,
when we were talking, it's not really advice,
but when we were talking
with the creative team at Universal,
we were really talking about the importance
of really creating something unprecedented
and something that's never been done before.
And you know, when you're trying to compete
with maybe an existing game,
you have to kind of compete in that same field.
But instead of doing that,
I think there's a lot of joy and fun in trying
to come up with something from scratch, from zero
and I would love for people to be able
to experience that joy as well.
- This is such a huge year for Nintendo,
obviously the theme park and the movie.
So Mr. Takahashi, how do you feel bringing
all of these characters to life?
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] And so, you know,
there's a lot of different characters that I've spoken on.
There's other many different games,
but we really have a wide array
of characters to interact with.
So you know, as the manager of Mario,
I would love to have people interact with many,
many different ideas in our catalog.
- So last question, which is a two-part question.
What is your favorite food at the park
and what is your favorite Super Mario character?
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] So I actually
haven't had the chance to try out all
of the dishes here at the theme park,
but I can guarantee that the burger is a great choice here.
- And do you have a favorite Mario character overall?
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] Through the movie and also the theme park,
everyone will have a lot of opportunity
to get to know with a lot of characters,
but I personally wanna recommend getting to know Toad.
He's very cute.
- Toad is my favorite as well,
other than Princess Peach, of course.
(speaking Japanese)
- [Translator] And I also haven't been able to try
all of the dishes at the park,
but the beverage, the lemon beverage that's there
that I had yesterday was great.
- That's amazing.
Well, thank you guys so much.
I look forward to checking out the park today. Thank you.
(gentle music)
(upbeat music)
This is it.
This is where I started crying when I watched this online.
So it's like my childhood.
Mario 64 literally changed my life.
Like, I'm not even joking.
It literally defined like my entire life
and I'm standing in it right now.
There's a tear, I have an actual tear.
I'm unwell.
My arm's gonna be so tired.
Oh wow, look at Bowser.
This is incredible.
This is so magical.
Like, you go inside and then
you go outside and losing my mind.
And now we're going into the castle.
Even the soundtrack, the music, everything.
I'm so happy right now.
(upbeat music)
There is so much detail.
Everything is so thoughtful.
Like the story of walking through this ride, it's expansive.
If you're a Nintendo fan,
this is somewhere you have to come.
I feel like a princess.
Bowser, I'm here.
(upbeat music)
Dude, this is so exciting.
(upbeat music)
So we're about to hop on the ride.
We can't actually film while we're on it,
but I do have some B-roll you can check out.
We just got outta the Mario cart ride.
This is what augmented reality is all about.
Like, it was honestly shocking from start to finish.
When I put the headset on and I looked down,
and there were just coins floating.
I mean it was like you were actually in the game.
Like, there's no other way to explain it.
Like, it felt like real life.
So that was the grand opening of Super Nintendo World.
I am just so happy.
This honestly I would say is like,
top three days of my entire life.
I had the best time and I look forward
to everyone else getting to experience this.
I'm gonna go home, go to sleep,
and get warm 'cause it's really cold out here.
I know it's LA and California,
but let me tell you what, it gets chilly here.
(upbeat music)