Super Nintendo World is finally moving from being a Japanese-exclusive Universal Studios theme park, as it’s coming to the United States as well. Today, Universal Studios Hollywood announced that it is getting its very own installment of the Nintendo-based park in 2023.
The partnership between Nintendo and Universal Studios theme parks was initially announced in 2015 and saw the grand opening of the first Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan on March 18, 2021. Since then, Universal revealed plans to expand this partnership’s bases to both United States’ Universal parks in Las Angeles, California, and Orlando, Florida.
While Japan’s entire Nintendo World is based on visuals from the Super Mario series, there is currently no word on what will appear in the Hollywood park. It may get the same attractions as its Japanese counterpart, including the Mario Kart virtual ride and Yoshi ride.
Super Nintendo World Japan also recently announced that there are multiple expansions of the park itself and its partnerships on the way in the coming years. In regard to a Pokémon partnership, the park announced that “authentic and one-of-a-kind theme park entertainment promise excitement for the entire family.”
There is also a Donkey Kong expansion set to hit the park that is said to launch in 2024, bringing Nintendo World to Donkey Kong Country. It’s possible that this could bring in the DK minecart ride that’s been rumored to appear in the park.
Fans who have been waiting for Nintendo to come to the States only have to hang on one more year until they can join the Italian plumber’s world at Universal in 2023. No word on the also announced Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Orlando has been reported just yet.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.