Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast (Grand Opening Aug 11) and Cafe

[UOAP-Naples]

We did it three times when we were there two weeks ago. It’s fun but I was a little disappointed. The last few new attractions at Universal have been so good that I guess I expected more.

There were three of us and all of our scores went down every time. So as we thought we were figuring it out, we all did worse. Integration with the app for your scores and weapons will be a cool feature that wasn’t working yet when we did it.

As others have said, we didn’t really know what to shoot at. There was no real explanation of what was worth the most points.

My biggest problem was the size and weight of the gun. I don’t know how little kids will enjoy it. I’m a 6’, 200lb man in my 40s but recovering from shoulder surgery. I had to keep switching hands 3 or 4 times each time we went through. My hands were tired from squeezing the triggers so much, too. With MIB, you can hold your finger down on the trigger and it keeps firing. With Villain-con, you have to squeeze the trigger every time. If you’re trying to maximize your score, that means shooting thousands of times during the few minutes of the attraction.

I’d give a C or C- right now. The queue is great. The screens and conveyor belt system are very cool as well. If they show some videos or add signage explaining what you’re supposed to be shooting at, then it would be better. If they ever reduce the size of the guns to something lighter with continuous firing, then it would be a tremendous upgrade.

 

[UOAP-Naples]

How many of those movies do I have to watch in order to understand this attraction? I've seen DM and DM2, but that's it.

The characters on this attraction are more from Minions and Minions: Rise of Gru. Those are the most recent two in the series.

You don’t have to watch those to enjoy the attraction. It’s a shooter game where you’re shooting at everything on the screens.

 

[Kit Jackson]

How many of those movies do I have to watch in order to understand this attraction? I've seen DM and DM2, but that's it.

If you wanted to fully understand the story, I would recommend Minions because that explains Villian Con (but the movie is a narrative mess and isn't that great). Minions 2: Rise of Gru explains the supervillains you are fighting in the attraction (and it's also a much better movie than Minions).

 

[saskdw]

We did it three times when we were there two weeks ago. It’s fun but I was a little disappointed. The last few new attractions at Universal have been so good that I guess I expected more.

There were three of us and all of our scores went down every time. So as we thought we were figuring it out, we all did worse. Integration with the app for your scores and weapons will be a cool feature that wasn’t working yet when we did it.

As others have said, we didn’t really know what to shoot at. There was no real explanation of what was worth the most points.

My biggest problem was the size and weight of the gun. I don’t know how little kids will enjoy it. I’m a 6’, 200lb man in my 40s but recovering from shoulder surgery. I had to keep switching hands 3 or 4 times each time we went through. My hands were tired from squeezing the triggers so much, too. With MIB, you can hold your finger down on the trigger and it keeps firing. With Villain-con, you have to squeeze the trigger every time. If you’re trying to maximize your score, that means shooting thousands of times during the few minutes of the attraction.

I’d give a C or C- right now. The queue is great. The screens and conveyor belt system are very cool as well. If they show some videos or add signage explaining what you’re supposed to be shooting at, then it would be better. If they ever reduce the size of the guns to something lighter with continuous firing, then it would be a tremendous upgrade.

Some Youtubers were saying you could rest the end of the gun up to your shoulder like a rifle?

 

[wdwrule]

My biggest problem was the size and weight of the gun. I don’t know how little kids will enjoy it.

I heard they recently have been distributing the “toy” guns to kids (if the regular interactive gun is too heavy for them) that you can purchase in the gift shop which are a lot lighter. I guess those make noise but they aren’t interactive with the attraction.

 

[UOAP-Naples]

Some Youtubers were saying you could rest the end of the gun up to your shoulder like a rifle?

Yes, you can. You’re still supporting most of the weight with your two hands on the triggers. My biggest problem was my shoulder. My surgeon doesn’t need to know I did that attraction three times.

I heard they recently have been distributing the “toy” guns to kids (if the regular interactive gun is too heavy for them) that you can purchase in the gift shop which are a lot lighter. I guess those make noise but they aren’t interactive with the attraction.

If they’re young enough that they don’t know better on the scoring, that’s a cool option. They’d still see all the cool videos and think they’re doing it just like the adults.

I’d love for them to come up with a lighter interactive blaster but we won’t see that anytime soon. They spent too much buying all those blasters and designing the moving wall that stores and charges them all.

 

[mamapenguin]

I heard they recently have been distributing the “toy” guns to kids (if the regular interactive gun is too heavy for them) that you can purchase in the gift shop which are a lot lighter. I guess those make noise but they aren’t interactive with the attraction.

That’s better, because they are heavy and I have seen smaller children drop them. They need something more manageable for smaller villains in training.

 

[ChrisFL]

I like this attraction, rode it twice on Saturday. Yes it can be a bit tiring holding the gun up for that long and it can be a bit chaotic with so many things going on, but this is still a fun "C-ticket" or "D-ticket" to put it into Disney terms...not every attraction has to be an E-ticket. This is way better than Shrek 3D IMO.

The queue is great and even though I also haven't seen the movies after Despicable Me 1 and 2, it actually makes me want to watch the other movies now.

The only major thing I would prefer they do before grand opening is lower the point values by 1/10th. The reason? On my second playthrough, my point total showed something like 1152830....no commas, so I had to think as it was 1,152,800 and that was me not really knowing what I was doing!

If the point totals were more like the ones on Midway Mania, so I got like 115,280 that would be way easier to read and keep track of.

 

[wdwrule]

Just FYI, I don’t think it displays it in the app, but this ride does indeed, accept Express currently.

 

[3gr8boys]

Do you miss any important or impressive Villain Con queue with express pass?

 

[wdwrule]

Do you miss any important or impressive Villain Con queue with express pass?

No, I didn’t think so.

The main rooms with the props etc (and air conditioning) are after the merge point.

 

[tony67]

The lack of a ride vehicle seems like a major drawback with this ride. they may have been better off with a buzz lightyear style thing and still use these blasters - but I get they had limited space.

As many youtubers have pointed out - after walking all day and then standing in the line they want to sit.

At least it is probably better than fast & the furious - its not a one and done I think - especially if they have holiday overlays etc...

 

[QueenofPrideRock]

The lack of a ride vehicle seems like a major drawback with this ride. they may have been better off with a buzz lightyear style thing and still use these blasters - but I get they had limited space.

As many youtubers have pointed out - after walking all day and then standing in the line they want to sit.

At least it is probably better than fast & the furious - its not a one and done I think - especially if they have holiday overlays etc...

Yeah, seems like it'd be the type of thing to rope drop or do early in the day simply because it's so much time on your feet.

 

[barb969]

We we’re on it yesterday and will probably never do it again Because
1. No seats.
2. No instructions about what to shoot,
3. The guns are heavy even for adults.
4. You stand on a spot And the floor moves you So you switch sides when the screens change sides. To keep balanced you need to take steps off the spot.
5. No seats. This deserves double mention.

 

[New Mouse]

I haven't done it yet but no seats isn't an issue if you have a good game. Sounds like they just don't have a good game, which with Nintendo around these days you'd think they could have gotten some help.

I'd love to see a duck hunt game like this in epic universe.

 

[aby914]

We rode it in late July during the testing. It was interesting because of the different system, standing and holding the gun. Full disclosure, I had no idea what I was supposed to be shooting at. Ha. I'm glad we did it because it was a cool experience to do something during testing. Would I feel a need to do it again? No. If someone I was with wanted to, would I? Yes.

 

[barb969]

My husband thinks the guns are heavy and large because they are not attached to the ride so all the circuitry must be in the gun. In MIB the gun is smaller because it is attached to the vehicle.

I think the guns are large so people can’t steal them.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Have done it twice so far. Cannot figure how to synch to my phone, but it doesn’t matter because no one cares and the points make no sense - just crazy big numbers without context. I still don’t know exactly what I’m shooting and need to spend some time at the start of each game just figuring out which icon on each screen belongs to my gun. And, yes, standing sucks.

 

[ArielRae]

We rode it 5 times and found that some of the guns aim were off. Had one that was shooting way to the left and also took a while to appear when changing screens.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Do you miss any important or impressive Villain Con queue with express pass?

If you aren't paying attention, you can easily miss some of the directions in the EP line. Then again, given how few people know how to play MiB after all these years, I think it is fair to say few folks actually pay attention while waiting in the queue, no matter which queue they use.

I admit, the first time I played I was a bit clueless. the second time though we paid more attention and did better.

The app has some good information, as do the televisions in the queue.

We really enjoyed the game.

But I think we enjoyed the rest of the new land even more! The popsicles are SO good! One of our favorites was the lemon/mint.

The Minions cafe was also tons of fun! I don't normally even like tater tots, but the Minions ones were pretty good. the rest of our food was also enjoyable. The purple Minions drink was on the sweet side, and we didn't love the topping, but it LOOKS super!

A fun aspect we saw was a good number of families dressed in yellow and blue outfits.

We also felt- in general- that Universal's merchandise has improved.