Image: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Now that multiple Nintendo theme parks have been built (with potentially more coming down the road), it's likely on the minds of many whether they should save up the large amount of funds to make a trip out for this. While we can't make that decision for you, we've written in the past about the overall experience you'll find visiting the smaller scale version of Super Nintendo World located in Hollywood, California, and we've just visited the larger park in Orlando, Florida. We did our best to capture the lands in these early stages from as many angles as possible. From the shops and snacks, the collectible relics, and games on offer to the staff that help keep the place under control. So get ready to take a walk with us through Universal Epic Universe, Super Nintendo World, the new home of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and co. We'll soon be sharing our own thoughts on the Donkey Kong Country portion, but for now we hope you enjoy this Nintendo Life look inside the park... You'll enter Super Nintendo World through this portal — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life The sheer height of everything does a great job of convincing you you're no longer on earth — Image: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Gambling in the Mushroom Kingdom? Not really, but a fun minigame to play, no doubt! — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Look through these telescopes for long enough and you may get a quick glimpse of a different world... — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life We weren't allowed to take photos on the ride itself, but we hope these help illustrate how chill and lovely Yoshi's Adventure is — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life The queue itself wasn't as vast and intoxicating as the Yoshi portion found at the Hollywood park, but we still enjoyed the little details — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Bowser Jr. and more baddies are waiting for you in the underground — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Even the queue for Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge has been extended, more in line now with the Japanese park — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Once you exit the Mario Kart ride, you'll drift around a few corners and find yourself in this massive gift shop, decorated in racing decor and equipment — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Peach's Castle at sunset is a sight to behold — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life and look, there's the Princess herself! If you ask nicely, she may even take a photo with you — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Located in Celestial Park (just outside of Super Nintendo World), you'll find a store adorned with stone statues of Nintendo's characters — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Just like in Super Mario 64, don't forget to look up while you're in the shop for a surprise! — Image: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Again, we beg of you. Let us buy miniature versions to take home — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life We're so glad to see Mario and Bowser could set aside their differences for a moment to pose for this photo...unless Bowser is planning a sneak attack? — Image: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Just outside the shop, you'll find this fountain which makes for a nice spot to stop and take a breather if you need, just make sure you've applied some sunscreen to help beat that angry heat — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Now let's head back inside and roll on over to the Donkey Kong Country portion of Super Nintendo World! — Image: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Believe it or not, you can choose to get tossed through that barrel — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Aside from the main Minecart attraction, there are a few other ways to spend your time in the countryside — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life We found Funky's plane, which some humans seem to have converted into a shop for him! You'll find lots of swag featuring the dynamic duo, but nothing here features Dixie or even Funky Kong. At the time of writing, Funky himself remains to be seen as well — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Donkey Kong, however, was out in full force! At the ready with fist bumps for anyone willing to admire his banana hoard — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life DK only comes down from his hut every now and again (probably just to make sure the batch of bananas remains safe and sound), so go say "OKAY" and snap a picture with him if you can! — Image: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Cranky Kong and Squawks can found within the park bickering away at each other, but we'll let you discover them on your own... — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life If you're feeling something cold and sweet, you can try the DK Crush Float! An chilly desert made up of banana and pineapple soft serve, pineapple Fanta soda, sprinkles and...uhhh...caramel popcorn? — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Alright, it's time we make our way into the queue for the main attraction of Donkey Kong Country, Mine-Cart Madness! There's not as much to see here as there is in the Mario Kart queue, but there are two key players that make this line completely worth the wait... — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life We weren't allowed to take photos on Mine-Cart Madness either, but we did our best to capture a few areas we could see from within the park! For Donkey Kong Country fans, it's something you absolutely have to ride if you're here and able — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life The park takes on an entirely new image at night, adding a soft neon glow to most things, even turning the ride itself into something more reminiscent of a dark ride at times — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Now that we've somehow managed to spend all day in Super Nintendo World, let's make our way back through the Mario portion and head towards exit gate. Just make sure to not wake any of the piranha plants on our way out — Images: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life With that, our time at Super Nintendo World comes to a close! We hope you had fun roaming the park with us. Let's give a round of applause to all the park staff that made our day so special and smooth! — Image: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Image: Zion Grassl / Nintendo Life Universal Epic Universe is now officially open to the public. Travel costs for this trip and access to the park were provided by Universal. Get the most from your visit to Hollywood, CA Share:0 1 Zion's been crafting videos and photos with our team for over half a decade now. While you'll usually find Zion playing RPGs, platformers, and adventure games, anything with a good story is sure to be right up his alley. For an on brand example: MOTHER 3 may not be recognized much by the Western side of Nintendo, but he still found a way to play it anyways and hopes it makes it way to the West officially so others can enjoy it more easily. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles Feature: Universal Won't Say Anything About A Zelda Theme Park, But They Don't Have To Let's use the Lens of Truth Gallery: Nintendo Gives Us A Closer Look At Its New Store In The US Update: Now open!

Something to look forward to: Nintendo has officially revealed the technical specifications for the highly anticipated Switch 2, offering a glimpse into the console's architecture. Digital Foundry notes that the details remain somewhat "selective" but provide a clearer understanding of the hardware developers have at their disposal. Nintendo has conceded the console arms race to Sony and Microsoft but positions the Switch 2 to balance power, portability, and efficiency in the handheld market. When Nintendo unveiled the Switch 2, it offered virtually zero details on the CPU, simply calling it a "custom processor made by Nvidia." Nvidia followed up with a similarly vague description of the chip. With the release just weeks away, Nintendo has finally confirmed some solid specs. At the heart of the Switch 2 is a custom Nvidia Ampere chip, designated T239 – a clear upgrade from the original Tegra X1. It features an Arm Cortex-A78C CPU, offering significant gains over the older A57 cores. The chip runs at 998MHz while docked and 1.1GHz in mobile mode, with a potential 1.7GHz ceiling under specific conditions. Its 8-core CPU, with six cores available to developers, enables better performance for demanding games. The Switch 2's Ampere-based GPU delivers a substantial boost in visual performance. It includes 1,536 CUDA cores reaching up to 1.71 teraflops in handheld mode, scaling to 3.072 teraflops while docked. Teraflop metrics can be misleading, so the hands-on gaming experience will better reflect the hardware's capabilities. The system also supports Nvidia's DLSS for enhanced anti-aliasing and performance scaling, along with ray tracing – though limited resources mean ray tracing will play a minimal role at launch. The Switch 2 includes 12GB of LPDDR5X memory – a substantial upgrade from the original's 4GB. Developers can access 9GB, with the remaining 3GB reserved for system functions. The boosted memory supports smoother multitasking and more demanding games, with bandwidth peaking at 102GB/s in performance mode (docked) and 68GB/s in handheld mode. Switch 2: Nvidia T239 Switch 1: Nvidia Tegra X1 Architecture 8x ARM Cortex A78C 4x ARM Cortex A57 CPU Speed 998MHz (docked), 1101MHz (mobile), Max 1.7GHz1020 MHz (docked/mobile), Max 1.785GHz CPU System Reservation 2 cores (6 available to devs)1 core (3 available to devs) GPU Architecture Ampere Maxwell CUDA Cores 1536 256 GPU Clocks 1007MHz (docked), 561MHz (mobile), Max 1.4GHz768MHz (docked), up to 460MHz (mobile), Max 921MHz Memory/Interface 128-bit/LPDDR5 64-bit/LPDDR4 Memory Bandwidth 102GB/s (docked), 68GB/s (mobile)25.6GB/s (docked), 21.3GB/s (mobile) Memory System Reservation 3GB (9GB available for games)0.8GB (3.2GB available for games) Source: Digital Foundry // Related Stories The Switch 2 sports 256GB of UFS storage, expandable via microSD Express cards up to 2TB. A custom file decompression engine offloads processing from the CPU, accelerating load times and improving overall efficiency. The 7.9-inch display boasts 1080p resolution with HDR10 support and variable refresh rate (VRR) up to 120Hz in handheld mode. Unfortunately, the dock's HDMI conversion doesn't support VRR, which may be a limiting factor for those expecting smoother gameplay on larger screens. The Switch 2 could struggle with some innovative features, like Game Chat. Developers have raised concerns about the resource demands of active voice chat during gameplay. In response, Nintendo included an API in the SDK that simulates latency and system load so developers can test the functionality under varying conditions. However, the impact on performance has yet to be determined. Ultimately, the proof will be in the pudding when the Switch 2 launches on June 5. With early criticism over pricing, Nintendo is depending on developers delivering games that justify the expense – regardless of its specs.

Image: Nintendo Life It might be incredibly late in the Switch's life to be doing this, but Nintendo will allow fans who visit its new store in San Francisco to fully customise the colour of their brand-new Switch OLED. This includes the Joy-Con colours and also the Joy-Con wrist straps. Of course, you are bit more limited when it comes to the dock choices. IGN has shared a quick look at this process, and once you're done, Nintendo's staff members at the store will put together your design and box it up on the same day.Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube812kWatch on YouTube Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube812k While this offer isn't available everywhere, there are other parts of the world where this level of customisation is available. This includes Nintendo's Japanese website where fans are also able to pick and choose the Joy-Con colours and straps they want. If you are wanting a similar experience but don't have access to something like this nearby, the beauty of the Switch is you can buy all these parts separately and mix and match them as much as you like. Nintendo will be offering just one version of the Switch 2, the system dock and the Joy-Con 2 controller - so there's nothing like this level of customisation (at least yet). If we hear anything though, we'll let you know. In some related news, Nintendo's San Francisco store will also be offering mini sculpture replicas. You can find out more in our previous story. "Bring a piece of Nintendo San Francisco home with you" Mix and match What does your Switch look like? Do you have any special Joy-Con colours or maybe a themed dock? Tell us in the comments. [source youtube.com, via gonintendo.com] See Also Share:0 0 Liam is a news writer and reviewer across Hookshot Media. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of many iconic video game characters. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles Nintendo Updates Its User Agreement To Crack Down On Emulation Offenders may find their Switch bricked PSA: My Nintendo Store Switch 2 Invites Are Starting To Roll Out Refresh that inbox Nintendo Reconfirms Release Windows For Major Switch 2 Games And original Switch, of course Tales Of The Shire Physical Release Announced For Switch, Pre-Orders Live Return to the Shire this July SNK Announces ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 5 And Vol. 6 For Switch Update: Multi-language release confirmed

"Bring a piece of Nintendo San Francisco home with you".Nintendo is opening its new San Francisco store in the US this week on 15th May and if you do plan on taking the trip there, you'll able to pick up one of five minature "sculpture replicas" based on the same statues in Nintendo's stores.Read the full article on nintendolife.com