USS - Expansion Minions and Nintendo

[Tim Dasco]

Resort World SENTOSA just announced that it will be expanding the resort with a 4.5 billion dollar expansion. Most importantly USS will be expanding in size to include A minion park feature Discpicable Me Minion Mayhem, and a Super Nintendo World.

https://www.rwsentosa.com/-/media/project/non-gaming/rwsentosa/press-release/pdf/en/2019/20190403-press-release--rws-embarks-on-mega-expansion-plans.pdf

[MickeyD]

Snazzy!

A Super Nintendo World expansion is a logical choice for USS. But it is a shame that all of this expansion will have to come at the cost of "byebye!" to FarFar Away and the Waterworld Stunt Show Area, -given the Park has literally no wiggle room to look anywhere else.

Edited April 3, 2019 by MickeyD

[aaronm]

So the press release indicates that Minions will replace Madagascar, nothing on where NIntendo Land will go though. There is an expansion pad on the New York street but that doesn't seem big enough, can only assume they will sacrifice Waterworld and possibly part of the Jurassic area (maybe Canopy Flyer and the spinner?).

[Baconjack]

I'm actually going to be in Japan in 2020 in time for the USJ Mario Land opening. Can't wait for Super Nintendo World to be a thing in USG too. Having one at the nearest Universal park to our shores is exciting. The Minion area - not so much. Minion Mayhem is IMO the weakest Universal simulator, but great for the kids, Madagascar will need an update in the 2020s anyway as it will be an outdated IP very soon.

Shame to see the Madagascar boat ride go though - I thought that was a nicely themed ride when I went there a few years ago. Something Dreamworld could replicate if it had the budget.

[Tim Dasco]

Madagascar was always gonna be the first to go. The ride was plagued with problems and takes up so much space. Plus their is more land behind the main show building for expansion. 

However I don’t see Far Far away leaving anytime soon. The castle has become an icon for the park.

[themagician]

I’ve been to the park multiple times, and Madagascar is definitely the weakest area of the park, the attractions are poor and doesn’t add anything to the park. Minions are so popular in the shops throughout the park, so look forward to seeing that come to life. 

I can see the Nintendo Land replacing Water World as that area of the park is quite expansive. The show was already beginning to loose elements such as the iconic plane scene when I was there late last year.

[red dragin]

Quite impressive that they fit that park and the back of house into that space.

Also impressive is that all available roof space has greenery or solar panels on top.

[Redboost]

6 hours ago, themagician said:

I’ve been to the park multiple times, and Madagascar is definitely the weakest area of the park, the attractions are poor and doesn’t add anything to the park. Minions are so popular in the shops throughout the park, so look forward to seeing that come to life. 

I can see the Nintendo Land replacing Water World as that area of the park is quite expansive. The show was already beginning to loose elements such as the iconic plane scene when I was there late last year.

The plane scene is gone??? 

[themagician]

Yep, the plane is still incorporated into the story and all the effects and sounds play, but the plane itself no longer flies through the wall or crashes into the bank. Where the plane would smash through has been boarded up and it’s very obvious because it doesn’t match any other parts of the rustic metal look of the show 

[iwerks]

Pretty sure I saw the plane in December...

[themagician]

I was there early December and it definitely wasn’t there 

[themagician]

The Minions Land will be opening in 2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/VU1kehS7KUsbwMXk/?mibextid=WC7FNe
 

And the park has released a bunch of render of the land

 

[Aw hype]

Thats annoying, was hoping it'd at least soft open in time for my October trip. Absolutely no clue how they're going to fit all this in there is SFA space.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

5 hours ago, Aw hype said:

there is SFA space.

The Madagascar plot is potentially the largest land in the park. Crate adventure certainly occupied a LOT of space back there. Excuse the poor paint efforts here, but here's what they're working with. There's plenty of space for this (though noting they've apparently only built one simulator room for Mayhem instead of two, so that saves them a fair bit of space, though it will kill capacity a bit...

[TBoy]

13 hours ago, themagician said:

And the park has released a bunch of render of the land

I wonder where the Nintendo World entrance will go? I've heard rumours that the area with the stage and billboard is temporary and will get replaced when Nintendo opens, not sure if that's true 

[themagician]

The park has announced Feb 14 as the Minions Land official opening date.

[themagician]

Almost 6 years later, the Minions Land officially opened on Friday. Here’s a good article I came across providing a good overview of the whole land

https://dejiki.com/2025/02/uss-minion-land-grand-opening-tour/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaZGSjUDnkHsyFxhiD8vCH5V45T5H3TBo049HrKwlBrTo2tXc-ietVyhC_U_aem_weOfdH_CiCMC5iUOR3ZrdQ

[aaronm]

Looks alright, having just the one simulator room will present capacity challenges but overall this seems a solid replacement for the ambitious but underwhelming Madagascar boat ride.

USS desperately needed something new as well - it must be close to a decade since Puss In Boots opened?

[themagician]

1 hour ago, aaronm said:

USS desperately needed something new as well

They definitely did and I believe they’ve still got plans for Nintendo too

1 hour ago, aaronm said:

it must be close to a decade since Puss In Boots opened?

Just past the decade mark, Puss in Boots opened in Jan 2015

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Yeah the state of the park between my 2010 and 2022 visits was chalk and cheese. so much had been left to rot. I want to say covid was somewhat responsible but clearly it isn't entirely to blame.

Our 2024 visit was a marked improvement from 2022, but still not back to 100% where it should, and the loss of the forum dining precinct for 'redevelopment' was also a let down. 

I'm waiting until resorts world have finished fucking around with the wider RWS precinct before we book another trip back - hopefully once Nintendo is opened up (though at this rate we might see SNW open in 2040).

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 30/07/2024 at 8:19 AM, TBoy said:

I wonder where the Nintendo World entrance will go? I've heard rumours that the area with the stage and billboard is temporary and will get replaced when Nintendo opens, not sure if that's true 

Dejiki has also mentioned that in the article linked above. 

To give this perspective, this was the concept art:

Meaning SNW has about half the plot I highlighted above. Comparing the size of Minion Mayhem i'm not sure there's enough space to put up what USJ or USH have - though I don't really have the time to do a size comparison of the show buildings (if anyone else can do a 3 way comparison between USS, USJ and USH to compare i'd be thankful!)

 

[TBoy]

15 minutes ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Meaning SNW has about half the plot I highlighted above. Comparing the size of Minion Mayhem i'm not sure there's enough space to put up what USJ or USH have - though I don't really have the time to do a size comparison of the show buildings (if anyone else can do a 3 way comparison between USS, USJ and USH to compare i'd be thankful!)

From my understanding the main ride show building is across the railway where the Malaysian Food Court currently is (closed yesterday), but the main area will be where the Madagascar building was. From the shape of the building it looks to be the same as USH (the slanted edges are the same as that unlike USJ/UEU)

Edited yesterday at 01:14 AM by TBoy

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Wow, taking over the Malaysian Street Food building is one way to expand the park! Truthfully the expansion plots they allowed when designing the park were never large enough to accommodate some of the products \ IPs Universal has developed in other parks, and probably a little short sighted. 

Losing the malaysian food court isn't the worst thing to happen - though I remember the loss of the dining precinct of The Forum made it really difficult to find somewhere to eat after park close and the Malaysian Food Court didn't cater to all tastes (plus it was a huge indoor space for what it was) so hopefully the Forum returns with a decent array of quality dining options so that the malaysian food court isn't a big loss overall.

[TV15]

On 16/02/2025 at 1:15 PM, themagician said:

They definitely did and I believe they’ve still got plans for Nintendo too

As someone who's experienced the full SNW at USJ, I felt it to be quite underwhelming and a bit too gimmicky. The land has awful guest flow, the stairs that you must go down to walk around the land (to access 2 of the 3 rides, food and merchandise stores) are awful and you will get stuck there as people take photos, the land can only be exited by going up those stairs when you will get stuck again (or you can try to take the stairs up near bowsers castle where the extended queue was overflowing to). Yoshi's adds kinetic energy to the land, Mario should just use regular 3d glasses not those awful AR head weights, and Donkey Kong is just ok (cool concept, just not really executed as good as it could be). The powerup bands are a nice touch and actually work... but in queues that have the 'power ups', you will hear that the whole time going off.

Universal must be very happy with this land considering that they've cloned it to 3 parks, and looks like this will be the fourth. I'd say that their Harry Potter lands are superior... and should be cloned, but that's just my opinion. 

Edited yesterday at 04:47 AM by TV15

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

The stairs aren't an issue in the Hollywood iteration, and it is far better for guest flow, but I agree both of the installs are incredibly poor for navigation and such. it's just such a MORASS of people. 

I think the AR headsets for MK are neat, and the ride would be nowhere near as good if it were standard 3d.