The Kung Fu Panda Adventure is a motion-simulated 4D, animated theatrical experience ride in Universal Studios Hollywood. This attraction combines animated sequences with physical movement to create an immersive experience. The pre-ride queue includes a presentation with other Dreamworks franchise characters such as Shrek and the animals of Madagascar.
Guests sit in the Dreamworks theatre, whose seats have been upgraded as mini 3D motion simulators. The riders feel motion during the climactic action sequences they see on stage. The designers eventually utilized most of the theatre’s walls, the extent of which isn’t obvious at the start of the experience. The Kung Fu Panda Adventure offers a blend of entertainment and technology, providing a unique and memorable experience for visitors to the park.
Super Nintendo World is the Super Mario-themed area inside Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles. Despite being 3 years old, this is still one of the main attractions at Universal. I’d been warned of limited access to Super Nintendo World due to summer crowds, so I opted to pay an extra $35/pp surcharge for Early Access, which allowed us entry at 8 am instead of 9 am. I found this upcharge galling because back in 2000, it only cost $35 to get into Universal Studios itself.
My whole family are Nintendo game fants, so rather than risk not seeing all of Super Nintendo World, I begrudgingly paid for Early Access. On top of this, I also paid for two $45 Nintendo Power-Up wrist bands at a gift shop so my kids could enjoy the interactive attractions inside the park. I’ll leave the debate on the value of this extra fee for later. In for a penny, in for a pound.
Super Mario World is located almost at the exact opposite end of Universal Studios from the main entrance, so you have to walk through it all to get there. We were allowed through the front gate of Universal Studioes a little bit before 8 am, but were held up by staff about half-way to Harry Potter World near the Hello Kitty shop until 8 am. Staff kept folks from running and causing a rush. We all proceeded to the escalators down to the Sound Stage / Studios half of Universal. Walking past the Jurassic Park, Mummy, and Transformers attractions (and soon to be Fast & Furious Roller Coaster), we reached the giant green pipe entrance to Super Mario World.
I’ve been to Disneyland, Disney World, and Universal over a hundred times, so I thought I’d be a bit jaded. Walking through the Warp Pipe and its gates for the first time was refreshingly awe-inspiring. The designers did an exemplary job in creating the feel of a human-sized Super Mario world. Nintendo game music and sounds were everywhere, and the colors and movement were overwhelming.
Super Nintendo World felt both bigger and smaller than I expected. The scale of the structures and rooms made me feel small but the amount of space that the park takes up and the amount of space and activities could be completed in an hour’s time. This is where paying extra to get in early paid off. Most of the rides had less than a 15 minute wait and some less than 5. After general admission and the normal crowds arrived after 9 am, Super Nintendo World quickly swelled up and I could see where waits could get to be an hour or more for rides like Mario Kart.
You can read about Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge in my other article. But for now, we’ll focus on the interactive games, Easter Eggs, and the Bowser Jr’s Shadow Showdown attraction. You don’t need to buy Power-Up Wrist Bands to enjoy most of Super Nintendo World but having at least one member of your party with one allows you to take part in interactive attractions.
Located throughout Super Nintendo World are yellow power-up boxes, just like the Super Mario games. Punching the underside of the boxes with an arm with a Power-Up wrist band earns you a virtual coin (and sound effect!). You can keep track of the coins and keys you earn through the Universal Studios app on your phone or by tapping your wristband at a kiosk near the bathrooms.
These coins earn you points and access to some Easter Eggs, like triggering special audio messages from Mario, Luigi, or Princess Peach if you encounter them at character meetups in the park. Camouflaged on walls in random locations in the park, are key buttons which trigger visual Easter Eggs when you touch them with your wristband. Finally, there are 5 mini-games and the Bowser Jr. attraction, which can only be accessed with a wristband. If you are in a group, if at least one member of your party has a wristband, the rest of your party can also participate.
Near the entrance of Super Nintendo World is Goomba Crazy Crank which requires you to rotate and hand crank at a consistant speed to beat a Goomba. In Piranha Plant Nap Mishap, you have about a dozen alarm clocks which you have to run around and hit to turn off. Koopa-Troopa Power Punch, which relies on timing while hitting an exploding POW box to cause a koopa to hit a coin.
Thwomp Panel Panic is the fourth mini-game, but it is easy to overlook (kind of like secret rooms or warp pipes in a video game). The entrance to Thwomp Panel Panic is unmarked next to the exit for Toadstool Cafe. Inside is an interactive LCD wall that displays a random set of yellow and blue tiles. Tapping the blue tiles turns them yellow and earns you a key.
Once you have earned at least three keys, the staff will let you tap your wristband at the entrance of Bowser Jr Shadow Showdown. This is an AR game where you line up in a room and IR sensors project your shadow onto the LCD wall. You move your body to block attacks and hit flying Koopas and attacking baddies to earn points.
As you exit the Shadow Showdown, you may notice another unmarked entrance opposite your exit. This will lead you up a set of stairs to an overlook balcony. Here you can get a great view of Super Nintendo World and play a bonus interactive wall game, Frosted Glacier.
And that’s it. There is also Toadstool Cafe (a theme restaurant) and the Super Nintendo World gift shop. There may have been additional Easter Eggs we may have missed, but we managed to complete all of the attractions at Super Nintendo World in about an hour. Was it worth an extra $140 ($35/pp) to do it? If you have only a limited time visiting L.A. or hate crowds, it is.
Washington Crossing the Delaware is a life-sized oil-on-canvas painting by Emanuel Leutze depicting General George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War. This large-format painting hangs in the Gallery of American Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. This painting is 1-of-2 existing versions; the other hangs in the Metropolitan Marine Museum.
This painting is famously used in many American History textbooks. What was surprising to me was the size of the painting, at 12ft x 22ft. The figures are life-sized.
Over 400 players attended my annual charity airsoft event, Evike.com presents Operation: Bad Blood, was again held at EMR event park in New Millford, PA. Threats of thunderstorms caused many to cancel their tickets in the week leading up to the event, despite the advice of the EMR.
The weather turned out to be ideal for an airsoft event. Cool and cloudy in the morning and by 1:00 the sun broke through and swiftly dried up the mud for a bright and warm afternoon. There was thunder and a brief 10min rainstorm but that occured an hour after the game was over and 15 minutes after the end of the epic Evike raffle.
This year, I handed off Game Manager duties to my friend and long time co-producer Ian Conolly who will be producing the event moving forward. We raised over $7000 for Breakthrough T1D to help diabetes research. It’s a great way to end my era of airsoft games.
It came as a bit of a surprise when I heard that Nintendo would be opening a new store at Union Square, in downtown San Francisco. When you mention downtown San Francisco nowadays, the image that comes to mind are shuttered retail stores and fentanyl addicts. But in May of 2025, a month ahead of the Switch 2 launch, Nintendo opened only its second store in the USA.
Nintendo’s first store was at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. I’ve visited there regularly since it opened over a decade ago. The San Francisco store has attracted a line of fans and tourists since its opening. Because of its popularity (and possibly to reduce the risk of theft), the store security has limited the number to 100 customers who can enter the store at a time. When I got there, the line was about a half block long, and it took about 20 minutes in queue before I got in.
The store has two levels. The street level has most of the San Francisco labeled Nintendo Store merchandise, and you will also find sections dedicated to the Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and Animal Crossing. Downstairs are sections with merch for Splatoon, Pokémon, Pikman, Zelda, and the new Switch 2 console and games.
Whilst the San Francisco store is physically smaller than the New York Store, its design feels more like a boutique for a fashion brand than a retail game store. The San Francisco store offers a wider selection of products, apparel, and merchandise from a wider range of Nintendo franchises. Even if you’ve been the New York store, it’s well worth visiting the San Francisco store for a different experience.
The Fifth Avenue Apple Store is Apple’s flagship store in Manhattan. Opened in 2006 and with its iconic glass cube installed in 2011, this store was built on the site of the General Motors Gardens. It still contains potted trees which are carefully illuminated by sunlight and artificial lighting.
The store was originally designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. Its renovation in 2011, which included the construction of its iconic glass cube entrance, was by Foster + Partners and Apple’s chief design officer Jony Ive. It visually harkens to I.M. Pei’s Louver pyramid. The Apple Store sits at the corner of Fifth Avenue opposite Grand Army Plaza at the corner of Central Park.
Super Nintendo World is the Super Mario-themed area inside Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles. This land opened in February 2023 and is a duplicate of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka. The marque attraction is the Augmented Reality (AR) dark ride, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge.
This ride and Super Nintendo World have had some long lines and waits so I opted to pay an extra $35 surcharge for Early Access to the park, which allowed us entry at 8 am instead of 9 am. This is egregious because back in 2000, $35 was the general entry fee to get into all of Universal Studios.
I’ll leave the debate on the value of this extra fee for later. It allowed us to walk straight up to the entrance of the Mario Kart ride, which displayed only a 15-minute wait. We breezed through rooms that contained the switchbacks for the line cue. The rooms were worth seeing as they were as meticulously designed as the rest of Super Nintendo World.
The cue takes you through the entrance of Bowser’s Castle, decorated with trophies from the Mario Kart races and fanciful workshops showing the construction of the obstacles and baddies from various Super Mario games. If you are a single rider, you can request to go into a shorter bypass line. Whilst shorter, this misses out on the decor and experience of the cue rooms.
Near the end of the cue, guests pick up a plastic Mario Visor Cap, which has a ratcheting headband similar to a modern bicycle helmet. This is the head mounting system for the AR goggles that are hard-wired into the ride karts. There are 4 seats per kart, and each seat has its own steering wheel and a wired set of AR goggles which attach to the brim of the Mario cap via strong magnets.
Hanging in front of you, the AR goggles project images of Mario Kart targets, baddies, and power-ups. Pressing the button on the steering wheel fires a power-up (ie. turtle shell) and turning the wheel aims the shot. You are presented with virtual baddies and allied players through the ride that you can shoot or protect to earn points. Even without the AR visuals and game, the ride itself is fancifully designed like a real-life version of the Mario Kart game.
Your team member’s power-up shots are visible in your goggles as well as your own. During my ride, I found it impossible to play the game while simultaneously filming it because of the position of the AR goggles near my face. For most of the ride, I was forced to take off my goggles and hold them in front of my camera, in hopes of capturing the experience.
The ride simulates the various tracks of the Mario Kart game and ends on the Rainbow Road, and finally, a boss battle with Bowser. You’re presented with your individual and team score at the end of the ride. The ride ends at the same platform as the start, exiting the opposite side of the kart. Pioneered at Disneyland, the ride exists through a large Nintendo gift shop, which is the only gift shop in Super Nintendo World. You can buy souvenirs or a Power-Up wristband for additional fun and expense.
The Oculus is the architecturally stunning transit hub next to the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan in New York City. It houses the NJ PATH station with connections to 12 NYC subway lines. It also houses dining and stores managed by Westfield. It connects to the NYC Fulton Street subway station, One World Trade Center Tower and Observatory, Brookfield Place, and the Ferry Terminal in Battery Park City.
Designed by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. In utility, function, and aesthetics, it is one of the finest transportation structures in the world and certainly the best transit building built in the United States this century.
The 9-11 Ground Zero Memorial is a pair of square fountain cascades that trace the footprint of the World Trade Center towers that once stood in this hallowed ground. Cascading waterfalls drain into the below-ground museum dedicated to the 2,996 who died on September 11, 2001 during the terrorist attack. At ground level, visitors can explore the park that formed the base of the Twin Tower plaza.
I got rare access to the Sky Lobby at One World Trade Center (aka Freedom Tower) in lower Manhattan, New York City. This commercial lobby is not accessible to the general public, used by tenants and clients of the building. I was invited by a friend at NY Life Insurance to tour the Sky Lobby.
