Podcast: The Ride - Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

We take a look at Universal Hollywood's new Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge. Featuring augmented reality, a very detailed queue, and all of your Mushroom Kingdom friends. King Koopa's Kool Kartoons episode up at The Second Gate: Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide Listen to Podcast: The Ride Ad-Free on Forever Dog Plus: http://foreverdogpodcasts.com/plus FOLLOW PODCAST: THE RIDE: https://twitter.com/PodcastTheRide https://www.instagram.com/podcasttheride BUY PODCAST: THE RIDE MERCH: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/podcast-the-ride PODCAST THE RIDE IS A FOREVER DOG PODCAST https://foreverdogpodcasts.com/podcasts/podcast-the-ride Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forever! Dog! Warning! The following podcast contains slow-moving objects, shells, and little games that gave one of the hosts a little trouble. It's Mario Kart Bowser's Challenge on Podcast The Ride. welcome to podcast the ride the podcast about theme parks that's like an unstoppable red shell aimed at your funny bone. Right? I'm Scott Gairdner. Sean Puchase and Sheridan. I admittedly don't know a lot of very specific Mario Kart things,

so I was like, oh. I wouldn't call that one very specific. That's a pretty, well, you really don't if you don't know the red shell. I know the, I don't think it dawned on me. Is it like that in the ride too that the shells operate differently depending on color if you can believe it i didn't get a good sense of what the specific shells do in the mario kart ride which we're talking about today with our third host mike carlson i want to explain too i remember i oh i have to cue i want to cue something up for

pretty early maybe in the podcast and then as you did the intro i for a second i kind of gave i was like i gave like a like a good nod and i forgot i was on the podcast i forgot i was involved in it for a half second i went oh yeah because there was a dead there was a dead space i was very brave of you to admit that i have had moments like that you know oh yeah oh we know we've noticed yours oh jeepers thanks you're usually looking i think at like a fact or something and you'll be looking at your computer sometimes that's true you do go down you do you do go downward a lot oh yeah well i make the notes and then they're far too small or disorganized for me to actually utilize sometimes get that font get that font bigger first of all you're like uh you'll like we can look over and you're just like mouthing like the name of like a ride

system or something. And you're like trying to, or milk. You're just trying to say milk, right? Water coaster. We've given you such a neurosis on this, but you're just like, don't say milk. Don't say milk. Don't say Puka de Pepo. Pepo?

Is it Pepo or Pepo? No, not Pepo. Is it Pepo or Pepo? Ah, shoot. Wait, I just said Becca. Wait, Puka de Beppo. Puka de pepo? Is it pepo or beppo? Not pepo. Is it pepo or... Ah, shoot. Wait, I just said becca. Wait, buka de beppo. Buka de Becky? I found a new way to say that wrong.

So, yeah. So, it was a good remark is what I'm saying. Great. We're all agreed. Did you find what you were looking for? Yeah, I know what it was for. Does this need to be organically woven into? Well, I mentioned it, I guess.

I don't really know feel free we in general look overall we are talking about mario kart bowser's challenge or as for some reason it's known in japan mario kart koopa's challenge right yes sure why on arbitrary change maybe he's more king koopa there i don't know yes he is more known as king koopa there okay and bowser and bowser here um but i don't know maybe you had a different way to intro this but i guess i'm just gonna do it now because right up top there's a very important thing we have to talk about sure because i don't like um when stuff like this happens on the podcast and i have to just put it out there and say it. Oh, are you doing some penance?

Yes, I guess you could say that, yes. So I just want to put, let's see. Okay, I'm just going to make sure this is playing here. On the last Podcast to Ride episode that was live, new, I said a statement that was incorrect, and I'd like to apologize for that statement. I said that the Toadstool Cafe shared a kitchen with the Lower Lot Panda Express.

Right, right. And I said it confidently. I thought I knew it because, honestly, I've heard it from two different people, two different one unsourced on twitter of course and then a friend of mine who uh goes across the inside universal message boards and said that there is you did couch it as a rumor so you know give yourself that okay but i'd say it was a rumor yeah but i said it confidently and i don't like that and i would like to formally apologize to the audience for misleading you toadstool cafe has a separate kitchen from the lower lot panda express and that panda express has not been moved

because there's a some sort of a licensing agreement and they couldn't just get rid of it blanket so the panda express earned its right to still be there correct yeah so i just wanted to do that up top i hate to bring the show down early but there it is very it's brave of you it's uh it's it's manly of you that's the way to be a man thank you this day and age to own up to it thank you and uh and just try to improve and try to be better i just thank you i just don't want to be the george santos of the show after this and then after the whole um frank marshall situation where i incorrectly said that he spoke at the jurassic world well and you have to get ahead of these things uh before i get a hold of them and certainly before griffin gets a hold of them that's yes exactly like me you could we can handle but we you know if this ends up if the ball ends up in griffin's oh my gosh oh man if it shows up in the group text you're done he's coming here

uh we're gonna do a full hour on the on the kitchen and he's gone to the kitchen and it's empowered to be impossible to share the space the outlet like the outlets the electrical outlets wouldn't even make sense in the same like there's that cord long enough to reach to keep food hot in the hallway. I assume there would be like a hot hallway that would keep food fresh as you walk from the Panda Express to Toadstool Cafe. Fundamentally, there is no way that they could share a kitchen. Right. It would make sense. You couldn't make a hot hallway is what I'm saying.

That's what it requires for food is this the the two locations are so far away that that hallway has to be hot or else the food and you can and i know for a fact that all of these establishments especially the panda express and the lower lot of universal is incredibly concerned with your food being piping to the panda promise uh yes that's right that's correct so well you know i think it's appropriate that you do that mike because i think there's a little bit of um making amends and a little bit of redemption i think that we're aiming for with this episode in general yeah and allow me to explain because this is our second episode about super nintendo worlds which uh we two weeks ago covered in a broader sense and now we're back to

a kind of more focused on the mario kart ride and in between almost immediately after we got to go again to super nintendo world and full disclosure this was with press perks we were part of the press and we were there for a press day uh and therefore the crowd was cut in half in more than half yeah into was it a third of what a quarter of uh might have been a quarter yeah that actually might be correct uh so there were a lot less people um so that is important context yeah however getting to experience this land again but with that context um i started feeling like i think maybe we cut this place a raw deal because i don't know if the listener felt this way, but I think after we recorded, I certainly was feeling like, boy, that was a grouchy episode that we recorded about Super Nintendo World. That's how I felt.

And I don't, I'll get here. I'll ask you guys how you feel. I don't incredibly regret it because it was very crowded and there were some difficulties to it, but it did. I think we came in with a lot of negativity and that stayed throughout the episode and as soon as we were there on this other day and got to experience some of these other things i felt fun and positivity i felt what some of these other theme park bloggers and vloggers yeah because they were all aglow and here we are grouching and complaining but what do you think it's tough because you know we look we do

try to keep it real on this show okay so sometimes you know i go oh okay everybody because look everybody wants some access that's nice i beg for access on the show regularly so yeah we want it but then we don't we don't always play the game, which might jeopardize the access. Now, Disney, we have no hope. We will never be on Disney's list in terms of who they go. Because you have to be 110% positive. You have to be a Disney princess in terms of perkiness. You have to be like, who's the most positive one?

Like the enchanted whatever her name is just yeah um is that right um you know everything's like uh you have to just be so hyper positive about everything so we're out there universal we're on the line uh but we we we still we want to be we want the sex, but we want to be positive too. And I don't know. This is also. To be honest. Yeah. So, we're straddling the line there.

But also, it's like, we went as civilians that day. This was our experience. This is how we felt. That's a valid thing to do. And I said, look, I said nice things. I said some glowing things about the land and the way. And I still feel that way. I think we all did.

Yeah. So, I did feel we were a bit grouchy and i was like is that right do i did i not get the ride exactly we'll get to the ride because that's what the topic is today so there were some things where i was like okay we didn't get a chance to sort of do everything in a comfortable fashion so there was a question of like i'm sure we're missing stuff i feel it's a bit incomplete but knowing that we'd have a part two pretty quickly i at least felt pretty good about that yes yeah yeah um well and we start doing some of these things and i'm expressing to both of you guys you know what i'm having a lot of fun and i'm a little worried that we were kind of harsh on the land and mike said i kind of see where you're coming from i might kind of agree

jason said in a quote i will never forget it's really funny quote i love it i think comcast can take that i don't care i didn't i love that recording and uh i i i uh i like driving by the opening ceremony was going on uh as we're wrapping up we did we saw i saw a little of the fireworks driving down lancashire boulevard but uh yeah i don't know i didn't think i think i think i gave some pretty light jabs but like i don't know it's gonna be so gnarly for like the first six plus months this is true this is true i didn't view it as that we i was not concerned about harshness to comcast i just thought we maybe just came off like grouches that was my concern oh well um i felt um pretty ill after that first round before the second round i did like what i had better at the second round and i felt normal well you're saying the who was the the 11 a.m spaghetti yeah the 11 a.m spaghetti and then which was not on the day

that we recorded no no but it was still lingering in your mind it was decaying your mind real he was keeping it real i was also a little disappointed by the sweets and then of course the second time around the matcha cake i was like okay i like Yeah, I'm going to go right after you. Now, maybe it's different tastes and maybe they were different on different days. I thought you were kind of harsh on that tiramisu. Yeah, it didn't taste like any tiramisu I've ever had. It didn't? No, that's right.

That's not like fine restaurant. Also, I'm on edge because I think we're saying this word wrong. Yes. So, I think I saw somebody mention this. Tiramisu is what i believe what is i've heard both okay that's how i've always heard it but maybe i'm saying it completely wrong too because i've believe me i've made plenty of gaffes on this show well including uh i don't want to leave myself open because you know what i did last time about that song ready again um no you know

what i didn't get to have it the the first time because chef toad didn't make enough uh and you're right it's not like some like great restaurant tiramisu right up tiramisu you guys are saying tiramisu tiramisu tiramisu is how i always thought it was okay we're putting an emphasis in the middle okay yeah but i'm again i'm not really teaching you i'm just this is how i always heard it but i don't know yes could be completely wrong i like it but again i don't have the best track record with inside universal studios hollywood food have had wonderful meals at city walk at pretty much anywhere i've eaten at city walk wait a second do you not remember the city walk saga did it all just vacate your mind all of a sudden let me let me remind you about wetzel's pretzels my friend oh well that's like a take a go i i meant real restaurants uh yeah no i forgot about

the rattles you had wonderful meals at bubba gump we had a nice time yeah we had a nice time and nothing was wrong my food was you know fine that's hardly the definition of wonderful what was the one i was i'm always looking at the whole experience you're right you're right you want the guy to be positive and he's trying it is a thing i've worked on therapy like don't say the first thing that comes to your head you know don't say your initial reaction sit on it for 30 seconds i i was going to bring this up later in the show but this land i think the land in this attraction in general i think a lot of recent uh stuff in recent years avengers campus uh galaxy's edge um i have come to appreciate more as time has gone on you know

so uh yeah pandora I think I liked immediately. Pandora was an immediate. Pandora's pretty great. Yeah. Well, in terms of stuff that is good, well, here's a big difference, is that this time, in addition to the lighter crowds, Jason, the first time you had the power bands, we now, Mike and I now had the power bands.

This gave us the ability to play the mini games, the games which get you the key, where you collect the key, which get you, sorry, you have three keys, and then the three keys get you access to Bowser Jr. You can play three different games, or you can repeat games. You can play three different games or you can repeat games. You can play one game twice or three times.

They get harder as you go along. Oh, that's a way to get the three keys? You can keep going? Okay, okay. I also just read that they are doing, I think Carly posted, they are doing standby for Bowser Jr., a standby line for a little while. Where you do not have to get the, yeah. Which is good because, again, I think

these lines are going to be so crazy that it's going to be tough to stand in three different lines in order to get to another thing with a line. That's all going to be hard. But look, if we take crowds out of the equation, we had the bands now,

we were able to play these games. I loved these games. I had so much fun. And I feel like I was watching them the first time from the outside now we're able to play these games i loved these games i had so much fun and i feel like i was watching them the first time from the outside like oh that's it it's a goomba on a roller thing playing it is a whole other i i thought these were all delightful agree disagree um yeah i like the i did like the games i don't think i'd wait more than 10 minutes for any of them i agree for sure and a 40 add-on to do any of them is a little steep it's significant and i don't love the idea that like some of the strongest attractions in this land uh require the band you know it's not like i've

never felt shut out of the lightsaber experience in galaxy's edge i don't want that lightsaber i don't care about doing the show that much and that's a much greater expense but this i'm a little weirder about we're like it does stink that uh it takes 40 to do some of the best stuff there i did see that if one person gets the three keys and goes to bowser jr they can bring a few people without power bands i forget what the limit is oh that's good this might be another carly so if you're staying wisdom if you're staying at the hotel you can bring some of your friends to the club in vegas is what you're saying oh yeah basically bowser jr's vip yeah which is what i did too in vegas a couple years ago i got a loud sigh

when i did it once in vegas oh we got a loud sigh you bring in you bring in like six guys in their mid to late 30s and that's it to a club in las vegas they don't really like that they don't care about that believe it or not let me tell you something in los angeles in the world of podcasts mid to late 30s guys are the most in demand demographic right this way right this way sirss. Right this way, sirs. There's two city blocks in Los Angeles where we're on top. I mean, it was just me and Jane, but I still got a guy going, yeah, no, it's not here. Take these risks.

That's not going to work. Take these risks. Bands just go up that escalator. When we were in Vegas, they were trying to write reasons to not let us in. It was like, okay, well, are you staying at the hotel i'm like yeah we are here there's a car okay well you have to have passes for this well yeah we get these free comps we talked to our guy we met a guy outside and he gave us these comps oh okay um all right hold on one second like going like trying to figure out like looking what can we do legally to keep these guys out and then like

just they were in what are they wearing they were in like uh gang attire no look at it they are not wearing gang attire i had the name of two i did at the front desk i had like a couple front desk people and even the the guy at the club was just like ah fine i don't want to deal with these two weirdest yeah well we just waited a while and we just outlasted their patience basically and then went in to the off the record club at the park mgm in las vegas so anyway uh i was gonna say about the four so it is like a magic band it's like a snap bracelet you are right it does not perfect like the magnet on it it's i first of all i like the feeling of it i like it's like it's got some heft to it but it does have some like kind of like bunches up here and there on me you are right about that i wonder if they'll fix that for the next round of them yeah um but the whole i will say this because you're saying about like paying to do these

experiences and you wouldn't wait 10 minutes and we'll come back to this thought but uh the thought i had is like this is this is going to be worth it for you if you're living in los angeles and you're coming here a couple times a year that's a real like that's that's where you're going to get the big fun i would say out of all of this stuff versus the one person who's coming once who might not even know all this stuff exists yeah and it's confused they're really motivated yes unless they're very motivated i know about this stuff and i want to do it which might be listeners to the show i mean i just my overall thing i just i think this is all gonna be great in 2025 i think it's all just gotta die down

but that like once it is not super slammed now we have like a range of of little experiences that are you know an odd little underground corners that's not really a thing that's been in universal before and like we were saying last time that it's it's great it's a great cartoon world you enter with heights and when hefts to it you know it's all going to be ultimately great for the universal landscape. It's just, it's going to be a tough, tough first six months, I think. They will. I do give them credit because they have been running virtual queues to get in the land. And I think we all think, you know, I think we can all say on some level, that's a bit of a pain. On the other, Pete's waiting on a six hour, four hour line, like what have you.

And wait times, I've been looking at wait times the last few days on this and like how is it generally affecting the park and wait times are still kind of low like it's very much it's you think of disneyland as a locals park but universal hollywood is to an extent too i mean you get a lot of tourists certainly um but a definitely on weekdays so wait times are noticeably lower uh for not for this not for this brand new thing but for all the other stuff yeah everything else seems uh here i'm gonna throw a bummer out um mike scollins friend of the show who we had on uh was there the other day he said mario kart ride 220 minutes yeah and then it broke for an hour that is rough

these are rough numbers that's hard yeah I saw it at 240 one day when I looked 240 what gets longer than this maybe we're ignorant Florida listeners could tell us like oh this thing has been 5 hours for months but like

these are some of the biggest numbers i feel like i've heard oh yeah maybe yeah in this city for sure but this is you know we still we're hurting for rides out here too so like anything that's new is just going to be astronomical for like six months yeah it's like there's not many other places for people to go at this point but that is still even higher than i think i've seen and somebody yeah correct me if i'm wrong i don't think opening summer transformers was ever that crazy it should have been yeah but i don't remember well it was just the people were too like emotionally bereft after you know it's just such a such a weighty You know, it's like, you know, people don't go see the whale over and over again.

Right. That's true. All year. You know, you got to let it sink in. Yeah. And you go back and see the whale again. Right. How many times are you guys up to on the whale?

Seven. I haven't braved the screener. I think I'm running out of days, too, because the Sag Awards are Sunday. Shame on you. I took a day and I saw the 1040 and then I stayed in the theater. screener i think i'm running out of days too because sagwards are sunday shame on you i took a day and i saw the 1040 and then i stayed in the theater i had a popcorn lunch and then i saw it again and then a jujubee snack and then i saw it again i took a whole day just four uh no five whales in a row um let me these these minigames i'm gonna i didn't also didn't realize they had

their names they don't have like clearly labeled names but i looked up the names the names are all good i like the names uh goomba crazy crank that's one where you spin a crank you had to spin it fast enough to make the goomba fall backwards so satisfying when it works i don't think that's the hardest one in the world that was my baby uh holding shoulder that i was really leaning on and it was pretty sore because i was really cranking that thing yeah I was really it was like um a jack-in-the-box kind of crank but much bigger um and I was going to town I felt like on it in my mind I was like doing like a Hercules thing or like just this thing was going so fast everyone was like oh look at the strong man here one of the labors you have to do. It probably looked weak. To please Zeus.

I would do anything to please him. Yeah. What? Whatever, as much cranking it as you had to do. If it pleased him. If it pleases Zeus, I will crank it. Let it sit there. In order, then we played Piranha Plant Nap M mishap this was the turning point where i'm like

yeah yeah i'm having a lot of fun and i think we were being a little this was such a blast just really quick premise here there is a big sleeping piranha plant and you are in a little patch surrounded by giant alarm clocks and those are going to start going off and you got to hit all of those things so that he does not wake up yeah and this is a good one for a group because we all three got to play it together they're all lighting up red this thing i've never have i felt more like i was on a nickelodeon game that's exactly what i was about yeah yeah i was absolutely gonna say like this feels like a live action game show in the middle of a theme park yeah yeah kids game show and winning feels fantastic the only thing

missing is uh that that host uh phil i don't remember his last name the video arcade guy oh yeah yeah like sing a little song we did that was great and you did the best and now we're going back to the stage i don't know if you remember this about nick arcade he would always uh improvise a little song really that guy i give it up he i think that must have kept it interesting for him every episode of nick arcade good host i don't remember that liked him uh look at if you watch an episode all right um that's great that That was fun. Koopa Troopa Power Punch. In this one, there is a green shell going back and forth in and out of a pipe. And you have to cause a chain reaction with pow blocks. You have to hit it at the right time so that another one goes and another one goes.

And you have to, which will hit the green shell and cause it to shoot up and hit a Koopa Troopa with the same green shell. Very tragic. Yes. Sort of a cannibal Troopa with the same green shell. Very tragic. Yes. Sort of a cannibalism, if you like, to it. Yeah. But, you know, that's more of a, like, that's not a running around game. That's more like, you know, reading the room. That's like getting that rhythm right.

Yeah. And I enjoyed that a lot. You guys did it, and I didn't do it. You did not do it. I didn't get it. I don't do it. I didn't do it. I don't know why. I was not sure what I was doing wrong. The accuracy on these power bands, it's not 100%, you know?

Thank you for letting me off the hook. Sometimes you might have to hit it a few times. Well, it's the same technology at the very base. It's the same as like the tap to pay credit cards, I believe. Oh, really? It's that same sort of thing. It would have to be, yeah. And think about it's that same same sort of thing and think about how many times that's not worth or apple pay like apple sometimes you really got to shove your phone onto the little console there to get the apple pay to work yeah i've done it i've had to do it

same premise i think though at least towards the end of the day somebody told me that an employee told me that uh actually you don't at least this is true the coin boxes yes i don't hit them with the band you do yeah you just do it with your hand so it's a little farther away yeah we learned that at the end of the day this is the tough thing again about people even people that are fairly well educated about what's going on is that there's so much crap to know to get in there and to really like like experience all the fun stuff yes so it's like there should be like a big like book phone book size like guide before you go in there like you are giving a nintendo power is back it'd be cool that would be nintendo powers that give you all

yeah that'd be great you get a very charming map with the power bands. On the app? No, in the box. Oh, you do? There's a map in the box. I threw the box away. I know, it's very easy. It's kind of like hitting down in the box. Well, I need a manual to tell me not to throw away the manual.

You watched me throw away the box. I think I learned about it after that. Oh, so you didn't get the map either? No, I held on to my boxes. I just threw my bags in my backpack. didn't get the map either no i held on to my boxes so i just threw my bags in my backpack really didn't see the map it's also the um like infographic kind of cartoon in the phone app that tells you yeah you have to get the uh thing back did you like do your username and stuff you created one okay yeah, we should say that too.

Before you even start doing these mini games, and we probably said this on the other one, but you go in the app and then you pick a unique username. Yeah. It cannot be... They're running out of them, basically. Oh. Wow. Because I tried...

Oh yeah, there can only be... I tried multiple names and was denied. Oh. Would you try? I was trying my first one i think i tried michael luigi with the l's you know bridging the gap between the name it said invalid name and then i was i think i tried michael luigi 69 and it said this is not an appropriate name please choose a different one a tad body please choose a name choose a number that is less body and then i said i tried mr

mcfist ario and they said no to that what i don't know maybe and then i tried uh luigi carlson no what i said no on that one too i didn't know about any of this i got mine on the first try yeah so then i did put i believe mr mike fisto is my name that is my official well no complaints for you got your your dream you got your wish to be mr mike fisto yeah but i was trying to add fun mario stuff into it before so i got it fine i was happy with my name but it was just like i got seven different tries before they accepted one this is great this is like you know remember uh when any social media has the handles you know it's they always say it's this is like internet real estate there's only one chance to

grab these names uh whether it's twitter facebook or whatever um and i And mine's a little basic. I'm kind of off of Birdo. I went for Scotto. Really? That worked? I got Scotto. But maybe O is not so. Maybe if I tried Scotty-O, that would have been out. Maybe.

Jason, what was yours? I don't remember. Was it anything fun? Or was it just like. It might have just been something I use when I just like, God, I got to make a login for this. What's your go-to? I don't want to.

You don't want to say? I don't want to say. Is it your email? Is it your email? I don't think it was my email. It might have had my full name in it. Okay. Is it just Jay Sheridan and then your social security number?

It's just my social. It's my social, but not one one digit so we'll never figure that out alright alright he said I don't remember as he flashed to entering the name loves that pussy oh that did go through the mention of the mere mention of fist

got him flagged one was a dollar sign and one was a Z you cracked the code. Well, I said pushy. Pushy. Oh, smart. You gnash.

So I like these games. And then the culmination of the games is that you get access to this Bowser Jr. thing. I loved the Bowser Jr. thing. Oh, yeah. I really liked this. This is actual Nick Arcade end level type thing. And I thought it made the most good of anything in the land, including the ride, unfortunately. We'll get to that.

But I think it did the best job of making you feel like you are Mario or you are in a video game, which is a big promise to have to keep up in super nintendo world yes i guess if you're listening to this you don't care about necessarily spoilers but uh i went into this room pretty cold and you're all in like front of a big video screen and they basically are like projecting your silhouette onto a digital screen and stuff is coming at you blocks are going so when you jump in real life you jump like three times that amount on the screen and like hit a block which looks really silly but fun and it feels you kind of feel it like there's then there's enough like little

rumble i feel like to it that you sort of it's you feel like you're jumping like mario yeah this is and this is one of those because i think that in general there's a i don't want to say like infection in all of imagineering and creative right now at theme parks where you have to be experiencing this and you're the superhero that's a little too much for me in general but i will say this does kind of fulfill the promise of it like as far as everything's in recent memory that are like you compete or you participate yeah you throw fire uh i was gonna say fire flowers that's not what it is you throw fireballs yeah you get a fire flower yeah yeah that's that's a huge thing to get to do in super nintendo world that's the thing you yes and it isn't fun and it's like there's no goggles or

anything they figured out a fun practice kind of practical way to do it it works it's not as buggy as other things like this and then at the end they try to give you kind of the feeling of the whole group jumping and landing on the flag yeah that's pulling it down another big like yeah that's fun i think we talk about this kind of stuff a lot just the like When you hear the premise of the thing, what do you want to do? Yes. And a lot of them are in this little nook. It almost feels secret, honestly. You go through little corridors, and the actual experience room is little.

And the queue, yeah. The queue was great on this. Oh, the queue has got pictures of Bowser bauer bowser jr oh there is very very cute uh bowser jr i learned in current canon is bowser's only child is that right yeah the koopalings uh since like what is this forgive my ignorance here said in 2012 our current story is that the seven koopalings are not bowser's children bowser's only child is bowser jr okay so those are relatives they're like his nephews or something they're just his little toadies oh no pun intended now miyamoto was at that we did not get to go to the opening ceremony you know and i this wouldn't be an episode about a new thing

without me bitching about not getting to go getting getting one good free thing but being uh selfish and wishing he got to go to the one where miyamoto mr miyamoto was there mario's dad yeah that's what i was like oh no because we were recording and then the ceremony you told us we were recording while the ceremony was happening i was like yeah i want to see mario's daddy that's what i want to see but oh well i guess a different free day where we got to we're over on the land that was very empty was was pretty good i'm glad we didn't i'm glad we weren't there because if i'd been next to you and you had he'd come out and you had said mario's daddy i would have had to like no i'm with these guys i'm with i'm with ordinary adventures

i'm a daddy too now mario's daddy i'm a daddy too i believe i think maybe he told a story here anthony geo once recognized uh uh shiguru shiguru miyamoto and Miyamoto in Hollywood and Highland. It was during an E3 and went up to him. Whoa. I was so excited to meet him. Wow. But this is like 10 years ago, I think. That's the first enthusiastic American who has just gone up.

100%. No way. I assume he has a Donkey Kongrilla guard that swats away. So annoying. Video game fan. Throws a barrel. She's Gio running up. Hollywood Island just gets a, Gio eats a barrel to the face.

He keeps an eye out for the nearest pits wherever he goes. Oh yeah, yeah. um i another thing in this the um we talked about the all right i'm gonna coin a phrase in lack of a better one we talked about in runaway railway for me it was the little chipmunk candle costumes from that christmas yeah short uh for you is the lonesome ghost yes yes the mirror the the stand um i'm gonna i'm gonna call this the object gasp this is something if it is a property that you care about right you were hopefully as with our you know millennium falcon the biggest yeah yeah full of object gasps sure and i had a big one my biggest one was the i had to look up what it's called the koopa clown car which is like the the clown bowl

with a little propeller on the bottom that bowser flies around and at the end of three mario 3 i think no uh super mario world i believe is the world is the first appearance of it okay yeah um yeah that i see one of those physicalized really i mean the land is full of stuff like that but being in a small room i think uh and uh and i'll throw mike's term in intimacy that's right i had the intimacy feelings big time i had intimate feelings seeing the koopa clown car and and a big mecha koopa the wind up oh yeah yeah like just i don't know And I'm not usually an object gasp kind of person. There's not a ton of big IP where I like, Oh that,

but these are, we've been seeing these things our whole lives. And you imagine how like, just like bright and vibrant. And I mean, the only thing missing is that I couldn't hug them. I know they're evil objects, but I wanted to hug them.

I feel like we could have, I guess you couldn't have touched it but in my mind i think you i was like oh it's close enough to do it but i guess they probably don't want you doing that weren't paying attention but you could have um i guess elsewhere in the um you know getting look moments of intimacy with let's say characters who we've all this time we got to do photo ops with mario luigi and princess peach i think i'm just gonna set you up mike i know there's an an aspect of these meet and greets that you were excited about very excited to share yes uh yes so they uh peach talked i which i like

this is not what the the main thing i'm going to talk about here, which is nice. And it was all fun. And the character faces look good. The costumes look good. All of the hair on the characters, the human hair, didn't look real, but kind of looked real. Was that enough for you? It was more than enough for me. Oh, okay. Because if you get better than real hair. I wasn't sure what you were saying.

When you wish you could have their hair. Well, yes. They all had seemingly realistic human hair. Mario and Luigi had realistic mustache hair. It looked like it was sort of very immaculately combed or something like the mane of a pony, like a prize-winning pony. It looked like... Maybe I'm describing it wrong, but all of a pony like a prize-winning pony like it looked like i i maybe i'm describing it wrong but all of a sudden like when we're taking the photo with the the characters i look over and

i'm like is it real it's hair hair yeah if you do these photos absolutely just like don't be so focused on the camera yeah turn to the side and get get a close-up look at this hair. It's hair 2.0 as far as I'm concerned. We're all running up the back by not having hair as good as these mascots have. What I like about the photo is that you two and Mario and Luigi are doing the jump. Yes. The punch in the air. And I've got a dipshit wave going on um and i did have a moment where like the photographer said power up and i thought

that's just what okay you don't want to say smile they'll say something land appropriate and as soon as i did that i was like oh my god are they doing the jump behind me that's all right. Everyone for you. Most funny is knowing that I have heard that those Mario and Luigi heads are real heavy and that the visibility is low. Well, that real pony hair is really heavy that they used on the heads. Yeah. Seem like it. Yeah, there's silver in there.

There's silver. Well, that's true, too.'s you know give it some life or that's what they these people can only have you can only be luigi for two days or else the cancer risk becomes so high yeah there's the radiation on those things it's like the old movie monster makeup where it's like oh no how many did he do how many times did he play that character oh no it looks cool you know and you want to be remembered for how you looked on the screen uh not how you died seven years later uh yeah so those were those are really fun i mean that's really fun we like to take photos with the characters you know that was nice to get to do that uh again yeah you're gonna have to wait probably a long time

yeah this is my only that's the problem but what i don't go back on from the from our our grouchiness the first time around that like look it is gonna be tough i i um and it's where you do wish that they had carved out more space for this and not created this dense landscape of just like there's eight things to do and eight very long lines. It feels like, yeah, I mean, I don't know it's a space issue, but it feels like you could have done like some little cap, like because the, sorry, when you're walking to the Bowser Jr. thing, there's fun little hallways, and if they had like a fun little hallway

into like a less themed area that has more character meet and greets and that had some seating and it wasn't as like impressive or crazy as the like the main part of the land sure it feels like stuff like that you're like yeah that would have really moved the crowds around a little more this open especially this opening summer not just this one courtyard that can feel a little oppressive like you you're kind of anxious to get out of there and not certainly not to go wait in another line in the one courtyard yeah i i am pretty used to theme park crowds at this point but i think it's the being surrounded by walls like the crowds and the walls yeah that was making

me a little anxious i think it is like there's like we're feeling like we're um what was that like like we're a hamster in a shoebox or something a little bit and there's like so many hamsters in the shoebox because the walls of nintendo are so high because they really do it makes you feel immersed immersed in there unlike almost i guess any other than like maybe diagon alley or something where diagon alley is pretty much you can't see outside of it. But other than that, yeah, this one is smaller than that. So you really feel like you're in a little shoebox. But, you know, actually you can see outside of the land because there is a problem with the sight lines.

This land has a real problem with sight lines, and we need to talk about it. I mean, you can see the panels. There are it i mean you can't see the panels of the walls uh they should paint over those but uh you know some of the other like yeah look you can't get rid of the like do you want the land or not the place they had for the land has a big universal skyscraper in there and they can't get rid of that hogwarts is in front of an nbc universal building yeah that one's worse you can see it that one actually is worse than some of this nintendo stuff and also well here's let me go back to um my situation with the grass oh where i came around on the grass

i ended up liking the grass even if i share the opinion of the tweets i if i don't like the tone of the tweets i still hate them i'd rather see somebody i disagreed with who wasn't being fucking annoying that's how i feel actually the sidelines of sight also calm down it's a comedy podcast go yell at one of the other million psycho theme park news websites that are just posted. Like, another fight at the Magic Kingdom. Like, oh, God. Yeah. According to certain news sources, there are bloody drag out fights every single day in every single theme park.

Yeah. There's one more thing before we get to The Land. It's a little bit of a also a sequel to the episode from two weeks ago yeah there was another visit to the toadstool cafe that's correct which gave mike a choice do do we uh double down on the same behavior of the first round with the escape uh with the food or do we just give it a go less people maybe we try to have the toadstool food in the fun toadstool environment yeah but what's more fun for this show that was i got to see it in real time and i'm so glad you caught a little of i was afraid you're gonna miss it right on the tail end yeah it was a little late

but i got there just as as crucial decisions were being made yeah so i ordered soup from the toadstool cafe they had a load mushroom soup i wrote you andrew grissom an apology they did have the soup but the short ribs while on the menu boards had already sold out the press loves their little short ribs made enough of the little short ribs today the hall the heated hallway is broken and we cannot bring your short ribs from the kitchen in the long it will be lukewarm short ribs that's okay special event not judging no points deduct for the the lack of short ribs also probably shouldn't be eating short ribs at two o'clock in the afternoon at least it wasn't 11 though hey it wasn't 11 yeah so you're 11 spaghetti with too many meatballs meatballs what did you have for lunch that day uh i skipped lunch okay because

you know i ate a late breakfast and went yeah what was in my stomach was a little tiny candy bag from it's sugar yes you were texting me your It's Sugar as I was parking. I was in It's Sugar and I went, oh my God, they have little cases of Pez, like individual Pez you can put in the big bulk candy bag. Yeah, the fun of Pez without that pesky toy. Well, here's how I find out that you text candy stuff to Jason. Of course I text candy stuff to Jason.

I hate texting candy stuff. We text each other X-Men shirts and candy stuff. Oh, yeah. And some of these X-Men shirts, I found when I really liked it, messaged the seller. I said, how much? And they said $1,000. Vintage.

Fair enough. Fair enough. Everyone's got to make a living, I guess. I'd value it. If if it were mine i would value it at that too yeah yeah so so yeah i ate a little candy but then yes i ordered the mushroom soup because again as i revealed last time big mushroom guy a big big mushroom oh yeah that's right so yeah i ordered the mushroom soup i ordered uh what's the lemon smash thing what's it called oh the the special honey lemon uh lemon squash uh yes the squash yes uh and it has the boba things in it and then i got uh what did i get the dessert i got the um the did you get the tiramisu

yeah yeah that's right uh so yeah so i here i tried so so here i tried to get ahead of it i didn't want to be like on my heels trying to figure it out playing defense i want to play offense with the good people at the toadstool cafe and i helped so i asked i immediately asked the person at the counter i want you know what i'd like to uh eat this outside if it would be possible uh could we get and then like she looked a little bit like why are you talking to me about this uh but she said oh yeah maybe we have they could get like some sort of uh to go thing and i was like but so then i asked again there's a person who takes you to the table again i'm trying to stay on top of it i asked this poor person oh by the way i'm gonna probably end

up taking this because you think oh oh yeah, we could get you to go, whatever. Everyone's just trying to pass the buck. Everyone's really nice, too. Really nice, but trying to kind of pass the buck. Like, I don't know where the, what is he talking about? No one has ever wanted to not eat in the silly cartoon place. No, no, why would you want to do that? The silly cartoon food.

The food isn't good enough to eat outside. What are you doing? So then a very, very, very very very nice like manager of the establishment like i got the sense that he had some sort of like official like i'm just kind of monitoring the situation and making sure everyone's good and everyone feels like like feels like they're being taken care of or whatever he was a really nice guy a foot and a half tall big mushroom for a head big vest seemed a little overwhelmed but it's okay. When he jumped,

his legs kind of like went in the air. He like hovered there for a second and then he came back down. Then a big turtle captured him and you never saw him again. Yeah. But he made the big mistake

of asking how we were doing. And I explained what I was looking for to him. Well. The third person in the Toadstool. I was being nice. I don't think I was being rude. I was being self deprecating as well to know that I knew this was a bit

silly. Uh, and he was like, he's like trying to figure out like, Oh, you know what? We're not really, we're going to,

we're going to work on getting it to go soup situation, but we don't really have that happening right now. Again, because if you don't know the soup come, this is the best display of food in the restaurant it comes in a like a not ceramic but like a sturdy feeling plastic yeah yeah not one of the mario mushroom you get a big plastic toy to drink your soup out of which is fun it's a big mario mushroom um but then he goes he he kind of i

forgot i should have really remembered exactly what he said but he goes well he goes you know we can get one of the like cupcake to go hey we can try the cupcake to go container i guess if you want and i go yes thank you that would be really great he goes okay so he went to the back he came out with it and boy this worked like a charm this was so he did joke like we're not liable for this yes he did good uh first timer and because i was like i think i think this suit would probably fit in a to-go box but uh well we were gonna do like a regular to-go box you put like a hamburger in which was really gonna be messy that was not gonna be a good idea it was a sturdy it was pretty sturdy well yeah but it was but that's not what i think there was like it wasn't to go

container like a bigger it's one of those kind of um uh paper ones kind of cardboard kind of cardstock paper that the inside is a little glossy as like uh that would still not be good for soup also the wider you get to see it it's like they may as well just brought like an amazon box and put my soup in there uh uh so so you brought the cupcake container boy worked like a charm i poured the soup right in there and i was like yes and then i took the drink and i took the tiramisu and i took it outside every time i'm gonna say it made the problem so much worse yeah i don't think we're saying it right okay now we fixed it uh say it like i'd win uh uh and then yeah so i took it outside and i was just sitting with a to-go cupcake container drinking my delicious mushroom soup drinking i was you can't take the spoons so you're in a plastic container sipping

sipping the soup now you said the word delicious yes and i um i'll leave it to you to describe it i didn't taste it so i couldn't say the look of the soup once put in the clear plastic container um we made a little video and i think we say it in the video but the the look of this brown fluid was somewhere between gravy and vomit i've eaten a lot of mushroom soups i thought it was kind of par for the course but well i think it might be i think it's the that it's in a fun mushroom and then you remove it from that context and it's just this like brownish gray it divorced of the fun yes it looked pretty this is something you would eat at a bus station it looks like uh uh you're like you've had a problem like with your stomach lately and

you've been like puking a couple times a day so like here we're gonna give you a container to to take a sample of your vomit. So it looks very clinical. It's like a clear plastic thing. And it's like, yeah, like a grayish thing. And they're like, you puke it. Okay, puke into this little plastic dish and then bring it in. And we'll analyze it at the lab.

I think you're being a little unfair to both vomit and soup. I've had a lot of experience with vomit. And I can't say I've ever had gray one. Well, in my scenario there's an issue oh okay oh i'm saying this is not gray what color is your vomit it's kind of like orange-ish or sometimes the uh uh bile-ish yellow orange always really no not always i can't say i vomit whether once a year at this age you know thankfully when was the last time you puked um great question maybe when i had covid oh really i think i got a little queasy okay um uh i do remember one time

a few years ago where you were uh i was feeling ill and you said oh you should try zinc so i went to write it oh no sick pills and i took it on an empty stomach and i vomited nearly immediately because i didn't know watch out for that yeah so i i eventually i would eat like a you know handful of cheerios or some crackers or something with it and i i know it works for some people i don't found it really worked that's oh that's when you put the uh put your zinc tablets in that pez dispenser and you just kept popping them up. Yeah. It looks like Tweety Bird.

Yeah, you pop the Tweety Bird. Tweety Bird has betrayed me once again. You got the 12 zinc before you threw up. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, so. Did it taste like gravy vomit? No, it tasted like good Campbell's mushroom soup. It wasn't like, again, it wasn't like some sort of delicacy type mushroom soup. It was very much like solid canned soup.

It's thick. It's creamy. Yeah, I would assume. Good for outdoors. Good for hot summer day. A good sipping on a soup you know we've all been there you know i never related to the the john mellencamp sucking on a chili dog but sucking down some soup from a plastic container now that's my summer that's my summer memory

loud coins go off in all directions yeah so uh i liked the soup i thought the soup was good um quick service soup was good okay well now that we've described the quick service soup and recounted some of jason's zinc vomit memories i think we are now ready to talk about mario kart bowser's challenge this is the big ticket item at the land uh it's it's the big ride the only ride in in this version and uh oof where did i don't know where to begin okay i'm now worried that the positivity cliff that we are precariously on will suddenly decay if you google okay well if you glance at the reception section on wikipedia like it's like it says like there's a reception really yeah okay it's already gotten and i was very shocked to find one of my uh you know criticisms uh there criticisms for this and some other rides oh okay i won't leave with it in the in the in the name of positivity sure i'll let us build up to it i

will also say in the name of positivity excited in the line excited on the ride laughing and giggling on the ride got off the ride smiling up a storm that is that was my reaction sure and i will say listeners go on this ride Have a fun time on this ride. But I think maybe the more your thoughts spin around. Manage your expectations is the nice way to say it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. The queue and all the stuff is amazing. So great.

Let's be positive here. Yes. Oh, great. So good. That big statue of King Koopa of bowser right at the start really good i just like everything they made into a practical statue effect picture is per like truly like perfect yeah and really exciting to see from your dream taken from your dreams oh and kind of like environments that you don't get to see like that you know they're they're they're inventing stuff

and then in the ride there's things that are more directly from a video game but i don't maybe now forgive me i'm no mario expert and i'm maybe not caught up with some of the last few games but it seemed new to me to be in some kind of bowser office in which he's plotting where you get a sense of the method behind the madness and you see the blueprints for bullet bills and some of the things that he attacks the mario and luigi with and you see like his uh schedules and appointments like have lunch with iggy and roy like you get that use because you of, it is funny to think about Bowser being the inventor of

a lot of the bad guys. Yeah. Or just the person corralling a lot of the bad guys. And this feels like being in the office of a very important man. Yeah.

Yes, which is, yes, fun. I actually, maybe that is referenced somewhere and I'm forgetting what it is. But that is fun, very fun. All of it is really, and I'm forgetting what it is, but that is fun. Very fun. All of it is really like, just feels like it was made with like the most, I don't know,

care. That sounds stupid, but the most like, uh, uh, I don't know. Perfect recreations, I guess, which is what I've already said. I still believe though. I, I have many times said, I think universal has taken the lead in terms of spending and, you know, and really that they've done really grand attractions lately while Disney's kind of like dressing up photo opportunities and stuff. I think they're taking the baton in a lot of ways. But Universal Hollywood still remains low in immersive environments. I'm like, I got to take a thousand pictures kind of environments and uh

this is that big time everything's every bit the equal of runaway railway in terms of so much to to look at and yeah um fix that on but the ride itself yeah i don't i don't i don't like it that much yeah yeah i'm sorry yeah this is'm sorry. Yeah. This is such, okay, the reason this is, and it's not just because last time maybe we felt like we were negative or something. The reason it's so hard for me to say this is because doing Mario Kart is a dream, a childhood dream.

It's I and everything else leading up to it. You can tell the passion, the love of all of it, the work that went into it and even the ride itself i feel like effort and money went into this so much brand new technology you've never seen you feel like the f like you feel the effort it's like the love guru you felt the effort in that movie and people who've done things that we love that's what i'm saying it's the effort you feel it you know this guy you know mike you know creative tried like they were trying to do something amazing yes and you're like i'm going in here babe this is gonna be my favorite thing

the love guru it's gonna be my favorite thing and okay then maybe this is not completely a fair comparison as far as quality level of movie, quality of ride. There's no sitar version of extremes more than words in Mario Kart Bowser's Channel. But it's a similar thing. It's not, the quality levels are not the same. And Bowser's kind of like, you know, Republic cereal level supervillain. He's not a nuanced character like Guru Tug of Maiputa. He's not like Guru Tug of Maiputa.

Yes, I completely agree you know what toad gets punished he gets flattened by that thwomp much in the same way that similar similarly diminutive verne troyer the hockey coach is of course made the subject of physical violence poor verne troyer gets the shit kicked out of him and love guru for some weird reason it's so fun i we might have said this before we have yeah i think power yeah i'm sure i was about two and three celebrating having fun with this and now love grew just fuck him up it's so mean make fun of how he's little over and over again uh anyway but we're talking about the right that's right so that's so that's really the reason it's not that i feel like i have to make good for the thing the last episode we did but i i i'm still holding out hope that like i'm gonna like it i'm still

we're gonna go i've talked to a few people and the people that like it seem like you know by ride 10 you know you get because which like i i can that's even what i was saying earlier where it's like going a lot and doing it like okay you'll know all the ins and outs. Now you'll see that like you're collecting coins and that's fun. And you'll get on the leaderboard and that's fun. And now, you know, everything to do and you know exactly how it works because there's a lot to this ride that I didn't know anything about. That's kind of confusing.

You're being prompted because we should, we should step back. You're the ride is like, you're in a big go cart. You put on like a fun Mario plastic hat and you attach AR goggles to it, which then you go on like a dark ride, which are the Mario cart levels. And then in the AR glasses, you see the other racers,

like all of the koopa troopa stuff cartoon characters and and other effects and on-screen prompts and graphics the main your steering wheel gives you two main abilities one being to turn when they when there's arrows and they tell you to turn and the other being firing shells so you're firing with these digital prompts and characters and a ton going on in those goggles yeah a lot going on i think maybe i'll say this maybe too many shell like it to me at some point i was like i feel like i'm not i feel like i'm in a shooter game now. Like the driving became secondary to blasting people. Like imagine the first part of the Cars Land ride, Radiator Springs Racer.

It's going slower. You have goggles on and you also have to like, at a pretty rapid pace, shoot shells at Mater and the other car. Oh, not Mater. Well, maybe Mater,

other different cars. So you're kind of watching this digital video game on your goggles and then there's a real life set behind you and it doesn't my brain wasn't accepting these two realities as one it wasn't after a couple rides blended together for yeah I will give it this credit that when there are big physical items and characters in all of these rooms. Yes. Like you get a piranha plant and you get the chain chomp and it's cool to see those. And you know the difference between what's in your goggles and those things but there's also screen effects here and there and characters that appear you know huge characters that appear via screen primarily in that first ride i was like i'm not

exactly sure what's in the room and what's in the goggles now very clear to me but i it is such a an overload of visual information which again the first first time I was laughing a lot just at how much it was. And I was kind of surprised to look at ride-throughs and go, oh, no, that was on the wall. That's in the room. Or this was only in the gut. So at times it all fused together in a way that worked for me. So, yeah, you're going through a dark ride. And there's like, you know, imagine like the haunted house in mario kart or whatever and it's like the set looks perfect

the practical set is real and then you're like seeing like yeah you're you're watching like part of a virtual boy on on these glasses while it's happening and then after that after that you'll kind of stop by a big screen and they'll be like Bowser on it and you shoot shells. So like that stuff to me works a little better because you're not, your brain is just looking at one thing versus trying to balance out a video game and the sets. that comes from turning and moving and watching characters that are doing mostly the same thing overlaid but it's still a little jumpy yeah i mean i definitely i think a lot of people have been on this ride have been deep into the ride and off the ride and going like did i do it right did i have the goggles on right that's what i'm saying because it's a little like that that's it that's how it's supposed to look yeah it's it's a little uh well in addition to that i think jane and i got off there i was like i'm a little dizzy like i don't yeah you're

into i found my focus would go be i would either be focusing on the set or be focusing on the AR. Yeah, it doesn't. Yeah. I think a lot of this stuff we're seeing live. We are the beta testing. This is a generation one. This is a PlayStation 1 version of this. So you're saying maybe a ride down the road cracks this better.

I think, yeah, it might. I don't know if it just jumped like i really like toy story mania and sometimes i have a lot of fun on uh buzz light your astro blasters um but i feel like this uh spider-man uh web slingers i feel like is simpler than this like he tells you it is like how to do this but you know the room where they're explaining to you what you're going to do is very there's a lot of screens there's sets um there's fake like uh racing outfits and stuff and i happen to like focus on the one screen and jane was still looking around she's like what do i what do i do like i was like oh it's all infographic i was

and i was like okay i think i think they're probably going to show us how to do this three more times before we get on the ride and sure enough that was the case so like they did repeat it a lot um and i'm sure the infographics are are helpful um with international travelers as well where it's like oh no, no one's speaking English, but it also was very busy infographics. I think you can feel that it must be the same video as in the Japanese version, because it's very IKEA manual,

where like, let's say as few words as possible. Is there any, are there any words in the video? I mean, there's like titles on screen here and there, but I think they made those animations to work anywhere which is smart for that reason but then you're left a little confused about specifics it's really the it's the anti guardians of the galaxy yes here is all the information and backstory in the world the anti david danipour which you can ride without ever thinking about the hands thing you know you can just like oh i stumbled into this thing and they're here you know

but this you kind of need to know you're not exactly sure much information to do this it's a lot of information and um eventually got it i think reading about it after they're like and each car works together and i was like i didn't know i was supposed to be working together yeah i thought i had to get to 100 shells uh or 100 coins and i think everybody individually has to get to 100 but you all do but you all do which i didn't realize because uh bowser uh one-handedly when we did it oh really i don't remember on mine and yeah so if yeah if if team mario wins because this is like a it's a general challenge that's been issued yeah by bowser to everybody who's getting us so you're on team mario so you're on the good guy's side not the bad guy's side uh if it says team mario at the end then you won. If it's Team Bowser, then you didn't. I honestly don't recall.

It seems probable that we lost. Boy, one thing. Let me just really say, and if you didn't get this already from me mentioning that 220-minute wait, this is a single rider if there ever was one. Oh, yeah. You missed some cool rooms, but you'll come back and see them in a couple years. I think you would be psychotic. I liked the queue, everything I saw in the queue. I think you'd be crazy to do that long of a cue and

and also i don't think this rewards you being in the same car as your party it's like you should only do this if you have children if you're a guardian to people who need to be in the car with you right otherwise if you can split up split up it does not matter and i say that because like sure maybe you could celebrate hey we did it if you're in the car with who you came with uh but not really because you have big clunky goggles yeah you know you literally can't if you're you know if your mom's in the row in front of you she can't turn back and look at you because she's got a big clunky thing on her head. I actually heard this from a neighbor who went, and they were a little anxious on the ride

because they couldn't tell if their child, six or eight, was freaking out. As you know, you will learn, children are freaking out. It was hard to just look over and check on them because uh even i didn't think like let me try taking out the ar i think one of you said you tried like scott well again and i feel like i'm falling right into what mike was saying we're like you're getting the reviews of the 10 time visitors we're saying well if you do this and if you know this is good my review was i liked it more the second time without the ar the point of the ride like what the whole thing is designed

around and i did like it because i just i just wanted to know what was in the rooms and i wanted to see a chain chomp without all this stuff i wanted to see the you get a thwomp outside i keep talking about how i like seeing a thwomp yeah but i really like seeing this one in this room with an animated face with a screened face uh piranha plants amazing um the especially and i looked at you want to say it's luigi's mansion but it's actually twisted mansion a lot of most of this stuff is kind of pulled from mario kart 8 i didn't realize um except for rainbow road which is n64 so it's a little bit of a mix but twisted mansion is the level and it looks that one especially yes you're like i'm so glad the clutter is out of the way because twisted mansion it's this like you know it's this optical

illusion set where it's bending all crazy and the screen in the back makes it look like it's an infinite hallway that's bending in an impossible way and there's chandeliers swinging back and forth and that room especially i'm like i'm so glad i'm just looking at this without a bunch of graphics i know not letting me appreciate the great set design work put this right together it's like you're driving in your car and like a couple like characters like got on your windshield and they won't like somebody put like pictures on your windshield of the mario characters while you're driving you're like what the hell well it's like you turn your wipers on you're like i'm trying to what oh the wipers they're smearing it more than helping yeah somebody put like a big decal

somebody put like moving decals on your window while you're driving you're like i'm trying what am i hallucinating i yeah i well it's kind of like in mario kart when you get squitted on and now you can't see which happens in this i actually pull that effect off pretty good but it's like an entire game of being squitted on you get squitted on yes i don't would be the word but i went with squitted it's fun uh squitted yeah i i don't know i feel like it less like maybe the ar goggles but like with less like digital characters and carts just constantly in your vision a little less absolutely you know what make it feel more like an early mario kart where there's a there's a few because the because the further you get they are chaos and it's great that's the appeal of i i

love every i've said this is the only video game franchise i've kept it i love every mario kart no matter what and i love that they're crazy as hell but i kind of want hey let's go think about um this thing about back to the future the ride how the whole idea of it was you got it's one car it's biff so you can focus on biff and then you don't end up nauseous because you have a focal point i think maybe that what if you're after bowser only and you just and the chaos comes from what's around you and not like yeah there's 20 characters at all it's a little overwhelming maybe another character every now and then but i think like yeah have like have a little randomized video at the beginning and it's like you are

toe like i was like wait sure are we just us we're not one wait hold on yeah we're just four humans on a kind of regular car yeah we're just here we're on the we're on the base car from mario kart 8 is what i found out if you don't customize and pick all of the kooky vehicles that you have at the beginning or that you unlock as it goes on you know what everyone wants yeah to be in the first car old you want to be mario and you want to have basic car you don't want to have all the crazy flying to but i think that's a big like think about just how excited you are at the mirror you're on the snow white ride and oh look i'm bashful this time i'm sleepy this time if it was different ride vehicles you just that that's a more exciting different every time than

the interactive element yeah yes of course it is the randomization like the randomizations on the two guardians attractions now at this point um and i of course can't think of any others but let's say guardians uh mission breakout the knowing there's a different song you don't know what song you're gonna get i think that's more fun like i think that's more fun than most gamification then like yes then you're in control of all these thousand things that don't really add up to anything as opposed to the just the impact of i got emmy with your best shot this time yeah you wait in line for a while get ready to do some tasks my man yeah yeah i don't do kids like do we know do kids like this maybe we're old maybe we're some old guys saying like not getting it or our brains are too slow let well my counter to that

is this all right kids like playing video games they want to be in control so we've created this video game like experience where they can control everything uh sort of where you control you don't control the speed or the path but you control some of the things going on in your goggles so your control is what 25 you know what you have 100 control of mario kart the video game which i think a kid would rather do you know this literally gives you less of the mario kart experience than mario kart well look when i said you know are we too old for this i look that's kind of rhetorical i know we're young guys at heart okay we can we would be right in this if the kids loved it and the kids got it i was just trying to be nice and trying to act like maybe we're trying to be philosophical.

But no, we're smart and young. That's the thing. So we would know if this worked or not. And we, and especially you, Mike, get what teens are into. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. You know what? I was in Hot Topic before when I was waiting for Jason at CityWalk.

You know? That is the primary way to tell. It's the primary. And that's the big thing. Mike, you're still cool. You know? Shit, I am still cool. Thank you.

Hey, you know what? Speaking of, I forgot to tell this anecdote. At the Hot Topic at CityWalk, Zoo TV Pops were on sale. Edge, Adam, and Larry were on sale, but not Bono as the fly. So I was so excited. Well, probably sold out because so many teens had bought it no no so i got so excited like oh my god zoo tv youtube pops are on sale i think it's like buy one get one for a dollar i go i'm gonna get all four of these it's gonna be 20 dollars it's gonna

be like making out like a bandit here and then i was like oh no where's the fly where is he and i went over to the regular priced pop section at the Hot Topic at Seawalk, and there he was, up on the regular sale shelf, the fly. So I'd have to pay regular prices, and then it wouldn't even work because it was buy one, get one for a dollar. It wouldn't have added up. I'd have to get two Larry Mullen Juniors.

Well, I don't believe that you don't have an alert set up on your phone to get like a discount fly uh funko well it's elsewhere i do but it hasn't popped up yet oh okay but this is what i'm saying i'm in hot topic i'm looking at the deals that the young people see okay okay the ultimate landscape where young people go to share ideas about what is cool and what will be cool next that's right oh i saw funko pops of twisted the the clown based rap group oh sure that like kind of on icp's label i think that maybe have been around for 20 they were on in the psychopathic records family i believe twisted was in the psychopathic records family um so i saw that but yeah young people like me you know if michigan is

to be believed then young if young people in in Michigan are excited about insane clown posse. Therefore, it must be true in the rest of the country. Sure. Well, that's fair. I mean, look, we joke about Hot Topic and Spencer's Gifts are probably keeping malls alive. I never see those closed. Could we all just agree thank you hot

topic could we say thank you hot topic because they they've changed with the times you know they're from when we were younger but they still are very relevant to the kids that's how i feel connected to the youth oh sure and spencer's has's has had a lot of lives. Spencer's has changed a lot over the years. The Spencer's in the Galleria. It's just like there's a whole wall of sex stuff in there. I hope that you're not implying that one of the things that teens are into is sex. Oh, I would never. They shouldn't be.

I wasn't. So they shouldn't be either. There's one constant. Whether you're a teen in the 90s or today same deal you don't like sex same deal i we did when we were in we were in japan we did mario kart vr lindsey and i did it and it was awesome and it was the same one i think there was like touring around here there was i forget where it was i didn't go here but we did in japan and it was awesome it was like people were shrieking like the size like the scope of everything like when you were in there it just felt like such

better vr than i had ever done before and you were in a little chair with the the steering wheel and i remember i think it was a big chain chomp and lindsey like it came out as lindsey like shrieked and we're like this was incredible and i'm sorry this this was what is the is it all in the helmet is it all in the helmet okay so it was just yeah completely digitally rendered like a regular mario kart it looked but you're in a car and it's so the the car that you're steering is combined with so you're sitting in a seat that looks kind of like car and you've got a steering wheel this was in like a an arcade or a second kind of place okay I was just making sure you weren't driving through the streets it was no because I went to that that's not in the I don't think

you went to joy joypolis I don't I don't believe because that's on there was on this like little island almost okay what am I'm thinking of something else then I'm trying to remember what the name of the place was it was all VR stuff yeah it was a Sega thing maybe it was I forget what the name of it was but it was all enclosed if it was a sega thing you gotta boot up that apology song wait well it wouldn't have been a what are we saying it wouldn't have been a sega thing yeah you're right you're right why am i getting this confused then a tentative i gotta i gotta look where that is for smash brothers well you know sega and nintendo now are they a little more

yeah you know together there's mario's Mario Olympic games that nobody likes. That's right. They've done one of those a year. I've never played a Sonic and Mario game. I have pictures from when I was little that I drew of the two of them, Mario and Sonic getting along and going on adventures together. I was so obsessed with this idea. You dreamed of a better world.

And I would dream of the game. I would almost not do anything that was in depth as far as game design, but I used to imagine what the game would be like of Sonic and Mario, and it was not them competing in the Olympic Games. That was not. In the real cities where the Olympics were held. Yeah. That was not.

They maybe got a little more fantastical than with Nagano or whatever. Yeah, I was like, oh, Mario's going to fight Dr. Robot you know dr robotnik oh that's gonna be cool and sonic will have to fight oh i'm like thinking of this and then i was not thinking and then like tails will throw the javelin tails will throw the shot put like that was not part of it and they still have yet to do i don't know i wonder if that's even on the table but you would think that at a certain point that would have been the big ticket item, was to team them up in an ultimate platforming game. Team them up, everyone wins.

What if they switch powers for a level or two? Fantastic idea. Mario goes fast, and Sonic's got to go slow. Mario's got to take all his clothes off, and he grows like little spines. Well, he's got to look like Sonic. This is what a year of things. Mario just wearing's got to look like Sonic. This is what? This is... Mario just wearing his... Mario just wearing Sonic's shoes,

no clothes. He kind of grows like flesh-colored, like whatever the porcupine, like spines or whatever you call it. No, well, Knuckles has spines. Why did you make my nice ID all nasty? I made it better because he looks like Sonic.

And this is what happens to your brain when you don't like sex earlier in your life. It reroutes into strange places. But then Sonic puts on the overalls and he gets a mustache. Sonic wears a mustache. And it's got that voluminous hair. And it's thick. It's a pony. It's show pony hair that Sonic's wearing under his snout.

So that's yes that but it was not it was not competing in the freestyle swimming it was trading are they did they trade clothes next to each other are they do they watch each other change clothes yes they do watch you watch it um and there's a prompt that you do participate you you uh you like hit the a button and you take off the overalls and then you hit b and you pass them to sonic and he struggles to get them on and he gives his shoes it's nothing erotic about it it's just a purely it's just for the that's the only way they're gonna defeat bowser and robotnik together there Butch Buddy's trading clothes. We do it all the time. That's right. Real masculinity. It's being comfortable with your body and others. The animal bodies.

I think the thing you went to was called VR Zone. Okay. Okay. And the thing was called Mario Kart Arcade GP VR. Was it in Shinjuku? Yes, that was. I got confused. I apologize. Thank God we caught it here and I didn't have to do it in the nextuku yes that was what was i got confused i apologize thank god we caught it here and i wouldn't didn't have to do in the next episode no don't get the song um but no it's

awesome and like i understand why that's on the table when you're talking about the big flagship ride for the first nintendo theme park land like you oh man wouldn't it be awesome if you get to be in the car and you get to do the shell stuff and all? Like, I get it. But then there was probably somebody, and I don't know that, but it was like, it should be practical. You know, we have done a lot of screens here.

We've done a lot of screens and maybe we don't want to do that. We want to build practical things because that is so impactful for people and it'll be like different than what we've done before. And then all the ideas came together much like indiana jones and kingdom of the crystal skull all these different ideas and like let's try to make all of it work at once but that one worked perfectly what are you saying

as assuredly will the next one oh yeah that did yeah you're right well we i i mean we both i think came to the same conclusion of like, kind of wish this was just a Super Mario World Dark Ride. Well, that's a different, yes. I said in the last episode that I felt like we were getting a Mario Kart too soon. Yeah, I mean, they're also building this for Orlando and Singapore. Officially announced Orlando. I think I've heard the rumors so much, I didn't realize it hadn't been officially announced yeah that event right we're late about it here too

so yeah no i uh that would have been good to start with but obviously you know you can start with mario kart it makes sense it's just like i felt it's just like too ambitious and it's a little ahead of its time. And really the first Mario ride. It's a big deal to be that. And you want it to be just so classic, you know, in the way that Harry Potter has pieced off different elements of Harry Potter, but the first ride needed to be very,

let's hit big beats and nail big beats. and i think they did yes i did i mean i on a positive thing it did have a moment of delight for me again i'm not even i know rainbow road even i remember that one so when that kicked in right towards the end i was kind of delighted by that in a way that like i really like the thing in the jurassic park boat ride where like you see the giant mosasaurs and it kind of cracks the glass a little and splashes and then you get splashed i think that's really fun and so like i in a similar fashion i think the rainbow road uh a bit was fun but just park ride uh dress world ride there's a big drop at the end there's a big so yes this is the problem here so at the end of the ride is the rainbow road and rainbow

road rules i've been obsessed with rainbow road my whole life they've never gotten it wrong every rainbow road is a better than the last 80 of my life i've thought about the rainbow road once a week like like starting with super nintendo Mario Kart, like my sister would have. My whole life has been Rainbow Road. I love rainbow candy. I love Rainbow Road. I have rainbow Johnny Pops I got from Sprouts the other day. They're delicious.

They're like seven different colors, not just the normal like Bomb Pop three colors. No, these have like seven different flavors in them. I'm obsessed with the rainbows. Thank you for explaining what Johnny Pops are are because that is not a universal reference i did not know where you go oh really you didn't know i thought it was cereal oh really i should show you uh johnny pop has like a cute little like boy with glasses on it oh okay well i like that yes uh i know you i i'm surprised you don't know what those are because I feel like those would be a brand. Now, here's the thing.

I spent $6 on these popsicles. That's a lot for pops. It's a lot. Yeah, it is. But the flavors are good. They're better than normal flavors. I guess you pay for quality. It's a big challenge to the good humor brand.

So, yeah, so like what happens is that's the last part of the ride and this ride does not go fast at all no not at any point and it's not us like griping that we need it to go like oh man it's only going 10 miles an hour and we want it to go 60 no it goes one mile an hour basically the whole time very slow it's the same thing they do with Fast and the Furious. They made like a thing where it's like, okay, what's a big part of this franchise? Going fast. Slow down a minute, bud. You know, and I feel like that's why they're, again, a rumor that they're building a big Fast and the Furious roller coaster.

Ah, something that goes fast. Something that goes very fast and very simple to explain. So you go, so you go so you turn this thing and it's rainbow road and i'm going okay i'm a little mixed on what i feel about this right but here we go rainbow road there's like a kind of starry effect that happens in your ar goggles and then your and then the ground lights up yes yeah uh yeah the huge rainbow pattern on the ground on the track and And then the goggles try to trick you. The goggles try to trick you into thinking you're going fast in this Rainbow Road room.

And you're not going fast. And I'm too smart to be tricked like this. I know we're not going fast. And it's not giving it. It's so promising. And then you're like, like no i didn't do it i didn't feel it up as the finale of the ride it's a big thing we've all thought about our lives this hurts me to do to do this episode i am in pain to do this episode i really am

because again everyone worked i know they worked so hard on this i know they did yeah yeah i so the does the blame ultimately lie with the like the at the top decision makers who were like yeah we could do and here's the space it can have i don't it's a good question if it was a space thing and they said okay well so because it's a space thing then it can't have a big stretch like radiator springs where we go fast i don't know if it's that or it's just that like they were they were sure that they wanted to do the ar component and because of that you can't go fast yeah that would people be puking up gray mushroom soup on the mario kart ride if you were going every day like if i think i mean if i'm trying to imagine doing ar while you're on that stretch in radiator springs and it seems insane well wait a minute orlando's getting

the donkey kong coaster too yes yeah so you can you can puke your mushroom soup up there or any of the other numbers of epic universe roller coasters well yeah but i my stomach was more settled on a roller coaster than it is getting two forms of media at once. Yeah, that's fair. That's more the issue. Yeah. I ate a big thing of Chinese food and went right on to an Incredicoaster once. Oh, really?

I drank a big beer, did a big thing of Chinese food, and then we went over, and I remember going, oh, I shouldn't be doing this. This isn't a good idea. I was fine. I felt better after that. I, yeah, actually I handle roller coasters and, uh,

pretty well, even most drop rides. Yeah. Well, I love, you know, I love a drop ride. That's except with the legs dangling,

but if it's inside, I'm inside in a little box going far up, far down. I'm loving it. That's my favorite, like sensation as far as big trail rides. But yeah, so it's inside, if I'm inside in a little box going far up, far down, I'm loving it. That's my favorite sensation as far as big thrill rides. But yeah, so it's like, again, yeah, I don't want to belabor the point. I mean, look, they didn't have a huge plot of land at Universal Hollywood. They demolished a bunch of sound stages.

Right, but did they have more in Japan? Oh, I don't know the answer to that. Yeah, because obviously the land there is bigger so obviously they knew they had more uh space to work with but i wonder was it designed with the idea that it can slot nicely into hollywood and then slot wherever into florida i don't know i don't plan was yeah maybe they had to think of all those factors but transformers like there's two levels to it and i don't know there's no they can't all be the best ride ever made that's the thing they can't all be transformers but uh yeah so i don't know let's let's talk uh solutions as if uh we would solve anything because they're not going to

get rid of it and making it but what what is the ideal what is the mario kart ride of of our dreams how do you actually do it i before we do that and maybe this plays into it i have something that is starting to become a recurring narrative in like new rides and stuff that happens every time yeah and it happened with this and it's starting to feel like is no one learning a lesson like what are you doing like you know the the test ride the test seat at the entrance of the ride is this like a recurring thing uh tron they have it and it's some people like physically cannot fit in the ride and i have heard i i think there was like on the local news there was a universal rep or pr person or so it was like well it's because the seats are designed for little children and then like a

certain size of adults but it's like you need to put more variables and like you need to put more than just like one or two kind of accessible rides because it's it's odd it's happened with forbidden journey it's happened with this tron tr. It's happened with this, Tron. Tron is a different seat, though, right? Or am I wrong? Doesn't Tron have a different? Yeah, Tron has one, but it only has like one or two little car kind of. Yeah, yeah.

But this one doesn't have that, right? I don't know off the top of my head. From what I've seen, I haven't heard that it has that. But it's also very. Pets is a problem. Secret Life of Pets. Pets, yeah. Avatar, I think, is tough um size wise uh for uh

flight of passage yeah yeah that would that was one and then they got in a real i i think they may have solved the issue with river journey where it was like there was no wheelchair accessible no vehicle and it's like the it's also it's also weird on another level because like the test seats also become photo ops so some people are testing to see if they can get on it some people are just taking and that i don't know that's just so odd to me like it's forced you to audition and people in that might not know that's what they're supposed to be doing yeah yeah it's crazy figure it out figure it out like you can build you can build bigger like i don't think it's the

designers at fault i think it's probably the budgets you know as usual it's the money maybe yeah i don't know well whatever our fixes that we're gonna say here would fix that problem i think oh absolutely we're gonna we will definitely it should fix it i think the other level of these places spend so much marketing. It's like, everyone can come here. It's like, this is a very accessible place. Then you get there, and that is not the case on some routes. To the billboards say, Universal Hollywood, the most accessible place on Earth.

No, no. But I mean, in the market, I swear there's been stuff of people with disability. Like, these are safe places to travel to. can come to this destination experience uh it sure well yeah it's weird that it keeps i don't know it's happening a lot especially yes it's really universal i think too so it's not so good um but what is again the like and solutions is the wrong word it's it's really like what what is blue sky blue sky let's go back let's go back in time um yeah yeah yeah if you if you could have been in those rooms what is the mario kart right well i would have handcuffed myself to the desk until they listened to me at a certain point but yes i think i think it's probably like just rip radiator

springs off and just add like just steal it sure and it's a big like it's it's dark or it's dark ride scenes that you're slower for and then you get fast at the end yeah and there's a little burst of speed and oh my gosh you almost hit you know bowser you know whatever and then at the end it's rainbow road and it's probably inside you almost hit bowser 20 feet rocket rods straight away you almost got him and then like yeah like you're gonna you know there'll be a couple in the same way that the that on the poos honey hut and in the uh runaway railway there's like vehicles that are just robots or just like a a figure of like one of the other character racers so you get the sense that you're racing against the actual characters

yeah uh yeah and then you go in and out i mean there's also a version of it where it's just like an elevated it's like it's i don't know if they do they have any wi-fi controlled like disney style rides i don't think so no no but it's like that too like runaway railway technology and you're just kind of zooming around this room and then well you have a speed problem there too i was thinking about this too because yeah it is like yeah disney completely did what it should be but they can't access that technology literally it would have to be something different but they're patenting patenting patenting patenting what did i say it's not patenting i know that patenting pantington i was up late

pattingtonly yeah that's right right yeah sure is it's late uh uh yeah like they're they're doing all weird cool stuff like there's different crazy things that they've like put down on paper that they might use one day like stuff where like little houses like kind of open up and different like big show building things for like a live show where the audience moves up and down like they're doing crazy stuff or working on crazy stuff here and there so i don't think it would be too big of a stretch for them to figure out a version of what disney does yeah yeah um i think yeah i i i think they it is they got caught on one detail which sounds cool and it's i think we were open to how this could work the whole time they were developing it.

The idea that you're seeing your opponents in the goggles and that. Because it is a big part of Mario Kart. Yeah. It is, you know, crazy high. It's not even just that there are other racers. It's that they're like spilling out in crazy ways with shells and banana peels. But you do need speed. i think it's more important i think if there were just occasional brushes with other cars yeah that would be plenty and i was thinking

i was thinking of another route and tell me what you think of this but okay here's a here's a ride that feels nobody's ever complained about like that wasn't exciting or that was slow even though it's a little ride mr toad's wild ride yeah for sure that is like is that not a more intense madcap experience than mario kart it for sure is due to tinier vehicle, hairpin turns, barely missing stuff the entire way. And I'm not saying use that ride track, but is there a way that's a little more lo-fi and where you are whipping around or it's somewhere between that and a wild mouse where it could be almost the same plot of land, but you pack more in. And I like the idea of ride vehicles being smaller because Mario Karts are smaller. You think about like little Mario and little Toad

in their car that matches them. Does it not? Those go-karts are small. That's the fun of being in a go-kart. You feel speed more because they're close to the ground they're little yeah and so being in a big weighty car kind of makes that impossible unless you're doing unless you're doing radiator springs and it's incredible massive technology that's letting you go super fast i started dreaming of a a mr toad that is in a building the size of Transformers.

And imagine what you could pack into that and half of it. It could be like the mummy where, you know, like there's little scenes you go in, but then you launch and a bunch of really fast stuff. I know we're not describing a launch mechanism, but like, doesn't that sound? Okay. I got a truly this is okay. This is good this is very very good i think you if you like if you did a ride like that but say it was mr toad but there were eight different ways you start the ride so like you know there's eight cars and there's four people

per car and basically how you load the ride is that everybody gets in the car and then all eight cars start out the same so it's basically it's closer to you know practical sets and stuff but then the cars like a mr tober eight cars going separate ways and going in and out and weaving in and out of each other even and not something that has like the most epic scale would still feel like mario kart well yeah and you could even have, you don't actually need eight different paths. You could have, like, two or three different paths and cheat it. In my version, you need eight. Well, you were a blue sky version. You would be eight different paths.

Because you would feel like there's, I guess you could do four at once or whatever. But then the ride capacity, I'm trying to think practically here as well. Well, sure. But I also, I know we're blue sky-ing, but eight altogether. That's like, you've never seen a ride like that. That's crazy. That's why we're breaking new ground here. I know.

That's what, you've never seen a ride like that. That's why we're breaking new ground here. I know. That's what you should do. But imagine like the, all right, like the thick, just like in terms of how thick every turn and room has to be to have the room for eight entire tracks. We can try six. We can, we can like, we can blue skies. But like, imagine you're going, everyone has their own kind of separate thing. And like, you go, you go in one room alone, sort of, and all of a sudden like Bowser, a big, like, you know, practical bowser you almost hit him he zooms right you go you go left and all of a sudden you're like

head on with a different car full of humans you you go you split off there you go in a little different room and you like you again another show scene with like a different like a koopa trooper or princess peach or something back out and then the end is like maybe a little faster kind of stretch somewhere yeah i think what you are what you're each describing like scott you were talking about like classical themed entertainment tricks and design and like stuff where it's like um you that that makes stuff like mr toad which decades and decades old like still hold up and feel like you're out of control. And Mike, you're talking about like little variations, little randomized things, like those randomized songs

from Guardians of the Galaxy. Right, and you get into the different little carts and they're little and yeah, you feel like, it feels a little bit more authentic to the experience. You feel like, I don't know, you're getting a cohesive experience one way or the other i was about to say a different a totally different idea would even be something like flight of passage where you build little cars and then stick the cars in front of like a crazy screen

so you're going to do the vr experience except that maybe like it's like flight of passage where all you can see is screen like i almost kind of wish it was just that if we're going in the video game let's do the craziest version of the video game we can do like some high budget digital a flight of passage where you've got a steering wheel and there's some interactivity right and maybe it's just shooting like shells and you don't steer as much. I found the steering really stupid. Yeah, it's nothing. Because you don't steer it. It just says like, oh, steer right.

And then you're all supposed to go right. And I think you get points for doing that. But the car doesn't react to the steering. It would be impossible to do that with a car full of people. So it's kind of like the Millennium Falcon thing where it's like, it's an overthink here. This is an overthink to get everybody to do something to make it feel like the experience it's like if you're not going to be able to steer the car i don't have to pretend to steer the car that's i understand like the

having that there so you can aim the shells sort of works more get like uh you know make it raise the resistance make there there's a character on board doing the if you were on with a little with a with a toad head or any other character i that's pretty fun they're driving and you're out of control because they're bad drivers you know you don't you're missing a couple things here you're missing you got no drift there's no drift that's a huge part of mario drift this one yeah apparently if all four of you work together you'll get the points and you'll drift and i think what the car itself will drift or it just like tells you you're drifting tells you where you get the coins worth it is it double

dash is that the one where you kind of work with a there's two two people in the uh in the car it's you and a computer yeah okay so and that's the one yeah what they were trying because they i like that they picked little elements from different games there's secret stuff this is what i'm saying like i will be going on this and there's like secret boxes and blocks to hit i guess on the ride and there's a bunch of hidden little things that do seem fun to try to explore but if it's like dad should be going on this i'm talking about a random dad not me um but like a random dad should be going on the first time any dad any dad should be going on the first time and going oh

pretty that was cool versus like so so yeah i know it sounds crazy after all this complaining. I did say that. I got off like, hey, that was fun. I do think you will feel, it's just, I think it's just thinking about what could have been. I think completely there is a better Mario Kart attraction. And I also, I do agree that maybe there's, although I think you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Because if they did a Mario Dark ride, everybody would be saying, why isn't it Mario Kart? I think the ride had to be Mario Kart, right? Oh, probably. I guess it could be a Mario Dark ride

where like a chunk of it is Mario Kart. Like, let's race, you know? I think ultimately, yeah, when it was being built, people were like, oh, it should have been Mario Kart. That makes the most sense. And then if it was awesome, people would not have said that but yeah i mean i get why the first one is mario kart it just it's it makes the most sense and it sounds like you're in a ride vehicle yeah you're not a plumber walking on foot yes yeah mario doesn't have a well if you were you

know what i'd like to be in is like the you know the big boot or whatever oh yes was that when he hops around in in mario 3 in one of our sagas weren't didn't you get in a big boot oh that's right yeah i believe i did yeah it's very satisfying yeah yeah you look back on it fondly you were in a big boot it was as wonderful as all our meals in the sagas all our meals uh i think but but mario uh is like intrinsically you can design a rock because you just go through a pipe or is it super mario galaxy where you go to different little planets yeah and you go and like you get stuck in their orbit and you shoot around like you're in an apollo mission you're trying to get home feels like a a designer's stream it's like okay guess what you can either

go to another planet or uh down a pipe and you can go anywhere well and you could go to new donk city sure new donk city from uh from odyssey super mario odyssey which is so fun donk city oh you're just going but it's like it's kind of a very uh uh like high risey kind of city and you know he's swinging around on like poles and stuff like a coruscant kind of thing oh it's a little more old school than a chorus oh okay oh it's like new york city oh i remember imagine new donk city is a lot like new donk city rules but you can bother people there's like regular yeah there's like kind of human yeah yeah yeah and you're yeah doing a bunch of different stuff mario odyssey rule you guys should play get i mean i guess you

could just borrow my Switch at one point, but you really should play Mario Odyssey. The hat one? Yes, with Cappy. With Cappy. Oh, right. And he has different outfits, and you can mix and match his outfits, little pants and his little shirt.

Oh, this pinstripe suit. That's really good. Just look up Mario Odyssey outfits. You can put him in a full tux, a full like white tux with a big top hat i think i've been over your old apartment and you're like oh i've shown you these outfits you gotta look at some of these outfits he gets in like little trunks and stuff oh my god yeah oh it's a it's so good he's got an axe in his head he's a zombie and cappy is like a ball gown yes you can put him a ball gown which is really fun and then you collect all these outfits as you go and you sort of dress them that's that's a big part of uh zelda too that's

fun is like in the last one is that link gets a lot of different outfits but those are more practical because like there's big like wintry lands and you give him an outfit that keeps him warm you can't like jason when he stripped him naked that would not be good in the winter land and when jason lit the horse on fire when i had first got the switch many years ago but does mario odyssey give you the option for him to take all his clothes off and put them on sonic no until the answer is yes we will not rest i know we won't we will keep dreaming of better mario right you do also what you're saying about pipes and stuff jason is it's true. Like maybe they're,

I mean, you don't want to just do, I don't want another, I don't want a Mario forbidden journey, but, you know, flying behind him when he's got a cape or the mushroom, or I'm sorry, the raccoon suit, or like,

and then suddenly you're underwater. The Tanooki suit. The race through New York with Jimmy Fallon does. You fly with him. suit or like or and now you and then suddenly you're underwater and all the things that race through new york with jimmy fallon does you fly with him yeah you go underwater you go through a big pipe oh my that you know what oh my god this is a horrifying thing i'm about to say go ahead when in the end of the ride when the car when the the tonight rider shoots the tube and you go from the moon down back to New York City through the tube, that is more like Rainbow Road

than the Rainbow Road part of Mario Kart. You think? I have more of my skin is crawling that I am saying this. Oh, you're right. Is it not a more satisfying? Jimmy Fallon is more Mario

than Mario. You think Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show band And the audience should get the Universal Cup Oh we didn't even talk about what that is You're racing in the Universal Cup Which is really great And they use the Universal music at the end

A little part of the sting And the logo So that's really fun I think that's pretty funny Can I just say a cute kid story really quick The last time we went to universal together we went on the starway which he likes in general because he yells steep the whole time the starway is one of his favorite things but they play music throughout and he

doesn't know most of he doesn't know staying alive yeah the universal fanfare plays and then he starts yelling something and we're like what is he yelling how does he know that it's at the beginning of the Thomas, the tank engine DVDs. So he's yelling Thomas DVD, Thomas DVD. He's so happy that we're, we're on a steep thing that's playing the Thomas DVD music. I like,

oh, that's, this is some of this good dad stuff where you're like, oh, I'm seeing i've been on the starway a million times why it might even have lost its luster but through a child's eyes who thinks that a dvd is starting a 15 year old dvd and then he'll get to see a minions preview and an ad for a vacation to a hard rock resort in the Bahamas where Barney is.

Oh, I watched all of VHS. I watched every trailer again and again when I was re-watching a movie. See, that's what they're hoping for. They're hoping kids go on that Starway. And they pointed all the newly painted sound stages that had the peacock dots. And it's peacock, peacock dots. Oh, man. Yeah.

That's like if I got to go on a ride that was just a New Line Cinema logo or something. I got to a part of the start of some video or TV that was associated. I met. I got face to face with the DreamWorks Fisher boy. I got to cast a line with the famous boy. Wow. Maybe that'll be in the Texas park. It better be.

They'll do the fisher boy anybody's listening who's working on it you know if you cannot build dreamworks land without a an intimate moment with the dreamworks fisher boy oh man i don't think i realized for a long time that that was a boy sitting on the moon fishing i thought it was like some creature monster yeah it was like a monster oh his outline he's a little boy he's a little boy down into some sort of liquid no he is he's sitting on the on the end of a crescent moon which size-wise makes him uh you know like a he's like a several miles high i mean the joke you're you are right jason that if he was real the dreamworks boy

would crush our town and everyone we know yeah people just horrified oh no it's a quarter man what's up what uh what is that what the hell is that something's coming down from the moon he's got a giant line he's fishing for us he's fishing humans it would make more sense as the dreamworks logo because at least you have ron howard behind the scenes and he was andy griffith show little boy that's true they were always walking down the fishing hole start every episode that was the yeah the credits here's an idea no credits they're starting yeah the credits yeah start of every episode yeah yeah an idea for free like everybody's monetizing their in-house ip dreamworks is not doing anything with the boy horror movie with the boy where he he comes down from the moon and we see what the

fuck happens yeah all right well let's get on that too a lot of great ideas today oh sure i'm sure that there's got to be blumhouse offices on the back lot. We know there's Amblin office. There's this giant Amblin compound back there. Oh, what if the- Wait a minute. This is all Spielberg. DreamWorks Fishing Boy does battle with E.T. E.T.?

With Elliot? Oh, yeah. Elliot fights the moon. They fly past the moon and the boy gets mad. Hey, I'm the only boy around these parts. And E.T.'s healing touch has to help elliot win you know what uh fishing boy versus bike boy no matter who wins uh the audience wins the movie goes public wins america's hearts win speaking of boy i just want to show you the johnny pops boy right there do you see him in the top right corner? Yeah, looks suspiciously like me, so it's surprising I haven't seen it.

Another food mask. Oh, he's exactly like Jason. Oh, jeepers. Jeez Louise. He's on every pop. Jeez, Johnny, why haven't you been eating your own pops? You know what? I was thinking about it recently.

I feel like I cannot remember ever eating an official Bomb Pop. What? I've had bomb pop flavored things. Well, it was chocolate boy. But you never had like just a standard bomb pop with the white, red and blue? We were like popsicle or icy kind of, what are the sleeves called that you push? Oh, yeah. Why can't I think of the name of the official, you know?

Otter Pops is the official brand. Otter Pops is the brand one, yeah. but I don't know what you would call them without. You guys are on your own here. You've never eaten an Otter Pop? I'm going to have to start this. You know those little plastic sleeves? I don't know what the bomb, whatever. Well, Bomb Pops are different.

Bomb Pops are just the red, white, and blue. It's the red, white, and blue. It looks like a rocket ship. It looks like a little missile. I've had hard seltzer as Bomb Pop. Jason's saying he never had a Bomb Pop. You've had a Bomb Pop. I don't think I've had a Bomb Pop. Red, white, and blue Popsicle? I've not had seltzer as bomb pop. Jason's never had a bomb pop. You've had a bomb pop. I don't think I've had a bomb pop.

Red, white, and blue popsicle? I've not had a bomb pop. Pick them up the next time on the story. Give it a shot. It's been a little cold here in LA for pops. I'm not even saying you need to do it. I'm just surprised as a kid you wouldn't have had one of them. I don't know.

Missed that one. You've had a dreamsicle, though. Oh, all the time. Scott, dreamsicle? I've been on dreamsicle drive. Well, of course. But you've eaten a dreamsicle? I believe so. You're you're not sure though it's been a long time really i'm not you i don't have i don't have a weekly dreamsicle shipment i don't drink alcoholic dreamsicles as my go-to beverage this

is not asking last week did you have a dreamsicle i'm saying the first 20 years of your life did you have a dreams i said i think did. Is this not sufficient for you? It's not. It's weird. I need to have concrete dreamsicle memories to escape this episode. Did you have a Flintstones push-up for sure when you were a kid? Yes, all the time. What about the Mickey Donald ones that were shaped like their bodies?

I don't know. Jason, you know what I'm talking about? I know what you're talking about. I don't think I gravitated towards them, but I do kind of remember eating the shapes i think i remember eating the body's head yeah okay well that's sort of a memory you see these articles like do you remember this if you're a 90s kid you're like you're not sure enough about it i'm a 90s remember it or don't don't ask the question i am upset with the articles i am yelling yes of course i remember and i'm saying not only do i remember being a 90s kid i also know what kids are up to now too i'm relevant in all decades

i remember that and i know exactly what 2020s teens are up to i'm at the hot topic i'm handing out bomb pops to them kids i'm telling them about my idea for mario and sonic to switch clothes in front of each other i'm irrelevant look guys here's the i i'm gonna make another comparison yes i think that just in similar in recent uh theme park dynamics i think however you feel even if we come around on it if we like i did like it the first time we might ebb and flow on this ride, but I think ultimately it is the Millennium Falcon smugglers run of Mario of super Nintendo world. It is the,

it's all right, but I hope that the big one is really great. And the big one, it, unfortunately for us here in Hollywood is the Donkey Kong donkey kong coaster yeah we and we don't know if we're gonna get it we don't know where it's gonna go uh we don't know if they'll get the clearance to demolish transformers forever and put the put the donkey kong skyscraper build it on top of the transformers building that sounds just go vertical yeah yeah

yeah okay i love that yeah make it higher um but i mean am i right that like i think now all hopes are on like i think we still need our e-ticket nintendo attraction and it's it's uh yeah i mean bummer because i'm not sure we're gonna get it here they are getting it japan we know they are they're just building it right away at epic universe with it and uh i will do it there but i hope we get it here too yeah i know i i i think i get a feeling that we'll have it i just don't it probably won't be before it opens in epic universe i'm guessing but who knows uh i hope i'm wrong about that but yes now it does feel like it feels like we want we want for the definitive ride it doesn't feel like this is it and i'm wondering what people will say after they ride i know a lot of people have done it already

but i wonder if this is i feel like it's gonna i don't feel like we're being this is not going to be unpopular i don't think i think most people probably will feel similarly but maybe i think so maybe i'm wrong i mean i think I think they tried to have too much game, too many game elements. And like, man, we tease sometimes about how much people talk about story, but like, I was kind of missing like, I kind of could have used more of a A to B story

on this one, you know? Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Millennium Falcon's better. Hmm. Ah, yeah. yeah yeah you get the yeah you get tactiles and say i know and they give you like you really feel that you're in the actual cockpit it's exactly the same the there's the ride itself leaves stuff to be desired and i you know my my complaints about the actual like who's doing what and it's a little too busy and there needs to be a different ride like a level basically but you get that sweet coax you get the coaxium and uh it has to stay as cold as a bomb pop yes which is very a johnny pop which have to

be extra cold because they're expensive they have to be they have to be kept i have to bring a cooler to the sprouts you need a cool hallway i need a cool hold what hallway from the sprouts to uh our house an underground tunnel an underground cool hallway precious pops but until you have that uh uh yeah hey we're open i don't know uh curious what everybody thinks is this controversial or not um but for now you survived podcast the ride the only reason i'm gonna stop you is because i think you said contra controversial because that was on purpose no i said it because if it's a contraband i know that was very calculated uh if if it's a universal hot take then it's uh i think we should potentially controversial going

forward we should be saying controversial like give that as a disclaimer before i'm not sure that i liked the tiramisu is that controversial it's that old improv adage no mistakes only gifts yeah that's right especially not for. It was not a mistake. It was very much on purpose. It was on purpose. So, yeah, I don't know. We'll see what people think. And, you know, I mean, mainly I'm feeling like we're a little harsh there.

You think Comcast can take the hit? Yeah. Jason thinks they can. Jason thinks they can. I want to apologize. Oh, with these rates, what they charge for cable and internet? Well, look, Jason speaks for himself. I would like to apologize to Comcast.

All the good people at Comcast. You already did. For saying that they cheaped out on that kitchen and shared with Panda Express. Yeah, I made a lot of errors, and I apologize. Actually, you know what? I don't apologize to the people of Comcast. I'm apologizing to the company, to the entity of Comcast. This corporation is a person.

We're so sorry To Comcast Hey for three bonus episodes Every month including One that we just did about The beloved But unarchived local Show King Koopa's cool cartoons And other

Bullshit like that you can go to Podcast the Second Gate and our VIP tier club three you will find all of that at patreon.com slash podcast the ride um so on behalf of my co-hosts mike carlson and johnny pop thanks for listening this has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey.

For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Keep up with the latest Forever Dog news by following us on Twitter and Instagram, at Forever Dog Team, and liking our page on Facebook.