Will Mario Kill HHN?

Posted on by Rosie Jones

It was confirmed by Universal this year that the long rumored partnership between them and Nintendo would actually come to fruition (after years of rumors and speculation). Their parks across the world will start to see various Nintendo owned properties arriving in the coming years.

The whole project, for example, at Universal Japan is set to cost over $400 million, which is twice what they spent on Hogsmeade at Islands of Adventure. This level of investment and close working partnership shows that Universal are very keen to get these Nintendo properties into the parks in ways that we’ve never seen before (so do not expect a Frozen at Epcot styled refurb, we’re talking major building projects here).

Lands and attractions are also due to appear in Singapore, Hollywood and at Orlando, though what they are have been heavily speculated on, until now…

As shown in the tweet, if it is to be believed, to build Princess Peach’s Castle, the Entry Portal, Kirby’s Playland, Zelda’s Kingdom, Donkey Kong Island and Super Mario World Ride USF would need to demolish the Animal Actors’ Stage and the whole of KidZone leaving just old ET – this would be a massive building project and would lose so much queuing space to the HHN houses in this area.

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So how will Mario affect Halloween Horror Nights?

Currently, though it does change up ever so slightly year on year, KidZone is used as a means to allow entry to one or both of the Sprung Tents along with entry and discharge of guests from the Parade Building House. So that’s a possible 3 houses that rely on this thoroughfare to ensure the smooth operating of everyone’s favorite Halloween event. So if the whole area is closed for demolition, omitting the loveable 80s alien, this could have serious consequences to the enjoyment of the event. So what could happen and how can Universal get around this?

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Universal are sure to offer the same number of houses again; the magic number now being 9. They’ve recently taken on the Shrek theater as a staple of the event and will probably need to look around for other venues. The addition last year of the new MIB tent that housed Chance’s house this year could always be on the cards, likewise, the same kind of building could be sourced and dotted somewhere else in the park.

The soundstages, though bottlenecks, could also be used to house additional houses (subject to production requirements), though this would be tough, seeing how AHS had to use an empty soundstage to house it’s mammoth queue last year. Some say the Sprungs could be moved, though I would imagine this is cost prohibitive seeing as they are hurricane proof. There is also the possibility of a dual park event, not seen since 2005, where the event could be spread across both Universal parks; though this is unlikely at this time due to the operational issues of opening both parks for the nightly event.

All of which, I am sure, will be figured out when the time comes to eventually delete the KidZone area of the park. The one thing we can all be sure of is that the construction of which can’t surely come as soon as to affect #HHN27 what with the newly opening Jimmy Fallon just coming out of construction and the current Fast and Furious ride taking up a huge chuck of space in the old Disaster area (which itself knocked out the old Earthquake queue as a former haunt space for HHN). This being said, though not likely to be imminent, the area will surely have a bearing on a future HHN, for which new house locations will surely need to found within the park.

RIP Parade Building House Location – you did some great HHN houses…