It is a rare treat for me to go into a new attraction almost completely spoiler-free — but, yesterday, for the media preview of Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast, I had that opportunity and it paid off. As the centerpiece of the new Minion Land at Universal Studios Florida park, this attraction has been a long time coming. We have covered the rest of the land over the past few months but this attraction has been what we have all been waiting for and I think the wait was worth it.
For those of you not familiar with the storyline for the attraction, here’s the official logline: “Join Illumination's Minions, Belle Bottom, Jean Clawed and the rest of the Vicious 6 at Villain-Con as you blast your way to supervillain stardom. Use your E-Liminator X blaster, and test your skill in this fun, interactive attraction.”
Now for those of you like me that hasn’t seen Minions: Rise of Gru, the Villain-Con is a combination of Comic-Con and trade show for bad guys, most notably the Vicious 6:
Belle Bottom (voiced by Taraji P. Henson), the cool, confident leader of the Vicious 6, in a groovy disco
Stronghold (voiced by Danny Trejo) – named after his giant iron hands – in a museum filled with tons of fragile and priceless art just waiting to be destroyed
Nun-Chuck (voiced by Lucy Lawless), a fierce warrior with prized nun-chucks who will travel aboard her flying organ as she challenges guests to create musical mayhem
Jean Clawed (voiced by Jean-Claude Van Damme) – outfitted with a giant mechanical lobster claw – in an evil, underwater lair filled with hidden loot and robotic sea creatures
Svengeance (voiced by Dolph Lundgren), the roller-skating champion with spiked skates, in a floating roller derby filled with blimps, jumbo-trons, and speed-skating robots
And now that you have some backstory, you are ready to just grab a blaster equipped with Freeze Rays, Banana Bombs, Explosive Nunchucks and more – with the goal of causing as much mayhem and destruction as possible to earn points.
I was having a hard time trying to explain it to a friend that has had zero information about the attraction, when he asked if it’s a “interactive shooting dark ride – minus the actual ride?” I spun it more of a shooter video game that you move through. Each guest picks up their E-Liminator X blaster, then are assigned a dot on the moving walk-way to stand on as they go from scene to scene encountering the Vicious 6 just pretty much blasting anything and everything on the massive screens around them. Sadly, we are at a “theme park enjoyment level” where every ride has to be “like” something people have been on already. To that, one thing I will say is I have never been on anything like this before! Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast brings interactivity to a different level, Universal Studios theme parks used to have a catch phrase “where guests Ride the Movies” and I would say for this attraction guests are living the movie.
This ride has great re-rideability just trying to top your score each time, but that wasn’t good enough for Universal so Villain-Con Minion Blast will also be the first Universal Orlando attraction to feature a connected gameplay experience via The Official Universal Orlando Resort App. Guests are able to sync their blaster to the app with just a tap and contenders can take their game to an entirely new level and track their scores, embark on special missions within the attraction, unlock evil perks and extra powerful blasts to help them gain more points and earn digital collectibles.
Earlier, I talked about “theme park enjoyment level” and while I enjoyed Minion Blast a lot more than I expected, guests have now built up the idea that every attraction must be mind blowing and (to steal a term from a park down the road) an “E-Ticket.” This is not that. Universal has been doing a great job creating attractions for the entire family to enjoy and this follows that trend very well. Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast is a 15/20 for me, meaning if the wait is no longer than 15 or 20 minutes, I would most definitely jump in line for it. Of course, I am not the target audience for this so I am sure if you have some little minions of your own this will be a must do no matter what the wait.
Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast officially opens today at Universal Orlando Resort.