We’ve been hearing about the Nintendo theme park that Universal is building in Japan for years, with the whole thing supposedly opening in time for the 2020 Olympics, but we’ve seen very little actual footage of what the park—Super Nintendo World—will actually be like when it’s done. Tonight, Nintendo tried to change that a little bit with an energetic new music video from Galantis and Charli XCX about Super Nintendo World, but unfortunately for us, it seems to be more about the tone of the park than a literal depiction of what’s possible in reality. For starters, it’s largely based around human people being sucked into the Mushroom Kingdom, with the actual Super Mario running around and grabbing coins as humans cheer him on and do an impromptu dance routine. It all seems very fun, but… it can’t possibly be this fun, right? Nothing could ever be this fun.
The real point here seems to be that Super Nintendo World will have some kind augmented reality game, where people can pair a wrist strap with a phone app, but that doesn’t mean you’ll really get to meet the real Mario or eat a flower that lets you shoot fireballs. Also, the Koopalings are there, and those guys are evil. Nintendo and Universal aren’t just going to let evil Koopas run around, it would be too dangerous. The other important thing we wanted to bring up was the song itself, “We Are Born To Play,” which may not start off especially interesting but becomes rad as hell by the end of the video when it starts mixing in actual Super Mario music.
It’s awesome, and more than anything it makes us wonder if the kind of joy depicted in this video really is possible. Will Super Nintendo World be the thing that finally makes us happy? We can only hope. (We’re also hoping the whole thing won’t be Mario-themed. Could we get some Zelda in there, Nintendo? Maybe a little Metroid?)