{"id":23486,"date":"2023-05-21T00:01:22","date_gmt":"2023-05-21T00:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=23486"},"modified":"2023-05-09T15:54:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T15:54:08","slug":"super-nintendo-world-part-4-bowser-jr-s-secret-lair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2023\/05\/21\/super-nintendo-world-part-4-bowser-jr-s-secret-lair\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Nintendo World Part 4: Bowser Jr.’s Secret Lair"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Any good video game has lots of secrets and hidden areas, and Super Nintendo World was no exception.\u00a0 When we got to the Mushroom Kingdom, we learned that Bowser Jr. had stolen the Golden Mushroom and Princess Peach needed ME to get it back!\u00a0 But in order to do so, we needed to use our Power Up Bands to play some mini-games to collect three keys so we could open up Bowser Jr.\u2019s Secret Lair for one final showdown!<\/p>\n

So in order to do this part of the park, you HAVE to get the Power Up Bands, which I talked about in an earlier blog.\u00a0 Around the area were four mini-games that you had to play, and when you won one, you would get a key.\u00a0 The app would show you how many keys you\u2019ve collected, and when you had three, you could scan your band at the lock at Bowser Jr.\u2019s Secret Lair to go inside to play one last secret mini-game.<\/p>\n

My problem with this idea was that you had to wait in a long line to play what was basically a carnival game.\u00a0 And there wasn\u2019t a guarantee that you\u2019d get a key at the end.\u00a0 Because if you lost the game, you wouldn\u2019t get a key.\u00a0 So you would\u2019ve waited in line for nothing.\u00a0 I BARELY was able to get enough keys to do the challenge.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re a little kid or not quite as good at video game related timing, this part would\u2019ve been especially hard.\u00a0 I know that in real life you don\u2019t always win, and I certainly don\u2019t support kids getting a trophy or reward even if they don\u2019t win.\u00a0 But in this case, I would make an exception.\u00a0 I think that as long as you paid for the ticket, paid extra for the bands, and then waited in a long line and at least TRIED the mini-game, you should get the key.\u00a0 I heard that after you did the challenges once, you could try for harder ones, but there was no way I\u2019d be able to do all of these again in just one day.<\/p>\n

So anyway, the first game had you hit a POW block, which would cause a chain reaction with two other POW blocks.\u00a0 You had to time it right so that a bouncing Koopa shell would get sent up the pipe from the POW block quake so that it hit the Koopa Troopa up on top.\u00a0 You got three tries.\u00a0 This was the mini-game I failed at.\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t get the timing right.\u00a0 And my dad, who knows very little about Mario games, thought the POW block stood for Prisoner of War!<\/p>\n

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The next game was super easy, at least for me.\u00a0 You had to turn a crank to make a hill roll backwards to keep a Goomba from exiting a cave.\u00a0 In front of me was a little girl who couldn\u2019t do it, because the crank was bigger than she was.\u00a0 So I felt so bad for her.<\/p>\n

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Next was a group game where you had to keep a Piranha Plant from waking up.\u00a0 They played the lullaby music from Mario 64, and you had to hit the tops of alarm clocks to keep them quiet.\u00a0 You were supposed to be able to see the clocks\u2019 faces light up red, but it was hard to see during the daylight so I just hammered on my three clocks as fast as I could all at once.\u00a0 It was just frantic whack a mole.\u00a0 But I guess we won somehow.<\/p>\n

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And the last game was a Thwomp puzzle challenge.\u00a0 You had to enter this cave with a Thwomp coming down on you.\u00a0 They had a neat effect where it looked like bits of stone and dust came down when the Thwomp landed, but it was actually just a cooling mist.\u00a0 So this was one time you would actually WANT to be under a Thwomp.\u00a0 Inside a cave my dad and I teamed up to play a giant touch screen game where you had to make all the blocks one color under a certain amount of time, but each time the Thwomp came down, it would reset.\u00a0 We BARELY made it past this one!<\/p>\n

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So after we got the three keys, we went to Bowser Jr.\u2019s Secret Lair and scanned the lock and they let us in.\u00a0 Like any bratty little kid, his lair was pretty messy.\u00a0 Here\u2019s some shots I took.\u00a0 I always liked the clown cars that originated from Super Mario World.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s some more junk.\u00a0 I liked the Kuribo\u2019s Shoe!<\/p>\n

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This next part I couldn\u2019t take any pictures of, so sorry about that.\u00a0 Inside you got to play what is basically an Xbox 360 Kinect style game.\u00a0 You stood in front of a screen and could see your shadow.\u00a0 You had to wave your arms to swat away parachuting Bob-Ombs, duck under Bullet Bills, and jump to hit power-up blocks.\u00a0 If you got hit, your shadow would shrink down and you would need to jump up to hit a block to get a mushroom to grow big again.\u00a0 If you managed to get another power up block, you could get a Fire Flower to shoot projectiles from your hands to hit long distance enemies like Piranha Plants and Bowser Jr. himself.\u00a0 After he takes a bunch of hits while flying around, you defeat him and jump on a flagpole to finish the game.\u00a0 It was a fun little event, but I think it should\u2019ve been open for everyone and not something you had to go through all those hoops to do.\u00a0 After exiting the game, you could see this letter from the princess.<\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s my time at Super Nintendo World.\u00a0 So what did I think?\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m really glad I got to go and experience it.\u00a0 Even though I\u2019ve never become a super famous game reviewer, I\u2019m thankful for all the opportunities I\u2019ve been able to have that many other gamers never get to do, like go to PAX and E3 several times, and now this.\u00a0 I was also glad to spend time with my dad.\u00a0 However, because of all the crowds, the disappointing ride, the poor service and wait time at the restaurant, and the poorly designed Bowser Jr. area, I don\u2019t think I want to do this again.\u00a0 Once was enough.\u00a0 Maybe in a couple of years when the Super Nintendo World opens up in Orlando I might be ready to do it again, but I could really wait a long while after that, at least that\u2019s how I feel now.\u00a0 So all in all, it was fun, but only once.\u00a0 I also can\u2019t really recommend this place for parents with little kids because of all the problems, which is a shame because with a few tweaks and adjustments, this place would be perfect for them.\u00a0 But for now I think it\u2019s only best for older patient kids, teens, and older gamer enthusiasts and Mario fans.<\/p>\n

I also really wish this area wasn\u2019t just ALL Mario.\u00a0 Especially in the gift shops, they could\u2019ve had other franchises.\u00a0 Like Zelda, Metroid, Pok\u00e9mon, and especially Kirby and Animal Crossing.\u00a0 Oh man, if they had those last two things as areas in the theme park, I wouldn\u2019t want to leave!\u00a0 Maybe them not having that is a blessing in disguise.\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t it be cool to have other video game franchises at a theme park, like Mega Man?\u00a0 I know what you might be thinking, \u201cGee Cary, wouldn\u2019t you like to have a Pac-Man theme park?\u201d\u00a0 Well did you know that already happened?\u00a0 Back before Six Flags Over Texas was owned by Time Warner and their kids area was Looney Tunes Land, the kids area of the park was usually based on whatever was popular at the time.\u00a0 And for a couple of years in the early 80s, it was called Pac-Man Land.\u00a0 Granted it was nothing more than a glorified McDonald\u2019s PlayPlace painted yellow with a crappy magic show, but it did happen!\u00a0 I live near that park so I was able to see it as a kid.\u00a0 I remember they also shared the area with the Shirt Tales, so I didn\u2019t like that as much.<\/p>\n

Universal Leftovers<\/strong><\/p>\n

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We spent most of the day at Super Nintendo World, from 8 am when they opened to about 3:00 pm or so.\u00a0 So after that we moseyed our way to the front entrance of the park, hopping on whatever ride we wanted to do along the way because we had Fast Passes for everything BUT what was in Super Nintendo World.\u00a0 Most of the stuff we rode were things I had already ridden on when I was here for E3 more than ten years ago<\/strong><\/a>, or when I went to Universal Studios in Orlando<\/strong><\/a> a couple of years after that.\u00a0 So we hopped on rides like the Transformers ride, The Simpsons, Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, and a Kung Fu Panda moving seat theater ride.\u00a0 So here’s some pictures I took of the non-Nintendo stuff.<\/p>\n

This is Universal CityWalk.\u00a0 It\u2019s a group of restaurants and shops just outside the park, and you don\u2019t have to have a ticket to go here.\u00a0 I used to go here a lot when we would go to E3 because it was a safe place to eat at night.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit touristy, but I like it anyway.<\/p>\n

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In a candy store at CityWalk they had this big Wizard of Oz sculpture made out of candy!<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s the front of the Simpsons ride.\u00a0 I\u2019ve ridden it like three times now.\u00a0 But I am a bit of a Simpsons fan.\u00a0 It was really big when I was a teenager and in college.<\/p>\n

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When I was at Universal Studios Hollywood before, there wasn\u2019t much outside of The Simpsons Ride besides a Kwik-E-Mart themed gift shop.\u00a0 But since then they\u2019ve added a few more things.\u00a0 Like a Moe\u2019s Bar you can go into.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Barney doing his thing.<\/p>\n

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And here\u2019s Police Chief Wiggum doing what he does best.\u00a0 Wiggum\u2019s son Ralph is one of my favorite Simpsons characters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One new thing since last time in LA was a Harry Potter area.\u00a0 I\u2019m not really a big Harry Potter fan so we didn\u2019t do any of the rides here.\u00a0 But we did stop here to sit down at the restaurant and grab a Butterbeer for my dad and a Pumpkin Juice for me.\u00a0 At the park in Orlando, I loved the Pumpkin Juice but here it tasted sweeter than I remember.\u00a0 Oh yeah, and you remember how I said the Mario park restrooms were water level themed?\u00a0 Well the Harry Potter restrooms were like that, too.\u00a0 But here you could hear the voice of that ghost girl in the restroom from the books and movies talking.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t understand what she was saying, though.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We did ride one new ride at the park that was based on the Secret Life of Pets movies.\u00a0 It was a cute slow kids ride where you sit in giant cardboard boxes, and then you go in front of a screen that shows you as cartoon puppies.\u00a0 You can even wave your arms in the air and the puppies will do the same with their paws.\u00a0 Then you go through animatronic scenes from the movies.\u00a0 I think the theme was they were trying to get you adopted, because at the end you\u2019d see a cartoon family wanting to take you home.\u00a0 So it was cute.\u00a0 Although a lot of it still didn\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 My dad had never seen any of the movies so he said he didn\u2019t know what was going on.\u00a0 So I said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, I\u2019ve seen both of the movies and I still was a bit confused.\u201d\u00a0 During the line, they made it look like you were walking through the apartments so I took a couple of pictures of that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My mom loves The Secret Life of Pets movies so I had to ride this for her!<\/p>\n

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And that\u2019s all for my trip!\u00a0 Let me know what you think and if you have any questions, post them in the comments section!\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any good video game has lots of secrets and hidden areas, and Super Nintendo World was no exception.\u00a0 When we got to the Mushroom Kingdom, we learned that Bowser Jr. had stolen the Golden Mushroom and Princess Peach needed ME to get it back!\u00a0 But in order to do so, we needed to use our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23488,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23486\/revisions\/23488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}