Feature: Universal Won't Say Anything About A Zelda Theme Park, But They Don't Have To

I kind of like the idea of keeping the general spaces Mario themed with little easter eggs from other franchises scattered about. What I want, and what will get me to buy a ticket and plan a trip, are the immersive attractions like the augmented reality Mario Kart and the Donkey Kong coaster. If they can convert Zelda into an immersive attraction like that, ooo boy, sign me up.

Edit: And thanks for the article! Sometimes I'm super jealous of you Nintendo Life people.

This seems like the next logical expansion and all the groundwork in the central areas certainly implies intent!
Hopefully we get this in the UK as well, although that's going to be excruciatingly far into the future.

Zelda would be an incredible expansion. They already have a huge expansion lot beside SNW, so the space is there. I could definitely see Zelda getting a DK sized area of its own that is connected to the main SNW area.

I went to Epic last Friday and I was blown away. As a lifelong Nintendo fan, they really did the IP justice.

As for attractions, has anyone ridden Avatar: Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom?

Just imagine that but you are flying on a loftwing over Hyrule. Would be a home run.

I am a huge Disney fan. IMO he was the most creative person in modern times. I go to Disney World maybe 15 times a year. I love all things Walt Disney.

I 100% believe that Shigeru Miyamoto is the closest living person we have to Walter Elias Disney.

I feel lucky to be alive at the same time as Shigeru Miyamoto to witness him carve out his place in the history of creative geniuses. I love how he now has his own parks and movies. It just makes me so happy.

Everyone else: where's the Zelda park?

Me: where's my real-life Garreg Mach Monestary?

It's long been rumored that Zelda would replace Lost Continent at Islands of Adventure in Orlando. And Pokemon to replace The Simpsons. Even with Epic Universe opening, that's still what I hear is in the talks, but I get why it would make more sense elsewhere. Guess we'll see

I still think the park would be better if it were ninty themed rather than mario. Like how disney parks are split into areas that are themed are certain franchises.

You could have main street, themed after animal crossing or Hyrule Market, Peach's Castle as the centrepiece, Kakariko Village or the Lost Woods put somewhere, a Metroid theme area, then maybe F-Zero next to it, and you could have a Mario Kart area, then a Kirby area, and a Xenoblade area etc.

@RaTheGrey My goodness. That way, it really will be Nintendo's answer to Disneyworld.

Yeah, I think the plan is to cram as much "Nintendo" as they possibly can and they definitely won't stop at Super Mario, Donkey Kong with some Pikmin thrown in there. Next up is definitely The Legend of Zelda for sure! The question is... which style are they going to go with?

I think it's fascinating that the merch and stained glass murals lean more towards Twilight Princess being the theme. That would be a real shift in tone between the parks!

I get that Nintendo want to keep the fires burning but enough with all this extraneous nonsense, we need a new LOZ Switch 2 game NOW! or at least in the not too distant future.

@AJWolfTill in the UK they'll probably team up with Merlin which will mean you'll see behind the scenes everywhere, the older rides will become faded and dusty and there will be non-themed (and often broken) fairground machines in random gaps which all cost extra.

At least that's what happened to Legoland. Seriously the bricks on the castle ride are so faded and covered in actual cobwebs and dust and the fast track lane is through a ware-house style entrance and up what appears to be a fire escape, not themed at all. There was also just whole rides that had fallen apart on display just taped off and a building site next to the Duplo area last time I went. You could tell they didn't care as long as people still funnelled in.

Nah, I'd rather it go to Europe and be a short plane/ferry ride.

I've no particular interest in Zelda as it's just not my thing, however we have booked to go to Orlando Florida in August 2026 and I just cannot wait to visit Super Nintendo World.

I'm hoping as it will have been open the best part of 18 months by then that the crowds won't be too Crazy

"You bet yer Bombchu butts" is now officially the second best Nintendo Life catchphrase ever after "No sh*t Shulk".

imagine they have the spooky well or shadow temple from ocarina of time with master hands and dead hands trying to grab people along with the scary music from the game.

@Ogbert I like theme parks enough to say they're fun and consider going to them if the appropriate occasion arises, but I wouldn't generally consider travelling abroad for a theme park, so have probably missed out on the real deal experience, but your description of the UK experience resonates. My first theme park trip in about 20 years was last year, and while the park I went to is admittedly fairly well known to be struggling (where isn't in the UK), the amount of disused areas of the park was pretty disheartening and disappointing.

Here's hoping the Universal development in Bedfordshire happens and happens soon.

To be honest a Kirby themed land would match whats already there much better than Zelda would.

I wish they could build it fast it enough to coincide with the release of the 2027 movie but I dont think its realistic. Maybe they will release it more closely with the next zelda game or the second movie.

@Member_the_game I’m so glad there’s other people out there that have zero interest in the Zelda franchise

@8bitKirby

haha always a pleasure to meet a like minded gamer.

I bought the OG Switch day one and it felt like I was the only person out there not playing Breath of the Wild 🤣🤣

@Ziondood Yes! I think I also would like that version of Hyrule the most too. There's so much you could do as far as theming too! Excited to see what they do with it, but it looks like they nailed it with Mario and Donkey Kong, so I have no doubt Legend of Zelda will be great too!

@MTMike87 @Ziondood
Maybe it's an indicator that the movie is going to use the character designs of Twilight Princess as the basis for the costumes?

Or it could just be that they thought those costumes would be the most practical ones to have as meet and greet characters in the park?

Is it gonna be just an empty land lot just like BotW and TotK?

I'd love to see a Zelda expansion in the future, but I will more than love the Easter eggs when I visit! (And spend too much on merchandise lol) I'd be open to other Nintendo franchises showing up too.

Merry Go Epona

I'll only care if they turn all of Lake County into the Bionis.

And I do mean ALL OF IT

I want Gaur Plains TOO SCALE

@Vectrex Universal invested $7 billion dollars in this park. It will be booming for a decade at minimum.

@gcunit I haven’t been to that many theme parks, as opposed to general amusement parks, but I was lucky enough to visit a Tokyo Disney whilst in Japan a few years back and the difference could not be more night and day.

I wouldn’t go anyway further than Europe specifically for a theme park visit, but if you are in Japan anyway and enjoy the theme-ness of a theme park I can’t recommend it enough. If I ever get to go back, Disney Sea and Nintendo Land will be on my priority list!

If rides are more your thing then the UK amusement parks get the job done, but for me rides are secondary. I like to feel immersed in the theme of the park and the UK ones just don’t put the effort in there. I’d rather not have it at all than have the half-hearted disappointment.

fainting at the sight of the merchandise...

A Zelda expansion priority-wise would have made a lot more sense than Donkey Kong

@JJtheTexan honestly, you could probably spend 5 hours in SNW alone.

I’d say the average wait time for Mario, Yoshi, & DK would be about an hour each. So that’s 3 hours. If you stop to shop, have lunch in Toad’s Cafe, grab a banana ice cream float in DK area, maybe a Yoshi smoothie (apple melon is way better than the mango, plus it’s Yoshi green!), do the Mario & Luigi photo op, “break” all the ? boxes you would probably be around 5 hours.

I went to Epic last Friday & spend about 3 hours in SNW. I did pretty much the entire park in 11 hours, missing only 1 ride in the Isle of Berk.

Not sure I’d personally recommend doing only 1 land, but there is definitely enough to keep you busy for 5 hours.

@Ogbert 100%. I’ve always enjoyed big ticket rides and I’ve been to most theme parks in the UK but when we went to Disney World I could immediately spot why it’s on a level far above anything in the UK.

Legoland - exactly as you say - has some theming (which makes it unusual compared to most parks in the UK) but it’s faded in the few places it might once have been strong and outright broken in places. The queues are just long queues - Disney turns them into a part of the “experience”. The fast track queues at Disney are hidden and less intrusive to normal customers etc.

None of this is because of the location in the world necessarily but it is a reflection of the ambition of the people designing, building and running the parks.

For many reasons I don’t think we’ll ever get a real world class theme park in the UK. The best we’ll ever get is destinations like Alton Towers - a collection of (admittedly top class) thrill rides but not really a theme park of the type we see at Disney and Universal.

@JJtheTexan of course they’re not stand alone. Since they’re just a different area of the Universal parks. & the California Super Nintendo World definitely does not have enough to keep you busy for 5 to 6 hours.

Yeah once Zelda gets there I’m sold. I’d love to check out the Nintendo land now but my kids (and myself) aren’t into Potter and Dragons so between that and the crazy lines that’ll be there the next few years, there’s not enough to get me there yet

@JJtheTexan @8bitKirby, tbf…SNW in California is about half the size of the iteration at Epic. Same for the version in Japan. Not really even comparable.

BUT I would say no iteration is worth the price of admission on its own. Tickets are too much for just a single land, IMO.

@speed_loafer An on-rails Link's Crossbow Training?? Oooo

Sees Majora's Mask amount of time mentioned

How many time loops were you trapped there for?
And how fun was it?