Super Nintendo World is a highly themed land coming to Universal theme parks around the world, including Japan, Hollywood, Orlando, and Singapore. Every iteration of the land will contain the Mario Kart ride, and most will also contain one or more additional rides — as well as immersive dining locations, interactive play areas, and of course, gift shops.

One of those additional attractions to be featured at most of the Super Nintendo World lands will be the Yoshi’s Adventure omnimover ride. This family attraction will allow you to ride on a Yoshi, for your own adventure through the Mushroom Kingdom. Today we’re going to take a closer look at the track layout, character animatronics, and more, for this upcoming new ride. Updated 9/23/2019 with a new video with more details.

The Yoshi Ride System

The Yoshi ride will be an omnimover style attraction, meaning the ride vehicles will always be moving, in a long continuous loop, around the track. Although, unlike most Disney omnimovers, the ride vehicles will not rotate to point you in different directions, (meaning it’s not technically an omnimover, more like a continuous ride belt system, but I digress).

There will be more than 40 ride vehicles on the track at a time, with more than a dozen at the load/unload platform alone. The load/unload platform will be a turntable style, similar to the load area for Spaceship Earth at Epcot. Guests will load and unload on a moving walkway that is rotating at the same speed as the ride vehicles.

As you can see in the leaked model photograph above, the ride vehicles will be shaped like Yoshi, and they will be in various colors. Each ride vehicle will hold two passengers — and yes it can be two adults, (not just a child and adult as it is with some rides like Pteranodon Flyers).

While I often refer to this attraction as a ride where you can ride on a Yoshi, the reality is you will actually be seated inside the ride vehicle. The seating arrangement will be similar to rides like Dumbo the Flying Elephant at Magic Kingdom. You will not be straddling Yoshi like you would ride on a carousel horse.

The Yoshi Show Building

The Yoshi ride entrance will be located on the lower level of the two-level Super Nintendo World. It will be visible directly across from the land’s main entrance, where guests will exit Peach’s Castle into the land. The ride entry is through a round golden pipe opening, at the base of a large multi-level mountain of sorts. At the very top of this mountain will be the flagpole, just like we have seen in the commercial for Japan.

Above the ride entrance we’ll be able to see the Yoshi ride vehicles exit through an opening and travel along an outside bridge, heading to our right. This will add some dynamic energy to the land. Also, characters, spinning coins, moving clouds, and a Spiny Thwomp will be seen above the entry, all with their own movement as well. (Surprisingly, most of this is present in the official piece of concept art originally released for Japan, and for Singapore recently.)

Entering the queue, we will see gardens and trees as we wind our way around the switchbacks. In the center of the queue will be a large tree and tree house. Near the end of our waiting we enter the tree house through a door at the base of the trunk. We wind our way upstairs to the upper level (or take the elevator). At the top of the stairs is the moving load platform, in a circle, and we’re ready to start our ride.

The Yoshi Ride Experience

Once seated in our Yoshi, which is always moving along the track at the same rate of speed, we head out of the load area, and outside onto the bridge we saw earlier. To our right we can get a great view of Peach’s Castle and other areas across the Mushroom Kingdom courtyard. On our left we can see hints of a massive show scene that we’ll experience later on the ride, along with other ride vehicles heading back into unload.

As the bridge comes to an end, we’ll encounter the Conkdor, who is repeatedly banging its beak down in front of us. After narrowly missing being conked on the head, we continue on through a lightly themed early scene. That’s when we enter a green warp pipe, bringing us to the only truly enclosed scene on the ride. I’m still not sure what will be in this scene, but see the long list of characters and set pieces that will be on the entire ride below to get an idea.

We exit the inside scene through another green warp pipe. Now we’re outside again, but with the bridge and many large set pieces blocking our view, we can now barely see the Mushroom Kingdom courtyard area. We enter a massive show scene, filled with dozens of characters, bad guys, and iconic objects from all Mario and Yoshi games. Moving clouds can be seen set against a false sky backdrop on our right. Towers of Goombas and Pokey rise into the sky. It will be epic.

We round a corner and head towards one last Piranha Plant that is trying to eat us, before turning back into the load/unload station. After disembarking, we’re sent back down to the lower level and exit through a gift shop located directly under that Piranha Plant.

There’s a lot we still do not know about the attraction, and there’s even rumors of some level of interactivity on the ride. Maybe there will be a way to collect eggs along the way, or even trigger a lever to make your Yoshi “eat” some of the bad guys. We’ll just have to wait and see about that though.

Familiar Things Along the Way

There will be over 40 different animatronics, moving figures and animated objects, both on the Yoshi ride and above the show building. These will be things we recognize from various Mario and Yoshi games that span over three decades of releases. Here are just some of the rumored characters and items that may be included.

Where Will We Find the Yoshi Ride?

Currently, we know for certain the Yoshi ride will be coming to Super Nintendo World in Japan when it opens next year. As you can see from the Terraserver satellite image above from last year, the omnimover track has been constructed in Japan. The track is green in the image, and the load/unload turntable area is yellow. At the time when this image was taken, the bridge structure had not been built yet, so that piece of track is absent.

Yoshi was in the plans when they were originally going to build Super Nintendo World in the KidsZone area of Universal Studios Florida, but with even more land available in the new theme park being developed nearby (Epic Universe,) this ride is certainly still a lock for Orlando. Singapore recently announced they were getting their own Nintendo World, and revealed the same concept art as Japan, so it can be assumed they will be getting it as well.

The only version of Super Nintendo World that is not expected to receive a Yoshi ride will be Hollywood. They will have the smallest amount of land to work with. However, in exchange for not receiving Yoshi, Universal Studios Hollywood is opening “The Secret Life of Pets: Off the Leash” next year. The ride system for that ride is expected to be the same as the Yoshi ride.

What do you think of this new ride concept? It should be a cute, fun family attraction that will be great for all ages. The main attraction for the land, Mario Kart, may not be accommodating for younger kids, older folks, or those that are prone to motion sickness, so it’s great that many of the lands will offer an all-ages ride for them!

For more information on when the different Super Nintendo Worlds are scheduled to open, check out this article. We also talked about leaked photographs recently, including details for the Donkey Kong mine cart ride. Be sure to stay tuned for more news and details on Super Nintendo World as they happen. We’ll be getting in-depth with all of the possible rides for the land, as well as many of the other elements like play areas and dining options.

For help booking your next trip to Universal Orlando request your free vacation quote from Elizabeth at Destinations in Florida today! She’ll help you plan the perfect vacation with the best rates on ticket packages and on-site hotels, and her services are totally FREE to you.

Stay tuned for continuing updates on Super Nintendo World. Subscribe to the news feed or enter your email below to never miss an update. Layout Images: Alicia Stella / Official Images: Universal / Leaked Images: UUOPodcast

Consider supporting us on Patreon for as little as $1/month. All patrons receive behind the scenes posts and exclusive podcasts. Learn More