Niles: Universal Studios delivers the playground that grown-ups need

Adults need playgrounds, too.

I am not talking about metaphorical playgrounds, like golf courses, casinos, nightclubs or fancy beach resorts. I mean literal playgrounds, where you can move and push and pull things — places that invite you to use your imagination and share an experience with others. There’s something about a literal playground that unlocks primal joy in ways that its grown-up successors never quite can match.

Theme parks sometimes can serve as all-ages playgrounds, but too often they become yet another passive entertainment experience — a place to wait to watch something happen on screens or stages in front of you. The desire to create attractions with massive capacities can undercut theme parks’ potential as places where people can make a story happen, rather than just have the story happen to them.

That’s why I am so thrilled to see two of Southern California’s biggest theme parks embrace new playgrounds for 2023. Disneyland will open its redesigned Mickey’s Toontown on March 8. I can’t wait to see how Disney’s Imagineers have reimagined this play area for 21st-century audiences — because Disney’s creative rivals at Universal have set a high standard with their new all-ages play area.

Most fans will rush through Super Nintendo World to get on the Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge dark ride when they enter Universal Studios Hollywood’s land, which officially opens on Feb. 17, for the first time. Only after going on that ride will some of them discover the immersive play area that Universal has created for them around that attraction.

In addition to character meets, photo ops and a Chef Toad-themed restaurant, Super Nintendo World features abundant interactive play experiences for visitors to discover. Four of them offer you the chance to earn “Golden Keys” that can unlock a fifth experience, in which you can win back the stolen Golden Mushroom from Bowser Jr.

Maybe that sounds silly to some adults. But I loved getting to feel like a kid on a playground again. Two of the interactions even required me to play together with the strangers nearest me — something I did all the time on school and park playgrounds but too rarely have done since.

This joy does come at a price — $40 to buy the Nintendo Power Up Band that you need to track your scores throughout this game-themed land. Universal’s done this before, with the interactive wands that trigger “magical” animations throughout The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I’m not big into souvenirs and merchandise, but I will pay for stuff that delivers a better experience, and both the Power Up Band and interactive wands have done that for me.

Still, there’s that capacity issue. Playgrounds lose a lot of their fun when they get so crowded that you have to queue for everything. That’s been a problem for Super Nintendo World’s play activities during some preview periods. But with time, those lines should shrink, as they have for the Potter wand windows.

For now, though, I am willing to wait for any chance to feel like a kid on a playground again.

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