Case study · 2020
Super Nintendo World Osaka
For Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan, I programmed the real-world version of Super Mario’s Lucky House: a slot machine where you hit the blocks from below, just like Mario, to stop the reels.
- Client
- Universal Studios Japan
- Studio
- Moment Factory
- Role
- Gameplay developer
- Engine
- Unity
- Reading
- 3 min
There is a place where you can actually punch a “?” block. In Osaka, Super Nintendo World turns a theme park into a Mario level: you enter through a green pipe, collect coins, and end up facing Bowser Jr.
A setting like this only holds up if everything in it can be played. That is where the Lucky House comes in.
Chapter 01 / 04
The world
A life-size Nintendo world, designed by Universal Creative with Nintendo, and playable from end to end.
- 18.03.2021
- Official opening, after two pandemic-related delays.
- 70+
- Interactive activities spread across the park.
- 1
- Wristband to play it all: the Power-Up Band.
At first glance you recognise everything: bricks, pipes, floating blocks, Piranha Plants. The set doesn’t reproduce any single game; it assembles more than thirty-five years of Mario at full scale.
Bowser’s Castle
On the left, Bowser’s castle. It houses the headline attraction, Mario Kart: Koopa’s Challenge, an augmented-reality race where you throw shells through a headset.
Mount Beanpole
In the centre, Mount Beanpole, the tower-mountain that structures the whole park. Visitors move across several levels, like the platforms of a game stage.
Yoshi’s Adventure
At its foot, the entrance to Yoshi’s Adventure, a ride on Yoshi’s back through the set, hunting for coloured eggs.
Kinopio’s Cafe
The giant mushroom is Kinopio’s Cafe: in Japan, Toad is called Kinopio. Even the food is part of the level.
Power-Up Band
And everywhere, visitors holding out their wrists. The Power-Up Band, linked to the park’s app, turns every block and every game into a point of interaction: tap it and you earn coins, stamps, keys.
Behind every point of interaction, there is a game to program: physical and digital games linked to the wristband, designed for visitors of all ages who play without a manual. The Lucky House is one of them.
Chapter 02 / 04
The challenge
Take a video game moment and make it exist in the real world, without losing what makes it fun.
In Super Mario 3D World, released on Wii U in 2013, the Lucky House is a little room apart: a slot machine where lining up the right symbols makes coins rain down. A few seconds’ interlude, noisy, colourful, instantly understood.
My mission: program its real-world version for Super Nintendo World. The gesture is the same as in the game: you hit each block from below, like Mario, and the blow stops the reel inside it. Except that here, each reel is a screen driven by Unity, and the blow is very real.
So not a cabinet dropped into a set, but an installation that recaptures the rhythm, sounds and reward of the original, with synchronised audiovisual effects and the visitors’ wristbands.
Faithfully recreate the spirit of the original game, while adapting it to a real-world installation.
The project’s goal
Chapter 03 / 04
The build
From game logic to the reward that reaches the visitor: a complete loop, which I carried from start to finish.
- 01
Gameplay
All of the machine’s logic, programmed in Unity: the reels spinning on the screens, the stop on each hit, the winning combinations, and that particular rhythm that builds suspense before the last reel.
- 02
Image & sound
Visual and sound design, in sync: every symbol, every jingle, every effect has to land at the right moment to recapture the feeling of the console game.
- 03
Interactions
The bridge between physical and digital: a real blow under a block instantly stops the reel shown on the screen. The response has to be immediate, or the illusion falls apart.
- 04
Rewards
Managing the rewards sent to players: when the combination lands, the prize has to reach them reliably, every game, all day long.
- Client
- Universal Studios Japan
- Studio
- Moment Factory
- With
- Universal Creative · Nintendo
- My role
- Gameplay developer — Lucky House
- Unity
- Physical interactions
- Synchronised audiovisual
- Reward system
Chapter 04 / 04
The result
On 18 March 2021, Super Nintendo World officially opens its doors, after months of waiting due to the pandemic.
The challenge of a project like this fits in one sentence: nobody should notice the technology. Visitors don’t see the code, the synchronisation or the reward system. They hit a block, the reel stops, the coins fall, exactly like in the game.