Published12. November 2024, 07:28
Japan: Nintendo opens a “Donkey Kong” zone at Universal Studios theme park
The red-tie gorilla made his debut more than 40 years ago in a first arcade game that has become legendary.
Nintendo opens a “Donkey Kong” area at Universal Studios theme park in Japan.
AFP
Nintendo, the Japanese video game giant, announced Tuesday the opening in December of an area dedicated to its famous gorilla Donkey Kong at the Universal Studios amusement park in Japan, a new step in its expansion strategy beyond the consoles.
This new area, which will open its doors on December 11, will be an extension of the “Super Nintendo World” area opened in 2020, almost doubling the area dedicated to the brand on site.
In this jungle world, visitors will be able to discover attractions such as a mine cart traveling inside a gigantic “Golden Temple” or participate in conga duels.
Universal Studios Japan attracted 16 million visitors last year, making it the third most visited theme park in the world, according to consulting firm Aecom.
“Donkey Kong made its debut over 40 years ago in the first arcade game I created,” recalled Shigeru Miyamoto, father of many of Nintendo’s flagship characters, in a video posted online Tuesday.
“He started as a 2D pixel character…and now his world has come to life and can be experienced by visitors,” he added.
This park is part of a strategic shift launched by Nintendo around ten years ago in order to increase the visibility of its characters, via films or stores selling derivative products.
Donkey Kong was born from a failure, when in the early 1980s Nintendo urgently had to create a new game to convert thousands of arcade machines from the company which had been a commercial flop in the United States.
Shigeru Miyamoto, then a young creator, first imagined a game in the world of Popeye, but for rights reasons he had to transform his characters: this was the birth of “Donkey Kong”, whose arcade machine was put on sale in July 1981.
The character controlled by the player is not the famous gorilla but a little jumping man who does not yet have a name, and will become Mario, the most famous plumber in the world, ending up stealing the show from Donkey Kong.
The red-tie gorilla, however, will establish itself as an essential Nintendo character, present in numerous titles such as “Mario Kart” or “Super Smash Bros.”, in addition to his own adventures.
(afp)
