Image of two kids posing with Luigi and Mario in Super Mario world
Universal Studios Hollywood
Nonfiction,

Welcome to Mario’s World

A few years ago, Super Mario was just a video game. Now it’s an amusement park!

By Maggie Mead
From the May / June 2025 Issue

Learning Objective: Learn about how engineers turned Nintendo’s Super Mario games into an amusement park.

Lexile® measure: 600L
Featured Skill: Key Details, Main Idea,
Vocabulary: engineers, released, arcades, designed, brainstorming, opponents
Topic: Social Studies,
Common Core Standards
  • Science Focus
    Engineering problems and solutions
  • Common Core Standards
    RI.2.1 Key details RI.2.4 Vocabulary RI.2.5 Nonfiction text features RI.2.7 Use visuals RI.2.9 Compare two texts on a similar topic RI.2.10 Read grade-2-appropriate informational text SL.2 Participate in conversations about grade-2 texts L.2.4.a Use sentence-level context as a clue to a word’s meaning
TEKS Standards
  • Social Studies
    (13) Science, technology, and society. The student understands how science and technology have affected life, past and present. The student is expected to: (A) describe how science and technology have affected communication, transportation, and recreation

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Universal Studios Hollywood
 

You sit on your couch. You turn on your favorite Super Mario game. In the game, you steer a go-kart. It zooms around a wild rainbow track. 

Next you grab a turtle shell. You toss it at an enemy. This game is really fun!

Do you ever wish you could do these things in real life?

In 2016, engineers began creating a place where you could! An engineer is a person who designs, builds, and tests machines. Now there is a place called Super Nintendo World. 

It’s a new park at Universal Studios Hollywood, California. 

The park is based on the Super Mario Brothers video game series. It looks, sounds, and feels just like Mario’s world. There are many games to play at the park. One is a real-life Mario Kart ride!

The first Super Nintendo World opened in Japan in 2021. The U.S. park opened two years later. How did engineers turn a video game into a theme park?

You are on the couch. You turn on your favorite Super Mario game. In the game, you drive a go-kart on a rainbow track.

You grab a turtle shell. You throw it at an enemy. This game is fun!

Do you ever wish you could do these things in real life?

In 2016, engineers began making a place where you could! An engineer is a person who designs, builds, and tests machines. The engineers made a new place. It is called Super Nintendo World.

It’s a new park at Universal Studios Hollywood, California.

You can play many games at the park. There is even a real-life Mario Kart ride!

The first Super Nintendo World opened in 2021. It is in Japan. Two years later, a park opened in the U.S. How did engineers turn a video game into a theme park?

You sit on your couch and turn on your favorite Super Mario game. You steer a go-kart around a wild rainbow track.

Next you grab a turtle shell and toss it at an enemy. This game is really fun!

Do you ever wish you could experience these things in real life?

In 2016, engineers began designing a place where you could! Now there is a park called Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood, California.

The park is designed to look, sound, and feel like the Super Mario Brothers video game series. There are many games to play at the park, and one is a real-life Mario Kart ride!

The first Super Nintendo World opened in Japan in 2021, and the U.S. park opened two years later. How did engineers turn a video game into a theme park?


Pause and Think: What new place has opened?

Pause and Think: What new place has opened?

Pause and Think: What new place has opened?

The Video Games

The Video Games

The Video Games

BSIP SA/Alamy Stock Photo

Playing Nintendo at home

The first Super Mario game was released in the U.S. in 1985. That means it went on sale.

It was created by a company in Japan called Nintendo. The video game stars two brothers who are plumbers. Their names are Mario and Luigi. The brothers travel through Mushroom Kingdom to save Princess Peach. She’s been kidnapped by a giant evil turtle named Bowser.

Back in 1985, people went to places called arcades to play video games. Most games could be played only on big machines. Super Mario Bros. was one of the first games made for the Nintendo Entertainment System. People could play this new gaming system at home.

It was very popular! Players loved exploring the colorful world.

They enjoyed discovering its secrets. So far, Nintendo has released 25 games in the Super Mario series. Mario has appeared in hundreds of other Nintendo games. Mario Kart is just one of these games.

“Mario is known by hundreds of millions of people who have grown up playing in those game worlds,” says Jon Corfino. 

He works at Universal Studios Hollywood. He led the team that designed Super Nintendo World. They decided what it would be like. Many people love Mario. It was important to get every detail right.

The first Super Mario game was released in the U.S. in 1985. That is when it went on sale.

Nintendo is a company in Japan. It made the Super Mario game. It stars two brothers. Their names are Mario and Luigi. They are plumbers. The brothers want to save Princess Peach. She’s been kidnapped by a giant evil turtle. His name is Bowser. Mario and Luigi look for Princess Peach in the Mushroom Kingdom.

In 1985, people went to arcades to play video games. They played most games on big machines. Nintendo created the Nintendo Entertainment System. People could play games on it at home. Super Mario Bros. was one of the first games made for it.

The game was popular! Players loved exploring the colorful world. They liked finding its secrets. Nintendo has released 25 games in the Super Mario series. Mario has appeared in other Nintendo games. Mario Kart is just one of these games.

“Mario is known by hundreds of millions of people who have grown up playing in those game worlds,” says Jon Corfino.

Corfino works at Universal Studios Hollywood. He led the team that designed Super Nintendo World. They decided what the world would be like. It was important to get every detail right because many people love Mario.

The first Super Mario game was released in the U.S. in 1985. It was created by Nintendo, a company in Japan. The video game stars two brothers, Mario and Luigi, who are plumbers. The brothers travel through Mushroom Kingdom. They want to save Princess Peach, who has been kidnapped by a giant evil turtle named Bowser.

Back in 1985, people went to places called arcades to play video games on big machines. Super Mario Bros. was one of the first games made for the Nintendo Entertainment System. 

The system allowed people to play video games at home.

It was very popular! Players loved exploring the colorful world and discovering its secrets. So far, Nintendo has released 25 games in the Super Mario series. Mario has appeared in hundreds of other Nintendo games—Mario Kart is just one of these games.

“Mario is known by hundreds of millions of people who have grown up playing in those game worlds,” says Jon Corfino.

Corfino works at Universal Studios Hollywood, where he led the team that designed Super Nintendo World. They decided what it would be like. Many people love Mario. It was important to get every detail right.


Pause and Think: Who is the star of hundreds of video games?

Pause and Think: Who is the star of hundreds of video games?

Pause and Think: Who is the star of hundreds of video games?

Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Super Nintendo World)

The Super Nintendo World park in California

The Park

The Park

The Park

Universal Studios Hollywood

Power Up Band

Designers from Nintendo started by brainstorming. They came up with a lot of ideas for how the park could be. 

They wanted ways for guests to compete. That way, people would feel like they were playing the video games in real life.

The design team invented a wristband. They called it a Power Up Band. You can tap the Power Up Band in places throughout the park. When you do, you earn prizes like digital coins.

There are a lot of games to play in the park. In one game, you turn a crank as fast as you can. The crank pushes a bad guy called a Goomba down a hill. In another game, you try to turn off ringing alarm clocks. That keeps a dangerous plant called a piranha plant from waking up.

Most people visit the park to go to Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. It’s an indoor ride. Guests steer a car through a Mario Kart race! Screens on the walls show images from real Mario Kart levels. Images are pictures. 

Riders wear goggles and see 3-D images of characters and objects through the goggles. You can collect coins and throw objects at opponents through the goggles. It’s like being inside the game!

Designers from Nintendo started by brainstorming. They came up with a lot of ideas for the park.

They wanted ways for guests to play the games in real life.

They invented the Power Up Band. It is a wrist band. You can tap it in places in the park to earn prizes.

There are a lot of games to play in the park. You turn a crank as fast as you can to push a bad guy called a Goomba down a hill. In another game, you try to turn off ringing alarm clocks. If the alarm goes off, a dangerous piranha plant wakes up.

Most people visit the park to ride Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. It’s an indoor ride. You steer a car through a Mario Kart race! Screens on the walls show images from real Mario Kart levels. Images are pictures.

Riders wear goggles. They see 3-D images of characters and objects through the goggles. You can collect coins. You can throw objects at opponents through the goggles. It’s like being inside the game!

Designers from Nintendo started by brainstorming. They came up with a lot of ideas for how the park could be designed.

They wanted ways for guests to compete so people would feel like they were playing the video games in real life.

The design team invented a wristband called the Power Up Band. You can tap it throughout the park to earn prizes like digital coins.

There are a lot of games to play in the park. In one game, you turn a crank as fast as you can to push a bad guy, Goomba, down a hill. In another game, you try to turn off ringing alarm clocks to prevent a dangerous plant called a piranha plant from waking up.

Most people visit the park to go to Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge. During the indoor ride, guests steer a car through a Mario Kart race! Screens on the walls show images from real Mario Kart levels. 

Riders wear goggles and see 3-D images of characters and objects through the goggles. You can collect coins and throw objects at opponents through the goggles. It’s like being inside the game!


Pause and Think: What is one thing you can do in the park?

Pause and Think: What is one thing you can do in the park?

Pause and Think: What is one thing you can do in the park?

Testing the Park

Testing the Park

Testing the Park

Engineers tested each part of the park many times. They made changes and tested again. They wanted to make sure everything worked. Corfino rode Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge more than 200 times!

Since opening, Super Nintendo World has amazed people of all ages. “I’ve seen 5-year-old kids and 65-year-old adults drop to their knees and start crying,” Corfino says. “They’re so happy!” 

Engineers tested each part of the park many times. They made changes. They tested again. They wanted to make sure everything worked. Corfino rode Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge more than 200 times!

Since opening, Super Nintendo World has amazed people of all ages. “I’ve seen 5-year-old kids and 65-year-old adults drop to their knees and start crying,” Corfino says. “They’re so happy!” 

Engineers tested each part of the park many times and made changes. Then they retested everything to make sure it was all working properly. Corfino rode Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge more than 200 times!

Since opening, Super Nintendo World has amazed people of all ages. 

“I’ve seen 5-year-old kids and 65-year-old adults drop to their knees and start crying,” Corfino says. “They’re so happy!” 


From Video Game to Real Life

1.

Nintendo

Video Game In Mario Kart games, you race characters around tracks.

Theme Park You ride in a car through a course. Goggles show you 3-D pictures.




2.

Nintendo

Video Game Piranha plants pop out of pipes.

Theme Park You hit alarm clocks to keep the piranha plants from waking up.




3.

Nintendo

Video Game Luigi, Mario, and Princess Peach are characters. 

Theme Park People are dressed as the characters. They are trained to move just like the characters in the game.




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Slideshows (1)
Activities (6)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
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Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
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Implementation

  • Small group; whole group; independent reading

Pairings and Text Connections

 

 

Before-Reading Resources

  • Text Preview Bookmarks
    (5 minutes) Students can cut out the nonfiction bookmark and use it to preview the text.
  • Play the Vocabulary Slideshow
    (5 minutes) Help students become familiar with the vocabulary words they will see in the article.

During-Reading Activities 

Comprehension, nonfiction text features (30 minutes)

  • Use the Pause and Think questions for a comprehension check.
  • Stop at the subheads. Ask students, “What do you think this section will be about?”

After-Reading Video

(5 minutes)

  • Watch the video “From Video Game...to Theme Park!” to see how engineers brought Nintendo’s Super Mario games to life.

After-Reading Skills Practice

(15 minutes for each activity)

  • Quiz: Comprehension check (We also offer a lower-level quiz.)
  • Word Work: Vocabulary
  • Nonfiction Text Feature Hunt: Identify nonfiction text features.

After-Reading Text Comparisons

(15 minutes)

  • Toys and Games Chart: Compare the themed texts in the issue.

Text-to-Speech