Like practically every industry, theme parks were hit hard by the pandemic in 2020. But just because a portion of the year was spent with doors closed to the public doesn’t mean there weren’t employees working hard behind the scenes to develop some next level ideas about how to create brand new attractions.

A patent emerged recently for a potential Legend of Zelda ride, showing off some surprising designs that, if implemented, would result in a theme park experience unlike any other. Plus, Universal has unveiled some new details about how the Power-Up Bands will work at the company’s Super Nintendo World.

Possible Legend of Zelda Ride

There’s no guarantee that this will actually happen, but one of the concepts being discussed internally at Universal was to replace Islands of Adventure’s Lost Continent with a Legend of Zelda-themed land. That area has already been decimated thanks to the Hogsmeade expansion of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and with Lost Continent’s ancient-looking, mythology-inspired, rock-heavy theming, it’s easy to envision how those existing structures and designs could be revamped to fit the Zelda brand.

The most exciting prospect is that an all-new Zelda boat ride was being planned, and a patent for new ride technology paints a fascinating picture of what it might look like.

It begins as a traditional boat ride, with riders floating down a river in a boat vehicle similar to the one you’d see in Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean. But as the patent shows, things get very interesting about halfway through. That’s when a track system picks up the ride from above and literally lifts it out of the water, turning the ride from a floating one to a flying one for the back half until it eventually returns to the water and the attraction ends.

The idea is that it would fly riders over Hyrule Kingdom. That same technology could also be used elsewhere to pick up grounded ride vehicles, and Orlando Park Stop tells us that technology has been rumored for a possible dark ride at a yet-to-be-built Wizarding World at Universal’s nearby Epic Universe in Florida. (Flying car, anyone?) Of course, all of this remains unconfirmed, and the whole thing seems to be hanging in the balance until Universal makes a final decision about how it wants to approach that area of Islands of Adventure.

Super Nintendo World Power-Up Band Details

Meanwhile, ComicBook points us to a new landing page for Universal Studios Japan’s Super Nintendo World’s Power-Up Bands. We wrote a bit about these previously, but they’re bands meant to provide an enhanced experience for those who wear them in the park. When you “punch” a block while wearing one, you’ll hear a coin noise and a virtual coin will be deposited into the park’s app on your phone. Hitting a POW block can trigger a Koopa animatronic, etc.

The new info here is that these bands will have functionality with the Nintendo Switch, giving players an amiibo version of whatever character is represented on their band, and allowing them to control that character in amiibo-enabled games on that device. You can learn more here.

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