Super Nintendo World theme park forced to close after only a month

A state of emergency in Osaka, Japan means Super Nintendo World has had to close its doors for an unspecified period of time.

After already being forced to delay its opening last year, Nintendo and Universal were finally able to open their anticipated Super Nintendo World attraction at Universal Studios Japan last month.

Unfortunately, if you had any intentions of flying to Japan to check it out yourself, you’d best put those plans on hold as the entire park is going to temporarily shut down alongside a plethora of other businesses due to, unsurprisingly, a surge of coronavirus cases.

Japan has declared a state of emergency in Osaka, which is where Universal Studios is located, as well as Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hyogo. The park will close starting from April 25 and will remain so until the state of emergency is lifted.

‘We sincerely apologise for causing any inconvenience to our guests who were looking forward to visiting us,’ reads Universal’s website, ‘Detailed instructions regarding previously purchased tickets will be listed on our official website tonight.’

Aside from the novelty of walking around a recreation of the Mushroom Kingdom from the Super Mario games, Super Nintendo World’s biggest attraction is its VR Mario Kart ride, which is preceded by a walk through Bowser’s castle.

There are already plans to bring Super Nintendo World to other Universal locations, including in Hollywood and Florida, but construction has also been affected by the pandemic. Florida is currently the only one to have a planned opening date and, after being initially scheduled for 2023, that has been pushed back to 2025.

Construction on the Japan location hasn’t ended either, since there are plans to open a Donkey Kong-themed expansion, but who knows when that will be ready.

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