Super Nintendo World

After passing through the Super Nintendo World portal, you'll rise on a pair of indoor escalators (as the games' pipe-entry sound effect plays) into a panorama of vivid color and nonstop motion that conjures up the look and feel of the beloved Super Mario Bros. games. Coins twirl, Piranha plants snap, Bob-ombs waddle, Koopa shells skitter, Pokeys dance, and mighty Thwomps descend. Even if you know nothing about the games, you'll be mesmerized by the level of detail (and by your estimate of the electric bill)—but if you were raised on playing these games, you'll spot easter eggs by the dozen. The cramped Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios in Los Angeles is but an abbreviated version of this—here you’ll find 2 additional rides and an extra mini-land.

Just like the video games, Super Nintendo World is multi-leveled, so be prepared to take lots of stairs, including in the queues. But, also like the game, there's usually a shortcut: If you can't do stairs, you'll find an elevator between the two main levels to the left and the rear as you enter the land (look for the grey section to the left of Yoshi's Adventure). To skip the stairs in any attraction line, ask a crew member to show you the nearest elevator.

The lower level of the main courtyard is where the major character meet-and-greets happen intermittently, including with Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach. It's also where you'll find the main in-world gift shop (1UP Factory), the fantastically imaginative Toadstool Cafe (the big restaurant here), and the entrance to the tame toddler dazzler ride, Yoshi's Adventure. Veer to the right, though, and you'll find the gateway to the land-within-the-land Donkey Kong Country, home of the Mine-Cart Madness novelty coaster and occasional appearances by Mr. Kong himself in a goliath but cuddly-looking form.

The biggest ride, which unlike the other two rides in this land is fully indoors in the AC, is entered on the upper level. That's Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge.

Interactive options: The big accessory in Super Nintendo World is the optional Power-Up Band ($45), on sale in Nintendo shops and from a merch kiosk near the entrance to Donkey Kong Country. If you buy one—they come pre-charged and ready to go—an additional range of activities opens up to you, all of them listed on a map that comes with the band. Those include a series of Interactive Key Challenges that you'll play (they're usually staffed, but the staff may be gone in the hours before closing) to unlock access to a big-screen Bowser Jr. Shadow Showdown interactive, room-size video game. The Key Challenges (Goomba Crazy Crank, Piranha Plant Nap Mishap, Koopa Troopa POWer Punch, Bob-omb Kaboom Room, and Thwomp Panel Panic) can be done in any order, but you'll need to complete 4 to be granted entry to the final Showdown.

The Key Challenges are found on the upper level, to the left after you first enter the land. But elsewhere in the world, you can also use the band to tap the underside of the gold "?" boxes to gather virtual coins, just like in the Mario video games. Don't hurt yourself banging the boxes aggressively, like some guests so, because the boxes are triggered by a sensor in the wristband, not by brute force. Each Power-Up Band can be linked to your account on the Universal Orlando app, where you'll rack up achievement badges and points for the things you do in Super Nintendo World, and it will remember your progress for the next visits you make as long as you bring your band and phone with you. For the Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge ride, Power-Up Bands also record users' scores and keep track of the current leaderboards.

There are a few other interactive games sprinkled throughout the land that don't require the purchase of a Power-Up Band, including a popular drumming challenge in Donkey Kong Country that, if accomplished successfully, will conjure up an appearance by a rhino.

When it's time to depart the land, you don't return to Celestial Park via escalator, like you came—you do it via an escape passage on the ground floor and to the left, passing one more lavish Nintendo gift shop and an excellent Mario-themed coin fountain.