SUPER NINTENDO WORLD at Universal Studios Hollywood has been incredibly popular since its opening last month.
An immersive land entirely themed to popular Nintendo characters like Mario, Luigi, and others, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD is also coming to Universal Orlando with the opening of Epic Universe in 2025. This gives Hollywood two years to figure out any issues before Orlando opens, and they’ve already seen some problems. Part of the draw of the area is that it truly is immersive and interactive, offering “Power-Up Bands” to Guests that work with various attractions and exhibits.

These bands are an additional cost to Guests, but allow them to collect points, digital coins, and compete in games and other challenges. While a unique experience for the Guests, the Power-Up Bands came with a major problem-they consistently fell off Guests’ wrists, and people complained about the constant loss of these expensive bands.

It seems as though Universal Studios Hollywood has listened to these complaints, because they’ve finally started offering free “securement sleeves” to Guests. In a couple of now-deleted Tweets, recent Guests had posted that the newest addition to the Power-Up Band was available at select merchandise locations, supposedly for free. With the Tweets being deleted, it’s possible that Universal either wasn’t supposed to be offering them just yet or want to keep it quiet for now.

Whether it’s a real addition or not, Universal needs to address the poor design of the Power-Up Bands that allow them to fall off so easily. Hopefully, with Guest satisfaction surveys, a month of Guest interaction, and time, Universal will be able to correct this and other issues in their newest area and will allow Universal Orlando to open their area with limited problems.
The Power-Up Bands are a more interactive version of the MagicBand+ offered at the Disney Parks (which have faced their own critiques lately), and are a great way for Guests to be more immersed in the Parks. However, it seems as though Universal has some work to do to make them more inclusive and functional.