As fans will know, Super Nintendo World Japan currently features an augmented-reality Mario Kart ride that brings riders through an actual race with Mario and friends. Well, it looks like there’s actually some fun technology under its hood!

During a recent press conference about the opening of Super Nintendo World Osaka, global executive producer Tom Geraghty shared an interesting tidbit about the ride’s inner workings. In particular, he revealed that the ride was actually built within a game engine – which allowed designers from around the world to experience and tweak it in virtual reality!

“We used the technology, also, in the design process. We built the entire land in VR and the design team could look around at a place and get sightlines and figure out where to move elements.”

“Mario Kart was built in a game engine, so while [senior vice president Thierry Coup] was back in the States he could actually drive Mario Kart in a game engine, and give us notes in Japan.”

Chiming in, vice president Coup also added that the system was flexible enough for its developers to switch up the experience over time. This may include adding new characters and special events into the ride:

“Because it’s in a game engine, we can keep updating, upgrading, putting new characters [in], changing themes, changing actions on the fly. So if there’s a special event, anything we want to release can be done overnight if we really wanted to. That makes it so much more flexible – it freshens up the experience. Every time you come back you could experience something new and exciting.”

All in all, it looks like the ride may be flexible enough to surprise even repeat visitors in the future! We’ll report back if we hear more interesting details in the future!

[Quotes are courtesy of IGN SEA]